Sabledrake Magazine

May, 2004

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Holiday at Hogwarts, 

a simplified GURPS adventure

Copyright © 2004 Christine Morgan

Note:

The world and characters of Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling and are used here without her knowledge or consent. The rules for GURPS are from Steve Jackson Games.

Introduction:

A few years ago, I had a notion to run a convention game for younger players, set in the world of Harry Potter. That first adventure turned out to be a smash hit at Seattle’s Dragonflight con, and I’ve subsequently run Hogwarts games at RadCon and Game Storm as well. I used a simplified version of the GURPS system (because it’s all I ever run), and really did not bother much with the rules because the idea was to have fun, and introduce more kids to gaming.

I found, too, that having party favors increased the enjoyment of the game. Every time I’ve run a Hogwarts adventure, I have provided each player with a wand (a simple thin wooden dowel, which can be purchased by the dozen at the local craft store) and a sheet of stickers for the players to keep.

Here are my notes from my second Hogwarts adventure, as well as the pre-generated characters that were used.

Most of the time, in all honesty, the younger players were more interested in dueling and casting spells on each other than they were in solving the puzzles, but hey, that can be fun, too! It is, however, important to stress that the wands should not be used for actually hitting anybody.

Description:

With most of the students gone home for the holidays, and most of the teachers sick with the Meezles, it's up to you and your friends to investigate the sudden appearance of a whole new tower. What is Battenby House, why hasn't anyone heard of it, and why are all of its students so creepy and weird? A game for the younger or young-at heart Harry Potter fan.

Spell Resolution:

Each player will be given a number of colored glass blips or markers equal to his or her Fatigue + Magic Level. These count as Spell Points.

To cast any Charm or Transfiguration is 2 SP; to block with Defense Against the Dark Arts costs 2 SP. If the spell fails, the try only costs 1 SP. To use a personal special power costs 1 point.

If a character spends a turn without casting anything, he or she gets one SP back. Full SP are restored at the end of any combat scene.

Dueling:

When two characters intend to Duel, they will roll a Contest of Skill vs. each other’s Dueling and each spend 1 SP. The winner of the Duel will then roll 1d6 and the loser will have to subtract that many SP from his or her amount. The duel continues until one person either surrenders or is out of SP.

Available Characters:

Gryffindor 2nd year, Metamorphomagus Ravenclaw 2nd year, language expert

Gryffindor 3rd year, bit of a daredevil, duelist Ravenclaw 3rd year, party animal

Gryffindor 4th year, wheelchair-bound gadgeteer Ravenclaw 4th year, musician

Hufflepuff 2nd year, shy empath Slytherin 2nd year, lucky thief

Hufflepuff 3rd year, half-selkie Slytherin 3rd year, snake Animagus

Hufflepuff 4th year, Quidditch player Slytherin 4th year, ghost expert

Wand and Pet Chart: Roll 1d12 for each

Meezles:

This contagious disease only affects adult witches and wizards. The symptoms include fever, sleepiness, and a rash of itchy green and purple spots all over the body. All of the remaining teachers have caught it, except for Hagrid and Madame Pomfrey. A couple of seventh-years who stayed at Hogwarts have it too. The nurse has her hands full taking care of the sick people. Hagrid's half-giant blood makes him immune. Ghosts, poltergeists, portraits, animals, and house-elves are not affected.

Who's Where:

· Infirmary – five 7th year students, Professors Dumbledore, McGonnagal, Sinistra, Trelawny, and Sprout.

· Madame Pomfrey – not sick but busy taking care of everyone.

· 5th and 6th year students – spending the holidays at a winter skiing, skating, and sledding camp, and took the train from Hogsmeade.

· Hagrid – spending a quiet Christmas at home in his cabin with Fang.

· Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher – a nervous wizard named Reginald Winterwind, who went home for the holidays.

· 1st year students – all went home.

· Argus Filch – immune because he's a Squib; vacationing in Hogsmeade.

· Mrs. Norris – immune and lurking around the castle.

Introduction – Lunch in the Great Hall:

The adventure begins on the afternoon of December 24, Christmas Eve, in the Great Hall. Most of the students and teachers left three days ago. The Meezles epidemic struck the day after that. Yesterday, after being cleared by Madame Pomfrey, the fifth and sixth years went down to Hogsmeade to catch the train to Snowshadow Mountain, the skiing and sledding camp.

