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The Great Kaiju Wall Free 60×40 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap, featuring a giant fantasy wall in a medieval town, facing the ocean, and the monsters that rise from within it. VTT ready!
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Maneaters Forest Temple Village Free 60×40 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap, featuring a cannibal jungle village with piles of bloody human bones, as well as altars for sacrifices. VTT ready!
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If you’d enjoy more DnD resources like this City Plaza Free 60×40 DnD Battlemap, Luke and I have released our newest Hardcore GM’s bundle of 520 large, 40×30″ DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in the Quarantine Bundle) with 255 fantasy adventures for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps! We guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what setting you prefer, from large cities to underwater seascapes.
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While staying at a tavern, your meal is interrupted by an out of breath man stumbling through the front door. His clothes are tattered and his right arm looks broken. In his left hand he is carrying a heavy iron hammer. The man frantically screams for help, claiming that some type of abomination is trying to kill him. As he moves further into the tavern, he collapses to the ground and begins crawling. Looking back toward the door, the man screams again that it’s here and pleads for someone to help him. Rolling onto his back, he raises a hand in what appears to be an attempt to defend himself, but you can’t see what he might be reacting to.
Before you can even blink the man’s left arm is raised and he smashes the hammer into his face. Gurgling blood, the man continues to scream for help as he smashes the hammer into his head again and again with his left hand, as his right hand attempts to fend off some imaginary beast from atop. Then the screaming suddenly stops and his body goes limp revealing his caved in head, his blood pooling on the wooden planks of the tavern’s floor.
The other patrons turn pale and a silence falls over the tavern which is only interrupted by the tavern owner returning to the room with his hands full of the patron’s dinners, which are dropped as the tavern owner in bewilderment asks what the fuck happened. The guard’s are called and everyone is told to stay where they are until they’re asked to move so that the guards can get everyone’s story of what happened. The guards in question are polite but disturbed by your story, they insist on organizing alternative accommodation for you and you’re told not to leave the city until everything is sorted as they may need more from you. The next morning when you go downstairs from your newly appointed tavern you find a lithe modest woman with black hair and wearing a long flowing dress with silk gloves, covering all of her skin except her face, where she wears a pair of librarian spectacles. She approaches you, asking if you were part of the group who saw the death of a man named Gren last night? She describes the man, who to your recollection fits the bill. If you ask why she wants to know, the woman sighs sadly, explaining that her name is Dr.Elara Briggs and that Gren was an employee of hers at the city’s museum working as a caretaker over the night. Elara continues that recently Gren became convinced that one of their newly released exhibitions which feature a series of ancient blackstone artifacts have something wrong with them.
Elara says that she caught Gren in the museum last night when she was staying late to catalog some new arrivals, when she found him in the blackstone exhibition room standing in front of one particular large blackstone obelisk, with an iron hammer in his hand. He said he was going to destroy the artifact but when he raised his hammer to it he instead just screamed in terror before hitting his arm with the hammer instead and running off.
Elara claims she attempted to follow him but he was simply too fast. That was the last Elara saw of him until receiving news this morning of his untimely death from a friend in the guard. Elara explains that her friend couldn’t divulge much information due to the ongoing investigation but they were able to point her toward you without breaking the rules. As such Elara asks you what happened last night in the tavern with Gren? Disturbed by what you tell her, Elara questions if perhaps Gren might have been correct in his theory. Noting your garb, Elara asks if you’re available for hire for a few days while she closes the museum to investigate the black stone artifacts. With concern, Elara explains that even with Gren’s theory she can’t just destroy priceless artifacts without proof and that hopefully either you find something and you can dispose of the artifacts or you find nothing and life can continue as normal.
If you agree, she tells you to meet her at the museum later that day. The Museum is large and Elara greets you at the door before telling you to just take your time and explore at the museum as you see fit and she’ll be in the back cataloging if you need anything. Exploring the museum you find trinkets and weapons from all around the world. However, when entering the blackstone exhibit something feels off, almost ominous, the reflective black stone mirroring your face but almost distorted. Nothing else of note happens on the first day making it seem like a regular old museum, unless you approach the largest obelisk with malice or the thought of destroying it. If that occurs you must make a will save or you feel the urge to get closer to it, once you’re right next to it it’s almost like a portal opens up and you see visions of abominations from the depths of the sea within the stone which reach out their arms to grab you, pulling your head into their underwater realm, making you drown.
