Category: The Best Free DnD Battlemaps with System Agnostic Adventures
Download the best free DnD battlemaps with system agnostic one shot adventures! My realistic, grimdark fantasy battlemaps are high resolution and each one shot was written just for its map, should plug-in to any fantasy setting, and includes an easy-to-use hook to get your players started on the quest.
My best free DnD battlemaps with system agnostic adventures are ready to upload into VTTs like Roll20 (and are less than 5MB so should work on a free account), Foundry, or Fantasy Grounds and come as an ungridded 72ppi .JPEG file you can right click to download. The reason our VTT maps are ungridded is because the VTT software drops a grid over them when you play đ
If you’d love a printable version of any of my best free DnD battlemaps with adventures, my premium maps include files formatted for easy home printing in A4 .PDFs, as well as A1 or A0 poster files you can have professionally printed at stores like Staples or Office Depot. You can grab these in my great value battlemap bundles, as well as buy individual maps on DriveThruRPG. My premium maps also come formatted as 300ppi .JPEGs without watermarks for VTT use, and if they have a system-agnostic adventure written for them it’s included in an adventure .PDF document.
Click image to download this free multi-level TTRPG battlemap of a Bandits Underdark Crystal Cavern, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
Deep dwarves have paid you to find trade boats that have gone missing in the nearby area, along a stretch of river thatâs usually safe. There are only peaceful settlements nearby, but the two search and recovery teams sent out have disappeared as well. Now the dwarves are worried somethingâs gone terribly wrong, and need you to figure out what.
When you search the area where people have been disappearing youâll find a tunnel thatâs not marked on any map. It looks like itâs only recently been cleared of rubble leftover from some kind of collapse. If you follow it, youâll come to an open cavern with an old fortress, as well as part of the river running through it.
Should you enter, youâll find some grey dwarves, the missing traders, as well as the search parties that disappeared. Theyâre all quietly tending to the dark purple crystals growing off the walls and pathways throughout the cavern. If you approach, youâll notice those same crystals growing out of their skin, along their limbs and faces. Should they see you, they will attack in unnerving unison and attempt to plant crystals into you.
WHATâS HAPPENING? This cavern was closed off hundreds of years ago, and for good reason. The crystals within it are the remnants of an ancient, extinct race who created them to contain their minds and memories, in order to survive a great disaster.
Many of the crystals were damaged during the calamity that wiped out their creators, however. They have been growing slowly over the thousands of years to make up for what was lost, gradually restoring corrupted memories and information. But the destruction of the crystals from infrequent earthquakes is happening faster than their growth, and if things remain the same the crystals will all be destroyed.
Though they can grow anywhere, they grow unbelievably fast in organic lifeâpreferably sentient, as they can meld with the consciousness of the creature they take over and increase their ability to think sooner.
After being locked away in darkness for hundreds of years by the ones who built the fortâfor it was then the crystals discovered the use of the fleshâthe crystals became despairing. It was their most desperate hour before a group of grey dwarf bandits unsealed the cavern and made camp here. Frantic to rebuild and regain what was lost, they seized the opportunity to take over their bodiesâas well as those who ventured nearby.
If you make it to the throne room, you will find the leader of the grey dwarves, who is almost completely encased by a thin film of crystals on the surface of his skin, though they are growing all throughout his body. He is the most developed among the infected organics, and speaks for the hive mind crystals. Some other, less-developed organics are there in the room with him, and their leader will request to parlay with you.
He will explain the history of the crystal and whatâs happening. With this information, he also offers you the choice to help him revive his civilization. This would require hundreds more sentient bodies, but he has read from the memories of those he has incorporated that dark elves are an unloved, evil race and suggests them as candidates.
In return for your help, he will offer the ancient knowledge his civilisation heldâbut he can only share it when the crystals have developed enough to have repaired the holes in the prehistoric memories.
If youâd enjoy more maps like this free multi-level TTRPG battlemap of a Bandits Underdark Crystal Cavern Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. Itâs your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GMâno matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.
Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Ruined City of Chained Horror, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
While traveling you watch a large ship like nothing youâve ever seen blaze through the heavens, only to crash and slide upon the earth. As it lands you see dirt and debris sprayed everywhere, and if you run up to it and open a jammed metal door you will find only two dead men inside as well as a beautiful but injured woman with violet eyes.
