Investigating the Blaze

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With some maps there is a clear story to be told and with what we can produce and a clear outcome. With this there are two things. There is the residual magic from the fire from the person (or thing) that started the blaze. There is also an area on the path out front the ruined building where there isn’t scorched fire.

There is an opportunity to have another encounter with the party – something other than investigating the scene. More will be revealed tomorrow but the source of the fire isn’t alone in its hunt for satiation.

The map is, like all of mine, made from different texture brushes overlapping to create the feel that I am going with. Being a well established town having stone roads makes sense and with the heat of the blaze, the foot traffic and clean up crews have moved most of the debris out. This causes dirt and soot to be moved, most of the burnt tables, chairs and such are piled up out the front between it and another building.

A fountain / water trough sits in the middle of the road for horses and other accesses to water. The wooden tavern lays in ruins, a few overlapping layers here with some shadow and soot painted over the normally rich-wood. Over all it makes for a pretty convincing scene.

Avermeet Clearing

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With its bountiful trees, bushes, grasses and marshlands the Avermeet is a venerable blessing to rangers, druids and people who value stealth. This benefit of cover and natural hiding places though can be said for the many predators of the forest as well as those who are hunting the wildlife that call this place home.

The water drops off to be deeper suddenly then gradually gets much deeper as it goes out. Most pools of water appear to have formed from a crater of some sort whether from a long ago cosmic event or a fearsome battle none alive can remember. This means that for the water predators they ambush prey from the waters edge very regularly and easily.

The map itself has quite a few layered textures for the ground and water. The opacity for items also played a big part today when creating the waters edge and the sunken rocks and logs. I think trying to get water looking natural from a repeated stamp / texture painter is difficult but I am pretty happy with how it turned out tonight.

Bramblewall Tent Village

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Without village guards as such the merchants of this village either employ their own bodyguards and/or bouncers or they fall on the benevolence of the people that offer protection services to the tents without guards just about everything can be found in these tents which makes them both dangerous and wondrous. Many merchants have inflated prices – but they know how to haggle and will do so for those with a keen eye and wit.

Most of the people here a fair, honest working traders – but the party are seeking those who are not. It wont take them long to see the brown coated fellows and ladies moving from tent to tent but what will they do to get the information they need and afterwards, what to do with such information?

The trees provide a basis for a few smaller huts hat grace the sides of these wooden giants and they care connected by rope bridges (mostly ladders suspended horizontally by rope). So those afraid of heights or clumsy be aware or the dangers ascending to the village above.

The Foggy Path

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With the guards taking the path through the woods it was only a matter of time until they were ambushed. The attacker from before who escaped, with an arrow wound as thanks for his company, returns with more feral allies this time and they make full use of the foggy path. The fog lies thick and heavy across the battlefield with the distant torches acting like micro beacons that help discern movement and placement but without aiding anything to visually identifying anything. This makes this weeks encounter a game of cat and mouse.

To complicate it – a cage full of, somewhat docile, lycanthropes who are the target of the attack. The hard decision will have to come at some stage on what to do. But we will touch on that this weekend.

The map is a simple affair with a few overlapping terrain paints, overlapping fog and light sources to give a “blinding” effect where the main campfire is. The horses are hitched on the wagons, but maybe not for long and the party will have to fight amongst the trees, in the fog. Or flee through it if that is the more wise course of action.

Morrowdeep Hills

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The gradual incline that they had been walking up for the past hour began to level out and an even walking trail awaited them. The Journal had revealed nothing but there were clues left behind that indicated that someone had come from the mines in the Morrowdeep hills.

As the party pushed past onwards the trees started to thin and the signs of mining became evident. Discarded buckets, broken tool heads, campfires and tents as well as some large piles of shifted earth lined the path and funnelled the party onwards. Soon a small grotto surrounded by hills revealed a cave. The remnants of a mine track and a tipped over cart heralded the entrance to the darkness beyond. But the party’s attention was drawn to the soil underneath. Disturbed as if something had walked along here not once, but a few times.

As they looked towards the darkness and their imaginations began to take hold over what could lie within a rustle from the bushes at the base of some of the trees brought their attention back to the present. A danger sense spread across the party and the natural dip into the mind made for a tactical disadvantage for them and one for would-be attackers if they knew how to use it. However when a mountain popped out from the brushes a sense of relief passed over them.

But this sensation was brief when it started to stalk them and the party caught more movement from behind them. A coating of foam covered the mouth of the large cat as it stalked forward more than just hunger in its eyes. A madness that was throwing away any sense of its own preservation that it had. The party watched as more cats appeared and soon they prepared for battle at the mouth of the Morrowdeep hills cave.

The Chamber of Remembrance

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Dark and cold, the Chamber of Remembrance is a unpleasant place to be. Any attempt to summon magical light ends in failure and when a torch is lit a gust of wind extinguishes it. The only light comes from four lanterns that permanently shed their warm glow at the archways to help guide those back to rest.

This battle map will be the one used for the, dare I say, lower level encounter I have planned – but I don’t want to give away too much on this just now. There will be another one or two to come in the Zine which will explore another aspect of this adventure.

The crypts each contain a hallowed knight, a doomguide of Kelemvor who maintains and strives to protect the natural order of things. These people were thought to be buried with the most perverse and unholy of relics however rumours are not always true.

The chamber contains many bodies and section on the wall appears to be a stone archway leading to soil and earth. A stark contrast to the other cold walls of this chamber. A statue to Kelemvor stands in the antechamber, a proud and cold gaze looking down on those who find their gaze drifting up to the imposing figure. But the Chamber of Remembrance is more than just a crypt – it is a place where it is rumoured that Kelemvors connection to the material plane is strongest in Oakspire. Those of devout and pure intention have been called into the dark and cold to bear witness to his authority and voice, but only a few are called.