Anyone not influenced by the stone will see you instead smashing your head against the stone, in what looks like an attempt to kill yourself. On the second day, those of weak will might experience brief visions, reflections of the briny depths in mirrors or glass, incredible itching which when itched reveals scales under their skin, text within any tome changing into an unknown language, etc. If you talk to Elara about any of this she grows concerned, explaining that she has heard enough and the artifacts must be destroyed before what happened to Gren happens to you. If you ask if she’s being a little hasty and how she knows it’s the black stone artifacts causing the visions and not anything else in the museum, she explains that the black stone’s were found under the sea off the coast by a trawling vessel and the visions you’ve experienced all seem to focus on the ocean.
Elara collects some heavy tools that are used to open crates and asks for you to follow her. Upon arriving at the black stone exhibition, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Elara requests you assist her in destroying the artifacts but as she moves to strike the obelisk she pauses noticing briny water that has begun to pool under the obelisk, pouring from the very stone even though there appears to be no openings.
Elara backs up in shock before a sudden wave of water flows through the black obelisk like a tidal wave, knocking over Elara and sweeping her back into the museum’s corridors. For those perceptive, they might notice a portal similar to the one in an early vision filled with abominations from the depths of the sea has truly opened up on the black obelisk causing the museum to begin filling with water at an astounding rate. In addition, you notice the horrible dark shadows of deformed fishfolk now appearing within the briny ocean waters within the museum who move to assail you. Once the black obelisk is broken and the fishfolk defeated, the waters recede like magic, disappearing as if soaking into the stone floors. Elara returns, shocked, soaked and bewildered, thanking you for saving her and who knows what else before collapsing into your arms.
GM’s Notes:
Those attempting to strike the black obelisk directly, will, just like Gren be subject to the visions which caused himself to end his own life if they fail a will save, each round the player will attack themselves with whatever weapons they can find while believing they’re being attacked by horrible monstrosities. Each round however, they will get another chance for a will save to break this effect. Once broken they cannot be affected again for a time.
The Black Obelisk is a remnant of an ancient city that worshiped the god of the deep. Crafted and imbued by master craftsmen from blackstone pulled from the greatest depths of the sea, with the entire construction taking over 100 years. The visions that stone gives were seen as blessings to the people who built it but its ultimate design was to function as a gateway to the depths, being used to flood the city and bring them closer to their god.
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Swamp Village Fortress Free 60×40 DnD Battlemap & Adventure
Drowning Curse
Arriving at a small town in a swamp via small rafts that ferried you through the fetid waters, you find the town eerily abandoned. Signs of a small struggle can be found, such as knocked over barrels, scrapes in the boardwalk that seem to have been made by weapons, as well as an odd, black sticky goo that’s covered some areas of the walkways.
While you’re investigating this, muddy, goo-like creatures rise from the surrounding swamp and attack, seeking to enfold you into themselves and drown you. There are arrows stuck in their muck, and one even has a pitch fork sticking out of its back. Once defeated, you find the bodies of murdered villagers within the slimy horrors, which seem to have been partly consumed by the goo. Upon closer inspection, it appears it is the goo that killed the people, not the weapons stuck in the monsters they became.
If you make your way up the cliff to the stronghold overlooking the town, you find another group of the–similarly arrow-ridden–monsters attempting to break down the front door. Once they’re dead the goo drains into the soil disappearing from sight, if you call through the door the surviving locals who have been sheltering inside the fortress gratefully let you in, thanking you for killing the monsters, though they say bitterly it won’t be long before the horrors rise up again, and they’ve already run out of arrows.
As they talk, an older man steps forward, wearing glasses and some minor magical necklaces on his person. He sends a couple of the villagers outside to reclaim what arrows they can before the creatures rise again, before introducing himself as Loyd.
Loyd explains that the town was cursed about a week ago by a witch of the swamp while she was executed by their town’s leader, Milo, for the suspected kidnapping and murder of a young girl. Only, after her execution, the girl was found drowned nowhere near where the witch lived.
When villagers started disappearing due to the witch’s curse and the locals discovered the monsters that had taken their place, the townspeople fled to the fortress to survive. Loyd explains that, thinking ahead, he brought one of his books on magic with him. Since they’ve been trapped inside the fortress he’s managed to find a translation of the witch’s curse, but what he’s learned isn’t good.
