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.
While staying at a tavern at the edge of a dismal swamp, you hear a loud thud at the front door. When investigated, you find a half unconscious man leaning up the door cradling his left arm which looks to be badly injured. When his wound has been treated and after some time to recover, the man becomes conscious enough to answer some questions.
If you ask what happened, he says his name is Kaleb and that he is part of an expedition group that set out three weeks ago to catalog the ruins of an ancient domed building deep in the swamp, however something horrible has occurred.
He continues that yesterday, part of the dome collapsed; crashing into the floor of the temple and breaking through into an underground water filled cavern. At first, his group believed the waters to be swamp water rushing in from the outside of the temple but soon eel-like creatures began appearing in the waters inside the temple, coming from the cavern below.
Two of the group decided to study them while the rest focused their efforts on the glyphs that covered the domed walls. He was finishing up a translation of one of the fragmented stone tablets theyâd found, and it was late at night by the time he figured out that the symbols were a warning about the eel-like creatures.
They had been sealed in an underground vault below the temple. Apparently they were intelligent parasitic beings who took host bodies so they could leave their murky waters and sow terror and destruction.
He shiverâs and gulps, before explaining that when he went to warn the two expedition members studying the eels they were acting weird and knew he was too late. He tried to warn the others that were sleeping, but they were overpowered by the eel-controlled men who threw them into the waters where the other eels were waiting. He barely escaped with his life only because he wasnât already asleep.
Kaleb pleads with you to go back to the temple with him and make sure the creatures donât make it out of the templeâeven if it means killing the hosts. He believes they should still be there as it takes some time for an eel to take full control of their new bodies.
However, if you try to get Kaleb to stay he refuses, explaining that the other expedition members were like family to him and he needs to go as he may be able to get through to the hosts, before it comes to killing them. He needs to take that chance.
When you arrive at the domed ruin you find the expedition members waiting within. Kaleb puts his hand up and asks you to just give him a moment to try and get through to them, however after approaching the hosts Kaleb instead kneels, claiming that he did his best to bring a more suitable host for The Great One. The man in front of him nods adding that you should do nicely, before motioning for the others to subdue you.
GMâs Notes:
Kaleb was actually among the first to come under the control of one of the eels, and thus the eel had more control over his body. He was tasked with finding more hosts for his remaining kin, as well as the eelâs leader called The Great One.
He was unfortunately attacked by a crocodile while traveling through the swamp, which he killed with the super strength that the eel provides to his host. But he was injured in the exchange, which he used to lend even more credence to his cover story.
If you enjoyed this Swamp Ruins Camp Free 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đÂ
Download this Sunken King Charles James Merchant Ship free multi-level 40Ă30 DnD battlemap & adventure, featuring jumping to the future only to find your player’s character’s corpses. VTT ready!
Sunken King Charles James Merchant Ship Free Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure
Doomed Voyage
This is the first of a three-part adventure!
While traveling along a highway between cities, you notice a ripple in the air on the road just ahead. If you decide to carefully observe this strange occurrence, a few seconds later a wild-haired old man in a wizardâs robe, bearing a crumpled hat tumbles through it, clutching a tall, gnarled staff. He glances around frantically, then spots you watching him from nearby.
âYou there! My name is Ellet Green, a wizard and expert on time and space. Have we met before? No, never mind that now. I have need of your assistance with a matter of utmost importance!â
Should you choose to hear him out, Ellet continues. âA ship transporting a cargo I desperately need is in trouble and I need your help! The vessel isnât far from here â speaking fourth dimensionally of course â but I will need to maintain several complex spells in order to pinpoint its precise location. Iâll have my hands full, so youâll have to grab the vital supplies while Iâm busy. Sounds easy, right?â
If you agree this does indeed sound easy enough and decide to assist this mad wizard, Ellet brandishes his staff and orders you to stand back. He appears to be concentrating furiously, occasionally sending a shower of sparks from his fingertips as he summons strange powers beyond your comprehension. Finally, he conjures a swirling rift of magical energies, then waves for you to follow him through.
If you go through the magical portal, you suddenly find yourself hovering a short distance above the ocean on a fine, clear day!
âDonât be alarmed, my magic will keep us from plunging into the depths,â Ellet assures you. âNow then, the ship is called King Charles James, and sheâs a modestly-sized merchant vessel. Odd, this should be the place where the ship was traveling. Iâm certain my spell gave me accurate coordinates. Perhaps this isnât the right day? No, thatâs correct too. Give me a moment to think.â
If youâre perceptive, you might notice that there is a glimmer of something beneath the waves, right below you in the shallow waters. If you bring this to Elletâs attention, he snaps his fingers.
âOf course! The ship IS here, sheâs just underwater⌠wait, thatâs terrible news! Hold on a moment, weâll take a closer look.â He whispers some words of power and a shimmer surrounds you for a moment. âIâve cast a spell that will allow us to breathe and move underwater for a while. Brace yourself!â
Suddenly, you plunge into the water as his levitation spell is dismissed. The chill of the ocean currents takes you by surprise, but you quickly become accustomed to it. You slowly sink beneath the waves, though you are able to breathe normally, as promised.
Below you is the distinctive shape of a ship, resting in the shallows on an underwater ridge. There are signs of damage visible in the shifting patterns of light from above, and thereâs no sign of survivors.
âWe must get closer and find out what happened,â Ellet says, his voice perfectly clear in the underwater realm. Should you float down on the shipâs deck, you almost immediately sense movement from around you. Huge electric eels emerge from the damaged sections of the hull, making their way toward you with menace in their black eyes!
âDispatch these beasties while I maintain the magic allowing us to operate here,â Ellet advises. Should you manage to fight off the giant eels, the way is clear for you to head to the lower deck. Itâs much darker inside the shipâs hold, but by the light filtering in through the holes, you see something big lurking within! It appears to be the parent of the eels you just fought, three times the size and very angry!
It attacks, using doors and holes in the hull to dart in and out, attacking you from different directions, showing it is a cunning and devious predator. But should you prevail against it, the ship has been secured and Ellet can take a closer look at the shipâs contents.
âAll of this cargo is ruined,â he laments, pushing aside crates filled with flour or wine, all of it destroyed from exposure to the salty sea water. You also see a few bodies down here, long dead by the looks of them, yet they seem oddly familiar. Ellet pokes at them with his staff and then gasps.
âGood heavens! These bodies, the equipment theyâre wearing â itâs you!â Should you have the courage to look closer, you find the corpse is carrying your gear, and appears to be your size!
âSomehow,â Ellet muses, âwe came too far forward in time. You â I mean this body has been dead for several months at least. The cursed eels were feeding on it! Grisly stuff, for certain. But this means⌠you were somehow on this ship when she went down! We must get to the bottom of this. Come, I will take us back in time to before she was sunk!
Ellet opens another portal and grabs you by the arm, pulling you through to your next adventure!
GMâs Notes:
If you enjoyed this Sunken King Charles James Merchant Ship Free Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
See how the adventure for Sunken King Charles James Merchant Ship Free Multi-Level 40Ă30 Battlemap & Adventure ends by taking your players to The Place Between which this was written for, as well as 16+ locations in our early access Game Masterâs Adventurerâs Guide Bundle, which has over 300 pages of content. Youâll get 74 battlemaps with system-agnostic adventures written just for them, maps of the towns, locations, faction lists, important NPCs (portraits included), more adventure seeds, plus digital item cards with loot your players can find! Thatâs at least 74 easy sessions of fun for only $28, take a better look here.
