Hey gamers, how are you all doing? Hope everyone is doing great! My adventure in Hogwarts Legacy continues and this time we're finally getting into the action that everything has been building toward. As we left things in the last post, Percival Rackham revealed the first trial through the living map in the Map Chamber, and the location marked was a tower far to the north of Hogwarts in the North Ford Bog region. Professor Fig was going to head there ahead of me to scout the area while I made my way over independently. And honestly, thank goodness for the broomstick and the Floo Flame fast travel network because without both of those getting to this tower would have been a serious journey. The North Ford Bog area is remote — genuinely out there on the edge of the map — and flying north on the broom with the landscape rolling out beneath you actually makes for a pretty spectacular approach to what's coming.
Meeting Professor Fig to Investigate the Tower
I fast traveled to the Jackdaw's Tomb Floo Flame in the Forbidden Forest to shorten the trip as much as possible, then hopped on the broom and flew the rest of the way north following the quest marker. And as I approached the tower ruins and descended, there was Fig waiting for me exactly as promised — standing at the base of the ruins looking up at the tower with that familiar expression of focused concern he gets when something isn't sitting right with him. And sure enough, something wasn't right at all.
Before we could even think about entering the tower, Fig pulls me aside and tells me to look at what's in front of us. The ruins surrounding the tower base are absolutely crawling with goblins — Ranrok's loyalists, the same faction we've been running into throughout the story. And the fact that they're here, at this specific tower, at this specific time, is not a coincidence. These goblins somehow know this location matters. They don't know exactly what's inside or what the trials are, but they clearly have enough intelligence on ancient magic and the sites connected to it to have sent a force here to investigate and potentially block access. Fig suggests we use Disillusionment to go invisible and try to take as many of them out quietly before the situation forces us into open combat. Smart move. And this is also the moment the game properly introduces Petrificus Totalus — the full Body-Bind Curse — as a stealth takedown tool.
The mechanic is simple and incredibly satisfying once you get the hang of it. Activate Disillusionment to go invisible, crouch, move silently behind an enemy who hasn't spotted you, wait for the prompt to appear, and cast Petrificus Totalus. The target gets hit with the curse, goes completely rigid, and drops to the ground without making a sound. For weaker enemies it's an instant takedown. For stronger ones like Sentinels it deals massive damage and staggers them badly. Either way it's clean, quiet, and leaves no alert for nearby enemies if you time it right. Moving through the goblin camp this way — picking them off one by one from the shadows — felt genuinely like something out of a spy film set in the wizarding world.
Fighting Ranrok's Goblin Loyalists to the Death
The stealth approach only gets you so far though. At a certain point the remaining goblins spot movement or find one of their fallen comrades and the whole camp goes on alert, which means the fight breaks open into full combat. And this particular group of loyalists is not a pushover. You've got a mix of Loyalist Warriors, a Loyalist Sentinel, and a Loyalist Assassin mixed into the camp, each requiring a slightly different approach to deal with effectively. The Warriors are straightforward — break their shields with the matching spell color and unload damage spells. The Sentinel has a massive health pool and hits like a freight train so keeping distance and using Ancient Magic throws when they're available is the play. The Assassin is fast and aggressive and will close distance on you constantly, so dodge rolls and Expelliarmus to disrupt their attacks are essential.
What Fig said at the start proved true throughout this fight — the goblins absolutely suspect this tower has significance. There were too many of them, positioned too deliberately, for this to be a random patrol. Ranrok's network is closing in on the same trail we're following, just from a different angle and with very different intentions. It adds a layer of urgency to everything because every time you see his loyalists show up it's a reminder that we're in a race even if the finish line isn't fully visible yet. Once the last goblin goes down, Fig gives you a nod and the path to the tower entrance is clear.
Finding the Tower Entrance and Meeting Percival's Portrait
The tower itself is worth taking a moment to appreciate before you charge straight in. It's ancient, weathered, built from the same kind of deep magical stonework you saw in Jackdaw's Tomb and the Map Chamber — the kind of construction that tells you whoever built this place was working with knowledge and craft far beyond ordinary wizarding architecture. There's a chest sitting right in front of the entrance door that's easy to miss if you walk straight past it, so make sure you grab it before heading in. Fig casts Alohomora on the door and it swings open, and from there you climb upward through the tower looting everything along the way — small coin piles hidden in corners that Revelio lights up, another chest mid-climb, items tucked against the walls on each landing.
At the top of the tower, waiting on the wall in a portrait frame, is Percival Rackham. Another instance of his portrait, similar to the one in the Map Chamber but positioned here specifically as a gateway to the trial itself. The conversation with this version of Percival is brief but important. He confirms that the trial entrance is below, back at the base of the tower, and that he can give you no further guidance about what waits inside. The trial was designed to be faced alone — Professor Fig cannot follow you in. Whatever happens inside is between you and the ancient magic Percival left behind. Fig acknowledges this with his characteristic mix of reluctance and trust, tells you to be careful, and sends you back downstairs to find the entrance.
Percival Tells Me What I Must Do — Alone — Following the Ancient Magic
Back at the base of the tower, you start looking around for what Percival described and this is where your ability to perceive ancient magic becomes literally essential rather than just narrative flavor. There are golden swirling traces of ancient magic visible on the floor — the same kind of visual signature you've been seeing throughout the game — and they're pointing toward a specific spot on the ground. You follow them, stand on the marked point, and the game prompts you to investigate the ancient magic pool beneath your feet. You interact with it, a portal rips open in front of you, and without Fig, without backup, without any safety net — you step through.
What follows immediately after stepping through the portal is a short corridor section that moves quickly and linearly, pulling you deeper into the trial space. Percival's voice guides you in fragments — not holding your hand, not explaining everything, just nudging you to pay attention to the ancient magic around you and trust what you perceive. The trail of golden traces continues through the corridor and leads you downstairs as soon as the path allows it. Every turn feels deliberate, like the trial was constructed with specific intention about what you should notice and when. There are small chests tucked into side alcoves along the way — always worth grabbing — and the architecture shifts as you go deeper, becoming more refined and more clearly purposeful than the rough stonework of the tower above.
We Arrive at a New Place — The Real Trial Begins
Following the ancient magic traces through the opening corridors eventually brings you into a chamber that feels fundamentally different from everything that came before it. It's large, carefully constructed, and radiates that specific quality of ancient magic energy that you've come to associate with the deepest and oldest parts of the wizarding world. There are portals here, floating platforms suspended in the air, and ancient magic pools positioned in ways that make it immediately clear this space was built as a puzzle — something to be navigated and solved rather than just passed through.
This is where the real trial begins. And this is exactly where we're going to leave things for today, because what comes next inside this trial chamber deserves its own full post to do it justice. The platform puzzles, the combat encounters with the Pensieve Guardians, and the revelation waiting at the end of this trial are all significant enough that cramming it into the end of this post would sell it short completely. So gamers, the anticipation is real. We are standing at the threshold of Percival Rackham's first trial, the ancient magic is swirling all around us, and what comes next is going to be one of the most memorable stretches of the entire game so far. See you in the next post!