Setting

[goosemods]

LANDMARKS

Main Lodge

An enormous log cabin serves as the main school building, with classrooms, club rooms, a cafeteria, and metal lockers for all students. The lodge is four storeys, with a stone-walled base storey on the water level, and three wood-walled storeys on the ground level and above. There are washrooms on every floor, and plenty of empty rooms which can be used for club meetings.

The main lodge is open every day from 6 AM to 9 PM (one hour before curfew). Certain classrooms are always open to all, although priority for seating and teacher attention goes to students attending class at that hour. These areas are: Potions lab, Magical Rudiments classrooms, Aesthetic Magic's art room, the Music room and auditorium, top of the Astronomy tower, Artificing shed, and Herbology's gardens and greenhouse. Students of Divination can visit the Divination classroom at any time. Students of Animagus Studies and Occlumency can drop in on class sessions for different years, e.g. a senior taking Occlumency on Tuesday can also attend the junior Occlumency session on Thursday.

See Classes & Teachers for descriptions of specific classrooms.

• Dock Level: The stone base of the lodge contains the teacher’s residences, and is a forbidden area. Students must go outside the lodge and descend wooden stairs to access the dock, which sits at the base of the lodge. Kayaks and canoes are free to be signed out every day, but must be docked by 6 PM.


• Ground Floor: Immediately upon entering, students will be in the Atrium, which serves as a communal lounge area. To the left is a set of double doors which opens into the cafeteria, and an adjacent hallway leads to the kitchens and public washrooms. To the right are the staircases, and hallways which lead to the infirmary, auditorium and other rooms. These hallways are lined with six-feet-high metal lockers, grouped by year and each assigned to a student. Classrooms on this floor are Hermeticism, Magizoology, Music, Magical Rudiments and Pre-Healer Studies.
  
  • Atrium: The Atrium is a 60'x60' space which stretches from the ground floor to the lodge's ceiling, with tall windows on the north side facing the mountains and lake shoreline. People on the second and third floors are able to peer down into the Atrium from wooden railings. The Atrium features a massive 6-foot stone fireplace, and is scattered with couches and loveseats for lounging around. In the corner is a CRT TV on a rolling stand, equipped with a dysfunctional DVD player (see Camp Legends) and an old Nintendo Wii (see Gaming Club).
  
  
  • Cafeteria: The cafeteria has wide windows that face the lake, and the long teacher's table sits at the back of the room. For students, the area is filled with round tables that seat up to eight people. There was the idealistic hope that not having house tables would encourage a better sense of community, but... this is high school, and social cliques happen.
  
  
  • Dance Studio: A modest dance studio with a mirrored wall and a barre is located near the music room. It is officially under the jurisdiction of Ms. Thrussell, and unofficially under that of Casey Patterson.
  
  
  • Weight Room: Students may work out in the weight room next to Mr. Thorn's office on the first floor. There are showers, and a small sitting area with a magical water dispenser and a coffee pot. You cannot use the large machines without someone spotting you. It's open so long as Mr. Thorn is present in his office, typically beginning at 7 AM each day, although some trusted seniors have been granted a key.


• Second Floor: The library is two levels, extending to the third floor. Classrooms on the second floor are Charms, History of Magic, Aesthetic Magic and Wizard Literature.


• Third Floor: Stairways up into the towers begin here. Classrooms on this floor are Potions, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The newly built computer lab is here, and only Muggle Technology Studies students are allowed to enter.


• Towers: Two high towers rise from the main lodge. The taller eastern tower contains the Astronomy classroom and the Headmistress’ office, and the western tower contains the Owlery and the Divination classroom.


• Other: Just outside the lodge and next to the river is a large shed which serves as the Artificing workshop. In the woods beyond the lodge, there's a sauna for exclusive use by prefects and captains.

Lake Gooseberry

Mountain-fed Lake Gooseberry is wide enough that you can’t see the opposite shore from the school windows, and deep enough to be home to a giant serpentine lake monster. No one quite knows where “Goosey” came from—popular theory is that her egg tumbled into Lake Gooseberry from the broom of an exotic pet smuggler who was trying to evade the authorities. Despite her fearsome appearance, Goosey is reportedly very friendly and has rescued her share of drowning kids.

Lone Wolf Island

Near the Lodge is a small tree-covered island which can be circled by foot in half an hour. There are no buildings in use on Wolf Island, but it’s a popular spot for overnight camping trips. Wolf Island is also rumoured to be haunted (see Camp Legends for details).

The Ornery Oak

The centerpiece of the Gooseberry school grounds is a very large and very old magical oak tree, so named because the Oak will swat anyone who comes too close to its branches or tries to carve into its trunk. For the most part, the Ornery Oak coexists peacefully with students, although there have been stories of people getting hit with random acorns when they play their music too loudly.

