Horror on the Hill was published in 1983, and is one of Douglas Niles’ early works for Dungeons and Dragons. Niles, a wargamer, would contribute significantly to the Dragonlance series in a couple of years, and then write several Forgotten Realms novels. I’ve already covered two of his adventures, Against the
Cult of the Reptile God and Curse of Xanathon. His early work has a number of flaws in it, and Horror on the Hill is no different: there’s a lot to admire, but I am unsatisfied with the adventure as a whole.
A large part of this dissatisfaction comes from how the adventure starts: it is assumed that they’ve come to the outpost of Guido’s Fort, at the end of the Traders’ Road, to investigate the monster-inhabited “hill”. It’s fairly basic as motivations go. The adventure invites comparison with The Keep on the Borderlands, and in the Keep’s case, there’s a strong introductory passage from Gygax that sets the stage and makes it clear why the adventurers have come there. This is missing in this adventure – the players apparently know nothing about the Hill, and need to ask at the bar to learn anything about the hill at all. Incidentally, the two best reasons they can learn for investigating the Hill (slavers using it as a base and an orc army poised to attack the Fort) are both marked as false, leaving with us with this basic problem: The adventurers are investigating it because they’re adventurers, not because there’s a pressing reason to do so.
Unlike Keep, the home base of the adventurers (Guido’s Fort) is basically undescribed. It has an Inn, a trading post where equipment is likely to be more expensive to purchase, and one named NPC: The Old Timer. His title and the rumours he knows are all you ever learn about him.
The skimpy nature of this set-up undermines the adventure, because, in fact, the players could have strong reasons for investigating the hill. There are threats to the Fort they need to investigate.
The surface of the hill is a “wilderness as dungeon” design, with trails linking the encounter areas. Some of the encounters provide clues as to what lies beneath the ruined monastery, which forms the bulk of the adventure. The map for the hill is poor, with most of it being covered with forest, and the contour lines can easily be confused with the trail lines. The encounters are much better than the map. Of particular note are the two sisters who live on the hill, both with magical powers, who can provide a lot more structure to the adventure.
The ruined monastery itself is a good example of providing separate themed areas for the dungeon. The surface level and first level of the dungeon are inhabited by goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears, led by a hobgoblin king who wishes to assault Guido’s Fort and burn it to the ground. The adventurers can find hints that they’ve been planning the attack for some time.
The second level (going down) has one access point: a pit trap near the hobgoblin king’s chamber, which may result in the group having to deal with it before they finish with the first level of the dungeon. This level is a natural cave system and labyrinth, which is sure to drive mappers in the group mad with tunnels that run above and below other tunnels in the dungeon! It’s inhabited by a number of groups of trapped monsters, who can’t escape the labyrinth – in other words, an excuse for any old monster encounter Niles could think up. The escape from the dungeon leads down to another set of connected caves, these ones inhabited a lot of kobolds and a red dragon!
The adventure advises the DM on what happens if the adventurers actually subdue the dragon, but the entire encounter does seem very likely to end with the adventurers’ deaths. AC -1, #AT 2 claws/1 bite, D 1-8/1-8/4-32. For an adventure with characters of levels 1-3, this encounter will likely come down to luck more than anything else – well, luck on the player’s part. The dragon doesn’t need very much luck to eliminate the lot of them. (The dragon is younger than normal with 7 HD and only 22 hit points, but is extremely difficult to hurt). The dragon does enjoy chatting, but will attack the party when it gets bored or they leave, so there’s likely no respite there. A tunnel leads from the dragon’s lair to the surface, and the group will be able to return home thereafter.
A good DM should be able to turn all of this material into something memorable, but there’s quite a bit of work to be done. So much of the adventure feels underdone. There’s a strange “pagan god” the monks of the monastery once worshipped, preserved in effigies and wall-carvings, but these things are presented merely as flavour; the one sole survivor of the cult is presented as just a chaotic priest. The descriptions of the various areas are well done, and show how they relate to each other – the encounters have feel “realistic” – but they don’t relate that well to the larger world. A few slaves can be rescued, there are a few traps and tricks, but mostly we’re looking at a lot of humanoids and where they live. It makes more sense than the monsters in Keep on the Borderlands, but it doesn’t mean it’s more exciting.
I’m puzzled where the actual adventure takes place in any case. The preface describes Guido’s Fort as being “at the end of the traders’ road”. Why do traders come here? Why do they go no further? Is there something important to the kingdom’s trade here? Answering these questions would make for a much better experience.
Physically, the adventure uses the new trade dress the D&D adventures gained in 1983; I’m not a fan. I find it cramped and unattractive. The maps range between adequate and poor, and the module also includes some really horrible art by Jim Holloway, who, as you may remember, draws in a style I really don’t like.
Ultimately, Horror on the Hill is not a dreadful adventure by any means; it does a lot of things well and has some good encounters, but the adventure as a whole is flawed and never really speaks to me as being special. There’s the potential for much, much more here, but it is not one of the great successes of the D&D line for me.