The third Encounter Box: 10 maps for your journey (free version)

My patreons find the high-resolution versions without watermark, the 10/5mb versions, the vtt files and five more maps in the post above.
You can also download all maps in a zip file at the bottom of this post

Credit for the used asset packs goes to Essendi, Synecdoche, Crosshead, Geordi, Krager and the Apprentice of Aule.
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I present my third encounter box!
Lots of maps and a few encounter stories. I hope you enjoy it!

1 River (40x50)
2 Bridge over cliff (30x30)
3 Ambush in the embankment (40x30)
4 Path through a gorge (30x30)
5 Path with hill (40x30)
6 Cliff over sea (30x30)
7 Forest with pool (30x30)
8 Fight on the slope (30x30)
9 Crossway (45x40)
10 River Flow (30x50)
11 Mountain Path (50x20)
12 The gorge (25x40)
13 Forest (hole) (42x40)
14 Lava Landscape (40x40)
15 Sea Path (30x30)

1. The crazy artist

Our adventurers encounter three people on the street. There is a fine noblewoman, a servant who drags his equipment and a ranger.

The ranger points to the nearby hill. “The beast is up there, but I will not participate in this madness any longer. I disappear!"

Despite the offer of gold and the screaming of the nobleman, the ranger leaves. When the nobleman sees your heroes, his face brightens.

He offers your heroes a decent sum in exchange for defeating a beast. But his condition is that he wants to capture the encounter in color. So your heroes have to fix the beast in fighting poses and keep it as still as possible so that the artist can quickly paint a sketch for his picture. Whether they kill the monster or spare it is up to your heroes.

During the fight, of course, the monster will not follow the instructions of the nobleman (which he keeps complaining about). In addition, a second beast could appear, which regards the artist as a meal.

At the end of the day, if the artist is guarded throughout the night, the group also receives a beautiful painting of their heroic struggle

2. The hunt

Our heores are on a forest road when suddenly a completely exhausted deer jumps out of the bushes. The stag calls out with wild curses "out of the way!" And dashes through our heroes. He's just about to continue down the path when several riders block his escape route. Riders emerge from all directions.

Cursing wildly, the stag jumps back to our hero and tries to use them as cover.

When our heroes speak to him, he exclaims completely surprised, “You can understand me? Please save me! "

More riders come out of the bushes. Our group is surrounded and many arrows are pointing in their direction. Apparently an elderly noble lady is leading the hunt and imperiously asks the heroes to get out of the way so that the deer can be killed. The stag begs for mercy.

Apparently only our heroes can understand the deer's words while everyone else only hears the wild calls of a wild animal. The hunter will react accordingly when our heroes claim the animal speaks to them.

The stag quickly asserts that it is actually human and that it woke up as a stag this morning only to find itself immediately in a hunt.

The background to it all is that he is a man who repeatedly (unsuccessfully?) courted the daughter of the nobles. She reacted and turned the man into with a potion into a deer and then chased him to death. She also enchanted the other participants in the hunt so that they cannot understand the deer's words, but she certainly can.

How will your heroes cope with this situation? Can they defuse the situation or will it end with the death of the stag or a wild fight with the hunting party?

3. A lordly ruler from distant lands

On the street our companions see a sedan chair that has come to a standstill. The curtains are drawn and servants and soldiers stand around them.

In the middle of the street a weeping servant is kneeling with a knife to his throat. Behind him stands an officer with a raised sword ready to strike.

He urges the servant to do it at last or does he want to hold back the high prince even further and thus incur further shame on himself and his family? Spurred on by these arguments, the servant sets about cutting his throat.

When our heroes intervene, they learn that a high prince from a distant country is traveling here to the funeral of a relative.

The servant had dared to laugh out loud, although the prince is in mourning. The just punishment for this is death. The affected servant is also convinced that his death is the only correct consequence.

Will our heroes do something or let death happen?

4. Her shining hero

There is a young man lurking on the road our heroes travel along. He approaches them and offers a special suggestion. He is a young nobleman and has fallen terribly in love with a farmer's daughter. She likes him but has let him down several times. Now he wants to make one last desperate attempt.

He offers our heroes a lot of money if they wait for the farmer's daughter and pretend to ambush her. Then he would appear and fight heroically against the “bandits” and save the poor farmer's daughter. Then she couldn't help but fall in love with her savior.

Will your heroes take part in this spectacle if enough is offered?

(Alternatively: Depending on how you assess your group, simply change the sexes of the two involved. A young noblewoman who wants to tear up a farmer's son in this way. The willingness of your heroes to participate should be much higher, although morally nothing has changed)

5. Good Hunting:
Our heroes are traveling through a forest when suddenly a mystical animal walks across the path. I would describe it as beautiful, sublime and rare (e.g. unicorn, white griffin). The animal looks harried and just as it has almost overcomes the path an arrow flies out of the thicket from the other side and kills the animal. Hunters emerge from the bushes on either side of the path. They belong to different hunting societies and a dispute begins about who owns the carcass.

One side is claiming it for them because they fired the fatal shot. The other side replies that the animal's body lies on their side. Apparently the forest path is the border between the two hunting areas. The two leaders of the squad meet at the carcass and argue violently.

The situation can escalate very quickly and our heroes can try to calm them down with good words. Both sides in turn will try to pull the heroes to their side in order to be able to set up a superior force in the event of a fight.

If our heroes take sides, a fight will break out. This will begin with the leader of the losing side making a first strike. The slain beast is so valuable because its body parts are magical. So the hunter reaches for the body (e.g. the unicorn's horn) and casts a one-time, strong spell that weakens the other side.

In battle, the hunters will make use of the vials and spread out as much as possible, taking full advantage of the distance of their weapons. Immobile close combatants are brought to despair here.

(An alternative to this fight is for your heroes to appease the two sides and reconcile them with good arguments. A hero with a high level of knowledge about nature or one of the hunters could also notice another track that points to an even more valuable beast. This very dangerous beast must then be hunted down with the united hunting group)