Written by Annie Shi
The Daggerheart quickstart adventure, The Sablewood Messengers, presents the time-tested RPG premise: escort a mysterious package through dangerous lands. It’s a great introduction to the game’s mechanics, and the setting of Sablewood. Players traverse a dangerous forest road, a sudden ambush, and push deeper into the shadowed paths of the Sablewood.
The Sablewood is described as an ancient, dense forest where the canopy is so thick that travelers might struggle to tell whether it’s day or night. The constant dimness, along with its strange ecosystems and wildlife, gives the adventure a very distinct identity.
Because of that, all the maps here use the 🌘 Night variants to match that tone. That said, each map also comes with several versions—so if you’d rather run certain scenes in daylight or change the mood, you’ve got plenty of options.
⚠️ Halt, traveler! If you’re planning to play through the Quickstart as a player, this is probably a good place to stop. Send this to your GM instead, and come back once you’ve made it through the forest!
1. Forest Road Ambush — Roadside Ambush (Ambushed)
A narrow forest pass is a classic place for an ambush. The path in this Roadside Ambush map is flanked by rocky outcrops on each side to make a natural chokepoint. A small campsite sits just out of sight nearby—a perfect place for the thistlefolk bandits to wait and watch the road.
In the adventure, a merchant has already been killed and left as bait, where a strixwolf feeds off their remains. The bloodied variant of this map is perfect for this scene, but other versions of the map also give you room to adjust the encounter depending on how you want to run it.
2. Hush — Yggdrasil Village (Fireflies)
Hush is described as a quiet village nestled deep within the Sablewood, known for its hospitality and taking in of travelers. This Yggdrasil Village map is a lovely depiction of that atmosphere, making a natural fit for the party’s arrival after their misadventures on the road.
On arrival, the party is pointed towards Clover’s Tavern and the Whitefire Arcanist, but they’re likely to meet a few locals along the way. The layout of this map makes it easy to run a series of lively social encounters as the party moves through the village, asking around and finding their way to their questgiver.
3. Hush / Clover’s Tavern — Fairy Treetop Village (Night)
Clover’s Tavern is built into one of the great trees of Hush and serves as a popular gathering place in the village. This Fairy Treetop Village map fits the view wonderfully, pushing an interconnected network of platforms and bridges into the canopy.
It’s a great space for the party’s first stretch of downtime at Hush, as they’re directed here on arrival and can start meeting the locals—such as figures like Lausa or Halython—who can point them in the right direction.
This map also comes with an animated illustrated scene, looking out from one of the platforms across the structures stretched out across the canopy.
4. Clover’s Tavern Interior — Fey Tavern (Night)
Inside, Clover’s Tavern opens into a series of lively communal spaces, full of unfamiliar customs—such as shoes left on a clothesline to be filled with little trinkets. This is where the party plays a little game of telephone, passing from one NPC to the next to narrow down where the Whitefire Arcanist might be found.
This Fey Tavern map provides a lovely backdrop for this stretch of socializing, where local talk might reveal information like preparations for the Firstmoss Festival at the Sunless Farms.
5. Well-Worn Pathways — Forest Pass
The paths through Sablewood run deep, pressed into the forest floor by years of travel. This Forest Pass depicts a stretch of road winding between dense trees and raised ground, with occasional breaks where the terrain becomes hazardous.
This is a great in-between space when moving between one location and the next, such as on the way out towards the Open Vale, back from the Sunless Farms, or anywhere the journey itself needs a moment to surface.
6. Open Vale / Ward Renewal — Mysterious Druid Grove (Fog)
The Open Vale is described as a perfect clearing where trees refuse to grow, its edges marked by standing stones and its air often thick with mist. This Mysterious Druid Grove captures the scene beautifully, with a clear ring of stones and a glowing structure at its center for mysterious rituals.
This map provides an eerie, mysterious backdrop for the Ward Renewal encounter, where the party is tasked with holding the line against encroaching threats while the Whitefire Arcanist completes their spell.
This map also comes with an animated scene illustration of the glowing structure rising from the center of the henge, surrounded by drifting mist and overgrown ruins.
7. Sunless Farms — Village Farmhouse (Fireflies)
The Sunless Farms, Hush’s primary source of food, grows fruits and grain without direct sunlight—sustained instead through a long-adapted relationship with the Sablewood’s moss.
This Village Farmhouse map fits this space wonderfully, with small fenced plots and simple structures that ground the location in everyday life, while the drifting fireflies echo the forest’s constant twilight. The party might pass through on their way to the Open Vale, or drop by in time to find the Firstmoss Festival in full swing.
8. Underroot — Beetle Tribe Canyon (Fill Light Night)
The Underroot is where the forest continues below the surface, and this Beetle Tribe Canyon map is a great representation of that environment. The cavern is threaded with roots and soft bioluminescent light, sustaining the same strange ecosystem from aboveground.
Carved sleeping areas and communal sections built into the rock give this cave a sense of coziness, making it useful as a hub village or resting place if your party chooses to explore further than the main path.
9. Deep Underroot — Yggdrasil Roots
Deeper in the Underroot, this Yggdrasil Roots map presents a more dramatic and mysterious environment. Massive roots twist through the cavern, encircling a central well marked with glowing runes, while a massive serpentine creature coils through the area.
This is a great fit for a more significant moment during the party’s journey, whether the massive serpent in the picture is a dangerous creature of the Sablewood or even something tied to the Forgotten Gods of the forest.
With other variants that remove and alter the more fantastical elements, this map can also be adjusted to serve as a simpler travel encounter, rather than a major confrontation.
10. Lucent River — Depths of the Festerwood (Elder Blue River)
The Lucent River cuts a luminous ribbon through the Sablewood, serving as the region’s primary source of fresh water and one of its most distinctive landmarks. Its waters glow a soft blue at night, helping travelers navigate even beneath the forest’s dense canopy.
It’s hard to find a better visual match for that than the Elder Blue River variant of this Depths of the Festerwood map. The glowing blue current makes a perfect guide for your party as they navigate the Sablewood’s strange ecosystem—but be careful for the eeligators!
11. High Falls — Beetle Tribe Canyon (Waterfall)
In the mountains of the Sablewood, the Lucent River transforms from a winding stream into the High Falls—an immense waterfall that crashes down into a cavern system hidden behind the rushing water.
This waterfall variant of the Beetle Tribe Canyon map is a perfect fit for the plunging water and mysterious cavern, as well as the abandoned throne hidden behind the cascade.
12. The Refuge — Great Wall (City Gate Night)
The Refuge stands outside of—and in sharp contrast to—the Sablewood; a bastion of structure and control at the edge of a forest that refuses to be tamed. Rather than living with the woods, the people of the Refuge clear land through controlled burnings—even at the detriment of innocents.
This Great Wall map captures the tension of the towering gate, fortified walls, and harsh fire-glow perfectly. Whether your party is stopping here before their adventure or arriving after everything they’ve faced in the woods, the Refuge is sure to be a striking contrast to the wilds—a “safe” place shaped by its own kind of violence.
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