Tannic

From Amanda P. comes Tannic, a point and crawl forest adventure designed for use with Cairn and Old-School Essentials. A love letter to pine barrens, youthful adventures and campfires, it is designed as a one shot for level 1-3 players. 

Since days of old, the village of Tannic has celebrated the summer equinox with an elaborate festival… During this fortnight of festivities, young villagers prove their courage by camping deep in the forest. 4 days ago, three village youth embarked on their coming of age ritual during the midsummer festival. 3 days ago, they failed to return. Can you brave the haunted forest and bring them home to safety?

With a description like that, there was no way Tannic wasn’t immediately making its way into my cart. And wow, am I ever glad it did! This is one of those adventures that makes you want to run it immediately: you already have potential players (and maybe even PCs) in mind. Coming in at 28 pages (physical edition), this adventure is structured in an easy to follow manner which first offers an overview of what is going on, before giving a more in-depth explanation of the moving parts behind the scenes for the person leading the session to keep in mind.

The overland map is hex-based and includes a half-dozen named locations with specific information for each. If you’re checking out the village of Tannic, for example, you’ll be told it is famed for its Midsummer Festival, that its local industries are, among other things, woodworking and tanning, and that one of its main landmarks is a large iron sculpture in the town square. Checking out the festival grounds? There’s an encounter table for various situations the party might come across. I know me, and I know my groups, and the probability of this becoming a two shot because everyone wants to spend time checking out the festival is incredibly high.

On the whole, each named location has at least one element to grab the party’s interest, offer an opportunity to interact, and reveal more about the story. Do they need to visit every location? No, and it’s technically possible to go from the village straight to the final location if you really want to, but it is much more fun to meander around the woods! Nothing bad ever happened to people wandering in the woods! Ignore the fact that you’re in there because the last people didn’t come out! Note: there is a roll table of encounters for whenever you don’t land on a named location.

Seriously though, the locations are all quite compelling and there’s some enticing NPCs hanging out throughout the adventure that you’d want to meet. There’s also fun details like letting you know what happens if one of the PCs drinks tea-coloured water from abandoned waterskins. Tannic encourages PCs to engage with the space, and rewards them for doing so – it’s probably what I appreciate most about the adventure.

The final location enters into dungeon delve territory, and includes some of my favourite things: undead, consequences of earlier choices, an ossuary (and complaint table that made me laugh) and a final confrontation that has the potential to be resolved without violence. It’s fun, snappy, and hits some serious beats without ever feeling too heavy. 

This is an adventure that after reading it over once I felt ready to run, and when I don’t have to get bogged down in prep I am immediately itching to grab a party and go. The illustrations in Tannic are also quite pretty, and lend to the aesthetic of being deep within the forest. There’s some beautiful flowers throughout the adventure and two very helpful maps! 

You can find Tannic as a pay-what-you-want adventure on Itch [here]. I picked up my physical copy (PDF included) from Ratti Incantati for $16 CAD [here] and you can pick it up as a print and PDF bundle from Exalted Funeral Press [here]. If you’re looking for an easy to jump into forest adventure to either slot into your current campaign or jump into independently for a few hours of fun, I recommend giving Tannic a look! Just… try not to get lost in the forest, okay?

I hope you enjoy your time with Tannic. Stay cozy!

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