Upside Down Portal Free 40Ă30 Battlemap & Adventure
Forgotten Elder Blood
One day while walking to a remote town situated in a dark redwood forest, you pass a lone, playing girl of about 13 who is drawing an unusual monster in the dirt road with a stick. There are some cuts and scrapes on her body. If you try to talk to the girl, however, she is too shy to say anything and will start running back to town.
When you arrive at the town, the place seems partially abandoned and many of the houses are boarded up. You hear voices from the tavern. If you go in, thereâs a meeting where the townsfolk are discussing the disappearances of local children.
Theyâre clearly frightened, and talking over one another about how the kids have been snatched from their rooms from behind closed doors. The kids will scream or call for help but by the time the parents rush in, theyâre just gone. But sometimes thereâs⌠Disturbing signs. The children arenât just disappearing, thereâs something snatching them!
Then a very old man will shake his cane at the crowd, insisting that it smacks of âElder Bloodâ but the others will brush him off, saying thatâs just a myth and thereâs never been any sign of Elder Blood being real.
At this point the locals notice you, and are excited to see that youâre an adventurer. They ask if you could investigate the rooms where the three missing children have disappeared, and then hunt down the monster that took them.
Should you go look at the houses, the distressed parents of missing children will lead you to the rooms of their lost children. There are three in total, and in general the rooms look normal. There are toys scattered about, some scribbles on the walls, or they are otherwise neat childrenâs rooms. Thereâs no damage to the door, walls, or window.
If you look closely in the rooms, you might find fingernail scratches leading under the bed-as if a child was dragged there unwillingly. The scratches end under the bed, however, and there is no further damage there or signs where the child went. Thereâs also sap, from a specific kind of tree, but you havenât seen any in the area.
As you approach the last room, however, youâll hear noises from within. The voice of a child, saying âMom, Iâm scaredâŚâ But if you go inside, there isnât the missing childÂŹ-instead, thereâs what appears to be an inhumanely tall figure, with pale, slick skin. Itâs playing with the blocks on the ground, but when it sees you its face will split apart into a giant mouth and roar at you, with tentacles bursting from its back and writhing, before it disappears into a puff of black smoke that implodes upon itself and vanishes.
You might remember the monster the little girl was drawing on the side of the road, as itâs similar to what you just saw. If you ask the locals about the girl, theyâll explain that sheâs an orphan whose parents died in a tragic accident some years back, and give you directions to where she lives.
If you go to the girlâs home (she lives in her deceased parentâs house) and she sees you, the color will drain from her face. She will try to run away into the forest.
Should you manage to catch her, she will cry in distress and say that she didnât mean to do it. If you ask her what sheâs talking about, sheâll explain, sniffling, that the other children were always mean to her. Usually sheâd run into the forest and it would be OK, but not last time. The main bully followed her, and pushed her up against a tree after having thrown rocks at her while she ran away.
She was so scared, the girl explains, she screamed and then the tree split open and a monster came out. It killed him, she says, and she managed to escape. At first, she thought the monster was her friend, because after the main bully disappeared, so did two of the others. But now itâs started coming after her and sheâs terrified of it. She can⌠Sense it. Itâs full of hatred, and fear, and confusion-and itâs coming after her.
At this point the old man from the town meeting will call out to the girl from afar while away, asking if sheâs alright. As he approaches, he says he was worried about her so came to check in. Seeing you, heâll ask what youâve learned about the disappearances so far. If you tell him, heâll sigh and nod his head, saying he thought as much.
Heâll then tell you about the Elder Blood, saying itâs a gift the bloodline of the villagers held, but that it hasnât been seen in at least six generationsÂŹ-until now. He says it gives those who have it strange and powerful psychic abilities which has historically kept their village safe from all kinds of calamities. However, the old man explains, the gift is incredibly dangerous. He says he was one of a select handful trained to recognize the Elder Blood in others, as an untrained mind with the gift can wreak untold havoc. It takes many years of training and mental discipline to control.
Heâll then explain that the girl has the gift, but cannot control it consciously yet. If you ask if the monster is just a figment of her psyche, heâll shake his head and say no, explaining that the monster is very real. Heâll say that, very occasionally, one highly gifted in these abilities can tear a rip into another dimension, allowing monsters like the one you met to come through. The monsters, called Imitators⌠Well, they take on aspects of their victims, for a time. What they said before they die, memories of where home was. They eventually fade, but until they do it allows them to better hunt new victims with.
The old man says that you need to go to the tree where the rip is and defeat the monster thatâs been coming out of it-but that you need to take him and the girl as well. The girl will be bait, the old man explains, saying that the two are inexorably linked seeing as she summoned it here.
The girl will protest at this, but the old man will look at her sharply and ask if sheâd rather the monster hunt her while there are friendly adventurers ready to kill it, or to snatch her in the night like it did those other children?
Sheâll pipe down at this, beginning to cry quietly, while the old man continues to explain that once the monster is dead heâll try guide the girl into closing the rift she created. She needs strong emotions, such as fear, to utilize her powers and close the rift. If she doesnât succeed, he concludes, more monsters will keep coming through.
Should you let the girl guide you to where the tree is (prodded by the stern old man), the monster will emerge from the rift, sniffing after her with a sightless face. It has the ability to faze between dimensions with a puff of black smoke as you saw in the childâs bedroom, and will attack with bites and its tentacles from its back (which have little toothy protuberances on them).
While you are fighting the monster, the old man will guide the girl in closing the rift. She will struggle but eventually it will seal, and sheâll faint with a bloody nose from the effort.
Once the monster is dead, the old man will come up to you for a quiet word. Heâll explain that if the village learns of what happened, they will want her dead. Itâs been a long time since theyâve seen the Elder Blood, and theyâll be afraid of it. He asks that you keep the source of the monster to yourself, but tell them that it has been dealt with, so that he can take the girl on and train her as he was taught to do. It is a precious gift, the old man explains, and one which must not be squandered.
If you go back to the village and lie to the townsfolk, saying that you found and killed the monster, but omitting the other important details, they will all be relieved and pay you with some valuable relics theyâve passed down through many generations. However, the parents of the dead children will break down into tears, having been holding onto hope that perhaps they had just run away or were missing.
Should you tell the villagers the truth instead, they will work themselves up into an angry mob over what happened, and set out to kill both the old man for doing nothing to stop the âyoung witchâ and the girl for her dangerous abilities. But, if they reach the girl, her stress will open another rift while her and the old man will vanish without a trace.
GMâs Notes:
Try make sure your players see the monster jump scare in the childâs bedroom. If you get the feeling theyâre not going to go see all the rooms, put it in the first, or the second, that they visit.
If your players decide to follow up the path of the tree sap instead of visiting the girl, the locals will explain that thereâs only one tree like that in the forest, before giving you directions. It is the tree that contains the rift, and the sap that was on the monster from where it crawled through.
The old man came to check on the young girl with the Elder Blood because he knows he was right about the blood and was worried that you investigating the monster would lead you to believe she was a witch and try to kill her or turn her in to the other villagers.
The girl is the one who accidentally killed her parents, when she was much younger. One day, while having a tantrum, they just disappeared. Other villagers eventually found their bodies in the forest later, at the bottom of a cliff, and had assumed they had slipped and fallen down while walking together. They didnât believe the then very young girlâs story of her parents just disappearing.
