Infested Caverns, Adept

Welcome back folks- this one is the Infested Caverns (40x40), a pleasantly complex cluster of caves and tunnels somewhere in the forest. The downside is it's got a concerning amount of big bug eggs, but you're stronger than some bug.. right? Just grab a really big newspaper and give it a smack!

1. Nice little sketch, huh? I didn't make many big changes anywhere along the way, though if you look closely you'll see there weren't any clusters of eggs in here at the start. Instead, there's a little camp up there at the top, making it more of a hideout than a nest. I think I wanted this to feel a little more natural than that, however, and although this would be a nice cave for a camp I swapped it out for some yucky big eggs. Additionally, if you didn't want to include the eggs in the combat, I think they're easier to ignore than if you didn't want to include the camp.

As for the layout, I like cave battlemaps with lots of tunnels so I designed it to have a few chambers connected by winding corridors, ensuring that none provide too clear a line of sight. Sometimes maps just don't work out for ranged combatants and that's all there is to it.

 2. Outlines! This is the oldest map I set aside for my paternity leave, apparently meaning I made it in September of last year. Wow, that's nuts, 11 months ago! It's long enough ago that I'd be tempted to make another iteration of this map if it weren't that you're just receiving it now. Maybe I'll make a new cave that connects to a desert, a beach, or an autumnal wood? I gotta say, I am definitely ready to get back to mapmaking- this 3 month paternity leave has been lovely but I need some structure and consistency in my life again. Entertaining a 2 1/2 year old for a full summer and taking care of a newborn has been so exhausting that going back to work will practically feel like vacation.

Anyway, outlines! This one was made well before I started making Underdark maps, so I hadn't yet worked out some of the finer points of caves and underground areas like I have since. So, the cave walls are a little underdetailed, the ledges are a little wonky, and the ground is detailed a bit too similarly to the water. Overall, not bad, but you can tell it's kinda an earlier attempt at this environment.

 3. On a similar note, these colors here came from a time when I was still trying out new colors and palettes for caves. Also, I find the lighting in caves to be super tricky, which is something I've worked on with my run of Underdark maps but obviously this is a little older so it's lacking that experience.

Beyond that, the forest outside is colored and shaded with the Haunted palette but it isn't a big part of the image so it isn't too important. I think the color of the water is kinda interesting though, how it goes from a yellowish green inside the cave to more regular colors outside, maybe implying different lighting and level of brightness without sacrificing legibility.