Month: September 2019

Hello Adventurers! For my final map of the month I went with the fantasy casino patron suggestion. I wanted a kind of gambling hall style layout and I decided early on to have some slot machines and neon to get the feel of a colourful and noisy environment. I imagine the slots and neon are powered through magic, those gnomes are ingenious when it comes to this kind of thing. I also think it would be fun to have this as a very new phenomenon with as yet no regulation, meaning the proprietor could be using any number of dirty tricks, so many magical possibilities, to cheat money from their customers.

Thanks to you all for making this map possible and for all your support! Have a wonderful weekend, and as always happy adventuring!

Introduction

The casino is brightly lit, furnished in polished wood and bronze fittings, gambling tables cover the ground floor. Well dressed patrons mingle among the tables and sit at a bar built along one wall. Glowing colourful signs hang from the walls promoting games, drinks and special offers. Once in a while they change, flowing like snakes of pure light into new messages. An entire room is filled with boxes covered in blinking lights and buttons, bells continuously chime in a hypnotic mix of light and sound. People sit in front of many of them, pressing buttons and pulling levers, intermittently feeding the contraptions with coin.

Your companion, the Bard, hasn’t lost all night. His run of luck is uncanny to a point of absurdity, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Orc bouncers in tight fitting suits scowl from their posts on either side of the lavishly decorated front entrance. The dealer at your table adjusts his collar, sweat beading on his brow. Once in a while he glances up nervously at the balcony above.

A small crowd has gathered to watch your game, you’ve been noticed, the plan is working almost too well. From behind you a large hand slowly but firmly engulfs the Bard’s shoulder. The Bard turns slowly, you are amazed he can look so innocent after cheating so outrageously all night.

“Da boss invite you to play at ‘is table” the huge orc growls at you. He points towards the stairs and upper floor. You and the Bard are escorted to an upper balcony area, red carpets cover the floor, a few more gambling tables are situated up here along with some private booths, all are conspicuously empty. You are led to a gambling table, with only one occupant, a small gnome, fingers covered in rings and wearing an exquisitely fitted suit that exudes style.

“My friends! ‘Luck’ has truly been with you this night, come sit and let me try to win back some of my coin” he says gesturing to the seats opposite. As you sit down a number of large, dangerous looking men silently move to surround your table. The gnome clicks his fingers and with an audible pop you look around to see the balcony area has been sealed off with some kind of magical barrier. “Isn’t that better? Now we can play in peace without interruption” the gnome grins wickedly. The Bard glances at you with a panicked expression. This wasn’t part of the plan.

Notes and Tips

• 30×30 Grid
• The ‘upper floor’ sits above the Slot Machine room, make sure your players understand the map layout at the start of the encounter.
• Many of the items in this place are magical or powered by magic.
• The ‘pool’ tables are magical, each ball has a different magical effect on them, these could be utilized in combat.
• The slots and neon signs are powered by some kind of power crystal. Maybe the crystal is unique to a specific mine and the magic within it has been tainted with some ancient evil.
• The signs can come to life and attack or grapple, use the stats for a large snake and add some kind of lightning attack.
• Money could be exchanged for chips at the gaming tables and then locked in magical chests under the tables. They could be removed at the end of the night.
• The balcony or booths could have magical privacy barriers around them which can be switched on and off. Maybe have a hostage in one of these booths, the owner is the only one with a key to open it.

Variants

Night version

Light out version

Boxing ring version – For those times when a bit of fisticuffs is more the order of the day

This week’s map is a pine forest with a bit of an infestation of… something 😉 I wanted to create a wilderness map with a bit of a twist and I think pine forests have an amazing ominous vibe to them and so ‘The Weaver’s Way’ was born. I know many of you will not have watched this film but I may have had some scenes from Hawk the Slayer in mind when I drew this. There is some very dark spider webby woodland in that film, along with pythons hanging from branches, which I feel may not be too accurate for a medieval European setting but hey it’s fantasy!

As always I can’t thank you enough for supporting me here, especially my amazing Patrons, without your help I simply wouldn’t be able to spend the time creating these maps. Thank you all, have a wonderful week and happy adventuring! Now let’s get onto the map notes.

Introduction

Oxen with perpetually bored expressions pull the merchant wagons, ears switching once in awhile to brush away flies. The wooded terrain around you is thick with brush, boulders litter the ground often half covered by ferns and tall grasses. You notice the road is moving downwards into a hollow in the landscape. Slowly cliffs rise around you, pines replace deciduous trees, the sun, now low in the sky is blocked by the high cliff walls, plunging the road into a twilight darkness. 