If youâd enjoy more TTRPG resources like this Upside Down Portal free 40Ă30 battlemap & adventure, 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 that are now also FoundryVTT ready, 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.
While traveling through the countryside, you come across what appears to be a makeshift village consisting of tents and other improvised shelters. Thereâs a general buzz of activity here, with lots of people equipped for work. Shovels, pickaxes and barrows are dotted around the place, hinting at some sort of excavation taking place.
One of the people working in the camp notices you and heads in your direction. Sheâs a small woman wearing a big floppy hat to shield her from the sun, a white shirt and practical trousers that are covered in dirt.
âHello there!â she calls, waving at you as she approaches. âLovely day for a bit of exploration, donât you think? Iâm Bethany Ross, lending my expertise in engineering to this band of explorers today.â
Should you inquire as to what theyâre up to out here in the middle of nowhere, Bethany is happy to explain. âOne of the farmers who owns this area wants to dig a new dam right here, and lo and behold, he strikes some sort of structure beneath the surface.
He poked around for a while before figuring heâd better get an expert in to take a look. And here I am! Itâs quite a find heâs stumbled upon. Do you have any interest in archeological finds? Fascinating subject. You can come and take a look if you wish.â
Should you agree to go and have a look, she guides you over to the camp. Just beyond it lies a great hole dug in the ground, leading to a tunnel that is clearly made of well-crafted stone.
âItâs dwarven in origin,â Bethany explains, âunmistakable. The strange thing is, I never knew there was a dwarven tunnel system this far from the mountains. From what Iâve seen, itâs rather old, so it probably pre-dates any current settlements by a considerable amount of time.
âThen thereâs the question of why they were here. Perhaps they found some undiscovered vein of riches? Thatâs generally why mines are dug so thatâs the most likely reason. Weâre still piecing things ââ
Sheâs interrupted by a scream coming from the tunnel entrance! Bethany, along with several other people, rush over, and should you follow, you see two men emerging from the tunnel, leaning on each other for support and sporting a number of dreadful wounds.
âJack, what happened?â Bethany asks while others tend to the injured.
âSomething down there ambushed us,â the man named Jack gasped. âSomething moving around in the darkness…â his voice trails off, but before he passes out, he says more. âThe others! Ambushed⌠cut off from escape⌠must helpâŚâ
âDamnation, our people are in there,â Bethany mutters as the two injured men are taken away for further treatment. Bethany grabs a pickaxe and turns to you. âJudging from your attire, you seem to be an experienced adventurer. We need to rescue the remainder of the team, and most of us arenât warriors. Please help us!â
Should you agree to assist, Bethany nods in appreciation and leads you to the tunnel entrance. Lanterns have been placed at regular intervals, lighting your way into the depths of the earth.
Soon, you arrive at a large chamber with columns roughly carved out of the earth. Water from an underground stream pools here, running into the surrounding rock walls.
âThis was the first site we uncovered,â Bethany explains in a hushed voice. âThe team was working further in, so we have to keep going.â Should you follow, Bethany will lead you through an ancient stone door, and through another small passage until you reach a square room with tables and a rusty steel grate in the middle of the floor.
âItâs just beyond here,â Bethany says, urging you on. You pass through another door into a larger chamber containing three large brass faces molded into the stone. There, on the other side of the room near the faces you see five wounded people trying to fend off an attack by a horde of ravening dwarven zombies!
âWe have to help them!â Bethany shouts, rushing in to swing her pickaxe at one of the rotting flesh monsters. They turn to attack, and spot you there too! Should you manage to fight your way through the horde, you reach the team, who are still very much alive.
âThey seem to be able to move, so letâs get them out of here first,â Bethany advises. She drops her pickaxe and helps the most wounded to walk, while you defend the group. You make it back to the room with the floor grate, but find that the rusty metal has given way, and more zombies are rising into the room from below!
âThese must be the remains of the dwarven diggers who came here long ago!â Bethany cries. âYou have to get us out of here or we may join their ranks!â
Should you manage to fight your way through the mob, you rush back to the larger, water-filled chamber to find a bunch of zombies have risen from the waters and merged together to form a lumbering giant of limbs and rotting flesh! It hunches over, unable to stand straight with the low ceiling, but comes at you anyway!
Should you defeat the zombie giant, you manage to get the rest of the team to safety outside. Bethany struggles to catch her breath, and orders the entrance be sealed, lest the horde within finds their way out.
âWeâll find a way to safely investigate the site later, but for now, we need to tend to our injured. Thank you so much for your assistance! Here, have some gold for your troubles, and also I want to give you this.â She offers you an amulet that was hanging around her neck. âIt has some obscure magic that grants you a little extra luck, and I think it saved me more than once in there. May it bring you good fortune!
If you enjoyed this Dwarven Underworks Excavation Site Free Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ Â
Download this Ruined Jungle Village of Nagia Falls free multi-level 40Ă30 DnD battlemap & adventure, featuring an excavation of an ancient magic spacecraft. VTT ready!
Ruined Jungle Village of Nagia Falls Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure
The Hidden Treasures of Nagia Falls
While visiting a small village near a thick jungle, you are approached by a young woman with bright eyes and an expression of barely concealed enthusiasm. Sheâs dressed like an explorer, and has a large pack filled with supplies on her back.
âHello, my name is Penelope Smock, an explorer and archaeologist. My expedition is about to set out to discover the location of a remarkable find from a lost civilization, and we could use a little muscle, just in case. Not that I expect anything to go wrong, mind you! But it never hurts to take precautions.
âIn addition to a generous retainer, Iâm willing to give you a cut of any treasures we find at the site. It lies deep in the jungle, so we have a couple of days travel ahead of us, and thereâs likely to be some ongoing exploration of the site, so weâd like you to stay in the area for a few weeks. Are you at all interested?â
If you agree to accept her offer, Penelope will smile broadly and shake your hand. âWe leave within the hour, so if youâve any last-minute shopping to do, nowâs the time. Letâs meet up just outside the village entrance.â
Once youâre ready to go, you can meet Penelope and the rest of her team before heading further into the jungle. Her people number around twenty, and are carrying all sorts of equipment including large axes, hammers, nails, everything one would use to build a permanent base. If you inquire further about Penelopeâs intentions, sheâs happy to explain further.
âIf this turns out as my research suggests, weâll need to be there for a month or two in order to fully uncover the wonders the place is hiding. Of course, if Iâm wrong, weâll be back before the end of the week!
âBut it is my firm hope that the site reveals what I hope it does. Youâll have to forgive me for dancing around a complete answer. The group of guards I hired for my last expedition came highly recommended, but it turned out they were under the employ of a rival of mine, Doctor Claude Eastman, a man who will stop at nothing to possess the relics of old and use that knowledge for his own ends.â
âSo, to avoid that problem, I waited until the last minute and looked for some local adventurers who couldnât possibly have any affiliation with the good doctor. And here you are! Well, enough chit-chat, letâs get there already!â
You continue on through the jungle for two full days, before Penelope spots a statue almost completely obscured by lush vines.
âItâs a signpost of sorts,â she explains, clearing away the greenery to reveal a strange language etched into the stone. âThis way to Nagia Falls. This is it! Weâre nearly there!â With renewed vigor, she presses on, and should you follow, you are treated to the sight of a cliff rising out of the jungle with a plateau visible up high.
