Lodgok has asked to meet me in a mine where Ranrok digs.
At the bottom of the mine are Ranrok and his Loyalists, who have just finished building their large drill. I collapse the supports, destroying the drill. Now, though, Ranrok confronts me. Victor Rookwood enters with Lodgok in his custody.
Lodgok carries a book. It’s Bragbor’s missing journal. He’s had it all along and kept it from Ranrok, who is — surprise — his brother. With the journal, which describes the location of the last repository, Ranrok needs none of these people anymore. He blasts Lodgok, killing him. Rookwood sees where this is headed for him and shoots an Avada Kedavra at Ranrok. It misses, but in the disorder I’m able to escape the mine.
I meet Sebastian at night on a distant coastline. He’s found another mine with a cavern swarming with Ranrok’s Loyalists. His temper is up; he accuses me of not pumping the Keepers for information. Either I’m not trusted by them, or I don’t care about Anne enough to ask hard questions, he says. I push back a little. Halfway up the mountain, though, he rushes into a fight with goblins, again angry and frustrated. I push back more. He apologizes and admits he’s so worried about Anne.
Sebastian’s character is changing, though. He’s becoming reckless, selfish, and cruel. He’s acting more stereotypically Slytherin.
The location of the third trial is in Hogwarts. Professor Niamh had hoped she could negotiate with the current headmaster for me to have access to his office, but Black is uncooperative. I must find another way to get in there. I ask Fig for ideas.
He’s been brewing a polyjuice potion ever since we arrived at school. He will distract the real Black, and I will access his office. First, though, I need the password to get past the stone gargoyle that guards the entrance. Black’s house elf, Scrope, will know it. I’ll need to find him and persuade him to tell it to me. (If I were playing as a Slytherin, I would already know Scrope. He helps with the mystery of Richard Jackdaw.)
Fig suggests I start with Madam Kogawa. She pesters Scrope often, trying to restart quidditch practice.
I drink the juice and nervously stride through Hogwarts, disguised as Headmaster Black. Fast travel is disabled.
Professor Sharp corners me. He wants to quietly discuss the pimple potion he’s brewed for me.
Helping Deek, the house elf who stays in my Room of Requirement, is optional. However, until I talk to him I have only one outdoor space for my beasts. As I need to feed and brush them in order to get armor upgrade materials, it’s a small pain to rotate them in and out. The beast room can only hold four species at once. An oceanside space opens up after interacting with Deek.
Also, I’m still barely holding my own with leveling. To give myself a buffer, I pursue his quest to rescue his abused house elf friend. Spoiler: his buddy is dead, surrounded by spiders.
(I’m not enthusiastic about fighting game spiders, but I can do it. Tough mission for those vulnerable to arachnophobia, though.)
Hogwarts is snowy and cold, but only now do the Christmas decorations go up in the castle and Hogsmeade. Although the UK has no Thanksgiving that marks the beginning of the season, they’ve sensed the appropriate time to bring out the Yuletide festivities!
I learn the fabulous Transformation spell from Professor Weasley. (I can turn enemies into an exploding barrel that I can throw at other enemies. So cool.) Strangely, at this mid-year evaluation, she says the exact same thing to me as she does to another me who has completed all the side missions. I’m excelling!
Finally I can find Amit, a fellow Ravenclaw, in the Astronomy Tower. Amit, bless his heart, is more wizard than warrior. He’s self-taught in the goblin language, Gobbledegook, which is why he’ll be accompanying me. Lodgok has found a goblin mine for me to explore, and there will be some papers and schematics that need translating.
And here comes some backstory: an ancestor of Ranrok’s, Bragbor, left journals that explained how he built magical repositories for a certain group of witches and wizards. (Yes, it was for our Keepers.) Armed with this information, Ranrok seeks any property connected with their names (such as Rookwood Castle). Perhaps this mine has plans that Amit can read. Lodgok will not join us; he can’t be recognized and have his presence reported to Ranrok.
The mine is a fun environment of steam power and accio-pull mechanics. We find a schematic for an enormous drill, helped by Amit’s translations. Although Amit fought well, he hopes to never have another adventure again.
