We run this adventure as a duet, I was a player. Great story! I tried to be diplomatic and it was hard for me to some decisions. I was totally involved into the story. We had great 8 hours of play!

I ran this as a duet, and while we both thoroughly enjoyed it, I found that as the DM it took a little bit of prep to set up the story and build on the NPC's motivations.

I still highly recommend it, the atmosphere and story were very engaging, and the final encounter was dramatic and memorable, it just took a bit of extra effort on my part to get to the fun stuff.

This was an odd adventure where the main supporting NPC, for me, was so unappealing and self-important though under-powered, that my lawful evil PC accepted the BBEG's bribe and slew her, then accepted a bribe of a much lesser value as it was over-powered.

There was less continuity in the storyline, requiring a much more active DM approach.

No complaints, but merely insight that the adventure would most likely require some adaptation on your part for comfortable game flow.

Historically I've been a DM who runs a lot of games in contained interior (dungeons, haunted houses, etc) environments. I was never much of a fan of outdoor settings until the release of Castles Forlorn for Ravenloft in 2nd Edition. Castles Forlorn introduced a struggle between druids and the undead. The forces of nature versus the unnatural forces of undeath made for a great fantasy/horror story that captured the classic flavour of Dungeons & Dragons while being set against a new backdrop. This started my appreciation for druidic stories in D&D.

Today I'm looking at In The Heart Of The Forest, the latest adventure from Beth Ball.

One of the first things I'd like to call out here is the fact that Beth Ball has previously co-authored a series of adventures intended for 1 player and 1 DM. With In The Heart Of The Forest the author has applied the new Sidekick mechanic to continue to accommodate that one-on-one style of play.

Onto the adventure itself. The adventure is a tight 3 chapters featuring an ancient pact and as I was alluding to (although it might have seemed like rambling) at the start of this post a conflict between the forces of nature and undeath. I really liked the theme and the exposition was handled really well through a combination of exploration and investigation book-ended by a simple hostile encounter at the very beginning and a more complex encounter at the end. The adventure can easily be run in one sitting but is populated with enough NPCs that it could be dropped into an existing campaign and teased well ahead of play. I also personally liked the fact that the adventure has it's own internal history and mythology that is not linked to any particular outside world, this means the adventure can easily be dropped into any campaign setting with a forest in it. With the recent rise in popularity of The Old Margreve setting I could easily see this fitting in there or possibly Forfar or Sithicus if you're a Ravenloft fan like me.

In The Heart of the Woods is a fantastic adventure, that can be perfectly injected into a homebrew world or a published module. There are countless ways for the players to make dynamic choices and actually change the course of the adventure – as opposed to just the appearance of choice. In the Blackwoods Forest diplomacy is as valued a skill as expertise with a blade and players of all ilk will find this adventure immensely fun.

Beautiful story. An excellent adventure with many different outcomes based on player actions. I especially like the inclusion of wood woads and the focus on druidic magic.

This is a quirky, thoughtful adventure, exploring a magical forest and investigating missing villagers threatened by something dark at the forest's heart, presented in a thoroughly professional manner with beautiful watercolour page features that suit the mystical and sombre tone and nature of the adventure perfectly.

You don't often see Wood Woads, so it's awesome to discover in the synopsis that there are eleven in play!

The prologue contains a run down of the dramatis personae, including the villagers, locations and rumours for the village of Redvale, presented in a paired-back and easy to reference manner. Along with the hooks, there are many ways for this to fit into your game, as well as enough seeds and background information for you to either expand on the village or to make it easy to plough on into the forest of adventure

The first box text of chapter one sets the tone for the adventure, both in the eerie silence and the evoking quality of the writing throughout. It sets the scene and vibe so vividly in a so few lines. This is hardly surprising for a fantasy author, but I certainly want to read more of Beth's literature from these tantalising snippets.

The first encounter could be difficult for the party, but have no fear as extensive "DM Encounter Tactics Notes" are provided to help balance or save the party from dying so soon. This, along with the Sidekicks in the appendix, are features designed to aid one-on-one and smaller groups, allowing for more flexibility of play and less reworking for DMs.

The random encounters with the various denizens, from the majestic to the unsettling and dangerous, along with the curse that effects the character's sight, truly bring the forest to life and add some real flavour to the trek into the woods. They also provide a moral question of whether the party are more shoot first, ask questions later or more respectful of the local fauna. Choices made here have ramifications later, which is a lovely way to give random encounters mode weight.

The second chapter contains a wonderfully atmospheric introduction of an important NPC, and possible ally, in the form a strong willed Druid, Adelle. Her personality, motivations and information are detailed here, and the full statblocks for her and her Grove can be found in the appendix. This allows for the less diplomatic and more kill all the things characters who are the reason we can't have nice things, as well as the possibility of gaining an ally and/ or more favourable terrain to fall back to if the final battle gets too hot. There are also multiple possibilities for how things can and/ or will turn out in the night, adding to the drama, randomnes and/ or options for the DM.

The final chapter chapter brings you to the heart of the forest and the canker that resides within it. We are introduced the the BBEG and discover more about our possible ally and their connection...see some revealing gruesomeness before the final battle. The full character and history of the functionally immortal Dark Phoenix Druid, Eranya, are laid out, as is an offer so magically beneficial to give the party pause for thought and discussion...although some players will do the maths that they could kill the BBEG and take all their goodies.

The fate of the forest and the village still hang in the balance with there being many different ways this encounter/ adventure can be resolved, far more than kill or not. Magic binds the forest, the village and the Sorceress' bloodline. How the party handles things could leave a variety of situations that could lend the benefit of shadows or rhe threat scouring fire in their further adventures.

The appendices contain a beautiful battle map of Eranya's glade, full statblocks for Adelle and Eranya, with unique features of their two separate Circle of the Phoenix Druid class, and the latter's optional devastating Lair Actions. Also included are the statblocks for Adelle's Blackwood Grove with some handy actions and ways to make a woad, I mean load of friends, an Archer NPC, Wood Woad and Minor Phoenix and two unique magic items. Finally, the Archer and Adelle are both detailed in the Sidekick format.

This is by no means the longest supplement, coming in at 17 pages including appendix, but there is a true heart this adventure in the care and quality of the writing and presentation worth more than its $2 price tag. Every story needs something unique and the thought that has gone into this one, to give the player's pause, ramifications to their actions and hard decisions, sets this apart as something special.

In the Heart of the Forest takes the party to Blackwoods Forest in search of the druid Adelle, whose entire Circle has recently gone missing. There they find that the Circle has decided to turn themselves into wood woads to thwart an evil sorceress' plans to gain dominion over the forest and neighboring village. If the party decides to help Adelle, they might be able to stop the sorceress. If not, Adelle will have to join her fellow Circle members in giving up her life to save the area.

This is a really interesting, atmospheric adventure. Parties get to learn rumors, gather information, and explore the surrounding area. There are a ton of things they can encounter in the woods, including benign or neutral creatures like dryads and giant elk, and battling Erayna can involve bartering or persuasion instead of just battle.

However, I often found it difficult to focus on the story. The organization was a little off, and sometimes stat blocks or character descriptions were in the middle of the action. There are a lot of pictures and lore, which also made searching through the adventure diffcult. Finally, while the module does include sidekicks, it doesn't actually explain the sidekick mechanic or tell you where to learn it, which, at least for me, meant that I couldn't use them.

Overall, I think this is a good adventure, but it just didn't quite hit everything for me. A little more organization and a little less copy would have really increased my enjoyment and made it easier to run.