Played D&D early 90s style today

I played my first game of D&D around an actual physical table in awhile today and had a blast.
I ran a short 1 session game with three of the guys I used to play with a lot in the early to mid-90s so the whole experience had the added fun of feeling like getting the band back together again.

I wanted to buck some expectations from my group so I had 3 goals/themes in mind:
1.  No undead
2.  The whole adventure would happen outside during daylight hours
3.  None of the "bad guys" would actually be evil

The group was charged by the Chief of a small village to investigate recent animal attacks around their village.  The took a local hunter with them and headed off to find the source of the disturbances and hopefully track down the village's missing Shaman.  Their first day's exploration brought them into contact with an Owlbear who nearly decimated the party.  If not for their NPC's luck with his magic bow it could have been a TPK in the first encounter!
After surviving the Owlbear encounter they were set upon twice by small animated treemen who they were very successful in sending off without too much difficulty.
The final encounter was the discovery that the village's Shaman was basically an eco-terrorist who was also in league with the hunter who had led them to his cottage.  Two of the three PCs were killed in the final encounter but a good time seemed to have been had by all.

For this adventure I recycled 2 existing models, using my Darksword Owlbear for the initial terrifying foray into the woods as well as a Frostgrave Necromancer apprentice as the village Shaman Yunel.

In addition I painted 6 new figs for today's adventure.

First up Ragnar the Ranger and his Owl animal companion Herne.

Ragnar and Herne turned out to be two of the antagonists of the story but although the player's had been suspicious the whole game they weren't sure until the final encounter.

I also painted 4 Games Workshop Dryads to use as 'forest spirits'.

I slightly modified the Twig Blight stats from the monster manual to make them a bit beefier and more threatening but due to my bad luck with the die rolls for these particular monsters the PCs walked all over them anyway.

At the conclusion of the adventure the players had levelled up twice and were able to affect a somewhat dodgy resurrection that should lead them through a magic mirror to A Red And Pleasant Land for their next adventure.

-Jay