LostSoul
Adventurer
Everyone's covered most of what I'd say, so I'll stick to one idea you may or may not wish to use.
It might be nice if there's a way to escape the forest, but it comes with a cost.
GP (or magic items) is the easiest way to go, and a good one too: GP is an important character resource (as long as they can spend it!) and you get it by adventuring, i.e. playing the game.
You can scale the amount required to character level (or time - that'd be preferred but harder to implement) because the elven king's power grows. At low levels they might need silver or cold iron charms that allow them to pass through the tangled woods; at higher levels they might need to perform long and detailed rituals requiring loads of components (worth GP or magic item sacrifices).
This way the players have an interesting choice to make - should we use some of our resources to head out of the forest and gain allies, information, or to buy magic items and spells we can't find otherwise? - and it will lessen some of the "railroad" feeling the players might get.
A pitfall - the players may decide to just abandon the forest campaign.
It might be nice if there's a way to escape the forest, but it comes with a cost.
GP (or magic items) is the easiest way to go, and a good one too: GP is an important character resource (as long as they can spend it!) and you get it by adventuring, i.e. playing the game.
You can scale the amount required to character level (or time - that'd be preferred but harder to implement) because the elven king's power grows. At low levels they might need silver or cold iron charms that allow them to pass through the tangled woods; at higher levels they might need to perform long and detailed rituals requiring loads of components (worth GP or magic item sacrifices).
This way the players have an interesting choice to make - should we use some of our resources to head out of the forest and gain allies, information, or to buy magic items and spells we can't find otherwise? - and it will lessen some of the "railroad" feeling the players might get.
A pitfall - the players may decide to just abandon the forest campaign.
