Champion Tier - The Stretching Room | 30x40
Added 2024-10-28 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
Hello everyone, and happy New Release Monday! As per my tradition of making special Halloween maps each year, I present you with The Stretching Room, an homage to one of my favorite attractions growing up from The Haunted Mansion ride!
I'm also excited to showcase off the four custom portraits that I had custom commissioned from the very talented "Caleb is Drawing" who really knocked it out of the park with his incredible skill for each of these amazing portraits.
If you're not familiar with this fantastic ride (I realize I'm bias since it's in my own backyard) you can find a cool little vid here which shows how the real-life room works!
This map was designed to be a multi-phased map as the room begin to "stretch" and your party attempting to find a way out. I created this map independently of any other map so you can drop this into any manor or dungeon you'd like to add a puzzle or trap room in. Have your party find a secret door which opens up from one of the wall panels (maybe hidden behind a book case) and have the door close and magically seal behind them, trapping them into this room.
Also, take a moment to check out each of the portraits on the "Phase 3" map so you can see them in all their glory! Caleb did such a wonderful job and I'm truly amazed at his skills.
I've drafted up a few story hooks which might inspire you to run various encounters. No matter how your party solves this encounter, this could be a great segway or lead in to a larger dungeon under the house!
Puzzle Encounter: "The Portraits' Riddles"
As your party step into the eerie, dimly lit room, the door slams shut behind them with a loud click. The room starts to stretch, revealing more details of the four enigmatic portraits on the walls. The door they entered through has vanished, leaving behind smooth, impenetrable stone. The only way out seems to be tied to the paintings and the cryptic clues they offer.
Setup: Each portrait contains a hidden clue that your party must decipher to unlock the way forward. The paintings whisper riddles, or magical glyphs appear below them as the room stretches, providing hints toward what needs to be done. For example:
The lich wizard's vines in the background might shift and form words or symbols that suggest a specific pattern of green orbs to match with a magical device in the room.
The female wizard's pile of skulls could reveal numbers or shapes that suggest a sequence to press on a pressure plate.
The red-robed wizard’s measuring tape could rearrange into a musical scale, hinting that a sequence of notes must be played on an ancient instrument found in the room.
The blue-robed wizard and the struggling halfling might give clues through changing expressions or motions, indicating the direction the players must push a series of statues to align properly.
Goal: Solve the riddles of all four portraits to open a hidden door in the floor or ceiling, or to deactivate a magical barrier that conceals the exit. The stretching room's ceiling continues to rise, revealing a skeleton hanging from the rafters to indicate someone who could not find their way out of this room, creating a sense of urgency. If players fail to solve the riddles quickly enough, the room could begin to fill with necrotic energy or mist, adding a time-sensitive element to the puzzle.
Combat Encounter: "The Portraits' Awakening"
As the room stretches upward, your party hear a low, rumbling laugh echoing from the portraits. The painted wizards' eyes begin to glow with an eerie light, and from each painting, spectral forms emerge, taking on twisted versions of the subjects in the portraits. The room has no visible exits, but the adventurers sense a faint magical presence coming from beneath the floor.
Setup: The spectral versions of the wizards step out from their respective paintings and attack the party. Each spectral wizard retains some aspects of their original form but is twisted and empowered:
The lich wizard summons green, glowing orbs that move erratically around the room, causing radiant bursts.
The female wizard raises skeletal minions from the ground, forcing players to fight off waves of undead.
The red-robed wizard uses illusions to confuse and distract, creating false versions of himself that the players must identify and dispel.
The blue-robed wizard uses telekinesis to hurl objects around the room and tries to trap players with animated, spectral chains.
Goal: Defeat the spectral forms of the wizards, but each time one is defeated, the room stretches further, and players must endure until all four are subdued. Upon defeating the final specter, the hidden door reveals itself as the night sky above aligns with the silhouette of the skeleton in the ceiling window, indicating where they need to focus a final spell or strike to reveal the exit.
As a member of the Champion Tier, you get the following with this release:
4 Core Versions of the map to show the growth of the room and reveal more portraits: Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 3 with the dome window and hanging skeleton
8k & 4k Resolution
Six Color Moods Including: Dark Fairytale, Ghostly, Gloom, Night, Sunny Day, & Warm
Grid & No Grid
No Lights Version
VTT Sizing Guide
Well, that's a wrap for October, and I hope you've enjoyed this month's (extra) spooky maps. Coming up next, I will be continuing my re-work of my older maps and featuring a rework inspired by Lake Zarovich and the "Bluto Encounter" called "Lake Duskfall".
In other awesome collab news, DragnaCarta (The author of the extremely well-written resource "Curse of Strahd: Reloaded") has asked me to map out all of the extra areas and encounters he's added to his guide. I will be starting off with the "Siege of Barovia: The Eastern Barricades" and mapping out each location to support this. You can find a free copy of Curse of Strahd: Reloaded here!
Of course, I will be continuing with my Winter's Grasp and Saltmarsh projects as well, so I already have November packed with goodies!
I hope you've enjoyed sharing a core part of my childhood with The Stretching Room map and I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. Thank you for your continued support of my craft!
Cheers,
DM Andy
