This hamlet stands on the east side of the Coast Way a half-days ride south of Daggerford15 and about as long a ride from Liams Hold. The community is named for a now-dead half-elven ranger of great beauty. Gillian Cantilar dwelt here in a long-vanished house atop a wooded knoll overlooking the road. Today, Gillians Hill is a grass-girt mount topped by a covered fire cairn used as a signal beacon to warn Dag-gerford of approaching enemy armiesfrom Dragonspear Castle or the Serpent Hills, presumably.
Typical of a hundred or more small farming settlements in the Sword Coast region, Gillians Hill wouldnt even be mentioned in this guide except for a surprisingly good shop there and a dungeon that has both lured many adventurers hitherand slain many. The dungeon seems to be a truly ancient human tombas old as Netheril, or olderwhere someone of magical power and political might was laid to rest. Just who was entombed here isnt clear. The tomb was pillaged long agofrom the Underdark beneath it! The location now serves as a spell-guarded entry to the Realms Below.
Unfortunately, those ancient and mighty binding spells originally set to stabilize and guard the tomb make it an ideal lair for creatures of the Underdark. About 20 winters ago, a band of illithids used it as a base from
which they stealthily stalked and raided passing caravan merchants, controlling the minds of unfortunate victims to make them lure many others to a mindless doom.
A brave band of adventurers defeated the mind flayers, but warned that the danger could well recur. It seems that an even greater evil has moved in: A Harper note was found recently on the slopes of the hill that said only: BewarePhaerimm!
Spread the warning! The writer of the note presumably perished beneath the hill, as no further news has come to light as to its authorship
or its subject.
From the surface, the tomb in the hill can only be entered by wandering about until one finds the precise loca-tion of one of several invisible por-talssnatch gates that whisk any person or object entering them into the heart of the hill. Egress is by the same method, although the exit spots inside the tomb are apparently differ-ent sites than the differ-entry or arrival locales, and hard to find.
Attempts to tunnel into the hill uncover stone walls that emit bolts of lightning16 when exposed to air
bolts that continue to lash out until earth is thrown onto them, and theyre covered again! This magical lightning can easily stab across the trade road, imperiling all passing traf-fic. Several mages of power have tried and failed to remove the spells that cause this deadly effect.
15The location of Gillians Hill is shown on the map in the section on the Way Inn, later in this chapter.
16These effects are like two bolts of chain lightning, each causing 12d6 points of damage per round, when one translates Elminsters description into AD&D® game terms. He added the dry admonition, Leave this alone, if ye have any sensebut (sigh), ye wont, will ye?
Places of Interest
Torleth Mindulspeer is a tall,in Gillians Hill
cadaverously thin man of dry wit andShops
Torleths Treasures
Oddities, Curios, Antiques, and Junk
a gloomy manner. He delights in buy-ing old thbuy-ings, garbage out of ruins or abandoned buildings, and oddities dug up or brought back from the far corners of the Realms. Then he sells them to passersby.
This shop is a large, ramshackle old Want a dancers mask from the barn that has been extended in ran- vanished realm of Valashar (now part dom directions by diverse hands over of Tethyr)? A mirror that once hung many years so that its floor and roof in a Calishite harembefore some-change level often and alarmingly, one put a magical painting of a slith-and a forest of rough tree trunks ering snake on it that circles the glass studded with pegs that hold mer- by itself, moving constantly? Some old chandise stand here, there, and rope, stained here and there with the everywhere holding the roof up. Cus- blood of adventurers? Some dusty tomers can often be found wandering wine bottles from a shipwreck, terri-in bewilderment terri-in the dimly lit bly old but contents unknown? A aisles, searching for the way out. book in a language nobody seems
able to read? A stuffed wyvern head with one tooth missing? Some old court clothes from Calimport? Tor-leth will sell them to youfor what-ever low price you can both agree to shake hands on. Its a place some adventurers refuse to pass without striding in for just a quick look arounda look that can last all morning, of course.
On a recent visit, I found a scabbard that was once worn in Evermeetnow minus its gems and magic, of course, but still a splendid trophy. Thieves, bards, and actors get many of their costumes and props here, Torleth told meand I believe him.Theres a tale told in Gillians Hill
among the stolid farmers, who lack an inn or tavern and gather of evenings when the weathers good in each others orchards to smoke and share the contents of a keg rolled out of one of their cellars or bought from a caravanof someone who found the crown of a barony in the Vilhon Reach lands in Torleths and bought it for 33 pieces of gold! Theres another about an artists sketchbook that con-tained a powerful spell written in code and scattered in the illustrations throughout the pages that a sharp-eyed wizard had for 11 gp. A third tale tells of a magical ring of resistance sold by Torleth for 4,000 gp that turned out to have several other pow-ers, such as the ability to emit an invisible sword blade that could cut magical barriers and the means to let the wearer jump.
Such rings are called Harvyn’s rings according to Elminster, after the mage who devised them. There are
as far as Harvyns writings can be trustedonly six in existence, and their powers are considerable.17
Torleth also sells tents from armies that no longer exist, polearms
gleaned from battlefields up and down the Coast, helms that fit giants and helms only a sprite could don, ship steering oars that are 50 feet long, teeth from dragons that arent much shorter, stone lions and weirder beasts from half a hundred demolished mansions, fading coats-of-arms (on shields, wall bosses, and surcoats) of forgotten noble families, coracles, and more.
17Details of this magical item, furnished by Elminster, appear in Appendix III of this guidebook.
Julkoun
This village, once known as Shining, is upstream, or northeast, of the Laughing Hollow. It stands on the banks of the River Shining, or Delim-biyr. As it is located roughly halfway between the two, it looks to Dagger-ford and Secomber for supplies.
However, it is home to farmers of independent mind.
Julkoun, for whom the village is now named, gave the hamlet of Shining new importance some 80 winters ago when he built a large stone mill and a shrine to Chauntea.
Julkoun is long dead, but his grist-mill is, still run by his descendants and has been joined by a clothyard mill that produces whole cloth for sale in Waterdeep or Amn.
This pastoral village of about 40 homes holds busy farmfolk, pleasant gardens, low stone-and-stump walls and hedgerows, and many strong manure smells. Its grassy streets are often full of grazing goats, sheep, and cattle. Julkoun is notable for an inn of surprising excellence and for some interesting local legends.