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Old Troll Bridge Battle Map - Launch
🕑 Added 2022-11-30 21:17:42 +0000 UTCHello Adventurers! I’ve been working hard this week and managed to finish off our second map for the month (just in time). It's a travel map, with a bit of a farmland vibe. I’ve made the bridge big enough for a troll (large in DnD terms) to make their home under it. I love farmland as an intermediary for adventure, a place to spread some breadcrumbs and lead your party further into the wilds.
Next Maps
December is even busier than November for me, so I’ll be producing one main map for the month, which will be the Deep Woods Workshop. After that, I’ll be taking the first vacation I’ve had in literally years, so that will be fun and a little weird.
- Deep Woods Workshop
I'm thinking of a workshop in a winter forest. Imagine a cabin with an adjacent woodshop. Maybe a stable with a sleigh, the whole place is rather magical looking, but in a rustic, hedge magic kind of way. It could be the home of some magical forest deity (Father Winter), or just a reclusive artisan renowned for their craft. - Mummy Lord’s Lair (Desert Tomb)
Gustavo suggested a desert tomb of some kind and I must admit I jumped at the chance. Sand-filled tombs, collapsed tunnels, broken statues and traps to prevent grave robbers just sound so much fun to make and run an encounter through.
Collaboration with Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity
It's the last few days of Eventyr Games’ fantastic Kickstarter Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity (5E). I contributed a map to the book and it's certainly worth a look if you want to improve your game's pantheon and general mystic encounters. I have an affiliate link if you are interested in supporting them.
Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity Kickstarter
As always I want to thank you for your support, you’re just the best! I hope you have a great end of the week. December is basically here and with it all the craziness of the holidays, so good luck and happy adventuring! Also… who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?
You can find the downloads for this and all my maps on the Map List page. Remember the links will only work if you are logged in as a Patron!
Map Description
The farmland is strangely quiet, with an absence of livestock. The walls and hedgerows that define the field boundaries are unkept and overgrown. The stone walls have collapsed in places, while fences are broken or rotten with age. The meadow grasses are long and ungrazed, it seems the farms in this area have long been abandoned. Ahead you hear the gentle sound of running water. An old bridge comes into view, encrusted with lichen. Grass grows between every crack in its rough stone construction. Strangely you can see a small wisp of smoke drifting up from below the bridge.
Notes and Tips
- 30x30 Grid Map
- Farmland may not be the wilderness, but that doesn’t mean it's safe. Farmland has very few protections from roaming monsters, in fact, it's an ideal hunting ground for creatures looking for easy prey, as livestock is often penned into one location. This makes outlying farms a great location for one-off monster encounters before moving into the wilds.
- Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge: Classic troll under the bridge situation. It's a place to keep out of the rain and has a ready supply of food and resources moving over it. However, it's rather inconvenient for the locals and so… adventurers have been hired.
- The Wyrm of Westfield Farm: A (lonely) juvenile dragon or wyrm has taken up residence under the bridge. It sneaks out at night to steal the local's sheep. It has a fanciful idea of what it is to be a dragon and demands a duel with the party's most worthy knight. If it is bested it will bow and pay tribute to the locals it has stolen from.
- The Grey Knight: A bit of a riff on the Monty Python Black Knight skit. A bedraggled Knight in grey rags and rusty armour stands on the bridge, his beard growing through his helm. He will fight anyone that steps onto the bridge. He is not ‘all there’ but is highly skilled. Is he here to redeem himself? Protect a long-since-destroyed kingdom? You decide!
- Roost of Blood: Pick some kind of creature to roost under the bridge. Stirges, vampire bats, leeches. Yes, I know leeches don’t technically roost, but they could hang from under the bridge and drop on anyone that goes under to investigate.
- The Goat's Revenge: Look, goats can be nasty, especially when it's killed and eaten the troll that used to live under the bridge. The troll was quite sickly and the goat is quite evil. Due to some weird mechanism of evolution goats that eat troll flesh turn into something worse than a normal goat, which is already quite unpleasant.
Variants
This map comes with day/night versions of all the variants
I created a version where you can see under the bridge.
I also created a simple ford, in case you just want a road map.
And I've put together snow versions of all the variants, as its getting to that time of year again ;)
Comments
Afternoon Maps
I have issues with goats. A character of mine died in Curse of Strahd by being butted off a mountain by a Mountain goat... after surviving multiple vampires and werewolf attacks. It was... upsetting.
Kira Swets
The goat is now in my campaign
