Blights ov the Eastern Forest

 Blights ov the Eastern Forest

A Level 1 Campaign by Thorin Thompson

Owl Knight Publishing

A rumor from a drunkard in Reed led you to believe that a dragon hoarded treasures in this far-off corner of the Eastern Forest, but all that you have found is madness.  Alien, gelatinous bears assailed you en route, the horror of a flying moth maiden raided your camp, a dread beast the size of a mammoth crossed your path and forced you to retreat, and now you stand before the lair of the Yss’ak.  The Kubu tribe cower behind you, unwilling to aid you in your hunt for fear of the beast, but desperate in their hope that you will succeed in freeing them from servitude.  Primordial darkness spills ominously from the cave mouth. You step inside, Silvallum grasped tightly in your right hand.  A deep, resonant cackle reverberates through the cavern, and your blade suddenly glows with the light of a summer sunrise.  Chaos is near.  Heavy footfalls advance towards you, accompanied by the foul stench of rot.  You let loose a battle cry, and rush into the gloom with your companions…

What It Is

Blights ov the Eastern Forest is a massive 93-page hex-crawl that continues directly from Sky ov Crimson Flame’s excellent 0 level funnel. It gives your newly leveled survivors an entire region to explore, with dozens of points of interest, dungeons to delve, odd factions, and unique hazards, all threaded together by the spreading blight and the lingering corruption of ritual magic.

Players may branch out from the Village of Reed in any direction, following rumors, odd sightings, or just stubborn curiosity. Thompson leaves the order entirely up to them, and the result is a campaign that feels organic, dangerous, and truly player-driven.

In the broader DCC ecosystem, Blights sits in rare company — a true hex-crawl campaign setting, fully playable from level 1 through 5 (in my case, I am heavy handed with 1d4 exp rewards) with almost zero dead zones. As someone who’s run hundreds of hours of DCC (and is just getting Thracia off the ground), I can say: this is one of the most successful open, hex-crawl designs I’ve seen for the system.

My table completed the campaign in roughly twenty sessions, including a few side quests around the town of Reed and a conclusive return to the keep that I added (I should have been patient and waited, Thompson is almost done writing the sequel, Seekers ov the Other Worlds!). They finished at level 5 and immediately demanded we continue as Lords of Reed — forcing me to invent kingdom-management rules on the spot with the help of my dusty 2E books. That’s the kind of fire this module lights inside players.

At The Table

I led our first session with a victory celebration in Reed after the end of Skies, letting players drink, brag, and poke NPCs for information. Thompson’s rumor table (p. 7) is excellent, and it hooked my group immediately — a half-coherent old drunk swearing there was “a dragon’s hoard” hidden in the northwest woods.

That was all they needed.

Their first, blind foray into the Eastern Forest organically ran them across:

• Old Applehead (p.88):  The PCs attempted to slay the dread beast, then ran for their lives after sacrificing a henchman.

• The Jhumbi Bear Lair (p.21):  The PCs were attacked by Red Jhumbii’s as they forded a river, after defeating the lobbers they followed sticky footprints back to the hive and cleansed it.

• A Coo’ng Campfire Ambush:  There is no safe resting in the Eastern Forest!  The Coo’ng descended upon them and wreaked havok before flying off with the party’s mascot cow (a survivor from Skies)

• The Lair of the Yss’ak:  The PCs encountered the indentured Kubu tribe, used Personality to avoid combat with them, and then barely survived the fierce confrontation with the Yss’ak in darkness.

Those first few hexes set the tone perfectly: dangerous, varied, and drenched in weirdness. They were invested from that moment on. Every session afterward felt like plunging deeper into an ancient, haunted ecosystem that only barely tolerated them.  That first push into the Eastern Forest was so varied and engaging that they were hooked for the long haul for the rest of the campaign setting (and we all know how hard it is to get a group of 35-40 year old gamers together consistently!).  

Play Highlights

Though that first delve (over the first 3-5 sessions) was a huge highlight, I wanted to spotlight a few specific areas that I thought were especially well-crafted by Thompson, and why they landed so strongly with my table.  Each of these areas felt like mini-modules, and stringing them together in sequence kept the players absolutely hooked.  