He explains that the curse she called down upon the village centers around Milo’s son, Yol and according to the translation, only sacrificing Yol to the creatures made of goo within the center of the village will lift the curse. As much as he hates it, no one here can afford to flee their homes and start up somewhere else, assuming they’d even survive the journey. They can’t allow anyone else to die, the gods know enough of their loved ones have fallen to this curse already. And these monsters seem to come back no matter how many times they’re killed.
Loyd explains that unfortunately, Milo and his son caught wind of their plan before they had a chance to act, so they barricaded themselves in one of the fort’s rooms and now, understandably, refuse to let anyone in.
They’re waiting us out, Loyd explains, hoping the monsters will kill us or cause us to flee before we can get to them. He asks you to go and talk some sense into the man and his son, as terrible as that reason might be. Maybe he’ll trust an impartial stranger more than the rest of us.
Should you go and talk to the condemned father and son through the barricaded doors, if you don’t seem hostile Milo lets you into the room, before barring the door again behind you. His son, a boy about 10 years old, is sitting sadly on a chair, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Milo is holding a kitchen knife up between you and his son with a shaking hand, and explains nervously that he has made a terrible mistake and never wanted so many of his people to die. He would atone for it if he could, and die in his son’s place–but sadly, that would do nothing to lift the curse.
You see, his son and the drowned girl were friends, and when they were playing they got into a fight and he pushed his friend into the swamp, not realizing it wasn’t water but rather a strange, tarry mud. She drowned in the sticky substance before he could get her out, so his terrified son ran to him for help.
Milo explains that, to his shame, he blamed the death of the girl on the witch to save his son’s life, for though it was an accident the girl’s mother would likely sue for blood and she holds much sway within the town. In addition, by their laws blood for blood is common within the swamp and that would mean it was likely his son would be sentenced to death.
Milo continues that the girl’s death was an accident, his son shouldn’t be made to pay the price for it more than he already is. Please, Milo begs you, the boy doesn’t deserve death. If you could just convince the rest of the villagers that it’s better that they all leave their homeland and find somewhere new to start again–if you offer your protection during their travels, they would surely listen! Then, his son could live.
GM’s Note’s:
The witch realized something was up when Milo–usually a reasonable man–didn’t believe her pleas of innocence. In her last moments he accidentally said enough that she figured out what he had done, which is why she bitterly cursed his son as she died.
If the players do not want to force the townsfolk to leave but do not want to give up Milo and his son, perhaps they could also cleanse the town of the curse through other means such as fighting a goo avatar of the witch within the center of town or perhaps even convincing the spirit of the witch that her punishment is to harsh for a child.
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Level 1 of our Abandoned Wartorn Town Thieves Dens Free 40×30 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure, featuring a journey to the shadowrealm to save knowledge. VTT ready!Level 2 of our Abandoned Wartorn Town Thieves Dens Free 40×30 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure, featuring a journey to the shadowrealm to save knowledge. VTT ready!
Abandoned Wartorn Town Thieves Dens Free 40×30 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure
The Broken Crystal of Eldermere
One day, while traversing the countryside, you are suddenly shocked to discover a large wooden timber doorway in front of you. As you approach, both doors swing open side-by-side, revealing what appears to be the interior of a castle hallway. Voices beckon you inside by name, claiming to have sought you out in particular.
Once inside, the doors behind you close, and you find yourself in a long stone hallway. Eventually, you reach another set of doors, swinging them open to reveal a circular chamber. Inside, seven wizards sit upon thrones.
The wizards welcome you to their abode and introduce themselves as the Council of Arcane Scholars, an organization that monitors magical artifacts and disturbances across the realm. They explain that a surge in magical energy has been detected in a place called Eldermere, once beautiful but now in ruins.
The council fears that the dormant power of a long-thought-destroyed artifact known as the Echo Crystal may be the cause of the disturbance. They request your assistance to investigate and, if necessary, collect and bring the artifact back to them for the safety of the realm.
If you inquire about why you were chosen, one of the wizards explains that they keep tabs on all types of heroes within the realm, and you seemed to fit the requirements of this request the best. If you ask what made you the best choice, they may cite your aptitude for the arcane, should you possess any skills in that area, or comment on your previous achievements.