The long House tables have been replaced with a smaller round table with just enough seats for the students. Everything is decorated for the holidays. A twenty-foot Christmas tree is in the hall, sparkling with gold and silver tinsel and glass balls full of falling snow. Red, green, and white candles float in the air, beneath the enchanted ceiling that shows a brilliantly blue winter sky. Post owls swoop in with letters and cards, some of which sing carols when opened.

The house-elves send up a meal of ham, buttered potatoes, baked cinnamon-apples, bread, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and hot pumpkin cider.

To start the celebrations, there's also a box of festive Christmas crackers that contain the following novelties:

1. animated, flying sleigh and reindeer. 
2. everlasting gingerbread house
3. red and green silent tiptoe socks 
4. snowman-building snow globe
5. realistic reindeer antlers 
6. candy cane wand
7. motion-sensor jingle bells 
8. Santa's workshop portrait
9. somersaulting penguin toys 
10. snow pixies
11. color-changing ornament 
12. present-peeker telescope

Madame Pomfrey's Orders:

Just as the meal is getting finished, school nurse Madame Pomfrey will come in, looking tired. She conjures up a chair and asks the students to sit down for a moment. She lets them know how the patients are doing – being treated and they should all be back to normal in a few days.

But, with so few students staying at the school, and with everyone worried about Meezle germs floating around, Madame Pomfrey wants everyone to temporarily move into the Guest Wing while the house-elves do an extra-thorough cleaning of the dormitories and other living areas.

She'll tell them to go pack up enough clothes and whatever else they'll need for a couple of days, and put the things in bags (which she provides) for the house-elves to move. Then the students are to go to the Guest Wing and choose their new rooms.

The Guest Wing:

The Guest Wing is a long rectangular hall open to a second floor above. It is accessible by two doors on the bottom level, ordinary doors not guarded by passwords or portraits.

The central area is set up like a common room, with a round fireplace in the middle (conical suspended chimney) and spiral staircases at either end leading to the upper gallery. The furniture is big, soft, and comfortable. A much smaller Christmas tree, this one decorated with wooden soldiers and nutcrackers, stands next to the fireplace.

There are six bedrooms and two bathrooms on each level. On the bottom floor – the Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple, and White bedrooms, and the Pink and Black bathrooms. On the upper floor – the Muggle, Beauxbaton, Durmstrang, Diagon Alley, Quidditch, and Gringotts bedrooms, and the Ministry and King's Cross Station bathrooms.

Each bedroom can sleep two people. The rooms on one side (Red, Blue, Green, Pink, Muggle, Beauxbaton, Durmstrang, and Ministry) have windows that look out over the Forbidden Forest. The other rooms have views of the lake and Hogsmeade.

Several portraits hang in the main room of the Guest Wing. They include Lady Anne Piersington (a medieval lady prone to swooning), the Red Knight (a bad tempered armored man), Henri DuChamps (foppish musketeer), Drusilla Crankwhistle (ugly old witch), a picture of flying hippogriffs, and the Nigel Butterforth family (chubby man, severe woman, two kids).

Once the students have chosen their rooms, the house-elves will see to it that their things are delivered. They’ll also bring an invitation from Hagrid for everyone to go on a sleigh ride.

The Sleigh Ride:

Hagrid's sleigh is bright red with gold runners and trim. It has warm furry robes folded under the seats to bundle up in, and the snow is deep and thick. Hagrid himself, dressed up in a gigantic red coat, horrible knitted scarf, and huge boots, will greet them with gifts of homemade peanut-butter toffee fudge that sticks their teeth together. Even Fang is wearing a Santa hat.

The problem is that Hagrid harnessed up a pair of bug bears to the sleigh. They have shaggy legs and pillbug carapaces. The bug bears are big and ferocious-looking, but seem under control.

The ride goes fine, around the Quidditch pitch, down by the lake shore, and along the edge of the Forest. As they are starting back, though, a baby unicorn wanders out of the woods right into their path.