Two sets of large doors are built into the side of the cliff, but one of those is damage and open to the jungle.
âThatâs our way in,â Penelope says, pointing at the breached doors. âDonât worry about the climb, I brought a few trinkets to help out!â She goes to one of her team and retrieves a rope with a gem-studded grappling hook at one end. She whirls it around and tosses it up to the breached door, and the grappling hook magically clamps on.
âFollow me,â she cries, crabbing onto the rope which retracts upward, carrying her aloft with ease! The rope extends once sheâs safe, and one by one, youâre able to ascend the cliff. When you reach the top however, you see Penelope is fending off writhing plants, trying to snare her and feed her into a giant toothed maw!
Should you kill the giant carnivorous plant at the entrance, Penelope thanks you, then straightens her torn tunic and leads you through a tunnel to another chamber, while the rest of the team make the ascent. She lights the place with a small wand, and what she sees there takes her breath away.
âA Nagia Gemcraft,â she breathes. âIâve never seen one intact before. That alone was worth the effort! Iâll be investigating that soon, but right now we should get to the surface and set up camp.â
Should you follow her back along the passageway, you find some stairs leading up, and soon emerge onto the plateau where you see ruined buildings from the long lost civilization. Unfortunately, you can see the place is infested with more flesh-eating plants!
âNot this time,â Penelope cries, taking out a gem-tipped wand that crackles with lightning. âLetâs clear this place out!â With her help, you can take on a bunch of these horrid monstrosities.
Should you survive, Penelope thanks you a great deal for your efforts, and pays you your first bag of gold. âWe can take it from here, but donât go too far away as we might need your assistance again soon. Thanks!â she then moves to help her team set up camp for the night.
GM’s Notes:
The giant plants canât move of course, but they have long tentacles they will use to try and pull people in. Penelopeâs wand can create a shocking blast of electricity, but doesnât have much range.
This adventure continues in part two, The Reconstruction of Nagia Falls: The Hidden Danger of Nagia Falls, which you can get access to by subscribing to our Patreon for as little as $3USD!
If you enjoyed this Ruined Jungle Village of Nagia Falls Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ
Download this Fellspire Vampire Hunter’s Guild free multi-level 40Ă30 DnD battlemap & adventure, featuring cleansing a corrupted vampire slayer guild who have been infiltrated by the very monsters they hunted. VTT ready!
After assisting Gento at the secret ball within the city of Fellspire, a few days to a week later you are contacted by an orphan bearing a letter. It is marked with the wax seal of Gentoâs lesser noble house. The letter explains that he requires your urgent assistance, asking you to meet him at his family’s spire before dusk tonight. He canât say more in the letter in case it becomes compromised, but the envelope includes a token that allows outsiders to access the higher spire walkways which are normally reserved for those of the higher castes.
When you provide the token to any guards working at spire elevators or walkways, they give you a stern look and size you up before nodding and allowing you to ascend. Depending where you were in the city previously, it may take ten to fifteen minutes to arrive at Gentoâs spire.
The spire itself is quite small and looks like itâs seen better days, with roof shingles missing in places and walls overrun by dying brown ivy. The garden growing off either side of the main path into the spire has also gone to weeds, with thorny roses and thistles.
The door to the spire is flanked by two small gargoyles which sit perched just above the entrance. A large brass dock knocker, shaped like a distorted face, is built into the thick ebony wood. After knocking, Gento cautiously opens the door. When he realizes itâs you he swiftly motions for you to come inside. The interior of the spire is in as bad a shape as the outside, with stacks of dusty books on every surface and cobwebs in all the corners.
Gento apologizes for the spireâs state of disrepair, explaining that after his father and mother died in mysterious circumstances, his noble house’s finances fell into ruin when many of their trade partners decided to go elsewhere. Heâs tried to do the best he can, but with little to no income and no one to help it just hasnât been feasible to keep the spire in order.
Leading you into another chamber, Gento sits you down at the one table youâve seen which has been cleaned recently. He explains that he wishes this meeting was in better circumstances, but he desperately needs your help.
Yesterday, one of his informants was detained by members of the Sectatores Luiva, the esteemed vampire hunterâs guild which originally cleansed Fellspire of its bloodthirsty masters, hundreds of years ago. The guild however isnât what it seems these days, having been among some of the first institutions to be infiltrated and taken over by the vampire covens. He suspects that, after the affair at the secret ball where you killed that vampire and his thralls, the other blood drinkers may be quite keen to learn anything they can about us.
Gento doesnât doubt the detained informantâs loyalty to the cause, but the vampires will make him speak and when he does that will put everyone involved in dangerâincluding yourselves.
Gento continues that he was in the process of a more subtle plan to take over the Sectatores Luiva, starting with his informant who was a new pledge, but now that heâs been found out there is no other option. Gento needs you to cleanse the remaining members of the Sectatores Luiva in their tower across town. He assures you that those within the guild have all fallen to the sway of the vampires, either taking bribes to look the other way like he did before he redeemed himself, or becoming thralls themselves.
If you suggest that those who have been bribed may be able to be reformed, Gento reluctantly agrees and suggests you just subdue those members until we can figure out what to do with them.
If you agree to the mission, he gives you the location of the spire and wishes you good luck.
When you arrive at the spire of the Sectatores Luiva, you find a small courtyard fenced with metal pikes featuring a long pond. Inside the interior of the tower youâre greeted by a man at a desk surrounded by bookshelves. If you ask to access higher levels of the tower he refuses, explaining that only members may go up there. If threatened however it becomes clear he is a simple clerk and a coward at that, immediately giving you permission to enter as long as his life is spared. If asked if he has taken bribes he lies and says he hasnât, but is quick to change his mind when threatened again, making up excuses.
Making your way up the tower’s floors, it is clear that the turncoats have been destroying or desecrating sacred artifacts, as well as any useful information on how to effectively slay vampires. Many old books have large chunks of pages missing, while there are so many empty places on bookcases that they now resemble grins with missing teeth.
Continuing up the tower, you finally reach a walkway which brings you into the larger upper tower where the majority of the guild lies. Inside, you hear the voices of a handful of men and women chuckling while playing cards or some other gambling game. When they notice you, theyâre quick to pull out daggers or other weapons.
They demand to know why youâre here, and if not given an adequate excuse will attack swiftly. Multiple of these members are thralls, while others have simply been bribed. Either way, if you get in a fight with them they refuse to back down, as failing their masters would make them as good as dead anyway.
When the group has been dealt with and you make your way down into the lower chamber where prisoners are held, you find a number of disheveled travelers being housed in the cells. When they notice youâre not members of the Sectatores Luiva, they quietly plead for your helpâbetween the screams of agony coming from the other room.
They explain that the Sectatores Luiva Exarch is currently torturing the informant youâre looking for, but if youâre quiet they suggest you go to the Exarch’s quarters down the hall, recover his key and release them without him knowing. They, including yourself, could leave alive!
You donât have much time to decide however, as the Exarch opens the doors to the torture chamber shortly after. He is wiping blood from an ebony stake, clearly used to torture the poor informant.
Appearing to have been aware of your presence all along, the Exarch nonchalantly asks you if youâve come to take the place of his less than useful underlings, whom you so rudelyâbut clearly efficientlyâdefeated. As he speaks, his attention remains focused on cleaning the stake.