Inquiring about the Echo Crystal, the wizards reveal that it was once a powerful scrying device used by the wizards of Eldermere. During the war, it was damaged in a magical explosion, fragmenting into many pieces. These shards were thought lost, but the current disturbance suggests otherwise.
Agreeing to assist in the investigation, the wizards thank you but also warn that malevolent forces, drawn to the artifact’s potential, may be converging on the village. With this caution in mind, you leave the wizard’s castle through the original hallway entrance and find yourself in a desolate land upon a hill overlooking the remains of what must be Eldermere.
Making your way down the hill to the town, you discover it seemingly empty at first. Old trenches line the streets between houses, remnants of fortifications from the war. Using spells to detect magic might reveal the general location of the Echo Crystal, but a thorough search of the town could also lead you to a set of underground basements within the trenches that still appear to be inhabited.
The townsfolk are dressed in somewhat plain but well-kept cotton clothes and are shocked to see an outsider, looks of apprehension on their faces because of your arrival. If you explain your search for the Echo Crystal, the townsfolk say they don’t know what you’re talking about in worried voices and wish for you to leave immediately.
If you choose to leave without forcing the townsfolk’s hands, you may be able to track the crystal down either via magic or an extensive sweep of the rest of the town.
Approaching the area where the crystal is hidden, you notice something seems off and soon after find bodies of some of the residents, their throats slit. Making your way through the trenches to reach the crystal you find more bodies until you begin encountering dark robed figures who are in the middle of dispatching some of the poor townsfolk.
When they see you, they attack you on site and refuse to back down, fanatical in their assault. When you arrive at the crystal a figure in a pitch black robe that seems to steal the light is standing in front of it flanked by his loyal followers in similar garb to the men you’ve already been fighting.
The crystal appears to only be partially fixed, Its broken shards hovering around a glowing red magical core but the man in the pitch black robe appears to be adding additional shards to its form. Before you can stop him the Echo Crystal shudders, sucking in the shards and healing itself into a fully formed orb that looks corrupted by shadow. The man in the pitch black robe then instructs his followers to deal with you and they all in unison acknowledge the man’s wishes, referring to him as Shadowseeker Kiber.
Kiber picking up the orb is wreathed in flame like shadows and assists his followers by launching shadow magic at you from afar, clearly empowered by his position of the Echo Crystal. If you managed to get the townsfolk to assist you in finding the crystal, they beg you not to destroy the Echo Crystal but also not allow Kiber to get away with it, explaining that losing the Echo Crystal would doom them all.
If you don’t destroy the Echo Crystal, Kiber is an extremely powerful foe, teleporting around the room from the shadows and if drawn into close combat drawing a sword of pure shadow. When dealing him a deathblow he however just disapparates into the shadows, whispering that he returns to Nihilus, for now.
The townsfolk are ever grateful for your assistance before explaining the true extent to what befell the town of Eldermere. They explain that after the Echo Crystal was destroyed the invading army left, as it no longer had any reason to be there. Out of the remaining townsfolk all of whom were bunkered down in the district during the Echo Crystal explosion, some chose to leave while others wished to stay and rebuild. Those who tried to leave however, soon found themselves withering away into husks within days of leaving the town. Without any other choices and no idea what was happening the remaining townsfolk were forced to stay and do the best they could. That was over a hundred years ago.
You see, the townsfolk continue, they found out that the Echo Crystal had not been fully destroyed during the explosion but only shattered into magical shards within the town. Those within a large proximity of the crystal during this time gained a connection with its power. While they could no longer leave the presence of the shards for prolonged periods of time, they no longer felt hunger or thirst while in its presence, nor did they age.
They hoped one day when they finally recovered all the shards and reformed the Crystal that they could leave but no matter how much they tried they could never find the last few shards. Of course that makes sense now, as the man named Kiber was a former town member who must have found them long ago and fled with them.
They believed he had just gone mad and run off into the desolate wastes but that doesn’t seem to have been the case. What horrors he now worships the townsfolk don’t know but they have a terrible feeling he will be back in future to claim the orb again and thus are happy if you ask to take it back to the wizards now that their curse and blessing has been broken.
If you instead choose to destroy the Echo Crystal it shatters before imploding on itself in a blast of shadow energy, leaving nothing in its place. This makes Kiber much easier to deal with but the townsfolk you’re with begin to wither, his flesh drying on his skeleton then turning to dust leaving nothing but his bones. If you inspect the rest of the town afterwards you find similar skeletal remains throughout, with no living townsfolk to be seen.
