This is the set-up for Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow, an ‘Adventure Module for Characters 1-2’ for use with Old School Essentials, the retroclone based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh. Originally published as Ragged Hollow Nightmare by Dungeon Age Adventures for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, this version has been expanded, adapted, and transformed by The Merry Mushmen—best known for the Old School Renaissance magazine, Knock! and the excellent A Folklore Bestiary—following a successful Kickstarter campaign. And what a transformation it is! The digest-sized scenario comes as a thick, eighty-page booklet in a wraparound card cover. The trade dress echoes that of classic TSR, though the artwork is more cartoonish. The cover has been purposely distressed and inside has been drawn the map of the temple, again in the style of classic Dungeons & Dragons modules. The cartoonish style of artwork continues throughout in a duotone of red and grey, depicting the ordinary nature of life in and around Ragged Hollow as well as the weirdness and horror to be found as the Player Characters explore both further afield and then closer to home. There can be no doubt that Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is very charming little book.
Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is designed to serve as a first adventure. Ideally, the Player Characters should be First Level and will likely to be Second or Third Level once they complete the whole adventure. Its set-up is a classic of Dungeons & Dragons-style scenarios. There is a village in peril and the Player Characters are the ones to save it. However, Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow inverts that set-up ever so slightly. In the classic set-up, the peril threatening the village will be elsewhere and the Player Characters will use the village as a base of operations in order to strike out into the surrounding wilderness, locate the source of the peril, destroy or otherwise deal with said peril, and return having saved the village. Not so in Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow. Here the peril is already present in the village, shining in gold for all to see. In addition to not having to locate the source of the peril, the Player Characters are unable to do anything about it—at least initially. Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow presents several hooks and plots that will draw the Player Characters away from Ragged Hollow to various locations nearby in the Bleak Mountains to the west, Gloam Wood to the north, and the Wailing Hills to the south. Here, the Player Characters will have various encounters, find other locations, learn hints as what is going on back in Ragged Hollow, and perhaps find the means to solve the problem. There are said to be witches in Gloam Wood, bugbears in the Bleak Mountains, cursed Dwarven ruins on Mount Mourn, and bandits threatening travellers on the roads through the Wailing Hills.
However, this inverse structure is not without its issues. The combination of a major adventuring site—in this case, that of the Temple of Halcyon—and mini-locations and adventures in Ragged Hollow and the surrounding hexes is tried and tested format. One that works very well. Normally, the players and their characters will gather up supplies and rumours and go and adventure at the scenario’s primary adventuring site where the cause of the problem is located. Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow does not do that. Instead, it expects the Player Characters to ignore the glaringly gold problem in the village in favour of undertaking minor tasks in the village such as finding out why the village well stinks or clearing a basement of vermin, then visit a ghost house on a nearby island, and so on. This begins to build a narrative chain of rumours and connections that ideally should push the Player Characters to investigate and explore further, but actually getting the Player Characters onto that narrative chain can be difficult. This is because of the initial focus in the scenario upon the Temple of Halcyon and the understandable concerns of the villagers upon the state of the temple and for well-being of those inside. Given those concerns, getting the villagers to talk about much else and start handing out rumours is counterintuitive.
In addition, the adventure includes a built-in countdown. The Player Characters will not be aware of it initially, and it takes more than a few days before it becomes obvious, but like the inverse structure of the scenario’s narrative, it is both clever and slightly problematic. It is slightly problematic because it emphasises the focus upon the gold dome when the scenario actually wants the Player Characters to be away adventuring, but clever because the negative effects of the countdown are not immediate, thus giving time for the Player Characters to investigate away from the village, and the countdown does actually reveal a way through the dome—if the Player Characters can get to it. In fact, much of the point of their exploration and excursions away from Ragged Hollow is about finding a way of getting to it, although the Player Characters will not know it.
These problems aside, there is a great deal to like about Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow. There is plenty for the Player Characters to explore and do—more so in the surrounds than in the village itself. Where the exploration of the Temple of Halcyon descends—literally as the Player Characters climb down from the bell tower—into horror and weirdness, the Player Characters will find more whimsey than horror, at least at first. There are some quite delightful encounters to be had on their travels. These include a frail old granny who everyone claims to be a witch, but will prove to be helpful and friendly and a goblin market where the vendors are keen to sell some fun things like fuzzy, woollen socks that grant resistance to cold and apples that grant simple healing, the ability to breath green fire, or cause the imbiber to fall asleep. The situations do get darker and darker, such as the encounter with the reclusive chapter who has definitely been alone in the wilderness or the bandit caves where narcotic cigars are being manufactured. Every encounter is detailed and interesting, but none of them too overwhelming in terms of size. Of the fourteen or so locations outside of Ragged Hollow, none of them would take more than a single session to play through. Travel—described in terms of time it takes to move between locations rather than distance—as well as the locations themselves can be leavened with random encounters and a gang of would be teenage ne’er do wells included to generally harass the Player Characters and be a nuisance.
In comparison though, the Temple of Halcyon will probably take several sessions to play through. The simple structure of the building—at least on the upper floors—of single corridors with doors on both sides means that it is fairly linear. What makes the location really stand out are the weirdness and the horror to be found in its halls and rooms. Walls bulge and split to spill an Experience Point-sucking Wight Leech, the faces of friends and family appear on the walls wailing and screaming in pain, murals depict wolves devouring children, and nobody can work out how long they have been trapped inside. Here the nightmares which beset the village begin to take tangible form, physically tormenting both those already trapped inside and the intruding Player Characters.
Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is very well supported and laid out. The card cover includes not just maps of the Temple of Halcyon, but also Ragged Hollow and the surrounding area. It also has tables of reasons to visit the village and random encounters in the temple. Besides the background and the various locations described in the book, there are hooks to get the Player Characters involved—it is suggested that at least one Player Character be native returning after his Halloo, a timeline and a table to track the status of the various villagers in the temple, explanations for what might happen at the end of the adventure, and appendices of new magical items and possible retainers or replacement Player Characters. There are a lot of magical items in Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow, but for the most part, they are small and quite narrow in their application like the Scribe’s Ring which lets the wearer forge any document he has seen or the Purse of Tranquillity, which shouts, “Help!” if anyone tries to steal it or cut it open.
Physically, Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is very well presented. The writing is succinct and laid out in an easy to grasp style, whilst the artwork is entertaining throughout. If there is anything disappointing it is that the cartography of the various buildings and caves are clean, tidy, but dull. None will hinder the Game Master running Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow, but none really help their locations come to life either.
Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is self-contained. This means that it is easy for the Game Master to drop into her own campaign world or an existing one she is already using. Similarly, although Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is written for use with Old School Essentials, the scenario is easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s preference.
Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is designed as a scenario suitable for new players and with its combination of low key, relatively small encounters, whimsy that ebbs away to horror, it never threatens to overwhelm those new players or their characters. This does not mean that veteran players will not enjoy its smaller scale or its combination of whimsy and horror, though they will be doubtless be quicker to pick up on the scenario’s narrative trail and appreciate its change in structure from going out to deal with an external threat to going out to find out how to deal with an internal threat. Overall, Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow is an excellent example of the classic ‘village in peril’ scenario, with a rich mix of roleplaying, exploration, and combat that combines whimsical fantasy with fear and nightmare.
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