Здесь есть бред! А больше, боюсь, ничего и нет...

The complete House of Hell walk-through.

NOTE: this "complete" walk-through is incomplete and will probably remain so in the nearest future.

The link to some excerpts for Something Awful.

So, what the hell is House of Hell, you ask? Well, I won't go into details, but it is a book where you are the hero. Your car had broken down so you had to go into this house to get some help. And now you need some help to get out of here, since this is House of Hell, where very scary things tend to happen and you must survive by fighting the evil and avoiding being frightened to death. If that sounds fun enough, go get a copy of the book and if you have some troubles completing it, go back here.

Oh, and sorry for my English. It is far from perfect, I think. However, those "gently caress", "drat", "loving" and similar things are not mistakes. It's what profanity filter on SomethingAwful.com puts instead of "fuck", "damn" and "fucking". I found them somewhat fun and now tend to use them occasionally.

First I must say that here is another solution for House of Hell on the web. This solution looks very nice (not literally though), but it somehow conflicts with the book I have. It's not that you cannot complete the book with that solution, but it will lead you to take 2 unnecessary FEAR points and 2 more FEAR points that are not mentioned in that solution for some reason. Maybe they weren't in the book version the author played, maybe it's just a little mistake. Nevertheless, it's always nice to have a choice, so here is my version of the solution.

I'll start with general hints. As the other guy says, the sacrificial chamber and the kitchen should be avoided at all costs. You may have some fun there, like escaping a bunch of angry cultists just to get into a deathtrap, or getting killed by some harmless keys just lying there waiting for you to pick them up. Try it, but don't overdo it - there's nothing to be gained there. The torture room can indeed be escaped, and it's not only useless, but in fact, if you follow the torturer you will end up on the ground floor, skipping the important cellar stairs location. If you ever find yourself tied up, you have indeed failed because you have missed the important encounter with Shekou. I should also add that the Shaitan room is a loving deathtrap too, because even if you escape, you will proceed immediately to the cellar or to the ground floor but without necessary information. And besides, you get into the wrong part of the cellar this way. Forget about the man in grey - you can meet two men in grey actually (or one man two times?) - the first time, he gives you some useless information and a FEAR point plus a little fight, the second time it's just useless information. Forget about the nurse, too, you can meet her in two places - one place meaning certain death for you, in another one she is just hysteric. Oh, and never drink white wine or eat cheese. Avoid clear liquids in general, too.

The general completion sequence is: meet Shekou in the Erasmus bedroom, find the hint "Mordana in Abaddon", find Mordana (in the Abaddon room, obviously) and get secret location from her, grab some brandy, fall into a trap to meet Shekou the second time, offer him brandy to get the correct password, go to the bats chamber in the cellar, get under the stairs, use your password, grab the Kris knife, get out of the cellar, get into the Mirror room, grab the box, dive through the mirror, get cast-iron key, get to the dining room, and fight the butler. That's it. You'll need FEAR score of at least 9, because you are going to take 8 unavoidable and nondeductible FEAR points. Any LUCK, STAMINA and SKILL will do, although the more the better. Of all these, SKILL is probably the most important and STAMINA is the least important. Having a decent LUCK helps since you can avoid unnecessary harm by using it.

Part 1. The beginning

OK, so to the detailed solution. First off, you need to get to your bedroom safe and sound. That means avoid bad drugs and knock-outs. I'll split it into three steps. Two parts would suffice, actually, but the charts tend to become rather large very quickly.

Getting to the reception hall is the first step. It's quite easy, actually. Rap the door and you all done. There are other paths that you may take, but they are only longer and some choices lead to knock-outs (no instadeaths yet). Here is the complete chart:

Note on how to use these charts. These are actually big previews. I have made them this big because they are mostly readable this way. However, they also link to the full versions. They are SVG (scalable vector graphics), so you need SVG support in your browser (Firefox has one). If you open it in a separate tab/window, you can actually use the square endpoints as links to the next charts. Just click them or do whatever you need to open a link in your browser. You can't go back using the square starting points this way though, since you could have come from several different charts. So use your browser "back" feature to get back. This way you can navigate between these charts in a separate tab/window which sometimes eliminates the need to scroll page back and forth. The previews may look slightly different from the full versions - this is partly because of some glitches in SVG software, partly because of my poor skills with all this stuff. Oh, and if you have trouble understanding which label corresponds to which arrow, that's pretty simple: the label is always on the right side of the appropriate arrow.

Now back to the first step. Obviously enough, the shortest correct sequence is:
1. The beginning.
357. Rap the door.
8. You are in the reception hall.
Looks simple enough, but as you can see from the chart, you can already fail by pretending that you are one of the brethren. All other paths are completely safe. You cannot even harm yourself or get scared yet. You can waste a point of your LUCK, though, and you only get to hear some interesting conversations as a reward.

