Forked Tunnel, Adept

Hi Adepts! This week's map is the Forked Tunnel (30x30), a simple concept but one I haven't made a map of before so I suppose there's a time for everything. Your alternate version here is Stark, which you've seen before, but I really just wanted to make a version that felt more like a typical, dreary cave than the glowy phosphorescent original version. Not flashy, but I figured it'll give you something different to work with depending on the vibe of your campaign.

1. Yup, that's all there is to see here. When the starting concept is 'tunnel but with options' I suppose there isn't much to plan out.

My plan here was to create a map for that classic scenario where a party of adventurers is traveling down a long tunnel and eventually encounters a fork in the road. Typically this leads to the members of the party using whatever information available to pick a path and follow it, but maybe this time they have a fight at that junction as well! The fight might grant them additional info somehow, such as the direction the enemies came from, or it may destroy some of the evidence that they were hoping to follow like footprints or other signs of passage. Maybe they were trailing behind an ally who left directions at the intersection here but a group of enemies got here first and made things difficult by destroying the directions or moving them? Just spitballing here, but I feel there's tons of potential with straightforward maps like this.

 2. Outlines! When the sketch is so simple I often feel the need to slot in plenty of details to make up for it with the intention of ensuring the map doesn't end up feeling flat or simplistic. With this map I tried to make it feel like there's history here, with mushrooms and patches of grass/moss giving it an aged feel. I also might have gone a little overboard with the cracks in the walls, I think I got caught up in the little details and lost track of my end goal.

3. Speaking of going overboard, I might have overdone the lighting a touch. I think I, once again, was trying to make up for simplicity by adding interest through the colors and glowy lighting. I think I probably went a little too hard on the vibrancy and contrast, and I probably could have also taken the paper texture back 20% as well. Really it isn't as bad as I'm making it sound, but as always if enough people message me about it I would be willing to take another crack at the coloring and lighting.