If you attack him, it becomes apparent that the Exarch is a fully fledged vampire. He fights back using the magical ebony stake and conjures up blood elementals from the grates beneath your feet.
During the fight, he monologues between attacks about how all humans are scared of their mortality and deep down crave eternal life. It is simply because they are unworthy of it that they seek to keep others, like vampires, from immortality as well. He simply realized this and changed his ways. Itâs not too late for you to change your mind and join the superior race, he muses as the fight escalates.
After defeating the Vampire Exarch you can see the tortured informant motioning you to come closer. His breath is faint and his voice weak, but with his last breaths he says he didnât break before passing away.
When you return to Gento and report what went down he is quiet for a moment, saying that his informant had a stronger will than he believed possible. Taking a moment, he makes a motion with his hands, praising the god of light and laying a blessing upon his informant’s soul, before thanking you for cleansing the Sectatores Luiva of their evil.
Though he doesnât have much, as a show of appreciation Gento offers you some expensive wine thatâs been in the cellar for a very long time while you discuss more of the details of the mission. When he hears that the Exarch was a full-fledged vampire, his face goes pale. He remarks that he had no idea, saying you are skilled indeed to have not only made it out alive, but also to have won the fight.
His face then becomes contemplative and introspective, and he slowly remarks that since the Sectatores Luiva has now been cleansed, the spire needs new masters. Masters who are true to the cause, and willing to rise up and cleanse the city of the vampire threat before itâs too late and history repeats itself.
He didnât know who these vampire hunters might be, but now, after the strange way he met you in the tavern that first time, and what happened at the ball, and now the events at the spire⌠He thinks you were sent from the god of light to save the city.
Looking up to meet your gaze, Gento asks if you would be willing to step up and resurrect the Sectatores Luiva with him; taking on the mantle of feared vampire hunters, and following in the footsteps of their initial, brave founders to be the light that cleanses the darkness.
GMâs Notes:
If your players want to join the Exarch, he chuckles and says that to prove their loyalty they must first finish off the informant using the ebony stake.
If you enjoyed this Fellspire Vampire Hunter’s Guild Free Triple-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ
You arrive in a city celebrating some kind of grand masked festival, with loud performers and acrobats on busy streets, lined with market stalls selling fragrant foods. Re-enactments are loudly performed for watching crowds, portraying a group of evil vampire overlords being slain by vampire hunters, and the city being reclaimed by the people it once oppressed.
Drawn inside a tavern boasting extreme festival discounts, youâre approached by a tipsy, young nobleman who notes that you seem incredibly well armed, and, on top of that, move as if competent in handling yourself. He asks for your help, taking his mask off and introducing himself as Gento. He explains in a slightly slurred voice that he believes corruption has crept into the city. Officials are suddenly changing firm stances on policies, nobles are backing new and unusual ventures, and it seems like even academics are being affectedâall to the end of taking the city backwards several generations, and removing the rights of its citizens.
Gento suspects something awful is taking place. Heâs tracked some of the corrupt individuals, and has information that theyâll be attending a secret gala later that night. He even has the password to enter. He cannot risk getting himself involved and doesnât know who to trust, but as outsiders he can provide you with the masks and robes you needâas well as the passwordâto sneak into the event. He needs you to figure out whatâs going on, and, if need be, put an end to it while all the vipers are in one nest.
He says he can pay you well, offering you a small bag of diamonds from his pouch. Should you accept, he warns you not to eat or drink anything, and to trust no-one, before telling you the password âRubrum Auroraâ and giving you directions to the secret galaâs location.
When you arrive, you find yourself in the warehouse district of the town, far away from the riotous festivities. Should you enter the particularly plain building by the riverâs edge, its unlocked doors waiting for guests, you are met by a group of men wearing long beaked masks and black robes. Once you give them the password, one among their number escorts you through the dusty warehouse to a lavish lower level. It is a hidden ballroom, with tables laden with delicacies and wines, and filled with the laughing murmurs of many wealthy guests. At the end is a timber stage, bordered by thick glass windows that provide a view under the river; fish swimming about lazily.
Once youâve been there for a few minutes to enjoy the food and drink, a graceful man emerges onto the stage. He is wearing a red robe with a golden roaring lionâs mask, and two beautiful naked women by his side who only wear partial lioness masks. In one hand he holds a glass of bright red liquid, and his arrival is greeted with loud cheers by the guests.
After calming the crowd, he gives a charming speech about how the guests will have greater blessings bestowed upon them if they continue to aid the cause as they have. But to reap the even greater rewards of health and luxury, they must first prove themselves! The time has come for them to reap the fruit of everything theyâve been working towards, and the figure tells the crowd that they should rally their men and resources in preparation to retake the city tonight!
While the red robed man speaks, two large figures in black robes enter, dragging an unmasked Gento up to the stage and dropping him at the speakerâs feet. Gento is beaten and very injured, and the speaker looks down upon him. The man says âOne among us has betrayed usâ, but Gento spits that he has changed his mind and will not betray the city. The man shakes his head at this, and gestures to another robed figure, who begins rushing over with an ornate dagger on a crimson pillow.
If you attack the man in the red robe, you discover he is a vampire, and the women hanging off him are thralls. They fight back ferociously as the other guests begin leaving in a panic. Once the eventâs hosts are defeated, if you question Gento he clears blood out of his mouth and says it is true, he was once among their number, but realized tonight that he couldnât betray his people. When he saw you at the tavern, he thought you might be a sign from the gods, as you seemed strong enough to take down the vampire before it was too late. After your actions today, Gento vows to visit every church service from then on as thanks to the gods who sent you to save them.
Should you ask about the cityâs vampire hunting guild portrayed in the celebrations, the man shakes his head and says they were the first to be infiltrated by the vampires. He had no-one else to turn to, and is sorry he had to keep you in the dark.
As your promised reward, he offers you not one but two pouches filled with diamonds, saying that they were the payment he received for betraying the people of the city. He apologizes, saying that the great service youâve performed is priceless and he doesnât know if anything can ever, truly, make up for it. However, he vows that he will spend the rest of his life working to atone for the mistakes heâs made, and if there is ever a way he can aid you in future, you need but ask.
GMâs Notes:
If your players do drink or eat anything, the food has been laced with vampire blood and theyâll feel a sense of friendship with the red robed vampire. Affected player characters have their stats boosted by the blood, but also a risk of addiction.
The red robes the vampire was wearing provide shade around the wearer when exposed to sunlight, and his mask was cast of solid gold. As such, it is highly valuable. The ornate silver dagger is a vampiric blade which siphons the life of those it kills into a glowing ruby on its hilt.
If you enjoyed this Secret Cult Ballroom Free Multi-Level 40Ă30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ
While staying at a small town during your journey, you hear a commotion going on out in the town square. Should you choose to investigate, you find twenty or so villagers arguing with a portly, middle-aged man in expensive clothing. The people sound like theyâre complaining about fields of crops that have been burned and trampled!
âItâs common brigandry, nothing more,â the portly man â apparently the mayor â assures them, much to the annoyance of the crowd. âIâll have the town watchmen patrol the area and deal with the miscreants. Now, if youâll excuse me, I have more important affairs to attend to!â
The crowd mills around the town square, grumbling and talking amongst themselves. Should you wish to inquire further about their plight, you hear tales of strange rumbling noises and terrifying screams during the night. While you ponder this, a small woman with long brown hair, oversized spectacles and a number of satchels draped over her shoulders steps forward.