Returning to the wizards through the door on the hill outside town, they’re shocked to hear your accounting of events whether you destroyed the Echo Crystal or not. If the crystal was destroyed, they thank you for your assistance explaining that at least it appears the crystal will not go on to be used by evil even if it did mean the death of all those townsfolk. If you ask why you think they all died, one of the wizards will explain that the Echo Crystal had many powerful qualities and that it’s not beyond reasoning that its magical shards somehow gave the townsfolk eternal life, at least while they kept them close.
If however you didn’t destroy the Echo Crystal, the wizards are pleased when you return with it. Locking it within a grand vault which opens beneath your feet in the circular chamber the wizard’s thrones are in before rewarding you with a suitable magical item of use for your efforts.
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While walking the streets of a village you hear yelling coming from the local sky docks, people are fleeing toward your direction screaming about flying terrors. If you investigate, you find the sky docks in chaos with damaged cargo strewn about the place and swarms of small flying creatures resembling pterodactyls swooping and nipping at people who have become trapped, including two of the current leading elders of the village who while attempting to protect the people seem to be failing.
Several guards can also be seen attempting to deal with the swarms but they’re clearly outmanned. The elders become ecstatic when they see you, pleading for your assistance. After the pterodactyls creatures have been either killed or incapacitated the exhausted guards approach you and thank you for your assistance.
Soon after, more guards arrive as well as a doctor to treat the remaining injured civilians. One of the guards, walking with a limp, inspects some of the crates where the creatures were focusing their assaults revealing hundreds of speckled eggs covered in packed straw.
Appearing shocked, the man approaches the elders and exclaims that this is the huntmaster’s fault. Pointing to the crates with the eggs, he continues that Thorpek, one of the current leading elders in the village and the one currently carrying the role of huntmaster has become arrogant and foolishly he has brought the eggs of the flying creatures here, drawing their kin to the village.
The limping man continues that Thorpek would know just as he that these creatures can not be tamed, even if hatched from an egg and that to bring them here could only lead to others being hurt or killed.
The other elders try to calm the man named Kuthar down, explaining that they will look into the matter once Thorpek returns to town to which Kuthar reluctantly agrees before leaving, while the elders choose to spend more time with the other injured villagers.
If you choose to talk with the elders or other village at the sky docks they may explain that Thorpek and Kuthar have had a simmering feud the last several years after Kuthar challenged Thorpek to a duel over the right to be the Huntsmaster as he believed Thorpek has grown to old, but Kuthar lost and was injured in the bout but Thorpek still rewarded his efforts with the position as a hunting training as Kuthar was clearly still quite skilled.
Kuthar still holds a grudge but if Thorpek really did make the mistake to bring these eggs here maybe he has a point about Thorpek. The elders request your neutral hand as outsiders to do an independent investigation into the matter if you would be so kind as perhaps it would avoid tensions rising.
Asking around the town most villagers are aware of the feud with some taking Kuthar’s side in agreeing that Thorpek is past his prime while the majority still feel he is best suited for his position. In contrast if the young hunters of the villager are spoken too, those who have been trained by Kuthar they are all in agreement that Kuthar would make a better huntsmaster. If asked about the eggs and who collected them during a hunt. They all agree that it was set up by Thorpek to have them collected but something seems a bit off about the details. If pushed many of the hunters will excuse themselves to go tend to other tasks but eventually you might be able to get out the real truth that Kuthar was behind the eggs being brought to the village in order to frame Thorpek.
The hunter who gives you this information asks you not to mention him as if the other hunters find out he talked about this they would see it as a betrayal, but he just can’t stay quiet. He also mentions that he doesn’t know what to do but leaves it in your hands. If you tell the elders it was really Kuthar who planned the eggs, he will most likely be banished, aggravating the hunters whose loyalty he holds into, perhaps even revolting.
The hunter continues that If you were instead to just let Thorpek take the fall, yes an innocent man would lose his position but perhaps the village would just continue on without needless bloodshed.
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While visiting a tavern in an affluent city, you notice a young man dressed in expensive, lavish clothes enter. He appears to be an entertainer of some sort, sporting a look that you would describe as that of a master of ceremonies. He has a quick word to the barkeep then turns to address the patrons in the common room.