The bug bears immediately take off after the unicorn, resisting Hagrid's efforts to control them. The ride turns wild as the sleigh plunges into the forest, going over fallen trees. A low limb smacks Hagrid in the head and knocks him out of the driver's seat. He falls off the sleigh and the students will have to take over the driving and the attempt to save the baby unicorn.

The unicorn will respond best to a female PC and a good Care of Magical Creatures roll. It'll be getting dark by then, time to head back to the castle. Hagrid, unhurt but for a bump, will see them back to the castle, saying it's too late and too cold to return the baby to his herd just yet. He'll put it in his cabin instead.

Bug Bears:

ST 20 PD/DR: 2/2 legs and underside (heavy fur), 4/6 body (carapace)

DX 14 Move: 7 Dodge: 9/11

IQ 6 Size: 3 hexes Weight: 300 lbs

HT 13 Trample: 1d6+2 crushing Bite: 1d6-1 cutting

Dinner:

By the time they change into fresh clothes and head down to the Great Hall, Peeves the Poltergeist is already there. He's hovering around the Christmas tree, plucking off snowball ornaments and hurling them at the students. Anyone hit by a ball is caught in a 1-hex blizzard.

Peeves will continue causing trouble (tangling people in long strands of tinsel, dropping puddings on their heads, sticking mistletoe in their hair, chasing them with lit candles), and singing:

Crashing to and fro

In a poltergeist display

'Round the Hall I go,

Smashing all the way, ha-ha-ha

Flames on candles fly

Making robes burn bright

What fun it is to make you cry

And wreck your Christmas night, oh!

Once they've dealt with Peeves one way or another, they'll be ready for the big meal. Some stuff is already up here on side tables – a tray of demolished puddings, dishes of nuts and hard candies and candied fruit, slabs of fruitcake, a gingerbread castle made to look like a replica of Hogwarts (complete with candy teachers and students walking around).

Their places will already be set with gold plates, crystal goblets, and fine silverware. The ceiling shows a purple-grey twilight, and all the candles now are frosty white and silver to look like burning icicles.

But just as they sit down and prepare to eat, everything changes. The ceiling becomes ordinary beams, the candles fall out of the air and go out, the snow in the Christmas ornaments lays limp on the bottom of the balls, the little candy people stop moving around the gingerbread Hogwarts. The room is dark and silent. The meal does not appear.

The Power Outage:

It's that way all over the school. The ongoing magic has suddenly just stopped. It affects everything. The staircases no longer move. The portraits are frozen. The passwords don't work.

Individual spells and magic items still function normally. But other worries – that Hogwarts is no longer protected against being found by Muggles, that people could Apparate in, that it might be some action by the Ministry or Voldemort – will have to be of concern.

The Kitchen:

If the students pay a visit to the kitchen, they will find panicked house-elves unable to get the table to transfer the food. Relieved on seeing them, the elves will press dinner on them – roast goose with chestnut stuffing, butterbeer-battered fish and chips, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, baked corn, mixed vegetables, crescent rolls, hot cocoa, eggnog, and a seven-layer cake with raspberry filling and cream-cheese frosting.

The Adults:

The adults will take the following actions:

Madame Pomfrey – must stay to keep an eye on her patients, doesn't know what's going on, only that it needs to be fixed.

Hagrid – remembers something like this happening once when he was a student, something gone wrong in the Magenerator Room, but the caretaker at the time fixed it up right quick. He'll hike down to Hogsmeade and see if he can find Filch. Who, according to Hagrid, has the instructions for the Magenerator kept somewhere in his office.

Filch – will return to the castle if summoned, but he’ll be much more interested in finding out whose fault this is and punishing the guilty parties.

The Ghosts:

After the Great Hall incident, Peeves will be off sulking somewhere and thinking up other trouble. The four House ghosts – Nearly Headless Nick, the Grey Lady, the Fat Friar, and the Bloody Baron – will approach the students soon after Hagrid leaves, demanding to know what's going on.

The news about the Magenerator will worry them. They'll point out how necessary it is to protect Hogwarts from the Muggles, dementors, and other outside enemies. The ghosts also know the truth about Battenby House, but will not bring it up except to hint darkly that there are even worse things than dementors that could invade the castle.