After Amit leaves, Lodgok and I confer. Ranrok hates wizard-kind. At first Lodgok did, too. But then, when he was searching Rookwood Castle for the repository, he met a witch doing research. Without hesitation, she smiled at him and invited him to join her. She showed him a strange goblin metal canister. It was Miriam, Fig’s wife. Her kindness changed Lodgok. When he heard she had been killed (by either Ranrok or one of his minions), Lodgok was sad and wanted no more to do with Ranrok’s mission. However, not all of Bragbor’s journals have yet been found. Somewhere is a gigantic repository, one that will need the enormous drill.
Remember a while ago when Natty said she wanted to fight back against Harlow? She’s found his poacher’s lair and asks me to help her get proof for the constable.
We sneak in. When we’re halfway up the castle, we see a disturbing scene. Highwing has been captured by Harlow’s poachers.
Natty sends me to rescue the hippogriff while she continues to look for Harlow’s incriminating letter.
At the top of the tower I find Highwing and another hippogriff chained to the floor. Natty arrives and breaks the shackles. I climb onto Highwing, but Natty hesitates. She hasn’t bowed to the other hippogriff and it resists her.
In come the poachers. The other hippogriff takes off. Natty runs to jump on its back, but she isn’t fast enough. Highwing spreads her wings and grabs Natty with her talons as she flies.
Poachers shoot curses at us, including Avada Kedavra.
Highwing drops Natty onto the other hippogriff’s back, and we fly away.
(The flight mechanics are the same as for the broom. It’s delightful. Fan service off the charts.)
Sebastian has asked me to visit his sister with him to cheer her up. She’s been cursed, and it appears to be incurable. She’s left Hogwarts to live in the village of Feldcroft with their uncle.
Throughout my time knowing Sebastian he’s been looking for a cure, and he’s very determined to get his sister back to the way she used to be.
The uncle is strict and abrupt. Anne is sick and that’s the end of it. (He’s an unpleasant, angry fellow.) He has no patience for Sebastian’s curiosity and determination.
Sebastian takes me to the nearby, ruined estate where Anne was cursed. We fight through Ranrok’s Loyalists, and then look for clues. The home has been abandoned for years, although rumor says a Hogwarts professor once lived here.
Now I recognize the view from the yard. This was Isidora’s house when she was a child. It’s the scene I saw in Rackham’s memory. On the other side of the village is Rookwood castle.
I attend Beasts Class, where I learn how to feed and brush magical (and adorable) critters.
Who’s a good girl?
I meet another student, Poppy, who seems to be a beast whisperer. After class she wants to introduce me to a special friend, Highwing.
Since Fig and I are trying to learn more about Ranrok, I ask Sirona at The Three Broomsticks about her goblin friend, Lodgok. I meet him over at the Hog’s Head.
I meet with Fig as soon as he returns from the Ministry. He wants to go right away to see the room I discovered under Hogwarts.
In the empty Map Chamber, Fig places the book on the pedestal. The entire floor becomes a glowing map of the surrounding countryside and landmarks. For a moment Fig is sad that Miriam isn’t here to see it.
After introductions between Fig and Rackham in his portrait, Rackham explains that the map will highlight four areas indicating four trials I must pass. The Keepers want to make sure that their knowledge doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. This will take time, Rackham says, but Fig respectfully interrupts. Ranrok wields a powerful dark magic. Rackham becomes alarmed when he learns Ranrok was in his Gringotts’ vault. The first trial will proceed immediately. Fig recognizes the spot on the map; we’ll meet there. He can help me find the location, but he can’t follow me into the trial.
(Up until now I’ve only been pursuing main mission quests and avoiding side quests. The game won’t let me proceed until I gain another level! I wondered if I’d come up against a hard check of some kind.)
Finally! One of the best parts of this whole game is riding around on a broom. The mechanics are smooth and very fun. Hogsmeade is off limits, but the rest of the open world and even sections of Hogwarts are broom-friendly. Although many locations on the map have the fast travel of Floo Flames, it can be fun just to fly places anyway.
Madam Kogawa is the flight instructor (and a very disappointed quidditch teacher since Headmaster Black ruled the game wouldn’t be played this year). We mount our school brooms — astride; “none of that side-saddle nonsense” — and start flying through large rings and around the grounds.
