5E Adventure Review: Into the Belly of the Beast

Jeff C Stevens’ adventure Into the Belly of the Beast is a wilderness adventure set in a swamp for a party of 5th-8th level adventurers. Having found a map to treasure, all the adventurers must do is get to it.

The journey isn’t easy. A swamp goblin village, a hag’s hut, a troll’s lair, and a cave formed from the bones of a dragon lie between them and their goal. This isn’t the easiest of adventures. Inventive play and the ability to not attack everything in sight will help them survive the challenges!

While the individual areas are inventive and entertaining, the structure of the adventure could do with work. My chief problem is that the adventurers enter the swamp while following a map – but the map shows their destination on an island with a fair bit of water between it and other solid land. It would seem more likely that the adventure is conducted from a boat rather than on foot. The adventure assumes a more guided approach to the encounters than seems likely given the map.

It doesn’t help that the section headers have been placed in the wrong areas. The contents list “Chapter 2” as starting with encounter E; the heading for Chapter 2 occurs just before encounter D.

Me? I’d redraw the map to depict the path (and its forks) leading to the treasure, and then go from there.

It’s worth having a look at this adventure, but you’ll just need to do some work on linking it all together.

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