Champion Tier - Inn to the Nightmare - Nightmare Realm

Update, March 27th, 2023: I just uploaded the .zip file with the Lunch Break Hereos original adventure, "Inn to the Nightmare," which includes the full-color PDF, the printer-friendly PDF, along with both portraits and tokens for the NPCs and new monster stat blocks. I hope you enjoy it! 

Hey everyone, and happy Release Monday! Wow, today I have a big release for you! This is the second part of the Inn the Night adventure written by Lunch Break Heroes that will complete this set of maps (last week's Knight Inn map was part 1). I have three core map releases for you today, which are:

• The Nightmare Forest (This is a slight re-work of my Dark Woods Map)
• The Nightmare Islands
• The Nightmare Lair

In addition to these maps, there are tons of variants and color moods, and of course, you get a free copy of the adventure once it's ready!

Inn the Night starts off at the Knight Inn, which is located off the main road. This is a perfect location for any roadside inn you might want to throw at your party during a long journey between towns. The players can enjoy the amenities of the inn, warm hearth, good food, drink, and company while they are there. But once they go to sleep in the comfy rooms, they awake to a nightmare (literally!). They have been pulled into the nightmare realm by a Motakka daemon who feeds its young on the horrors and nightmares of others. This adventure will play on your player characters' fears as they make their way through the twisted inn, fight the corrupted versions of the staff, and try to find their way out of this horrible nightmare world they've found themselves in.

After this, it is a series of challenges that take them through the woods, talking with the stranger and hearing terrible shrieks in the distance. Eventually, they will find their way to a series of islands floating over the void of nightmares, where they must solve a series of challenges to make their way. Success might help them in the fight to come, but failure will hinder and exhaust them.

Finally, they face down the entrance to the lair of the Motakka, a thin and dark cave where it keeps its young, breeding within the skulls of those pulled into this realm and being fed nightmares trapped in bottles.

Will your players be strong enough to defeat this creature? Or is this where their journey ends?

Okay, wow, there are a lot of map files in this post (180 different jpg files alone!), so let me break it all down for you.

There are three main maps with this release:

• The Nightmare Forest (This is a slight re-work of my Dark Woods Map)
• The Nightmare Islands
• The Nightmare Lair

The Nightmare Forest [40x40]

This is a rework of my Dark Woods map where I added more fog, made the ground cover a little creepier, added looming trees along the edges, floating black wisps, and a cave to the south where they can meet with the wanderer with a fun little nod to Dark Souls in this cave!

The Nightmare Forest has two variants and five color moods:

Variants: Clean (no fog) & Foggy

Color Moods: Banshee, Gloom, Gothic, Haunted, & Nightmare

The Nightmare Islands [40x30]

I took a lot of inspiration from (of course) cosmic horrors and also the fade from Dragon Age (One of my most beloved game franchises!). I wanted to put a lot of emphasis on the rope bridge and create something huge, almost unnatural, and imposing.

The Nightmare Islands have three variants and five color moods:

Variants: The islands with the adventure-specific items (Foundtain and child's room), a version without those things to make it more general use, and finally, the background only, which is a great map for a Spelljammer game!

Color Moods: Banshee, Gloom, Eldritch, Haunted, & Nightmare

The Nightmare Lair [40x30]

I wanted the lair to feel tight, enclosed, almost claustrophobic. As the players descend down the tunnels, they encounter the first "room" with a pile of bottles, each containing a nightmare, and are used as food for the Motakka's young. The second "room" is a horrific scene with a massive pile of bodies (previous adventurers) where the creatures' young are incubated. Finally, you'll encounter the nightmare creature in its lair with unblinking eyes built into the rock staring at you. H.R. Giger absolutely inspired me for this one!

The Nightmare Lair has four variants and five color moods:

Variants: I created two core versions and two clean versions of those (4 total). One version has the adventure specifics (bottles, dead bodies, eyes, etc.), while the other strips them out to make this more generic use. Both clean versions have stripped away the fog within the cave.

Color Moods: Banshee, Gloom, Eldritch, Haunted, & Nightmare

In addition to all I outlined above, this map release contains the following:

• 4k / 8k resolution
• Variants for each map
• Color Moods for each map
• Grid / NoGrid
• Webp files in 4k / 8k
• Sizing Guide
• The written adventure "Inn the Night", printer a friendly version, with portraits, and tokens **(Adventure will be added this week! Stay tuned)**

With the March adventure finished, time to shift my focus back to my two pending large projects; Curse of Strahd & Ghosts of Saltmarsh!

I already started work on the City Gates of Saltmarsh, which I hope to post up first thing in April. Additionally, I want to start work on my revised Amber Temple, which will be an updated version of my original one (This will probably be released in two sections considering the amount of detail and love I'll pour into each floor!).

I have a few other pending projects on my plate in no particular order, which is to finish up the Interactive Tome of Strahd with the Burgomaster Mansion / Garden in Berez and Prologue maps, making some edits to Castle Ravenloft with a cleaned-up chapel and throne room, and of course the next map for Saltmarsh; Barracks & Jail.

Thanks as always for your continued support! You allow me to pursue my passion for making TTRPG maps and help bring these worlds to life!

Cheers,

DM Andy