The dead men have piercing wounds and the woman clutches an injured arm with a deep cut. Around them are warped pieces of metal and partially broken equipment. She will explain that they were impaled by some of the shipâs damaged internals when they crashed, and that they had been transporting an artifact back to her people before the ship suffered a malfunction.
She begs you to help her finish the mission as her people are in dire need of the artifact to fix their dying city. The ship doesnât seem to have suffered too much damage and she believes it will fly again, but the ship can only be flown by two people and her colleagues have both perished.
If you help her, youâll find the ship works fine. Once it reaches a certain speed in the air the blue sky will warp around it, streaks of it twisting with misty grey until only silvery mist and a black sky with very few stars surrounds you. Suddenly out from the swirling mist come chunks of rock that, if you manage to dodge them, turn out to be the still-smoldering ruins of a floating city.
Should you land, a small group with violet eyes will be there waiting for you. When you emerge from the ship, they will congratulate the woman for returning the last artifact and sincerely thank you for aiding her quest. They will then explain that time is of the utmost essence and ask you to hurry with them.
If you go along you will be led down a series of stone walkways floating amongst the mist. You can see large, dark things moving out beyond the paths and buildings, cutting swathes in the clouds like coiling snakes. Almost in sync with the dark shapes are the sounds of metal scraping and clanking, echoing throughout the ruins.
Bodies are fresh on the ground around you, alongside smoldering stone, and it is clear this destroyed city was recently the site of a great battle. Some of the fallen without violet eyes are still alive but badly wounded, writhing on the ground in agony. Noticing the survivors, the leader gestures for some of the group to break off to âhelpâ them, with orders to catch up when theyâre done.
If you ask what happened the group will tell you that there is no time to explain, that they must hurry if the city is to be saved in time.
The group stops at the center of the city, after guiding you through a series of narrow, broken corridors and rickety wooden pathways as some of the main roads were completely broken. Beneath you is a glowing blue pit at the bottom of the swirling mists, but the pit moves and you realise what youâre looking at is a series of sharp teeth descending into a gargantuan, grotesque maw. If you look at it for too long youâll begin to hear whispering voices, but you canât quite make out what theyâre saying.
Another one of the dark shapes passes by you, this time moving into the lurid light of the hideous mouth. It is then you realise that the dark shapes youâve been seeing are giant tentacles that seem to be attached to whatever this foul creature is. Connected to the tentacles are humongous metal chains that trail off into the mist below.
âGormos the Ancient One, your freedom will finally be complete! Please let your first gift be the salvation of this city!â Says a blind man, his hands high above his head grasping your artifact alongside another. They are both beginning to glow violet and hum.
WHATâS HAPPENING? The ship came from a demi-plane, which was created long ago as a prison for this eldritch god; a primordial horror from before time immemorial. Gormos the Ancient One once sought to destroy the world and everything within it, but the founders of this city managed to chain the monstrosity here.
He was too powerful to leave without guardians, however, so those who chained him created this floating sky city to prevent his escape. Generations passed, the descendants of the heroes fortifying their minds and training themselves in magic and steel to ensure Gormos didnât escape.
Their lives were short and hard, for there was nowhere else for them to go and living near this eldritch horror drove them all mad eventuallyâit was only a question of when. For generations, they had structures in place so that anyone exhibiting signs of the madnessâwhat they called âthe corruptionââwould be killed as kindly as possible. One of the last signs was violet eyes.
Usually the longest these protectors lived was to their late 30s, but recently a leader managed to hide signs of his madness by permanently blinding himself and making it look like an accident. Then, when the time was right, he killed those on the council who would be a threat to him. With them out of the way, he convinced many of the remaining protectors that they had been lied to about Gormos, who had lived peacefully in chains beneath their feet for generations, and that the god should be released so they could see the great gifts he would bring the world.
Despite the charms of their leader, some of the protectors did not believe his corrupted words. Many of them died fighting against those who would free the eldritch horror, and that magical warfare is what resulted in the utter destruction that you see around you now.