The second step is pretty much trivial. The objective here is to get to the dining room safely and you can't miss it. Just wait for your host and drink the brandy, or you may wish to play around while waiting. The chart is:

The shortest path:
8. You are in the reception hall.
277. Wait.
394. Drink the brandy
309. You are in the dining room
As you may see, the other paths are somewhat safe too. At least you can't fail, and the worst thing that could happen to you is the loss of 2 points of STAMINA. You can get one FEAR point too, but you have a chance to remove it too (and you should take that chance unless you want another FEAR point). The most interesting of the portraits is probably the portrait of an old woman. At least she tells you something that seems to be important (the grey man). The young lady Margaret is also useful, since she warns you about white wine, which is poisoned. Too bad she doesn't warn about the ruby ring even though it was the very thing that killed her (as you'll know when you play the fan prequel, House of Horror)! Anyway, you may have noticed now that things start getting interesting already. Why the hell one would put high voltage on the door handle? Couldn't they just lock the drat door? Oh, and when you already know what the hell is this place, another question arises: where the hell have they got electricity from in this goddamn place? Oh, never mind.

The last step in the beginning is the dinner. No, it is the Dinner! As it is where the fun starts. The objective here is to stay conscious until you get to the bedroom.

The shortest sequence:
309. You are in the dining room.
395. Drink red wine (it is important!).
115. Have some duck. (Or 196 - have some lamb.)
28. The Earl tells about himself.
224. Have fruit, coffee and brandy (it is important as well!).
5. You are in the Erasmus bedroom. Hooray!
As you may see, things start getting strange already. For some reason, white wine and cheese are drugged. This may prove useful later, but only if you get yourself into the wrong place. Also, your host for some reason orders to use chloroform on you if you politely refuse to dine with him. If you managed to avoid white wine, chloroform and cheese, you are completely fine, though. No FEAR, no harm, nothing. But it was only the beginning.

Part 2. The second floor

OK, it is time to get some mapping done.

Sorry for crappy drawing, but at least it's detailed enough. As with charts, use links, they are wherever entry numbers are (unless there is nothing to draw). The arrows in the hallways represent possible ways to go, which are sometimes rather weird, for example you cannot go into the Asmodeus and Eblis rooms simply because you have come from the "wrong" direction. It's not that they are locked, the book simply says "you follow the hallway past these rooms" giving you no reason why you couldn't try to enter them. So when the arrow prohibits a left turn somewhere, for example, it's not because I'm obsessed with traffic safety - blame the drat book for that.

So, we can start in two places on this map. If we have been drugged, it is the "bad" start, which is in the Mephisto room. I shall not be covering it, but the map above has all the charts for it, so feel free to study them.

If we did everything properly, we are now in the Erasmus room, reference number 5. Now we want to do two things: first, get out of the room alive (which is obvious), and second, get acquainted with the hunchback (which is not). Here's the chart:

Wow, now wasn't that too much for a single room? Anyway, here is the sequence:
5. The Erasmus bedroom.
23. Go to bed, we need some rest.
128. Now break out, we don't want to drink that!
158. Give up, enough hurting ourselves.
373. Ambush him!
399. Attack!
220. Defeat him.
350. Lock him in and get out
Now I am not really sure that we have to fight him, since the book is somewhat vague about it later. It says "have you met this hunchback before?", not "have you talked to him?" when we meet him the second time, but then he recognizes us. I seriously doubt he would recognize us if we just lock him in while he is looking at the empty bed, so I think it is more realistic to have a fight with him so he recognizes us later. You may also wish to ask him some questions. Asking about people yields the man in grey location (which is actually useless), asking about what the gently caress is happening yields nothing, and asking how to escape just gives us a short-cut. But if we take it, we shall miss a very important thing that is necessary to complete the game. So don't do it. Oh, and don't drink that drink because it leads to the bad start which means no talking with the hunchback. Also, I would advise against feigning sleep since it gives us a FEAR point, and we shall not have any chance to deduct it any more. We shall, however, have some chances to restore our STAMINA, so it is better to try breaking the door down. But there is no point in doing it twice, since it is unbreakable anyway.

OK, so now that we are on the landing, there are three possible points where we may start: right outside of the Erasmus room (if we did everything right), somewhere between the storeroom and the next unmarked door (if we tried to escape) and right outside of the Mephisto room (if we did the bad start).

Rooms' descriptions follow. The second floor (from left to right).

The Apollyon room. Nice spectral bride leads you here. She tells you a lot of useless but interesting information. Costs you a FEAR point, though. Directions: turn right as you exit the Erasmus room. You may wish to try to escape the bride to have some good fight.

The Erasmus room. Your bedroom where you get to if you managed to not get drugged earlier (which is important). Don't drink the drugged nightcap. Also, feigning sleep costs you a FEAR point, so while the other guy suggests you to do it, I suggest you don't. Oh, and you have to FIGHT the Hunchback.

The Azazel room. You get here if you start from the Erasmus room (which you should) or if you turn right from the Mephisto room after you have got tied up. You can investigate only one of the three things here so choose careful. The cupboards here cost you some FEAR, so avoid them. The drawers contain a WEAPON, but you can get another very soon and you won't have necessary fights until then. The vials are: shielding potion (yellow), harmless useless liquid (green), deadly poison (red), weakening poison (white).