âIâm terribly sorry to eavesdrop,â she remarks in a crisp, educated accent. âI am Stephanie Culpepper, local detective. I think you should take me to the scene of this crime, post-haste! If my guess is correct, we will find important evidence that supports a theory Iâm working on regarding disturbances in the local area. And you,â she adds, looking in your direction, âwould you be so kind as to accompany me? Youâre clearly equipped for, shall we say, âunforeseen circumstancesâ.â
If you decide to go with them, Stephanie implores the farmer to take you to the field where these disturbances occurred. You walk for nearly half an hour along a narrow road until you reach the farmstead in question. Just past the quaint house lies a field in ruins, with crops burned and crushed, as was described!
Stephanie rushes past you and starts examining the ground, taking care to tiptoe through the devastation in case she accidentally ruins some evidence. She pulls a large magnifying glass out of one of her satchels and examines a crushed stalk of wheat in greater detail.
âItâs just as I thought,â Stephanie beams with a triumphant smile. âThis farm was destroyed by a giant, rolling juggernaut powered by the souls of the innocent, and crewed by forsaken spawns of darkness from hell itself. Judging by this residue, it came through a portal from beyond this world through arcane magic, but the texture indicates the foolish spellcaster was destroyed as soon as the portal manifested. Got their comeuppance a little early, I should think!. Come along, we have to stop that thing before it lays waste to more farmland!â With that, she dashes through the fields, following the trail left by your foes.
The farmer seems dumbfounded by her theory and gives you a shrug, but should you follow Stephanie based on this flimsy evidence and spurious reasoning, you hurry to catch up.
Stephanie grows increasingly determined to catch up to the cause of all this. If you have a way for all of you to travel more rapidly, Stephanie will be extremely grateful. Otherwise, after hours of travel you sense a strange tremor in the ground.
âDo you feel that?â she asks. âItâs close now, very close! This way!â She rushes onward and before long, you can see and hear a huge, hulking juggernaut grinding its way across the burned and crushed landscape. Of greater concern is another farmstead just beyond it, clearly the next target for this improbable machine!
âBoffins and crumpets,â Stephanie cries, âthe people in that farmstead are in danger of being brutally eviscerated and turned into a fine paste! We have to help!â Even from here, you can see the beast-like monstrosities on top of the juggernaut, eager for the blood of innocents to be spilled. You spy a stairway at the back you can use to fight your way on board. Once youâre ready to go, you charge in, with Stephanie staying back a bit, ready to cover you with some sort of elaborate crossbow.
A few of the infernal creatures shoot bolts of fire at you from the top deck as you climb the stairs, and fight the guards that move to prevent you boarding the juggernaut. Should you prevail, you find yourself in the bowels of the juggernaut, where strange, arcane machinery propels it onwards.
âDonât worry, Iâve got just the thing to stop this contraption in its tracks,â Stephanie assures you. She reaches into a satchel and pulls out a wrench, and throws it into the gears. The machine groans as gears break and the whole juggernaut grinds to a halt!
âThatâll save the farmstead, but the monsters operating this thing need to be finished once and for all. Letâs go and clean their clocks, shall we?â The stairs up beckon from nearby, leading you to the top deck where a host of infernal monsters await, under the guidance and supervision of their commander, wielding a long, vicious sword.
âLook at that bloated slug,â Stephanie remarks as you deal with them, âfat from feasting on the flesh of innocents, forcing his lesser brethren to fight for him while he drools at the prospect of gorging on our tender, innocent flesh!â Stephanie shoots her crossbow at the leader, drawing him into the fight where you can face him down!
If you survive the battle, you are cheered by the townsfolk and treated to a feast in your honor.
âAnother mystery solved,â Stephanie remarks, dusting off her hands and ignoring the strange look you give her. âCome, let us enjoy the festivities while we may, because while we may have restored the peace, miscreants, neâer-do-wells, and hell spawns from the nether world do not sleep!â
You are presented with a bag of gold for your efforts, and you get to keep the infernal monsterâs vicious sword, too!
GMâs Notes:
You can use demons, devils, or some other monstrous foe to populate the juggernaut.
If you enjoyed this Infernal Soul Engine Juggernaut Free 40×30 DnD Battlemap & Adventure, Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ
Dragonrider’s Hold Free Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure
The House of Cockatrice
When stopping by the mead hall in the town of Eagleâs Rest, you see an old herbalist with a hooked nose and a raven familiar sitting on his shoulder talking to the barkeep, who has a swallow sitting on the rafters above him. The herbalist is wearing many strange charms around his neck and ears, and leaning heavily on a worn walking cane. You overhear him complaining to his friend that his knee is out again, so he canât make his usual trip to the burial mounds in search of the highly potent death blossoms which many of his potions, poultices, and salves rely on. And, unfortunately, due to superstitions that the place is evil, none of the young ones are willing to go pick them for himânot even the supposedly brave warriors from the House of the Eagle!
Should you step in and offer to collect the death blossoms on the old herbalistâs behalf, he is incredibly thankful and says that as a reward heâll let you choose from his collection of remedies. He introduces himself as Malak, and he tells you where to find the burial mounds outside of the village, as well as gives you a description of the red bellflowers which grow on them. If you ask about them, Malak explains that they only grow on the mounds and he hasnât seen them anywhere else, so he named them death blossoms.
If you ask after the superstitions keeping the young ones away from the mounds, Malak waves a hand and tells you itâs just an old rumor that a cockatrice roams the area, turning any who go there without the village elders to stone. Heâs been there plenty of times without the elders however, and never encountered any such monster, so heâs not sure where the rumor began but believes it to be sheer nonsense.
When you arrive at the burial mound, you see lots of odd boulders worn down and weathered by the ages. The shapes are suggestive of people, and it sends a shiver down your spine. Just when you think there is no cockatrice, however, you hear a strange noise. Like the loud flapping of a large birdâs wings, coming from one of the burial mounds, along with a small cascade of rocks. Then a raven flies from the moundâs entrance with a caw, and a young, thin man steps out behind itâstartled to see you.
The young man is nervous initially, but when he realizes youâre not a local of Eagleâs Rest he breathes a sigh of relief and introduces himself as Alex. He explains that heâs been coming out here ever since his beloved mother died, visiting her helped him through the darkest hours of his mourning.
If you ask about why heâs not afraid of the cockatrice, Alex laughs and says itâs funny you should mention that. Thereâs not one here, but he thinks itâs a metaphor. You see, one day he stumbled upon ancient writings carved into the walls of the burial mounds! They discuss a secret extra house, called the House of the Cockatrice. Heâd never heard of it prior, but always felt like he didnât quite fit into the House of the Raven, which is where the village elders assigned him when he came of age. He thinks itâs sign from his mother, something he was meant to discover, and believes he was meant to be in the House of the Cockatrice and not the House of the Raven. Your being here is just more proof and he could really use your help bonding with a cockatrice to make his familiar.
Should you ask what he means by the House of the Raven and the House of the Cockatrice, he apologises for assuming you knew, saying heâs not used to outsiders. Alex explains that all villagers are put in a house by the elders when one comes of age. The major ones are the House of the Eagle, House of the Swallow, House of the Raven, and House of the Owl. They also are bonded to a familiar bird from the house they represent. Once put into a House, they must live there, and it determines what their roles are within the village. For example, as a member of the House of the Raven, heâs expected to put his mind to good use, be it through alchemy, herbalism, or magic, those kinds of things.