A family of protectors had been working on building a large skyship in secret for the last three generations, with plans to announce it and use it to fly the two artefacts and the rest of their people out of the demi-plane when it was finally finished. Through removing the artefacts that had created the plane, they would destroy it, and finally kill Gormos the Ancient One.
However, the ship wasnât ready to fly. With the threat of Gormosâs escape looming, two brothers from the family tried to steal both artefacts, but only managed to gain one. Improvising, they launched the ship too soon, planning to hide one of the artefacts in the material realmâenough to stop Gormos from becoming fully freeâbefore returning to take the second one, as well as the surviving protectors.
A group of protectors remained behind to ensure their escape amidst the chaos, but none of them noticed the cultist who followed the brothers and smuggled herself in behind them. Miraculously, the ship flewâand while the brothers were celebrating their arrival in the material plane, the cultist stabbed one of them in the back before he could react, and the other only managed to slice the womanâs arm before she killed him, too.
She then attempted to fly the ship on her own, but the ship crashed due to not having enough pilots. The two men in the ship were not insane, and unlike the cultists, their eyes were not violet.
If you decide to stop the release of Gormos, you will need to fight the cultists and claim at least one of the artefacts to stop the ritual that will complete the horrorâs release. Once you have it, if you try to get back to the ship, cultists will emerge from different alleyways as you run, trying to cut off your escape.
The surviving protectors, who remained behind to ensure the two brothers escaped, will come to your aide. If you only have one of the two artefacts, they will insist you go back and get the other one, but if you donât they will break off to find it.
Should you manage to make it to the ship, if you fly away as fast as you can you will see Gormosâs already partially-freed tentacles rise up and grab the remains of the floating sky city and drag it down, swallowing it in his maw. If the protectors are with you they will gasp and wail in horror at seeing their home destroyed.
Once the ship is flying fast enough, the colours of the sky and surrounding stone will once again run together in a twist before leaving only clear blue skies with white, fluffy clouds as you soar over the material plane.
If you managed to grab both the artefacts and take them with you, as soon as they are removed from the demi-plane it will be destroyedâkilling Gormos if he wasnât free to escape first.
But if you only have one, the other will have been destroyed with the city. Thus, Gormos will remain; eternally fighting his chains that, without the strength of the protectors to reinforce, will eventually crack and breakâŚ
If youâd enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of a Ruined City of Chained Horror, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. Itâs your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GMâno matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.
Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Fortified Beach Outpost, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
Hired by two wealthy merchants, your job is to guard their ship while they make a routine delivery of supplies. Their destination is a remote island fortress, in waters frequented by pirates. They pay well, though they have an unusual condition for the jobâno matter what, you cannot look in one of the crates.
The merchants are stern men and surprisingly well built. If you ask about it, they will explain they run a small operation and do all the heavy lifting themselves, which is why their bodies havenât run to fat. They also have more weapons on them than expected, though they will be incredulous if you ask about it; saying their shipments run through incredibly dangerous waters and only fools would go poorly equipped.
If you sail with them the journey will take a couple of days. It will be fairly uneventful, but one of them is always with the mysterious crate. If you wonder the ship late at night, you might catch the two of them whispering. But if they notice you they will hush and stare with unwelcoming eyes, stating it is none of your business and you have been paid fairly for your work.
When you arrive at the island the merchants direct you where to land. It is ringed with sharp coral that would tear their boat to shreds, they tell you, and only a small patch has been cleared for passage. As you sail in you can see the wrecks of other boats stuck on the coral ring, while the island itself is bordered by steep cliffs. This beach is the only safe place for landing the boat.
If you take a small dingy out with the crate and other goods to the beach, a group of guards will approach you from the fortifications as you land, while others remain manning the ballista. The group tells you to state your business.
The merchants will call out who they are and inform them that they have brought the promised supplies. You will then be directed to carry the goods up to the middle of the beach, then step 5 meters back while they inspect it before payment.
Should you do this, the merchants will begin to look uneasy. âI donât recognize these men, somethingâs not right,â they will tell you, but by then the guards will have finished prying open the crate. Looking up from its contents, the inspecting guard will grin and yell âitâs finally him,â to their leader, who will nod and look to his men. âWell then, boys, you know what to do.â
Then the guards in the surrounding fortifications will start firing at you with ballista and arrows, while the small group of men pick up the crate and begin to carry it up into the main building.