The Sorting Cave

The very first place any Gooseberry student visits is the Amphitheater: rows of wooden benches arranged in a semi-circle around a gravel-lined “stage” with a fire pit in the center. Behind the stage is the Sorting Cave, which you enter alone to be sorted into a house. (See Sorting Ceremony for details.)

Outside of the first day of school, the Amphitheater is sometimes used as an outdoor stage for Drama Club. Students often sneak into the cave to ask questions of the house emblems, but will be punished if they’re caught by a teacher.

House Campsites

Student accommodations are separated by house: Azurcrest to the north, on a high cliff; Ribbonfin to the east, on a river; Ebonhide to the south, in the woods; and Coppertale to the west, in a flower field. Students sleep in five-person cabins, separated by gender and year. Cabins have a loft bed for each student, with a desk underneath. The far side of the cabin wall houses a fireplace with comfy seating scattered around it. Each cabin stands on three-foot stilts, and walkways connect the wraparound balconies to one another.

As of February 4, the doors and windows of all cabins are magically locked, and can only be opened at the touch of one of the cabin's inhabitants. (Students are still allowed to enter their friends' cabins, but they can't enter unless let in.)




See Cabin Bed Placement for which beds have been claimed in each cabin.

Quidditch Pitch

Gooseberry High features a full-size Quidditch pitch (or Quodpot pitch, if you ask the more rebellious and patriotic members of the student body). The equipment shed holds ten-year-old school brooms which can be rented out by students, and balls for a variety of sports, not just Quidditch or Quodpot. Locker rooms are separated by gender, and players and cheerleaders for house teams are designated a locker for year-round use.

Owl Trail circles around the Pitch, and connects to the doors leading to the locker rooms and up into the stands. The spectator stands are pointedly not separated by house, and yet houses tend to clump together anyway when it comes to cheering for their favourites.

Gardens

The picturesque Quail Trail runs right through the Gardens, which feature several lush, overgrown outdoor plots and a large wrought-iron greenhouse with a koi pond. Herbology classes take place here, although you’re likely to see people wandering through at all hours. Many narrow little paths wind between the gardens, and the picturesque seating areas with wrought-iron chairs and benches make this a popular spot for couples—much to the annoyance of seniors with serious Herbology projects.

Stables

Under the strict purview of the groundskeeper, Mr. Covington, is Gooseberry’s extensive equestrian facilities. The stables can house up to 20 horses, and include tack rooms and wash stalls, and a locker room for riders. On the second floor is a surprisingly comfortable sitting room that usually serves as a Magizoology classroom during the day. Outside is a well-maintained riding ring, and many of the school’s trails can easily accommodate both riders and pedestrians.

Gooseberry’s horses are all winged horses of Aethonan and Granian breeds. Mr. Covington has a careful knack for pairing the temperament of the horse to the temperament of the student, and has outright turned away students whom he feels don’t respect the animals. Only the more experienced members of Equestrian Club get any leeway with him.

Some claim that Gooseberry’s stable includes a Thestral, but no one has been able to definitively confirm it. Nonetheless, rumours abound of Thestral sightings in the forest, or students overhearing Mr. Covington talking to the air while in the stables.

The Grotto

Deep in the forest, at the end of a narrow unmarked path, is the Grotto: a small clearing containing a single ancient stone structure, overgrown with moss and vines. The Grotto cannot be found or entered by anyone above the age of 18—teachers who try will find themselves going in circles on the path. It’s the perfect venue for student parties, so long as you can sneak out there without getting caught.

No one quite knows the origin of the Grotto. Supposedly the powerful enchantments were the work of previous Gooseberry students, but others swear it’s been like this since the beginning. Knowledge of the Grotto has been passed down from senior to freshman for years, with the warning to always tidy after yourselves after a visit. The Grotto may look long abandoned, but you’re still the guest of whatever lives in the woods.

Logan, UT

The nearest populated area is Logan, UT, an extremely small muggle college town. Logan is Mormon-dominated, so everything shuts down on Sundays, and of the two bars, one is a horrific dump and the other is closely monitored by cops. The surroundings are pretty and the people are friendly, but there's not much in the way of entertainment.

To get to Logan, you must take a three-hour hike out of Gooseberry's anti-Apparition zone and Apparate to the town. Students are forbidden from leaving the school grounds without teacher supervision, and usually the only reason anyone goes to Logan is for a liquor store run. If you want your character to leave the anti-Apparition zone, you must run it by the mods first, and your character will risk punishment. (Opportunities to visit Logan will appear on the plot calendar, and have a guaranteed success or failure.)