Alex then explains that he wants to rekindle the House of the Cockatrice when he returns to the village with his new familiar, so others like him wonât be denied their true house. Heâs sure the village elders will listen to him when they see itâs possible, and heâs not mad! Plus, he knows where he can possibly find a real cockatrice. That is, if youâll help him. As a reward, heâll give you some of the inheritance from his mother, as he believes sheâd want you to have it for helping guide him.
Should you agree, Alex leads you through the forest to a location he explains was mentioned by the carvings on the wall as being prime habitat for cockatrice. When you arrive, you see more of those strange, humanoid stones dotting the forestâsome of which clearly look like petrified people, while others are worn to the point of only being vaguely suggestive of people. After exploring the area, you find tracks from a cockatrice, and when you follow them to its source you find the creature eating the carcass of a dead animal. It has shimmering blue-black plumage, and when it sees you, the cockatrice squawks and runs away.
If you chase it, eventually the cockatrice is trapped between some rocks, and should you approach it, the creature lets out an inhuman scream. Suddenly you are surrounded by about 20 middle aged people with bows and arrows trained on you, and several more cockatrice. They seemingly came out of nowhere, but when the cockatrice jumps and disappears into a hole in the ground, you realize they must have emerged from the cavern system below your feet.
The group tells you to come with them, before guiding you down into some kind of secret underground building thatâs clearly been here for a long time. They guide you over a stone bridge, below which you can see several more cockatrice of different colors lounging about in beds of straw, before stopping in front of a cell and insisting you get inside. Once locked in, they say they need to talk to their leader, before leaving you alone with a guard and his cockatrice.
A few minutes after the group leaves, the face of a 17-year-old, red-haired girl pops around a corner, staring at you with curious green eyes. Following her is a magnificent cockatrice with shimmering green plumage. She approaches the cell, and the guard ignores her when she asks where you came from and what the outside world is like. She is particularly curious about Alex, who is close to her age.
If you talk to her, she introduces herself as Mayvara and explains that she was born here. The House of the Cockatrice has lived in these tunnels, ever since the slaughter several hundred years ago. Should you ask what she means, she gives you an odd look and explains that The House of the Cockatrice was massacred by The House of the Owl. The owls thought they would do terrible things, you see, because their house values power, money, and pleasure above all. The owls were scared because theyâre so different from them, and their bond with the cockatrice makes each member stronger, faster, and their familiars can turn foes into stone.
So, they had the warriors of the Eagle house slaughter the House of the Cockatrice when they hadnât broken any laws, or done anything wrong! They burned their house to the ground, and erased all mention of it from the histories. Her great, great, great, great, great⌠great grandfather managed to escape the massacre however. He came out here, and made sure the house continued, even if it meant they had to live in secret just to survive.
At this point, an old man with a stern face emerges, followed by a red cockatriceâevidently the Houseâs leader. He crossly tells Mayvara to leave, and the girl gives you an apologetic look before scurrying away, while the man sighs and runs a wrinkled hand through his thin, gray hair. He says briskly âI wish you never came here. Now that you are, I canât let you leave… Youâre to be executed at dawn. For what itâs worth, Iâm sorry.â Then he turns and leaves, ignoring anything you say to him.
That night, thereâs a rattle down the hallway and your only guard goes to investigate. When he does, he suddenly turns to stone, before Mayvara and her cockatrice run up to your cell. She assures you not to worry about the guard, saying itâs just temporary, but insisting that you have to hurry because the path is clear to the surfaceâthough it wonât stay that way for long. Using a set of keys she unlocks the cell, ushering you out.
As soon as you step out of the tunnels however, you find yourself surrounded by the leader and a handful of his most loyal men, as well as their cockatrices. They are all armed. The old man shakes his head at Mayvara, saying âI had the feeling you might do this, but I canât believe you actually did. Youâve betrayed us, girl! Donât you understand that if the outsider leaves, Eagleâs Rest will discover us and everyone will die?! I lost your mother, I canât lose you too!â
Mayvara argues to her dad that this isnât living, and their people need to go into the outside world, to become a public house again! No-one else here is anything close to her age, and she needs friends, she says, glancing at Alex and blushing. Her father disagrees, and refuses to budge.
If you fight to escape, the leader will battle until he is captured or killed to keep his people safe. During the fight, Mayvara is almost hit by a stray sword, but Alex steps in the way and takes a nasty cut to save her. If you defeat the leader but donât kill him, he is very bitter. He tells his daughter âFine, go, but youâll bring doom upon yourself and I wonât let you bring it upon the rest of us! If you return, we will not be here anymore.â
Mayvara dresses Alexâs wounds and returns to the village with you, crying quietly to herself at the start of the walk. When you arrive at Eagleâs Rest itâs dawn, and the locals who are up and about are terrified of her cockatrice, hiding inside or cowering behind objects when they see the creature. Mayvara insists that she must see the council of elders, and knocks on each of the four major houses until they come out, demanding an assembly. The last elder to emerge is an old, portly woman from the House of the Owl, a white barn owl on her shoulder. She turns white as a sheet when she sees Mayvaraâs cockatrice
The assembly is held on the back of the statue of the great eagle, where Mayvara begins by trying to explain the history of her houseâhow it was once one of the five major housesâbut the head of the House of the Eagle, a large, bald man with tattoos on his head and his eagle hunched over his shoulder, holds up a hand to stop her. He explains that all the village elders are told the secret history when they assume their position, and so they are aware of what happened, before bidding her to continue.
Mayvara then stumbles a little, before loudly preaching that the House of the Cockatrice should be rebuilt and those destined to join it allowed to do so. What was done to them was wrong, as they never broke any laws to deserve it, and she will prove that the Cockatrice donât have to be evil in their search for power, as the Owls believed.
When Mayvara is done explaining, the elder from the House of the Eagle nods thoughtfully and agrees. He says that what his house did was a stain upon their souls, and he will not be responsible for repeating that mistake again. The head of the House of the Swallow, a thin, older woman with a tangle of curly hair that her swallow nests in, agrees also; saying lightly that she cannot see the harm in it. The head of the Raven House, an man wearing crude black robes of raven feathers and a leather plague mask, his raven sitting on his forearm, says in a muffled voice that the House of Cockatrice did nothing wrong last time to warrant their erasure, it was only suspicionâif anything, the House of the Owl was in the wrong due to commanding the massacre before any laws had been broken.
The Owl elder disagrees, but is outvoted and so only watches the young woman with suspicious eyes. When the meeting is concluded, Mayvara thanks you with tears in her eyes. She is hopeful now that more of those destined to join the House of the Cockatrice can do so, now that they may come out of the shadows. She then tells you dreamily how the town is more beautiful than the descriptions she grew up hearing all her life.
As if remembering something, Mayvara suddenly begins delving into her satchel, and pulls out a carved stone cockatrice to give to you. She explains itâs magical, and can be used to summon a real one. Then she delves back into her bag and pulls out a large spotted egg, holding it out to Alex. She explains with a blush that itâs due to hatch soon, and he can bond with it as his familiar, if he likes. That way, he can be the first new member of the official House of Cockatrice. Alex takes it reverently, before giving Mayvara a kiss on the cheek in thanks; causing her blush to spread to the tips of her ears.