“Friends, guests and travelers from abroad!” he calls in a grandiose voice. “I am Felix Langston, tamer of beasts and purveyor of exotic entertainments from near and far. I bid you come and see my first ever show at the central arena this very afternoon, where I will astound and delight you with an exhibition of beasts and magic!
“The first show for today is free to attend,” he continues with charm and aplomb, “I ask only that if you enjoy yourselves, you spread the word! I hope to see you all there in but a few hours’ time!” With that, he turns and trips on one of the bar stools next to him, but catches himself on the bench to avoid falling flat on his face. He flashes a weak smile at the room before darting out the door. If you’re perceptive, you might notice a ring on his finger that glows with magical light.
Should you wish to attend this free exhibition where nothing could possibly go wrong, you can get directions from the barkeep and be on your way after lunch. Felix must have been doing his rounds all morning, for there are several hundred people standing out the front of the arena by the time you arrive.
You wait for only a few minutes before the gate is opened, and should you proceed inside along with everyone else, you can find a place to sit in the stands while a small band plays upbeat music in the center of the arena.
A few minutes later you see Felix – wearing an even more garish outfit – burst out of the stairs leading down from the arena grounds, to fanfare from the band.
“Greetings and salutations,” he cries, using magic to make his voice heard throughout the arena. “Thank you for coming. It is well known that this city is a safe and pleasant place to live, with some of the smartest and most beautiful people in the region, but beyond your borders dwell creatures who would look upon this crowd as a feast beyond measure!
“Today, I will shock and educate you all with an array of beasts both fantastic and dangerous. Behold, a fearsome dire bear, straight from the caves of the north!” He lifts his hand and a massive bear lumbers into the arena and roars, scaring some in the audience, but the dire bear seems to be mesmerized by the glowing ring on Felix’s hand.
“Don’t worry folks, he may be big, but he’s a kitten at heart,” Felix assures everyone with a sly wink. To demonstrate, he lifts his hand and the bear rises up to stand on its hind legs, towering over the man.
“Next, we have a magnificent beast from the high mountains, brought here for your amusement!” A serpentine head snakes out of the stairs, revealing a huge wyvern that snarls and spits at the terrified audience. Again, the creature seems to be enchanted by the magical ring, and complies with a few tricks Felix compels it to perform.
“And now, for the final member of this act, I give you the mighty—” he stops speaking mid-sentence when he snaps his hand outward in a flourish to point towards the stairs, the magical ring on his finger instead goes flying off and lands somewhere in the arena!
A solid two seconds passes in absolute silence as Felix and his monsters realize what happened, before the bear roars and charges at him, while the wyvern stomps on the ring before it can be recovered, then spreads its wings and flies towards the audience.
“Who would have thought a group of angry monsters would turn on me so quickly!” Felix calls as he dashes towards the basement stairs with the dire bear in hot pursuit! The crowd scream and rush for the exit, only to find the gate has been closed and locked, with Felix likely having the key on him!
The gates to the arena are strong enough to keep the monsters inside, should they break free, and without the key the people here have no chance of escape! The wyvern snaps at passers-by, looking at you with hungry eyes!
The wyvern attacks you while the crowd tries to keep their distance! If you manage to defeat the mighty beast, you hear screams from below as Felix becomes better acquainted with the dire bear. Should you go to his aid, or at least to retrieve the key from his bloodied corpse, you rush down stairs and hear the bear’s roars from close by.
If you move in, you see Felix has locked himself in a cage at the far end of the basement, with the bear trying to claw at him through the bars. It smells your approach and turns to attack you instead!
Should you defeat the angry bear, Felix hands the key to you with shaking hands. “I think I’ll stay in the cage for a while, at least until the crowd has dispersed. Father was right, controlling deadly monsters with a ring of dubious reliability was a fool’s errand! Look, don’t tell anyone I’m here and I’ll give you some gold, okay?” If you agree, he hands you a bag of gold and sends you on your way!
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Black Lance Mercenary Guild Hall Free Multi-Level 40×30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure
For Vengeance
While enjoying the ambience of a city tavern, you notice a pair of heavily armed and armored warriors enter. They casually look around at the patrons before their gaze alights on you. The pair are a man and a woman, both appearing strong and handling themselves in a manner of experienced fighters.
