The second Encounter Box: Thirteen maps for your journey (and a few encounter ideas) (free version)

Here you can find the individual maps. Alternatively, scroll to the end of this post and download them together in one zip file.

All maps in high resolution without signature, their night versions, the Vtt files and many other maps can be found on my Patreon (one post below)

Map sizes:

1. River crossing [40x45]

2. Crystal of insects [35x31]

3. River cruise [30x40]

4. Beach with chest [30x32]

5. Hidden night camp [35x35]

6. Another river crossing night [40x30]

7. Ship at islands [50x35]

8. A crossing with suspension bridges [40x45]

9. Suspension bridge over a flowing river [30x35]

10. Road on a slope [30x35]

11. Mystical fountain on the street [30x30

12. Footbridge through the swamp [30x30]

13. Entrance to the enchanted forest [30x30]

I'm a big fan of traveling and to make it interesting, encounters are an important thing.

The problem is, most of them are of this type: "X opponents appear and attack you". Which quickly becomes very uninteresting. Accordingly, I have drafted a few encounter ideas that will hopefully require both social and/or violent solutions.

Of course, they need more preparation time than the normal random encounter, but I think it's worth it and you can experience interesting and memorable adventures on the road.

Accordingly, some of these maps are already provided with a point of interest (such as an insect-infested crystal in the middle of the street), which limits their use somewhat. But Nevertheless, I think that this is more interesting than the thousandth simple forest road and a little creativity should overcome this problem.

You are also welcome to share your own Encounter ideas here!

Here are my encounters for you:

1. Don Goblione

On a peaceful street you suddenly hear something behind you. You are being overtaken by a wild owl bear. He comes to a stop in front of you and on his back sits in a saddle an armored goblin with crazy eyes. He looks confused in different directions and wildly waves a, for his height, surprisingly long lance . He doesn’t speak, but waves the way ahead and mimes something that an intelligent character could interpret as the description of a windmill. Before the "conversation" can continue, another mount arrives from behind.

It's a young man on a donkey. He asks if there are any windmills in that direction.

Regardless of whether the PCs say yes or no, the goblin continues to ride on his mount in this direction.

The young man cannot say much when asked. He is a squire of a retired knight who has sent him to a friend of hiss so that he can gain practical experience. The goblin. The only thing he knows is to look for windmills. He then rides quickly after the goblin.

After a few miles on the road, our heroes actually spot a windmill. It's on fire. The peasant family was brutally slaughtered and there are no survivors. Everything indicates that the confused goblin was a really dangerous lunatic.

If you don't want this encounter to end so gloomy, you can turn it into a small quest and then let your heroes stop by a tavern. There they meet the squire again in the courtyard. He's pale as death and can't get a word out. Then the goblin steps into the yard.

A fight could start. But before things escalate, the squire intervenes and tells in a trembling voice that it wasn't the goblin who burned the windmill. In fact, he's a berserk who has vowed to hunt down his clan's killers. Brutal bandits who are after the grain of the windmills and blood.

At the end of the quest, you could jointly locate the heavily secured camp of the bandits, develop a plan of attack and put them down, including the character development of the squire who turns from a coward to a fighter for justice.

2. The dead rise

In the middle of the street, in front of your adventures, the earth is suddenly torn open and a single hand reaches up to heaven. Your heroes only see a clumped, bleeding hand waving desperately through the air. If your adventurers react too harshly or suspiciously, it could be too late for the poor dwarf buried underground who wants to break free at all costs before the air runs out.

In the event that your heroes can react quickly enough, instead of chopping off the hand, they find it belongs to a living person and save the dwarf.

He tells a story of a serial killer who caught him. You can end the encounter here if the dwarf knows the killer's camp nearby. you can spot him there. Your heroes can once again spread some justice.

Alternatively, you could make a whole quest out of it, which consists in the search for the murderer and could even result in your heroes finding themselves buried in a claustrophobic trap underground only to free themselves. Ascending from their own grave they strike down the murderer.

3. The official bridge troll

Your group is approaching a bridge. The classic bridge troll is waiting behind it. But civilization has already advanced this far. Accordingly, he was made a civil servant for the next city. The troll didn't quite get it, but is happy about a salary and regular meals. He wears a hat and has documents and papers pinned all over his body.

When travelers come, he asks for a pass, otherwise nobody is allowed to cross the bridge.

Of course, the troll cannot read, so the easiest solution is to take out a piece of paper, paint a coat of arms on it and hold it under the bridge troll's nose.

But when this happens, another group arrives immediately after the adventurers. Our heroes can overhear how the new men with the city arms painted on their chests go to the troll and demand the "weekly bridge trolling tax". The troll pays, of course, almost everything he has, as always.

The group are tough bandits who don't want to be robbed of their secure income at any price. What will your heroes do?

4. Uh... that's embarrassing...

Our group is surprised by a nobleman on the street. Warriors and archers appear in the embankment to the left and right. The escape routes are blocked with falling trees. Stones are ready to roll down the slope and crush everything on the way. Oil was poured out to make walls of fire rise.

The perfect trap. The nobleman begins a monologue about the revenge he wants to take on you

Unfortunately, you don't know him at all and it seems he has been confused. The group of adventurers he is after is still a quarter of an hour away.

There are several options. Fight against the nobleman and his people. Accept the apology and go on. Or join forces with the nobleman and attack the though adventurer that are about to arrive.

5. Crash Course First Aid

A very large humanoid figure lies in the open road. (E.g. a troll or a small giant).

It asks for help and may offer something in return. Then it passes out.

The person has a heart attack. It is the common task of the group to provide first aid. The difficulty lie in a) recognizing the problem (heart attack) b) understanding what needs to be done now (bring it into the correct position, remove armor around the chest and start heart rhythm massage) and c) perform this on the incredibly heavy body. Simultaneous ventilation would also be appropriate.

6. Discount Trojan War

As your heroes cross a river and step from stone to stone, they suddenly hear high-pitched voices and see large amounts of driftwood floating down the river. A closer look reveals that it is not normal wood, but tiny ships that are fully occupied with tiny warriors. A huge fleet that travels down the river. The goal is the stones on which our heroes are standing. These are hollowed out fortresses and tiny projectiles quickly hiss through the air to spread death and perdition. You witness a huge battle on a tiny size.

With their enormous size, our heroes can of course intervene and, with a little skill, also identify the military leaders of both sides.

What they narrate is about a kidnapped tiny queen and is strongly reminiscent of the Trojan War. It is proposed by one of the tiny man to decide the whole war by duel. But since the leaders do not fight for the sake of tradition, a champion is determined. Both will try to win a group member for there side and promise wealth and magical utensils.

In the best case, two of your party members will compete against each other in a duel in front of the spectating tiny armies until one goes down. And so the great war will end.

It can of course also be ended in other ways, such as one of the "titans" destroying one of the two conflicting parties.

Credit for the used asset packs goes to Essendi, Synecdoche and Crosshead.