Dread Hollow A FOLKLORIAN HORROR GAMEBOOK by Jonathon Kelly

Par EndGame Gaming

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Pledge Manager ouvert Fin de campagne : 01/09/2025

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Written in the interactive style of the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks series, YOU, the reader, determine the outcome of the story by the choices that you make! Sometimes, however, your very fate may even depend on the roll of the dice themselves!

INTRODUCTION

You can remember your university history lecturer’s words well from that memorable first class. You should, you wrote them down!

“History only ever requires two things from us... That we must learn from it is the first, and that we should respect it is the second. Never be outraged by the past. Those emotions serve no purpose because you cannot change what has happened. We should never forget it, either, for we have a duty to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”

“As your tutor, I ask one final thing of you... Enjoy the next four years. History may highlight the worst elements of society at times, but it also shows the growth of the human race ― our achievements as well as our noble undertakings! I am biased, but for me, you have chosen the very best subject to study and the best location to learn here at Pitt!”

Your time at the University of Pittsburgh was indeed magical, though you eventually realised that your love of history would best be served as an archaeologist, rather than a lecturer or a historian. Further studies were not a hardship, and besides, who doesn’t like the idea of being Indiana Jones for a living ― not that your life is anywhere near as exciting as his fictional adventures, of course! A typical day for you was spent hunched over old bones in narrow and often wet trenches, but you wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.

Now, as you pack the car for the drive to your biggest dig yet and your first as the lead archaeologist, your mind is awash with thoughts of what will be needed. This is just a reconnaissance visit to Dread Hollow, but it will be your responsibility to source accommodation for your team, liaise with the land owner, and make practical arrangements. You also have funding for a potential six months guaranteed. It is definitely an exciting time! You smile like a little kid as you turn the key and start your journey.

Your 2014 Jeep Wrangler, the Willy’s Wheeler JK model, wasn’t cheap ― even when you bought it second-hand. It certainly wasn’t the best vehicle for highway driving, but off-road, it was more than you have ever needed and was now absolutely essential for your work as an archaeologist. Plus, it looked cool as hell! You remember a friend at school having a Tamiya Wicked Willy remote control car, which was a cartoonish version of the original Jeep your model is a descendant of. At the time, you were extremely jealous he had such a cool toy, but now, you have the real thing!

It’s around a five hour drive to get to Dread Hollow, which is located in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the imposing mountains of Blue Ridge and Old Rag have dominated the skyline in front of you for miles. Eventually, however, your sat nav shows you are just minutes from your destination.

Once a thriving mining community, Dread Hollow is now little more than a ghost town, and there is a strong and very palpable sense of isolation and aloneness here as you drive past its abandoned buildings, many of which have collapsed in on themselves. You decide the best place to start is the Macker Caves, an isolated area that you suspect may have housed the first inhabitants of this harsh and godforsaken place...

Now turn to 1

1
Suddenly, you find yourself unexpectedly enveloped in a violet-tinged light. It is intensely bright, but strangely, not at all painful to look into! It does, however, make seeing where you are going impossible, so you gently apply the brakes to bring your Jeep to a safe stop and activate the hazard lights. The mysterious light seems to pulse around you, and then, just as quickly as it appeared, it is gone.

As you are puzzling over what it was, you realise your vehicle’s engine has stopped. The Jeep’s headlights are also off, as is the stereo. You turn the key, but nothing happens. You turn the key again and your heart sinks at the silence that follows. Could this all be the result of a geomagnetic storm?

Getting out of the Jeep, you are immediately struck by how quiet it is. Although it is still light out, the sun will be setting soon and you don’t like the idea of being stuck out here when it is dark.

Looking at your phone, you discover its usual screen display is missing. All that it says is 1661. It then powers down and won’t turn back on. Have you been hit by an
electromagnetic pulse? You can’t think of what else could have wiped out both your car and phone like this. And why was it displaying 1661?

You quickly assess your options...

Will you:
Open the bonnet and try to fix your car? turn to 30
Or do some exploration to get your bearings? go to 60

It's been said, "Never judge a book by its cover." Well, we at EndGame Gaming believe that a great gamebook cover is everything! That's why, with every single release, we have partnered with high-caliber artists, and this title will be no different! For this book, we have enlisted the phenomenal Andrea Longhi, whose cover art for this book is the campaign banner you see pictured above and the first image shown below.

Here are some more samples of Andrea's work...

Jonathon Kelly has always had an overactive imagination... He was just never that bothered about putting his ideas on paper. But Covid changed that, and, forced to stay home, he wrote his first gamebook inspired by monsters his pal's daughter created and just never stopped writing. This will be his 5th (and a half) book. He had his belly button removed in 2017 and, as a result, feels disconnected from society ―no wonder he loves thinking up weird creatures!

Check out his earlier works at:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/24007/jk-gamebooks

The paperback of this book will be 6" x 9" and will be between 400 - 550 pages in total length, depending on the final number of illustrations.

Rewards include:

a virtual HIGH-FIVE and YOUR NAME in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DIGITAL WALLPAPER featuring exclusive, FULL-COLOR ARTWORK from both the paperback and the limited edition hardcover
BOOKPLATE STICKERs signed by author, Jonathon Kelly, and featuring EXCLUSIVE ARTWORK by artist Andrea Longhi
a PAPERBACK COPY of Dread Hollow
THREE PRINTS featuring ARTWORK by Thomas Massey inspired by Dread Hollow
CUSTOM BUTTONS featuring ARTWORK from the Savage Realms Gamebooks series
CUSTOM COASTERS featuring the dragon logo and a monster from Dread Hollow
a PAIR of CUSTOM DICE (2 dice total, each one a different color) featuring the Savage Realms dragon logo
THREE exclusive FULL-COLOR BOOKMARKS featuring ARTWORK by artist Andrea Longhi
EXCLUSIVE FULL-COLOR prints featuring Andrea Longhi's COVER ART for both the paperback and the limited edition hardcover
a LIMITED-EDITON, NUMBERED HARDBCOVER of Dread Hollow, with a BOOKPLATE STICKER signed by author Jonathon Kelly. This special edition hardback will feature an entirely different cover than the paperback and is exclusive to this Kickstarter. It will NOT be available anywhere else or at any time in the future!

PLEASE NOTE: Some pledges and rewards will be shipped from the EndGame Gaming base of operations in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO in the United States, while others may be drop-shipped. Rewards may also, depending on when they are completed or received from authors, artists, and partner companies, be shipped at different times and not necessarily altogether.

Should you decide not to partner with us in this campaign, paperback copies will eventually be available on Amazon and all of its affiliate worldwide marketplaces.

Thank you in advance for your support!