They stroll in your direction, receiving nervous glances from the nearby patrons before they stand before your table.
“Could you spare a minute?” the woman asks. “We’re looking for help on a dangerous job, if you’re interested.” If you agree to hear them out, they sit opposite you and get as comfortable as they can in their heavy gear.
“I’m Mira, and this is Stennis,” she continues. The big man nods but remains silent. “We are soldiers employed by a minor lord in a recent conflict. We faced a larger force of marauders, and our lord felt we did not have the strength required to carry the day.
“So, he hired the Black Lance mercenaries to bolster our numbers,” Mira explains, while her companion’s face grows more stern and bitter by the second. “We didn’t think much of their people. Loud, drunk and poorly equipped, they brought numbers to our side but little else.”
“Unprofessional,” Stennis grunts, “among other things.”
“I’m getting to that,” Mira reminds him. “The battle was joined, and the Black Lance operated on the flanks of the engagement, hemming in the marauders, or so we thought. We noticed that few of them were actually pressing the attack, and they seemed to be focused on holding position more than anything else.”
“Fortunately, our soldiers proved to be more than a match for our foes, and quickly took the upper hand in spite of the Black Lance dragging their feet. When it looked like we were about to break through, that’s when things changed.
“They turned on us,” Stennis growled, clenching his fist. “Turncoat dogs, they had taken a bribe from the marauders who gave them a better deal.”
“Flanked and surprised,” Mira continues with an emotionless voice, “we had no chance. Stennis and I were the only survivors, wounded but alive beneath a mound of our comrade’s bodies.”
“And now here we are, back to take revenge,” Stennis says coldly. “The Black Lance headquarters are within the walls of this city, not far from here. We intend to make them pay for their treachery, but even with our skill, equipment and righteous fury, we cannot take so many by ourselves. Will you aid us? They are quite wealthy and we will split the takings with you fairly.”
If you agree to accompany them, Mira shakes your hand and bids you follow them. If you do, you all travel together through the city for about twenty minutes before coming to a halt at an alleyway which opens out into an open area. At the end of the street is a guild house with the Black Lance banner prominently displayed. Mira and Stennis ready their axes and shields, and bid you prepare yourself too.
“The plan is to bust in their front door,” she explains, “then head down the stairs, clearing the place out while we look for their leader, Captain Bekhim.. He’s the real target here, but I’ve no problem with stomping on their toy soldiers as we go. Ready? Let’s head in.”
Mira and Stennis emerge from the alleyway and stride towards the door, when from the surrounding buildings, archers emerge from hiding and start shooting! If you assist, you can take out the archers while Stennis charges at the entrance to the Black Lance guild, on the right side.
Once you’ve finished the archers, you can join the others inside the building where some of their less experienced fighters attempt to defend the hall. Should you survive the fight, Mira finds the stairs down and leads you to the next level.
Should you follow, you emerge onto a mezzanine overlooking a feast hall below. Stennis takes the lead, holding his shield up as he smashes through a doorway into a large hall, filled with warriors who tremble at your approach!
“I’m going to coat the walls with turncoat guts,” Stennis bellows. “In the name of the fallen, you will pay for your treachery!” A few wisely run, but the rest charge to attack! If you survive, Stennis wipes his ax blade of blood.
“We need to find the captain,” he mutters. “This isn’t over ‘til that bastard’s head comes off his body.” Mira heads back to the mezzanine, and should you follow, leads you down the stairs to the lower level. This area appears to be a barracks, but nobody is in the beds at the moment. There’s a large feast hall around the corner, where more mercenaries await you! This lot is being led by their captain, decked out in quality armor and sporting a deadly greatsword.
“Understand that it was just a business transaction,” he explains, nervous in spite of outnumbering you. “There was nothing personal about it!”
“I hope the money was worth it,” Mira cries, while Stennis moves in to engage, aiming directly for the mercenary captain. His cohorts try to block your way, but if you finish them off, you can assist the others in taking down their leader once and for all.
Should you survive the battle, Stennis cut’s the captain’s head off, as promised, then suggests you loot the place before you head out. “You’ve earned your cut, and honored the memory of our fallen comrades. Thank you.”
GM Notes: Most of the mercenaries are wearing light armor, with wooden shields and inferior weapons, but Captain Bekhim is well-equipped and is a formidable warrior. Scatter some random equipment and treasure throughout the base!
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Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.
