Just finished Ashenwood, and it was lots of fun.

Getting the Shape of Fire Essence and molding it to one of my weapons was sweet; especially with those Fell Trolls. 6D6 fire damage! It made short work of all the Treants and Shambling Mounds too... nice!

Now I have a 6D6 fire damage greatsword and a 6D6 cold damage greatsword; I wonder if there's any other essences coming up as cool :)

How about that Paragon Beast of Malar?! Was that crazy or what? Hard to hit, super Evasion skills plus crazy regeneration. I finally had to Power Word Kill it when I got it Near Death for the third time.

Okku's pretty much eating out of my hand now (93 or so influence). Ashenwood was definitely an Okku influence bonanza. I wonder if the Sunken City will be the same kind of thing for Gann.

ashenwood is fun because it's a huge open area, and you can really let off those massive area spells, but otherwise it wasn't very challenging
as far as okku goes, you can either gain a ton of influence, or lose most of it, depending on your decisions

i kinda screwed up towards the end, when i joined nadaj in the uprising (supposedly this is an evil solution)

It was fun because there were all kinds of new monsters to see and experience, and even a game of King of the Hill with Frost Giants! :) I also like to find special things like the Shape of Fire essence. And you get more of the back story for what's inside you.

True that it wasn't too difficult overall (or I guess it wasn't for me or you at least), but that Paragon Beast of Malar sure was tough to put down for me. Maybe that was because my spell casters didn't have much left at that point though.

EDIT
About Nadaj, I didn't trust her one bit. "Hey, thanks for helping me out with some really difficult stuff; now I just need you to foment rebellion for me with no proof of my accusations at all." Ha! Sorry there chicky, but do your own dirty work!

I knew there was something I missed, I never faced any paragon beast of Malar, though I did initiate the quest and it stayed in my journal. I will have to pay closer attention to that next time...

Ah! Where was it...? It was in some cave, but I can't remember which map. IIRC, it was near where there were Fell Trolls and you have that scene where a Malarite is hunting a pair of Berserkers. Was that the main Ashenwood map? Not sure.