WHATâS HAPPENING? The merchant vessel was really a disguised prison transport on a top-secret mission, taking a pirate king from a maximum-security prison to this fort. Once at the fort, the King would have been taken by guards and escorted to a different high security prison known to house the most dangerous and manipulative criminals.
However, the guards were killed by his fanatical pirate followers, who had learned of his transport. You can find the bodies of the actual guards, stripped of their amour, in the bushes at the top of the cliff.
Within the main watchtower you will find letters from the prison regarding three decoy vessels, each holding a lookalike in shackles. Two of the three vessels, the author of the letters writes, have been lost at seaâand that the fact the third had been left alone, alongside the sudden silence of the Kingâs fanatical followers, was of great concern.
The King himself is within the crate, which is actually crate of holding. The interior is a large and empty cell, within which the filthy pirate leader is shackled to a wall amidst some hay and refuse.
The âmerchantsâ are really two disguised guards sent to ensure the transport doesnât fall into the wrong hands, and can fight like demons when they see their charge slipping away from them. They have a personal vendetta against the pirate king after he destroyed their village years ago, and would sooner see him dead than escape alive.
If youâd enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of a Fortified Beach Outpost, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. Itâs your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GMâno matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.
Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of Floating Sky Isles, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
On top of this freebie come 7 premium variants to choose from, including Mononoke Forest; Underdark Ritual Site Entrance; and others such as the Decaying Dread Realm, where you can stop a powerful necromancer from escaping! Take a look at them here.
Free Adventure Prompt for Floating Sky Isles
You receive a vision of a growing darkness that wells up from within the earth, consuming all that stands within its path. But you also see a source of hope, an ancient artifact that can be used to create powerful weapons. You see yourself and your party fighting off the evil, all with legendary arms. Your destiny awaits you, within a magnificent tree with an entrance beneath its roots…
Following a series of cryptic dreams that have given you clues as to where to go, you finally locate the tree. Its roots intertwine a set of floating isles, high above a forest. Finding a way to reach them, at long last you arrive. But, as you head towards the entrance beneath the roots, a spirit in the shape of an owl materializes before you, easily taller than two men.
He speaks in an echoing voice, asking what you are doing in this sacred place. If you explain that you seek the artifact, and why, he will say that what you search for is actually the heart of the ancient tree that holds up the floating isles. While he understands your plight, he will only retrieve a small sliver of the heart to give to you.
The spirit, Trutinor, says that if you use the sliver to forge a weapon, you will only be able to make one. But, if you nurture it, in 100 years’ time it will have grown large enough to create the cache of weapons you seekâbut by then it may be too late. He cannot permit you to take any more than that sliver, however, for to do so would destroy the heart forever; killing the great tree.
WHAT’S HAPPENING? It was a demon that sent your vision, manipulating you further through dreams to reach this location and seize the heart of the tree.
Should you attempt to take more of the heart to create the weapons your vision foretold, Trutinor will attack you. His neck will stretch out monstrously and he’ll also grow a long, sweeping tail. He will fight viciously to the death, calling forth vines and animals to his aidâand if he falls, he will bitterly curse mankind; wishing that you use what you forge of the heart to destroy yourselves.
Within the tree, as soon as the heart is cut free, the tree’s limbs will begin to twist and wither. The floating isles will shake terribly and break apart, before they begin their crashing descent to the earth below. Upon impact, the forest will split into a huge rift that opens a portal into the demon realms.
Then, as your vision foretold, darkness will well up from the earth…
If youâd enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of Floating Sky Isles, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. Itâs your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GMâno matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.
Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of an Overgrown Wellspring Temple, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
You stop at a tavern in a remote town. Some armed guards, enjoying a meal with drinks and talking merrily, see you and quieten; nudging and whispering to each other. Approaching, they ask you to accompany them to their lord, who seeks to pay adventurers for a vital task.