Hellspring Hollow (p.13)

This four-page dungeon is dripping with danger, dark lore and atmosphere.  My players were terrified to enter, too scared to investigate the Whirlpool of Doom, puzzled by the Rib Cage, and then were absolutely rattled by the Guardians—permanent ability score damage is so brutal, but so effective in signaling real stakes in an encounter.  The entire piece had evocative, moody writing that resonated with my players;  one player wore the golden signet ring of office for the rest of the campaign in remembrance.

Featherhead Swamp (p.45)

This ambitious, fourteen-page section brings us four competing factions, a lotus-induced rat dream sequence, a moat filled with an Undead Horde, and a climactic tower siege.  The whole setup and assault played out cinematically with my players, convincing each tribe to cooperate, orchestrating the battle, then sprinting up the Dead Tree amidst the chaos.  Thompson succeeded in characterizing each faction just enough for players to intuit how to navigate the social encounters, and provides enough interesting challenges to keep them on their toes once they’ve survived the horde.

The Lost Battlefield (p.37)

My personal pick for the best area of the module, The Lost Battlefield opens by throwing the party straight into a brutal elemental fight, setting the stage for the challenges within.  My players cackled as they battled the Worm Knight, then reveled when they claimed his Chaotic blade.  The recurring menace of the Hand of Kylintan (pure Evil Dead energy) was so well done, and the thrill of taking it down was amplified by how much it tormented them on the way down!  The party wizard treasured the Ring of Kylintan, combining its power with that of Atma-Khanjr to become the greatest sorcerer in the Eastern Forest.

Judge Takeaways

1. Reed is intentionally underwritten

Use this to build what your players will actually care about. I wrote the three Elders as alignment archetypes:

• Alban the Recorder (Lawful): rewards lore turn-ins, especially blighted texts.

• Gregor the Judge (Neutral): balances factions, keeps Reed stable.

• Manicade the Banker (Chaotic): rewards gold trades, grows more dangerous each time he profits.

The players gravitated to Manicade immediately, which shaped the entire tone of the campaign to be more mercenary (they collected blighted relics and sold them to Manicade).

2. Give players reasons to return to Reed

A tavern with gambling tables, rival mercenaries, a modest home to call their own — even simple additions make the hub memorable.

3. As the blight recedes, evolve the town

New merchants arriving, blacksmiths gaining better materials, rare trinket dealers — this reinforces the party’s impact on the world.

4. Building the keep is prime player bait

If they clear Skies, they’ve earned a home. Add small-scale construction, diplomacy, or spirit-bargaining challenges. This concept gave purpose to the treasure in my campaign and gave PCs a fun goal to work towards.

5. Encourage burning luck

Thompson gives plenty of luck recovery avenues — use them!  Consider adding Lankhmar’s carousing table to Reed once the village gets back on its feet.

I misinterpreted “Each PC gains 1 Luck Point” and awarded permanent luck too often. My players became very lucky indeed (still fun, though)!

6. Exercise your level scaling muscle, or let the PCs dominate

With a campaign this large, players will inevitably out-level some areas. Since you can’t predict their route, you’ll face the classic Judge question: do you scale encounters up, or let them steamroll weaker zones? I did a bit of both. My table enjoyed the spikes of increased challenge (I juiced the siege on Dead Tree Tower quite a bit), and they also loved flexing their hard-earned power when they later swept through easier areas (like the Garden of Solace, which I left as written). 

Conclusion

Blights ov the Eastern Forest is a very strong hex-crawl adventure, my favorite that I’ve run in DCC so far. It blends gonzo weirdness, grim horror, ancient magic, and meaningful player choice across a remarkably dense hex-crawl. If your players enjoy exploration, emergent storytelling, and weird wilderness pressure, this campaign is a treasure trove.

Would I run it again?

Absolutely.

With new players, I’d tweak Reed even more with random encounters from outside travelers every time the PCs return, lean harder into faction tensions (particularly with the tribes of the Feather-Head Swamp), and seed the exploration of some of the hexes my first group missed. 

The module is deep enough for multiple full campaigns, if you’re lucky enough to have multiple consistent tables.  Blights is a string of highlights that contains all the aspects of DCC that I love, and it never ran out of surprises for me or my table.  Now let’s wait and see what Thorin has in store for Seekers!