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Cactus Forest Battle Map - Launch
🕑 Added 2025-04-23 15:41:39 +0000 UTCHello adventurers! I’ve got a spiky map for this release, a desert location full of prickly pears, ball and barrel cactus, and Saguaro (the big tree-like ones). I wanted to create a more ‘lush’ desert for this one. Now that I have these assets, I’ll add them to more of my desert maps in the future.
Next Maps
Our next map will be the Slithering Hole at the end of the month, followed by Into the Dark Forest.
Slithering Hole
I’m thinking of a steeply descending tunnel with slick and slimy footing. Along the tunnel walls are little nooks and holes where snakes and creepy crawlies live. It's a climb down into some deep place, and if the tunnel is this bad, the destination must be truly horrifying!Into the Dark Forest (Map Pack)
Much like the Into the Wilds map pack I created last year, this will be a set of general-use maps for forest travel, with a theme of dark pine forests. The layouts will be things like a clearing, a path, maybe a river crossing.
If you're running a game, I hope it's going well. If you're planning one, I hope it bears fruit! Thanks so much for supporting my map-making efforts, I really couldn’t do it without you :) If you’d like to suggest new map ideas, feel free to do so. And as always, happy adventuring!
OK people! We're running low on water. Does anyone know which cacti are safe to extract liquid from? … Wait a minute, why are your eyes ALL pupil? Oh gods! Am I the only one not tripping on cactus juice? Stop sniggering, this isn’t funny!
Downloads
The files, thumbnails, and tags can be accessed on the Map List Page. You must be logged in to Patreon and signed up for the correct tier to access them. Remember, you are only charged for map releases; you can download all the old maps at no extra cost!
Map Descriptions
Heat shimmers off the baked ground, its cracked surface littered with gravel and rocks. Scrubby bushes and yellowing grasses grow in patches around tall, tree-like cacti. Ball and barrel-shaped cacti with long spikes grow in clumps, the odd bright pink flower sprouting from their tops. Prickly Pears, with their flat, segmented stems, give the only significant shade in this desiccated land.
Ahead is a shallow ravine, its edges seem a little greener than the surrounding land. Along its base is a dried-up riverbed. Rocks once covered in water now sit exposed to the unrelenting sun.
Notes and Tips
30x45 Grid Map
Sometimes it's fun to use a desert environment with more than just sand. This ecosystem has the potential to be far more interesting, while also posing many of the same problems as traditional dune deserts.
Finding water can be tough. In this environment, you’ll have the chance to drink cactus juice, which may be a safe way to get liquids. However, you need to know what is safe and what isn’t. Nature checks and general knowledge of the location can help here. Or just wing it and hope it's at worst a fun trip.
Small creatures will hide inside the scrub, and insects and birds will use the larger cacti as homes. Killer bees could swarm out of a cactus. Insects could burrow into the larger ones and creep out at night. And the classic Vultures perched on cactus limbs.
Many larger creatures and monsters may hide underground during the day or simply to ambush their prey.
Flash flood: It doesn’t have to be raining at the party's location for there to be a flash flood. Rain in the mountains can create these devastating events.
Scorpians Underfoot: Resting under a particularly large prickly pear, your party disturb a nest of scorpians. They emerge from the sandy soil and attack.
Trapdoor Distribution: For this, it would be good to have pack mules or other pack animals. You enter an area filled with giant trapdoor spiders. They try to take a mule without being seen. Things go downhill fast as other trapdoors pop open around the party.
Kill the id: The locals have a ritual where they drink the juice of a holy cactus and go on some kind of spiritual ‘cleanse’. The party is invited to take part (or is required to for some reason) and ends up walking into the desert to ‘cleanse their souls’. They must fight their ‘Id’, a dark and base version of themselves. Think mirror universe evil self. It’s all just a hallucination… or is it? ;)
Variants
Day/Night for all relevant maps.
I've also added water to the river for many of the map variants.
I've created a simple scrub variant if you don't want to use a cactus desert.
You also get a classic palm desert with a river.
And for some more unique locations, you get a Lava river!
And an underground tunnel/passage.
Comments
Afternoon Maps
Thanks, Evan :) I've been wanting to expand on my desert-themed stuff for a while now. This should really help!
Evan TM
Amazing! Love the lava river. I feel like we have a great selection of lava maps, so I've turned my party towards the plane of fire! As usual, your variants really shine, love all the variety! Looking forward to more desert and lava maps, especially with the new assets! The next few maps look exciting, you can never have too many river crossings, they are just so iconic and make for awesome encounters!