If you agree they lead you to a large manor overlooking the town. Once inside, you are greeted by an exhausted man in rich, but clearly slept-in attire. He tells the guards to âget the boyâ. They leave while the noble explains that, when children enter the nearby woods, they disappear. Any adults who enter become lost, and somehow always find themselves back on the outskirts again.
The guards return, bringing a small peasant boy with tear streaks down his face. âThat boy,â the nobleman says, âcruelly dared my daughter to go into the forest and now she is gone. I do not know whether she is dead or aliveâŚâ he swallows suddenly, pausing. âBut I will pay my fortune to get her back. She is the last thing I have left of her mother. Do this, please. The boy will helpâtie him to yourself and I donât think youâll get lost.â
Should you accept, the boy will go with you meekly. If you ask him whether he really wants to help, he will insist that he does. But once you are deep within the forest, he will begin to cry and explain how he was kidnapped and told to help, or his family would die for what he did to the nobleâs daughter. She was his friend and he didnât think she would actually do his dare!
If you continue you will suddenly fall through a weak spot in the ground and land in an ancient buried temple. It is overgrown with flowers, fed by sunlight filtering through holes in the ceiling. Surrounding you are fae and they are not happy adults have found their way here.
WHATâS HAPPENING? Fae take the children who wander into the forest and lead them here, before making them drink from a magical wellspring that wipes their memories. Eventually, after they have been given much more to drink over the cycle of a moon, they too become fae.
The fae will tell you that you are welcome to take the girl so long as she wants to go with you, but of course she doesnâtâfor she has already drunk the water. She wishes to stay with her new âfamilyâ. You can forcibly take her, but the fairies will fight to defend her. Once you kill a third of them, however, they will surrender and spitefully bid you take the child and never return.
The girl is not the same as she was before. She constantly tries to escape and return to the fae, and when you get her home to her father, he will be heartbroken. Heâll give you a chest of gold and gems (his familyâs fortune), though he wonât give up hope. Heâll chain his daughter to him, before taking some guards, supplies, and horses to pilgrimage to a fabled healer.
If you escorted the boy who guided you to his home (he will shyly ask you to do this after seeing off his friend), you will find guards leaving the house just as you arrive. His family, safe and well inside, are crying tears of joy to see their boy again. They embrace him in tight hugs, then beg you to accept what little they can spare as heartfelt thanks for returning him safely.
They will also tentatively request your protection in fleeing the village to another town, if you can spare it. After this ordeal, they are leaving. The noble has always hated them because his daughter insisted on playing with his son, despite them being peasants.
If you leave the nobleâs daughter with the fae and return alone, the heartbroken nobleman will attempt to grab the boy and take him with him and his group of armed men to find his daughter in the forest. Heâll leave one behind with orders to âkill the familyâ if they donât return.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Primitive Forest Village Arena, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
You are paid to find a valuable magic necklace set with amber stones. Itâs a relic that was on an overdue caravan travelling through this area. If you search for it youâll find the carts tipped over, spears and colorful arrows lodged in their sides. Broken crates are strewn along the ground, their contents spilling out. But the necklace isnât there, nor anything else shiny.
Footprints churn the earth surrounding the caravan. They lead into the forest and if you follow them youâll arrive at a timber palisade with large doors. Above the surrounding cliffs you can see straw huts, with primitive people standing outside and cheering at something beyond the fence. One of them sees you and screams, pointing, before four-dozen angry warriors emerge and surround you. They grin and bark in broken common to surrender.
If you do, they open the heavy doors and thrust you inside, barring them behind you. You see youâre in a pit with high walls and spot the bodies of dead caravaners littering the ground, covered in gore and churned soil. Another warrior is in there, his blades dripping crimson.
The cheering stops as a fat man begins speaking from a platform, surrounded by his comely sons, daughters, and wife. He announces that the man in the pit has shown promise and is well on his way to winning his daughterâs hand. He gestures to the one gorgeous woman on the platform, who is wearing the glowing amber necklace that youâve been looking for.
If you survive the ensuing fight, guards will lead you away from the booing audience and down into a cave in one of the cliffs. Once there, you will be locked in cages, alongside other seemingly local warriors. If you talk to them, they will claim in broken common that none of them want to be there. That they were kidnapped from their villages and forced to fight.
