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Great Wolf Lodge Getting there: From Richmond, go east on Interstate 64 and take Exit 234 for Lightfoot and Route 199. Exit on Mooreland Road and turn left at the first stoplight onto East Rochambeau Drive. Bear Track Landing: 55,000-square-foot indoor water park with eight waterslides (three kiddie slides, two three-story body slides, two tube slides that twist outside the lodge and one four-person raft slide), six pools including a wave pool, a lazy river ride and a 12-level treehouse water fort. New addition: A new six-story water ride called Howlin' Tornado will open later this year. A new wing with 102 rooms and additional meeting space will open next year. Raccoon Lagoon: Outdoor swimming pool and activities from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Cub Club: Children's activity program that includes hourly activities and a nightly bedtime story beside the stone fireplace in the lobby. Northern Lights Arcade: More than 100 games divided into a ticket-redemption area and an adventure and racing games area. Elements: Full-service spa. Suites: Log-cabin ambience with fort-or tent-themed bunk beds for kids in some rooms. Cost: Room rates begin at $259 and include daily water park admission. MagiQuest costs $15 for a wand, which is reusable, and $10 for a game, which can continue to be played for four days between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m.. Info: www.greatwolfresorts.com, (800) 551-9653 or (757) 229-9700 Locations: Great Wolf Lodge also offers MagiQuest at its Pocono Mountains, Pa., location. The chain has other locations -- without MagiQuest at present-- in Grand Mound, Wash.; Grapevine, Texas; Kansas City, Kan.; Mason, Ohio; Niagara Falls, Canada; Sandusky, Ohio; Traverse City, Mich.; and Wisconsin Dells, Wis.

If Harry Potter and a scavenger hunt somehow cross-connected, it might work something like this.

You'd get a magic wand, which would store powers you earned by finding things. Then you'd use the wand and its powers to defeat a goblin king and dragon.

MagiQuest would be a good name for it, and Great Wolf Lodge would be a good place to put it. That's where you'll find the new game in Williamsburg.

It's a video game with a difference. Players don't just stand in front of a screen and push a button. They get a good workout going from place to place to collect the items they need. Parents and children can work as a team, and players can help each other win.

The game can go on for days. The wand stores your status so you can pick up where you left off whenever you return to your quests and adventures. You can even use the same wand at other MagiQuest locations, such as the original MagiQuest at Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. Eventually, all Great Wolf locations are expected to incorporate the game.

If you're video-savvy and have the stamina of two tween-to-teenage soccer players who tried it out with me, you may be able to defeat the dragon in 3½ hours. (I never advanced beyond junior magi status, but I wasn't approaching the game with quite the same concentration.)

It's a good thing they were quick. Families have been known to stay for several hours after checking out of the lodge just so their children could finish the game.

MagiQuest is the newest addition to the activities at Great Wolf Lodge, a $62 million family resort that is best known for its indoor water park. Only lodge guests are allowed in the water (which is a blissful 84 degrees year-round), but anyone can pay to play MagiQuest.

The game debuted about a year ago in stand-alone form at Myrtle Beach. At Great Wolf Lodges in the Pocono Mountains and Williamsburg, it was incorporated this year into three floors of the building -- primarily the third and fourth floors overlooking the lobby atrium.

Each quest begins at a group of "trees" with video screens embedded. Point your wand at the screen and it'll show what you've accomplished and which quests and adventures remain. (Tip: No running off before the QuestMaster finishes his instructions. If you don't stick around to accept the quest, it doesn't count.)

Hallways at each side (named Whispery Woods and Enchanted Forest) have interactive portraits, treasure chests, crystals and other items that react to players' wands during the game. Upstairs are hallways named Tangled Path and Piney Path, a treehouse where pixies may grant rewards and a lair where a dragon must be defeated. Even the lobby and

restaurants on the second floor have a few stations that players must visit along the way to victory.

Mike Hill, a lieutenant colonel stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, had played the game in Myrtle Beach with his daughters, ages 9 and 10. On a weekend visit to Great Wolf Lodge with another family, the girls pulled out their wands and played it again.

"It's a nice break from the water park," Hill said. "They were swimming all morning." After lunch, the moms headed for the outlet malls and Hill took the four girls on a quest.

"It's fun," said Jenna Mercier, their 10-year-old friend. "You have adventure, and it's good exercise walking around the hotel."

That's just what Denise Chapman Weston had in mind when she helped to create the game. She's a mom in Rhode Island, a psychologist and a "playologist" who's been in the family entertainment business for 15 years.

"We aim it toward the 12-year-old," she said. "It's a challenging game. When they're really young, they may need some help. Kids love to play up, and we as adults don't mind 12-year-old play.

"It's interesting when you watch. First, the kids get it, and the adults are scratching their heads. Then when they start reading the book, they realize it's kind of like a scavenger hunt.

"They enjoy the connection with the kids, the kids needing the parents' help to read the book and get the clues. The staff is there to help, but the real helpers are the ones who have completed it. It creates a nice community play experience."