Filch's Office:

Argus Filch, the caretaker, keeps his office locked by ordinary locks rather than password-protected. He keeps the keys on a ring on his belt. A cat-flap in the door is set up with a spell to open only for Mrs. Norris. That magic has gone out but the opening is too small for anyone to get more than a head inside.

Mrs. Norris herself is in the office and will spring, hissing and scratching, at any intruders. She'll have to be dealt with before anyone can search the office.

The instructions for fixing the Magenerator are tucked away in one of the drawers in his office. Other drawers include confiscated items of all sorts – Zapping Rings, Dung Bombs, Extendable Ears, Blue-Mouth Bubble Gum, Potion Reverser Stir Sticks, old copies of The Quibbler and Witch Weekly magazine, Nose-Growing Tissues, exam parchments written on in Reappearing Ink, etc.

His office is a cluttered, crowded place with a cupboard of old torture devices against one wall – thumb screws, scold's bridles, manacles – and a "Veela of the Month" calendar tacked over a long worktable covered with tools.

The design for the Magenerator shows a ball crackling with energy hovering over a complicated magical machine, and lists components necessary to keep it running. It says that the device is on the dungeon level.

Ingredient: Found:

• 1 bottle Janvers' Quick-Acting Spell Tonic Hosp. Wing or Prof. Flitwick's office
• 3 drams powdered crystalstone Snape's storeroom
• 2 drams finely ground dragon bone Snape's storeroom
• 3 freshly-plucked hairs from a unicorn's tail Forbidden Forest / Hagrid's cabin
• 6 drops silver oil Snape's storeroom
• 2 drams phoenix ash Dumbledore's office
• Juice from one ripe moonfruit Kitchen
• 1 flask frog's breath Snape's storeroom
• 3 drops essence of mandragora Prof. Sprout's greenhouse
• 1 dried snake scale Snape's storeroom
• 1 badger hair Snape's storeroom
• 1 raven feather Snape's storeroom
• 1 powdered lion's tooth Snape's storeroom
• 1 dram black bat fur Snape’s storeroom
• 1 bottle firewhiskey, ignited Kitchen
• 1 bottle lake-water Lake
• 3 tablespoons squid ink Snape's storeroom

Scavenger Hunt:

The students must now attempt to collect the necessary items and components. The Quick-Spell Tonic, if they get a few extra bottles from the Hospital Wing, will allow them to temporarily reactivate any of the passworded entrances, enabling them to get into Dumbledore's office ("Tangerine Tingler").

Snape's storeroom is locked as well, and the ingredients on his shelves are all labeled in his own filing system (Potions roll to find each one). Hagrid's cabin is empty except for Fang and the baby unicorn. The lake is iced over, which will complicate getting fresh lake-water.

The Magenerator:

Located in one of the dungeon rooms, on the other side of a triple-locked door, is the Magenerator. This is a huge and complicated machine, bellows and pipes and tubes and gears, with a large glass ball suspended over it. The glass ball is dark and empty, like a burnt-out light bulb. It has an opening in the top, where the ingredients can be placed.

If they are added in the correct amounts, an "Ennervate" spell will get things going again.

But, once the doors of Battenby House have been opened and its students released, they will not automatically be banished. They will want to rejoin Hogwarts, and study magic just like anyone else. Most of them, though, hate and envy all living students.

Battenby House:

As they conduct their scavenger hunt, a tremor will shake Hogwarts. Eerie blue light streams through the windows. Anyone looking out will see a black tower appear where one wasn't before. It has winged gargoyles perched over the windows and is joined to the rest of Hogwarts by a short, wide structure of black stone with stained-glass windows depicting black bats in silver circles.

This is the Fifth House, Battenby. Most of the information about it was carefully eradicated from known records. Only a trip to the Restricted Section and a very good Research roll may turn up the story.

Cyril Battenby was a powerful wizard and friend of the original foursome, and helped them build Hogwarts. When he was bitten by a vampire shortly before after castle was completed, he kept it secret, and went around biting his students (chosen for their necromantic abilities).

Salazar Slytherin discovered the truth, and blackmailed Battenby into creating the dementors. When the other three eventually found out, they were horrified, and Slytherin betrayed and murdered Battenby. His students and their tower were sent into a pocket of the netherworld and condemned to stay there for nine hundred and ninety-nine years.