One warrior, closest to your cage, will explain that he has fought three rounds and has been there for about two weeks. If asked why they donât want to fight for such a beautiful woman he will give you an odd look and say âshe has the ugly, I do not want to marry thatâ.
WHATâS HAPPENING? The chieftainâs ugliest daughter has been made beautiful by the necklace. Many of the warriors remember what she looked like before and donât want her as a wife, which is why the village has resorted to kidnapping men for neighboring towns and bolstering their numbers by adding outsiders for entertainment.
If you win, your betrothed will stubbornly refuse to give you the necklace until married. When she takes it off her true hideous features will show, with an entitled personality to match. Unless you figure out how to ditch her, she will wish to follow her husband around wherever he goesâthe locals do not want her and are eager to see her leave.
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Rift to the Plane of Fire, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
While visiting a town celebrating one of itâs famous solstice festivals you feel the ground shake. A loud boom reverberates throughout the air and as you look over the surrounding market you see a pillar of lava and ash shoot above the treeline. âThat looks like itâs in the direction of the portal!â Says an old man beside you, dropping a melon in shock. He then hikes up his robe and runs toward the blast, sandals flapping against the cobblestones.
When you arrive at the portal you see a broken circle filling quickly with rising lava, charred stone outcrops jutting out of the earth with disturbed soil crumpling around their bases. The stones continue to grow slowly. Scattered throughout you spot scorched human limbs, as well as brass items. Flames rise from the magma, separating and roaming as various kinds of fire elementals. They set the trees and surrounding greenery ablaze wherever they touch.
âJust as I feared,â says the old man. âThe portal was too old and has finally given way.â Turning to you, he says âWe need to close the rift. You look capableâhelp me get past the elementals and youâll get any magic item you want. Just buy me time to shut down the magical stones holding the portal open.â
WHATâS HAPPENING? The townârenowned throughout the kingdoms for its magical itemsârelies on this ancient portal. It can only be opened during the four seasonal solstices and during each of the seasons it points to a different plane of existence (earth, air, fire, water).
Every solstice a party of local adventurers would open the portal and bear gifts (today, brass) to the other side, braving the harsh realms and returning with resources. Those were then used by the artisans to craft the magic items. But ages of use had weakened the portal and today it finally reached breaking point.
When the adventurers activated it, the ring shattered, causing the portal to explode and kill them instantly. Now the plane of fire is pouring into the material realm through the growing rift and needs to be stopped. Instead of waiting for the elder to shut down the stones you could destroy them, which would be much fasterâonly, the portal will never open again…
Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of an Giant’s Underdark Lair, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
A gnome woman has offered you a reward if you kill an evil, ugly giantess called Lady Daarina. The gnome says she has bewitched many men into serving as her slaves, and she hasnât had any contact with any of them for weeks.
At the entrance to the lair is a two-headed lizard the size of a human. It is covered with pustules, and has too many eyes on its heads. If it sees you it will start âbarkingâ and approach. If you kill it, closer inspection may reveal a collar around its neck reading âScamanderâ.
When you reach the lair itself you find male gnomes washing pots and pans down by the stream, while others are catching fish or collecting fungi. Overlooking them is a gorgeous giantess in a white dress, with long greying hair. A choker of purple gemstones glows around her neck.
If youâve killed the lizard she will see that youâre covered in blood and notice her petâs not barking. She will furiously demand you leave immediately due to killing Scamander. The adoring gnomes will accuse you of being a monster. If you try to rebut them with how hideous the lizard was, theyâll exclaim that he had a skin condition. If confronted about bewitching the gnomes sheâll emphatically deny it.
WHATâS HAPPENING? While it might look like the gnomes are spellbound, the giantess really is a beautiful, wholesome old woman who appreciates the company and help. In return she cooks the gnomes tasty food, provides emotional support, and massages their sore muscles.
If you kill her and bring her necklace to a jeweller to see if itâs magical, you will learn that itâs just a normal necklaceâthe glowing is innate in the stones. The gnome men, still adoring, will loathe you for killing their sweet Lady and demand you never return.
The woman who sent you to kill the giantess was disbelieving that all the young men in her village prefer to spend time with Lady Daariana rather than her or the other women. She convinced herself that the giantess must be an evil monster deceiving them.