The Mephisto room. Next to the left of the Azazel room. This is where careless guests end up (including yourself, yes). That's why you find a rope and a shattered glass here. The rope is useless, and so is the whole room.

The Balthus room. Next to the left. Contains a zombie to fight and to key to get out. You can't get out without a fight and some FEAR points. So yes, it is useless also.

The Diabolus room. Behind the unmarked door next to the left of the Balthus room. You may restore some STAMINA here at the expense of some FEAR (more if you stay, less if run away). Not worth it, if you ask me. However, if you just walk past this room to the window you will get the important "Mordana in Abaddon" message.

The storeroom. On the second floor as the landing bends right. After the unmarked "Mordana in Abaddon" door. Some garlic here may be useful if you wish to visit the Shaitan room for some entertainment. Also, a WEAPON here, this one you should really get.

After the storeroom things get really weird. If you go through the back door, you have the Mammon and the Shaitan room waiting for you. If you enter the Shaitan one, there is no going back. But if you enter the Mammon room and leave it, you can follow the landing past the Tuttivillus room (272). On the other hand, if you leave the storeroom immediately or go through the back door and immediately go back, you get the opportunity to enter some unmarked door (233) and then (374) turn to some passage (339) containing Asmodeus and Eblis rooms which are unavailable for some reason if you decide to explore the back door of the storeroom (where the Mammon and Shaitan rooms are) and then go back. I'll try to map it out later. But let's go on with the descriptions.

The unmarked door next to the storeroom (if you go back to the landing) is not even a room. Just some fun FEAR points.

The Eblis room (125). At best, you can get out of here alive loosing or gaining nothing. Or you may end up in the cellar without necessary information to keep yourself alive.

The Asmodeus room (154). The man in gray, your only ally in this goddamn place! It is just the only thing he actually gives you is one FEAR point at best. Or loose some stamina if you are not skillful enough.

The unmarked door near the Belial and the Abaddon rooms. Some free STAMINA points and some FEARFUL fight if you want one.

The Belial room. Get some rest if you wish. One FEAR point, though, which you may deduce right away if you are careful with your choice. That is, if that one point didn't frighten you to death already.

The Abaddon room. Obviously, Mordana is here. However, waking her up costs you some FEAR points since she is dead. More or less points, depending on the chosen way to wake her up. And some FIGHT here.

The first floor (from the front door deeper into the house).

The front door. Some fun FEAR points.

The drawing room. The brandy (necessary to win). The fire sprites guarding the trap (necessary too). The fight with them can be avoided, but is not fatal.

The study. Some death, FEAR and a dangerous item. Oh, and a (useless) secret passage to the cellar too.

The mirror room. You have to get here to get the key to the dining room, but only when you have the ultimate weapon (Kris knife). Otherwise you are dead.

The kitchen. A very fun place. Try to get yourself killed in a fight, or get hurt by some keys, then get captured by the evil guys. You are dead as soon as you enter this place.

The dining room. You cannot get here without the cast-iron key and if you don't have one, you are dead because you have to go to the kitchen. And if you have the key, then you are dead anyway unless you have the ultimate weapon, because this is the place where you fight the final boss.

The cellar. A very nice place. The only place you want to visit here is where the bats attack you, which gives you a FEAR point. You may fight here, though it is not necessary. And of course, the secret door is located under the stairs. You need to know how to locate it, and the password to open it. All other places you can get to are mostly deadly.

The cells. You can get here either by falling into a trap in the Eblis room or by following the secret passage from the study or by falling into a trap in the drawing room (the correct way). You are allowed to talk to exactly one person here. One of them will kill you, though. Now this is the funnest place in the whole book! I mean, that man killing you so his jailers won't know about him getting a weapon. Now just imagine that. "Hey guys, your helpless prisoner here! Are you bringing us our meal? Ah, that's so kind of you. No, no never mind that bleeding corpse here, he has just... you know... just dropped here dead and started bleeding for some reason... or maybe for no reason at all, how could I know? As for me, I'm completely harmless, yes". Isn't that hilarious?

The torture chamber. You get here from the cells. Can be escaped if you know enough words. Not too many, actually. Knowing Drumer, Mordana, Kelnor, Shekou and Abaddon is pretty much enough. Or just choose your way to die here - there are whole two choices!

The bats chamber. You get here by walking past torture chamber. Here are the stairs under which the secret door is located. You can also fight the bats if you wish, but it's not necessary.

The sacrificial chamber. You get here by following the stairs from the Shaitan room or from the mirror room and turning left afterwards. You can get away from here either if you are lucky, or if you have got the pentacle. However, this leads you into a place with two rooms, both of them contain either death or nothing useful, depending on your choices and stats. And there are no ways out. So you are dead no matter what.

The food store. You get here by following the stairs from the Shaitan room or from the mirror room and turning right afterwards. Some food is here. The cheese and the white wine are obviously poisoned. Everything else just restores your STAMINA which doesn't matter much because you are dead if you got there.

The door opposite the food store. A prisoner is here. You may make him your ally, which will only kill him very soon. Again, if you are here you are dead.

The cultists' dressing room. One more place to choose your way to die. Don't remember how to get here, though. I'll fill it later.