Time is up. The Magenerator, one of Battenby's magical inventions, was originally designed to keep Hogwarts safe and unnoticed by the Muggles. Those were dangerous and violent days, with various kings and warlords duking it out across England. But after banishing Battenby House, the four remaining wizards adapted the Magenerator to maintain the barriers between worlds.

With the Magenerator allowed to go out, nothing is keeping Battenby House from rejoining the rest of Hogwarts. And its students, the undead, from emerging.

The corridor that connects Battenby tower to the rest of Hogwarts does so by a pair of tall black double doors with bat-shaped cutouts, through which shines the eerie blue light. The air over here is cold, smelling faintly of damp earth. A low-hanging mist creeps like a living thing through the cracks and along the flagstone floors.

When the doors are opened, a whirling cloud of chittering bats come out, dive-bombing anybody in their path. Beyond, the walls of the corridor are lined with mirrors in ornate silver frames, and covered with hanging draperies of black velvet. The Battenby students cast no reflections. Living people looking into the mirrors will have their evil doubles step out and attack.

At the end of the corridor is an archway full of dangling cobwebs. Silver candleabras, with blue-flamed black candles, rest on small half-circle shelves to either side. The next room is small, dominated by a twice-life-sized portrait of a skeletal figure with bat's wings, a hooded robe, and a shimmering silver scythe. The password is Erebus, not that anyone will know it.

Battenby Tower consists of a ground-floor common room and branching sets of stairs leading up to various dormitories. A trap door under the rotting, threadbare carpet leads down to a catacomb.

The beds are all coffins, crypts, or sarcophagi. The furniture has a skull and bat motif. The whole place is cobwebby, with portraits of skeletal people and creatures. The house-elves are zombies.

The Battenbys:

Battenby students are not divided by years, but by types. They wear Hogwarts-style plain black robes with silver and black badges depicting the Battenby House emblem.

Professor Charon – head of Battenby House, this man has pale skin and dark eyes, snow-white hair swept back from his forehead, and long spindly fingers. His robes conceal a body that is nothing but bones.

The Shrieking Banshee – the Battenby House ghost is a female figure with long streaming hair and clutching hands, clad in rags and streaked in silvery blood like the Bloody Baron. Her scream causes the living to roll vs. HT+magic each turn or be paralyzed with fear.

Ghouls:

ST 8 thr: 1d6-3 sw: 1d6-2 DX 10 move: 5 dodge: 6

IQ 10 PD: 1 DR: 1 HT 10 Spell Points: 11

Spells at 12: Itch, Spasm, Pain, Stun, Clumsiness, Rooted Feet, Tanglefoot, Roundabout, Paralyze Limb, Total Paralysis, Control Limb, Tickle, Hunger, Thirst.

Wands: made from human bones.

Appearance: grey skin, yellow eyes, long dirty fingernails, black robes over ragged white shrouds. Green counters.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

Vampires:

ST 10 thr: 1d6-2 sw: 1d6 DX 12 move: 6 dodge: 7

IQ 11 PD: 1 DR: 1 HT 11 Spell Points: 12

Spells at 13: Beast Summoning (bats, rats), Shapeshift Bat/Wolf, Body of Mist, Daze, Sleep, Dueling.

Vulnerabilities: sunlight, crosses, running water, roses, garlic

Wands: made from bloodroot

Appearance: pasty white skin, red-rimmed eyes, long fangs, capes over their robes that can turn into bat wings. Pink counters.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

Bats Rats

Move: 8 Move: 4

Damage: 1d6 biting per turn Damage: 1d cutting per turn

Dispersed by: 8 hits Dispersed by: 6 hits

Winter Shades:

ST 7 thr: 1d6-3 sw: 1d6-3 DX 13 move: 6 dodge: 7

IQ 10 PD: 1 DR: 1 HT 10 Spell Points: 9

Spells: Frost, Ice Dagger, Ice Slick, Freeze, Frostbite (1d6 only), Icy Touch, Icy Breath, Snow Jet, Snow Shoes, Dueling.

Vulnerabilities: fire, heat.

Wands: icicles.

Appearance: normal except for icy-blue glowing eyes. Blue counters.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9