I’m starting a new feature on the site. I’m hoping it is weekly. I’ll be giving away a free VTT map and short encounter combination 2-3 times a month here on the site. The other week(s) of the month I’ll post a free monster or something similar.
The Forest Night Map
I made this map to use for my Phandalin-based campaign. I’m combining Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragons of Icespire Peak as the start of my Eberron campaign (ha, that’s a lot of name dropping!). This was used as a place for the characters to rest on the way from Phandelver to Thundertree, but it could be dropped anywhere. I made the map in Dungeondraft, using only free assets. Note that the cliffs face the wrong direction on one side. I doubt most players would notice that. I believe if you right click the map below you can download it.
The map depicts a small trail leading through grasslands with low cliffs on each side of the trail. I described them as about 10-20 feet high and fairly easy to climb. On the upper left corner, there is a campfire. I had this be magical in nature, which of course made them curious. On that side there is a ruined tower and a statue. There is also another cliff up above the first, which I think I said was about 5-10 feet up. Coming off the cliff in that corner is a small stream fed by pool. Where that water comes from is up to you, but I described it as a natural spring.
A cliff stands in the lower right corner. This one has no easy access, and needs to be climbed. There is a small set of trees there, along with a statue that faces the one across the small valley. Because we are playing in Eberron, I had them be two orcs, orcs which had been part of the Gatekeepers thousands of years ago….the group that saved the continent from aberrations. One statue was a clue, and one held a magical sword. Two of my characters disagreed over who should get it, and even the sword told the drow that took it that she was likely not the one meant to carry the sword. I thought the player with the fighter was pretty cool about not getting his reward, so I have some work to do there……
An Encounter In the Forest Night
I used monsters from the Scarred Lands and from Midgard for this encounter. The idea of this encounter was to introduce the fact that aberrations were on the loose in the forest. I won’t re-print the statistics here for the two monsters, since they are found in books you have to pay for, so I’ll build a new encounter out of free monsters…..but I used the Carrion Hound and the Ronus from those two sources. This encounter is for first level characters (4-5).
Read aloud text
Suddenly the darkness of the night is broken by the light of a campfire. It is up a small cliff. There is a trail leading to the campfire. You can make out the remains of a ruined tower and statue in the flickering light, but not any details of either. Strangely, you hear no sounds at all. No animals, no wind in the trees, no crackling fire, and no sounds of people near the fire.
The Encounter
(follow the links to DnDBeyond for the free stats):
Giant Spider
Swarm of Insects (spiders)
Characters with a passive perception of 12 or higher notice some spider webs as they ascend the trail up to the campfire, but they appear to be just normal webs. It turns out the fire is an illusion, and once a character moves within five feet of it, a giant spider uses web on that creature. In the middle of the first round of combat, a swarm of spiders comes out of the trees on the second level and leaps onto the nearest character. Unless a character has a passive perception of 16 or higher, the swarm surprises the characters and has advantage on its first attack. If the players went to the second level first, the swarm leaps out of the trees onto the first character to get within five feet of the trees, and the giant spider uses web on a different character in the middle of the first round of combat.
This encounter is rated as hard for five first level characters, but if the party has a spellcaster they should survive.
Read aloud when they investigate the ruined tower
The tower has one tall wall remaining, and two shorter walls across from that. Once, there would have been a second story made of wood, you can see the rotted supports. But all that remains of that is a pile of rubble and rotted wood.
If you’d like a second encounter, I’d recommend a swarm of rats or something, but I think a second encounter is a bad idea here. I’d likely have a rat or two come out when they get near, and get the players paranoid about there being a swarm, but not actually have one there. Another option is to have an entrance to a lower, underground, level, but I have not built that here.
Read aloud when they look at this statue by the tower
If in Eberron:
The statue is old, but not so old that you can’t make out details. This is an orc druid, one of the famed Gatekeepers
If elsewhere use a description that makes sense for your adventures.
I put an inscription on the base that made sense for the campaign I was running, but you can do whatever you want. I’d not have a trap on this statue, but you may want to have part of it move or crumble when touched, to get the players wondering……The other statue should be related to the first…in my campaign it was a fighter-type orc that held a magical sword. I think this would be a good spot for a trap, but I didn’t think of that, alas.
I hope you enjoy this free VTT map and encounter!