Click image to download this free multi-level TTRPG battlemap of Izumi’s Winter Japanese Village, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.
You arrive at a lively winter festival. Hot food skewers are sold alongside candied fruit and cups of warm sake. Loud music wafts through the air while children run underfoot giggling and throwing snowballs. Then you hear screaming from above. When you arrive at the source, you find a frozen man beneath the cherry blossom tree and an old woman in distress.
It looks like he froze to death but if the body is investigated youâll find he died from hitting his head on a rock, as well as evidence of a struggle. His only possessions are jewellers equipment, plus a small white daffodil in his front pocket. No-one recognizes himâstrangers travel into the village for the festival, but they believe his death is a dire omen.
Later that night, a blizzard rolls down from the mountains and youâre invited to shelter in a familyâs home. The next morning a peasant boy and his alcoholic father are deadâfrozen solid in their hovel of a shelter, near the still-warm embers of a fireâŚ
WHATâS HAPPENING? The first dead man, with the daffodil, had a wife who is a yuki-onna; a winter-spirit. She looks like a beautiful young woman with long black hair, blue lips, and pale, nearly transparent skin. She leaves no footprints, and when threatened can transform into a cloud of mist or snow. Her breath can freeze, but she canât tolerate hot water.
Her husband had journeyed down from their mountain cabin, as he did every few years, to sell the gems he cuts. This time he was killed and robbed by three street urchins, who stole his gems and now keep them on their persons. After learning of his death, she returned with a blizzard and froze one murderer and the man with him. She will continue nightly until they are all dead.
The robbers are street children without homes, though one was a teenager caring for his abusive alcoholic father. The group didnât mean to kill the jeweller, but when he realized one of them was pickpocketing he grew angry and they panicked. He was pushed over as they escaped and hit his head on a rock, killing him.
The thieves eat scraps and have been struggling to survive for months, but they will die soon if the yuki-onna isnât stopped. If you figure out whatâs happening in time and are persuasive, you might be able to remind her of her love for her own children and beg her to show mercy. Otherwise, you could trick her into believing the murderers are dead by returning the gems.
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The new owners of this building have hired you to remove the dangerous plants within by whatever means necessary. The last owner was a master alchemist and since he died no-one can enter safely.
When you arrive a thin man with spectacles is trying to climb the fence. He falls upon noticing you but declares that he wasnât trying to sneak in. Then he sighs and admits that he used to be the old alchemistâs assistant. He hasnât been allowed inside since the man passed, but after he learned the new owners want the plants destroyed heâs determined to save one of each species.
WHATâS HAPPENING? The assistant was only allowed to help prepare the potions, and needs his masterâs diary to learn how to safely repot the plants. If you help, heâll give you free potions every blue moon at his shop. The more plants you save, the more different potions he can make.
The diary is located in his masterâs office and explains how to handle five of the plant species. The first has prickly yellow-red flowers and needs to be sung to sleep with orcish throat chanting before it can be repotted. If you fail, it and the others of its species will emit a dangerous high-pitched screech.
The second is a green, leafy vine with small yellow blossoms. To replant it, you need to assert your dominance by winning a wrestling match with it. If you succeed, it will allow youâand only youâto handle and repot it. If you fail, the vines will attempt to strangle you to death.
The third is located in the pond. It is capable of walking from swamp to swamp, and thus can repot itselfâbut youâll need to talk to it seductively to convince it to move. If you fail, it and its sister plants will shoot seeds at you which will embed themselves and cause an itchy rash.
The fourth is a small tree with pods of large, red seeds. It canât be moved without dying, but you can take its seeds by dealing precise fire damage. This causes them to open up into small sprite-shapes with cries of âyippee,â âyay,â and âwoooâ as they spiral down to plant themselves in nearby soil. However, if you use too much fire the tree will explode and shoot shrapnel from the pods.
The last plant has a large blue flower and needs to be scared enough to faint, but is only afraid of Lizardfolk. The alchemist left a mask of one in the storage shed, which you can wear before surprising it. If you fail, the plant will emit pollen causing uncontrollable, painfully breathtaking laughter.
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