**Type:** Natural Feature **Region:** Deadwood Borderlands **Current State:** Untamed, mysterious --- ## Overview The **Hollow Hills** are a series of low, grassy domes scattered across the Deadwood’s borderlands. To travelers and locals, they appear as simple mounds of earth riddled with shallow caves. Their true nature is unknown, and the people of nearby villages know them only as curious, cave-filled hills. --- ## Appearance - **Hills:** Round, grassy mounds rising gently from the plains. Their slopes are smooth and green even in winter. - **Caves:** Dark openings lead into winding tunnels. To most, they appear as natural caverns, damp and mossy. - **Echoes:** Sounds carry strangely in the caves, as if whispers or laughter linger deep inside. --- ## Local Beliefs - **Empty Caves:** Locals view the Hollow Hills as strange but unthreatening, often sheltering in the caves during storms. - **Strange Echoes:** People say noises carry oddly in the caves, but dismiss it as tricks of stone. - **Never Plowed:** Farmers avoid breaking soil atop the hills, claiming crops won’t grow there. - **Old Tales:** Some whisper that the hills were once ancient burial sites, though no graves have ever been found. --- ## Connections to Lore - **Duskwatch Myths:** Old Duskwatch records call the hills “green guardians,” though the meaning has been lost. - **Deadwood Resistance:** The corruption of the Deadwood does not spread into the Hollow Hills; some believe they are natural wards. --- ## Adventure Hooks - **The Hidden Refuge:** Wounded adventurers fleeing the Deadwood stumble into the Hollow Hills, finding shelter in their caverns. - **The Vanishing:** Villagers complain that their children vanish near the hills at night, though they always return by morning, shaken and silent. - **The Echoed Word:** A character hears their own voice repeated from deep within the hills, drawing them to investigate. --- ## Summary The Hollow Hills seem like ordinary grassy mounds to most who pass by—quiet landmarks with echoing caves and stubborn soil. To the people of the borderlands, they are a mystery best left alone: curious, harmless, and strangely enduring against the creeping Deadwood.