As you walk alongside the wagons you notice something strange and ominous, the trees here are covered in webs. Long strands of silk hang between branches, swaying slightly in the still air. You glance at your employer, a portly merchant with a friendly disposition. He sits atop his wagon, face ghostly white, holding a silver dagger in his shaking hands. He notices you watching him and tries to smile, it looks more like a grimace of pain.

With movement almost to fast to see, something leaps across the road, grabbing a cart driver from his seat in a single movement. Before you can react the driver is gone, the creature that took him was large and incredibly fast. Again another creature jumps across the road and another driver is picked from his seat, this time you make out spindly legs and a large black abdomen.

Your employer jumps from his seat and crawls under his wagon, with a wave of his dagger he points to the forest. “Save us good adventurer!” he pleads in a terrified voice. You get the impression vital information related to the dangers of this route were left out of the job listing. However, it feels a little petty to bring it up quite at this moment as a dozen large spiders drop from the trees around you and attack the caravan.

Notes and tips

• 30×30 grid map
• This forest could be used as a spider themed encounter or a spooky, ‘cursed’ or just old part of a forest.
• If you do go down the spider route, imagine how they would reveal themselves. Have them snatch a NPC or two, or even a PC.
• Give your party a good chance to notice the spiders as they hang amongst the trees, passive perception is great for this!
• Webs cover certain routes around the map, they could hinder movement.
• As you move into the trees visibility is low, both because of the light and the foliage.
• There are a few small caves along the roadside, and there are two openings on either side of the map which could be used as larger cave entrances or be simply ignored.
• Maybe this area is near a hags hideout, have poppets (corn or stick people) hanging from the trees, Blair Witch style!
• Will-o’-wisps could dart through the trees, pretending to be someone walking around deeper in the forest. The whole forest could be haunted but any number of ghosties!

Variants

Even spookier night version

General forest version (day/night) – when you just need a simple forest travel map!

Desert canyon (day/night)

Hello Adventurers! The Green Bastion map is here! This is quite a big one and I hope useful for DMs looking to run an encounter in a ruined keep, city or outpost swallowed by the forest. For those with access to the variants there are also coastal, grassland and desert locations. I like to imagine a green dragon perched on the gatehouse looking down on a group of unfortunate players before things go very badly 😉

I think that’s about it for this launch, thank you all for your support and as always happy adventuring!

Introduction

You pound along the overgrown path, jumping fallen logs and splashing through puddles of fetid mosquito infested water. Behind you the creature roars again, hidden by the greenery you can’t tell the exact position of your foe, but it’s getting closer, and it’s very angry!

Ahead sunlight punches through the canopy indicating a thinning of the trees. The path rises slowly up an incline, cobbles peek out of the mud and vines underfoot. And then ahead you see it, a wall, crumbling and ancient but still standing. It appears to be the entrance to a long abandoned keep, walls still intact but gate smashed and hanging from its hinges.

You rush through the gateway. Now high enough to see across the canopy you glance back and watch trees being violently pushed aside, the sound of splitting wood and an ominous low-pitched thudding can be heard as something huge stomps towards the keep.

The inner courtyard is largely open, ruined buildings further back could make for useful cover. You look to your companions, silently agreeing this will be where you stand and fight. Now all there is to do is wait and see what climbs over the wall. Another roar splits the air, this time right outside the walls. Silence for a moment and then it appears. In one great leap it crests the wall lands amongst your party. It’s teeth are bigger than you imagined.

Notes and Tips

• 30×30 grid map
• This could be used for tropical or temperate forest locations.
• Have the party seek shelter here from a dangerous forest creature.
• The players can use the ruined buildings for cover. The buildings can have roofs or not.
• The boulders could be used by very large creatures as throwing weapons. Maybe they are the ones that destroyed the keep in the first place.
• Giants, Trolls, Ents, or any other giant creature would work well on this map.
• A tribe of monsters could be using this place as a temporary shelter, the party walks in on them. Throw in some tents and campfires from my free travel encounter pack.
• This would be a great place to fight a dragon, there is adequate space and cover for those players that don’t like being incinerated, frozen or generally ‘upchucked’ on.
• A garrison of soldiers is trying to take the keep back, your party is along for the ride, things attack and climb the walls!

Variants

Desert day/night

Coastal day/night

Grassland day/night – for a bit of extra place to drop more mobs to kill your party.