When you finally return to the herbalist, Malak, the old man is grumpy that it took you so long to bring him the death blossoms, joking about having thought a cockatrice got you after all. He grudgingly shows you his potions, poultices, and salves to choose from as thanks. However, if he sees Mayvaraâs cockatrice he pales and gives you extra potions, stammering that he had no idea.
GMâs Notes:
The leader of the House of the Cockatrice is the descendant of the murdered captain of the Winged Blade, who was the last captain to hold the blade before it was sundered into three pieces.
During the massacre, the captainâs son wasnât in the village when the House of the Cockatrice was burned down, so he survived and went into hiding; keeping the house alive in secret. Mayvara is the last of that noble bloodline.
This adventure was written for our Eagle’s Rest Adventurerâs Guide. If youâd like more information about the location, NPCs, and loot that can be found here, please go check it out!
If you enjoyed this Dragonrider’s Hold Free Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure Luke and I released the Hardcore GMâs bundle of 520+ large, 40Ă30âł DnD battlemaps (double the size of those in our famous Quarantine Bundle) with 255 adventures for $39. Itâs a great deal on some of our most beautiful maps and adventures! I’m sure there’s content in it you’d have so much fun running for your friends, from large cities to underwater seascapes. Paying $39, rather than full price per map ($3 – $4.50 each), saves you over 98%! Take a look at all the extra content here. Â
Otherwise, I also recommend our latest bundle of system agnostic campaign sourcebooks, filled with battlemaps, locations, NPCs, loot, AND adventures! Luke and I love them so much, they have some of our favorite adventures in quite often grimdark or Lovecraftian horror settings. If you’re not sure about it, download our favorite campaign sourcebook for FREEâit’s about a super whacky location that will have your players roaring with laughter. That is, if their sense of humor is anything like ours đ
While visiting a country town, you spot something curious in the skies above. At first, you think it is a large bird hovering among the clouds in the distance, but soon it grows larger and larger, appearing to be some sort of giant, flying rock, with what appears to be a fortress built upon it.
While marveling at the appearance of this strange flying fortress, a flash of magical energy erupts near you, appearing to be some sort of rift. A wild-haired old man in a wizardâs robe, bearing a crumpled hat, tumbles through it clutching a tall, gnarled staff. He glances around frantically before spotting the approaching fortress in the sky.
âGood heavens, am I in time?â he blurts, before spotting you standing on the street staring at him in bemusement. âAh, I see events havenât happened yet, excellent. You there! Stop gaping like a landed fish and pay attention! That flying fortress is coming here to lay waste to this town as part of a campaign to conquer the land.
âMy name is Ellet Green, and I have come from the future to stop the horrible battle that is about to take place! You must assist me in bringing a halt to this war before it even starts!â
Should you ignore the urge to run away and step up to help this strange wizard, he looks momentarily relieved, before noticing the fortress moving ever closer to the town. The people who had been standing around watching its approach have grown fearful and are now starting to flee, fearing the worst.
âRight, now then, we need to get onto that monstrosity and give its owner, a powerful sorcerer named Calagan, a proper kick up the backside.â If you have the power of flight, you can suggest to the wizard that you could take to the air and head up towards the fortress. Ellet dismisses this as madness.
âItâs madness!â he cries dismissively. âThey have defenses designed to stop boarders much more powerful than you or I. No, I have a better method of getting us up there, through one of my temporal rifts. Iâm getting quite good at this sort of thing, you know. I rarely end up inside out at all these days. Just hold still for a moment.â As Ellet begins mumbling to himself, bolts of purple lightning shoot down from the bottom of the fortress, causing a nearby hut to explode!
âDonât rush me,â Ellet mumbles as villagers run around screaming. âThere we go, just like this!â He casts a spell that creates another rift, through which you can see a castle courtyard, likely to be the very one above you. Ellet jumps through, and should you follow, find yourself standing in the courtyard of the flying fortress, with several startled guards around you!
You have the element of surprise when you press your attack. Ellet assists with magical bolts of lightning and protective spells, and should you defeat the guards, he will point at the fortress stronghold ahead. âWe have to find Calagan, but more importantly, disable the magical crystals that give this chunk of rock the power to fly. Inside!â
Should you follow him in, youâll see a number of corridors, all leading to a circular chamber where you are accosted by several wizards with the power to teleport around the room as they attack.
âCalaganâs apprentices,â Ellet spits. âRank amateurs, I say. Have at you!â Ellet cries, tossing a small bomb at one of the apprentices who, in a puff of smoke, turns into a startled chicken.
âThere you go, finish off the others while I find a way down below.â Should you survive your fight against the apprentices, you spot Ellet as he points to a stairwell leading down.
âIt was easier than I thought. Come on!â Should you follow, you traverse the narrow stairs and the winding corridor beyond, which leads to a rocky chamber glowing with eerie purple light. Crystals are embedded into the surrounding rock, and before you there is one mass of crystal forming a platform, with a robed man standing on it, clearly controlling the flying fortress with powerful magic. Below it, you can see the town and the open skies between.
âYour tyranny ends now, Calagan!â Ellet cries as he mashes his crumpled hat onto his head.
âYou fool,â Calagan snarls, whirling to face you and Ellet. âWithout me to control it, this fortress will drop and destroy the miserable town you are trying to save.â
âNonsense, Iâve never met a spell I couldnât figure out,â Ellet scoffs in reply. âSurrender, or we shall vanquish you, tyrant!â Calagan simply rolls up his sleeves and prepares for battle!
Should you defeat the powerful sorcerer, Ellet rushes to the controls and attempts to change course. âI need more time to learn this bizarre contraption,â he calls over the sound of rushing wind as the fortress drops like a stone. âI might be able to avert disaster if⌠thatâs it! I just need to make use of this ample power supply. Go and touch that crystal over there would you? Donât worry, itâll only tingle a little bit.â
If you do go and touch the crystal, you feel a strange buzzing sensation as Ellet starts casting a spell. A surge of power around you feeds into it, creating a huge rift below the plummeting fortress!
âHold on!â Ellet cries as the fortress and everyone on board flies through the massive portal. Unsure what to expect, you are startled to see another flying fortress, just like this one below you, closing fast!
âI took us back in time just a tiny bit,â Ellet explains over the rush of wind. âIf my calculations are correct, this should be quite spectacular!â He opens another rift, grabs you by the arm and pulls you through. You find yourself standing on the street of the town below, right where you started. Looking up, you see the original fortress plummeting towards its duplicate, and they come together to smash with incredible force, sending them both tumbling to the ground far outside of town!
âWell, that was exciting,â Ellet says as he catches his breath. âCrisis averted, Iâd say. Whatâs the tea like here? I could use a drink. Oh, and I took some of the equipment from Calaganâs body before we left, I think youâve earned this.â He hands you a small sack with some magic items within, a fitting reward!
See how the adventure for Calagan’s Floating Fortress Free Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure ends by taking your players to The Place Between which this was written for, as well as 16+ locations in our early access Game Masterâs Adventurerâs Guide Bundle, which has over 300 pages of content. Youâll get 74 battlemaps with system-agnostic adventures written just for them, maps of the towns, locations, faction lists, important NPCs (portraits included), more adventure seeds, plus digital item cards with loot your players can find! Thatâs at least 74 easy sessions of fun for only $28, take a better look here.Â
