Friday Fantasy: Hidden Hand of Horla

In ages past there stood on the edge of the kingdom the dwelling of a great wizard. He was known as the Hand Mage, for the tower in which he experimented and hoarded his magics and his treasures was purportedly shaped like an open hand. After standing at the edge of the kingdom for many years, the Hand Mage’s Tower disappeared without reason and without a trace. Of course, the Hand Mage being a wizard meant that there were rumours that he had offended the gods and cast into hell or that the pact he had made with a demon for his powers had run its course and he was paying his due, likely having also been cast into hell. It has been so long since the disappearance of the Hand Mage’s Tower that it has passed into legend, a mere footnote in the history of the kingdom and some sage’s dusty notes. Now though, the Hand Mage’s Tower has reappeared exactly where it once stood. Where has it been? Is the Hand Mage still inside? If not, what has happened to him, let alone the tower itself? And can his secrets and treasures be found within its walls?

This is the set-up for Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla, a short, but detailed scenario for use with Old School Essentials, Necrotic Gnome’s interpretation and redesign of the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steven M. Marsh. It is published by Appendix N Entertainment and is part of the publisher’s ‘Gateway to Adventure’ series of supplements. What this means is that adheres to an ‘Old School’ ethos in terms of its design. So, there will be encounters and threats in the adventure that will be too challenging to defeat or overcome for the Player Characters of the Level that it was written for, although there is nothing to prevent players using lateral thought or cunning; traps and puzzles rely on the players solving them rather than a mere roll of the dice; player creativity is encouraged; and adventures are designed as toolkits with scope for the game Master to develop details during play. Certainly, this applies to Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla, as there is one threat which will be difficult for the Player Characters to defeat.

Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla is designed for Player Characters of First to Third Level, and can be easily slotted into a campaign and played through in a session or two. It uses Dyson Logos’ ‘The Stone Sinister’ as the map of the Hand Mage’s Tower and includes new monsters and new spells. What brings the Player Characters to the Hand Mage’s Tower is essentially treasure, which feels rather drab. The adventure includes a table of rumours, but most of them are not very interesting either. What is interesting is that the Player Characters are not the only ones with an interest in the tower. A tribe of Chaotic Goat Folk, led by the shaman, Sha’aazra’aak, are set on looting the tower for its magical treasures and will already have been in the tower for a number of days before the Player Characters and barricaded the most obvious entrance. The scenario includes a table of options for what the Goat Folk have done and what they are up to. This is to make the scenario replayable, but it is debatable as to how replayable the scenario actually is, given the fact that the whole scenario consists of a tower with thirteen locations and four options in terms of Goat Folk actions. Plus, the tower is shaped like a hand, so it is highly memorable and if the Game Master really has to give a good reason why the characters would want to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, let alone the players play through it again.

In fact, there is a reason why the Player Characters might want to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, but it requires a magical item which enables control of the tower and which the scenario only mentions, but does not detail, and finding that magical item lies very much outside the scope of the adventure. Of course, in the event that the Player Characters obtain this item, by the time they return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, it will have changed as the Goat Folk will no longer there and the Player Characters will have looted all of its valuables previously. Now perhaps a table of motivations and hooks beyond simply looking for treasure could have supported the scenario actually being replayable, but again, as written, highly debatable.

Once the Game Master has decided upon what the Goat Folk are doing, the Hand Mage’s Tower is nicely detailed with particular attention paid to the Hand Mage’s working areas. Careful investigation of these will reveal some of what happened to the Hand Mage before he disappeared and thorough searches will uncover plenty of treasure to take away if the Player Characters came equipped for haulage! In fact, the Hand Mage’s Tower is a treasure in its own right. Claiming it though means facing the true danger that lies hidden in the tower and then the Game Master developing the means to take control outside of the adventure itself. This danger lies behind the scenario’s big puzzle—depicted very nicely in the scenario’s on handout—and is insidiously nasty. This is the Horla, based on the short story ‘Le Horla’, published in 1887 by the French author, Guy de Maupassant. An invisible creature, it will attempt to possess a Player Character and then proceed, in the long term, to betray and kill the rest of the party. This then, is the threat that the Player Characters are unlikely to be able to overcome at their Level, merely be lucky enough to make a successful Saving Throw to avoid being possessed. That said, destroying the Horla may be a good reason for the Player Characters to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower. Of course, handling the possession and roleplaying the betrayal requires careful play upon the part of both Game Master and players.

In addition to the scenario, Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla includes three appendices. In turn, these detail the various monsters in the adventure, such as Animated Books and Winged Vipers as well as the Goat Folk and the Horla; a selection of spells with a hand-theme, like Mage Hand, Forceful Hand, and Crushing Hand, with a guide to spells beyond Sixth Level (and thus outside the scope of Old School Essentials); and a list of Inspirational Media. The latter does include ‘Le Horla’ alongside Twin Peaks and Diary of a Madman.

Physically, Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla is very nicely presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork is good as well. Naturally, the cartography is excellent. The adventure does need an edit in places.

Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla is a toolkit in that it will need working into a campaign given that it has consequences beyond the limits of the Hand Mage’s Tower and it really does need a hook or three to get the Player Characters involved beyond mere treasure hunting. Further, its claims of replayability are dubious at best as written and so again, will require some development upon the part of the Game Master. Module T1 – Hidden Hand of Horla is a decent mini-scenario, an easy to run introductory adventure, though one which does have a sting in its tale that needs careful handling.