Dolmens 'Neath the Boughs

About the adventure

Dolmenwood is a forest older than the kingdom that claims it. Fairy roads run through it that don't obey any map. Saints lie in shallow graves under the moss and a few of them are still listening. Cat-like grimalkins trade in favors you'll regret accepting, the Drune keep the old rites burning in stone circles, and somewhere beneath it evils wait for a time to ascend. You are not heroes. You're a crew of scavengers, hedge-wizards, disgraced pilgrims, and runaways with a lantern, a bad map, and a reason to be out past dark. Here's what the table will look like. You pick a direction. You find a ruin, a shrine, or a village with a problem. Then you decide whether what's buried there is worth what it'll cost to dig up. Most encounters are survivable if you talk, bribe, or run. Very few are survivable if you kick the door in and roll initiative. The woods don't scale to your level. Tone is folk horror with a sense of humor. Think The Wicker Man by way of a Chaucer pilgrimage, where the fairy who wants to eat you is also extremely polit about it. Fear the woods, then laugh at how your fighter got out of it by trading away her name. I run open exploration with no plot you're required to follow. I'll tell you what you see and hear, I'll answer questions directly, and I won't fudge dice. Player skill and good questions matter most. Character death is possible; funerals are quick and new character join fast. Between delves you'll spend downtime carousing, researching, and dealing with whatever you poked at last session. Good fit for: players who like mystery over combat, want a setting with genuine strangeness instead of standard fantasy furniture, and enjoy the kind of session where the smartest move is to leave the treasure alone. Great for OSR veterans and equally welcoming to 5e players who want to try something older and stranger. New players are absolutely welcome. Character creation takes ten minutes, and I'll walk you through it. Not a good fit for: anyone looking for balanced encounters, a strong pre-written story, or a guarantee their character will survive. We'll do a Session 0 the first time we meet for character creation and agree on tone. SYSTEM: Dolmenwood/OSE; PLATFORM: Fantasy Grounds or Roll20