The seventh Encounter Box: 12 big maps for your journey (forests and snow)

This is my seventh encounter box, which is all about making the journey of your campaign as exciting as possible. With their size, the differences in height and the possibilities of cover, the maps are designed to experience the most interesting fights on them.

In addition to the maps, I have a few encounter ideas for you below which go beyond the usual "X opponents appear and attack you". It is of course a bigger effort to prepare, but I believe that thanks to stories like this your world can come to life and the journey between the places can become a highlight of your game.
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Sizes:

1: Formation of a river [30x50]

2: Snowy cliff with bridge [40x50]

3: Narrow Path [40x50}

4: Path and pond in the snow [40x50]

5: Pond in the forest [30x40]

6: Stone and Snow [40x50]

7: Merging of two rivers [35x50]

8: Path in the snow [30x40]

9: Hilly battles [30x40]

10: Snowy deep pool [30x40]

11: Path with Pitfall [30x40] (open and closed)

12: Path through the mounatins [50x40]

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4 Encounter stories:

(Summaries at the end of the post)

The child of winter

It is a completely normal travel day for our heroes when it suddenly starts to snow. The further they go, the more it snows and the snow is already settling on the ground. Suddenly they hear calling and crying. Our heroes see a group of farmers. Wrapped in thick fur, armed with torches and weapons and carrying bloodhounds with them, they have pushed a woman and a child into a corner. The leader of the group yells at the woman and wants to pull her away from the child.

Background: The leader of this group is the mayor of a village, the woman is his wife. She got lost in the forest several years ago and only survived because a light showed her the way to a nearby cave. When she returned to the village she was pregnant with the child which she is protecting now. The child's skin was always cold and snow-white and his eyes are blue. The older it got, the colder the surroundings became. Now its power is so strong and uncontrolled that in an area of ​​kilometers there is eternal cold and thus threatens the lives of the farmers. His mother wants to protect it but her husband wants to drive the child out of the village. But his wife should stay with him. The child doesn't want to go, especially not without his mother. If the situation escalates, it will also unleash uncontrolled forces of ice.

The tooth fairy

Our heroes are robbed. A terrible monster leaps out of a bush. Multi-armed, moving with disgusting cracking movements and covered over and over with a black, scaly skin. A closer look reveals that these are black, rotten human teeth that covered over and over the body of the fearsome being. Most of them originate from children.
The creature demands with a clacking voice, its mouth is filled with black canine teeth, the teeth of our heroes, then nothing else will happen to them.

Background: This being belongs to a species that is the origin of what we know today as the tooth fairy. This creature draws its food from the teeth of humanoids and mostly lives in larger cities. Mostly through middlemen they buy theeth with gold. Sometimes they go into people's homes and take lost teeth with them, but they always leave money for them. They are considered a myth and few have seen them.
The specimen here, in turn, had all of its gold stolen. It was also discovered by several people in the city and then hunted. Now it is in the wilderness, alone and without teeth for food and on the verge of starvation. How will our heroes deal with it?

Note: A completely saturated tooth fairy is covered over and over with white teeth and shines brightly. At the same time, however, it can also become completely invisible in this state.

Animal "welfare"

Our group is approached on the street by a well-dressed man who appears desperate. He claims to be an animal rights activist and wants to save an animal that lives nearby. This animal has a disease and it creates a mess in its head that makes it attack humans. The man offers gold to our heroes if they go to the animal, overpower it, and then stun it. Then he can get close enough to treat it.

The beast is a powerful monster and it will be an uphill battle to overpower it to stun it. The being itself should be as disgusting and repulsive as possible. The bones of people can also be found with it. When our heroes have overwhelmed and stunned it, the man reappears. This time with a few men and a wooden cart with bars. He wants to take the animal away.

It turns out the man has a wandering show of beasts and wants to add it to his collection. He gives our heroes the money and is grateful because none of his people were so brave (or crazy) to mess with the beast.

How will your heroes react after this revelation? They have been paid and the monster has obviously already eaten people. Nevertheless, they were deceived and the fate that awaits the animal is bleak.

Another twist: the animal is really sick and that's the only reason why it eats people. A good druid can recognize this and cure it.

Automated bridge toll

Our heroes reach a suspension bridge and begin to cross it. When they are about halfway, a magical box flies out from under the bridge. A voice can be heard from it, which greets them in a friendly manner and thanks for using the bridge. She tells our heroes that walking the first half of the bridge was free, but the rest can only be unlocked by signing a contract. If this is not done, the service will be terminated immediately and the bridge will fold down and our heroes will be killed with it. The price is a high amount of money (and optionally other services that are binding by a magical contract.)

A return to the other side is of course also possible. They just have to contact the customer support at headquarters. Going back now would be a violation of the rules and would also lead to the immediate disappearance of the bridge.
Our heroes probably have no choice but to sign the contract. (If they do manage to do it, they can even try to catch the box and steal the money collected in it.)

At a later point in the campaign, our heroes can then find this headquarters in a city. There many people work on telephone boxes and talk to the many people who want to cross the company's numerous bridges. At the top is a wizard who invented all of this and has become incredibly rich. All of this is completely legal.

Summary:

The child of winter
A child is to be expelled from a village, because it creates an eternal aura of cold around it that is getting bigger and bigger. It doesn't want to go and the mother wants to protect it.

The tooth fairy
A tooth monster attacks our heroes. It needs teeth for food in order not to starve. Despite its looks, it's actually harmless.

Animal "welfare"
A man deceives our heroes into overpowering a man-eating monster so that he can cure it of an illness. Actually, he wants to add it to his zoo.

Automated bridge toll
A wizard developed an automatic system to receive bridge tolls. Who has crossed half is faced with a choice. Pay or plunge into the ravine.