Creepy Hollow Battle Map - Launch

Hello Adventurers! I’ve pushed hard to finish this for the end of the month and just managed it. It's a travel map depicting an overgrown hollow or a sunken road. It works in a rural or wilderness setting. These places pop up all over the UK and Europe and tend to be spooky places with legends and mystical lore behind them. It's always best to use this at dusk, night, or early morning when something can appear on the road and freak out the players. A black dog of ill omen, a white woman with long dank hair or a headless horseman. All standard spooky country lane fare.

Next Maps

I’ll be working on the Refurbished Halfpint Pub next with the Snakeoil Salesman's Camp towards the end of the month.

• Refurbished Halfpint Pub - I have always loved one of my first map ideas, the Half Pint Pub. It's a tavern run by halflings with a cute rustic vibe. I want to completely redo the map with a much more ‘hobbity’ feel and allow for an upstairs floor with the ability to connect it to the cellar map I created a couple of months back.

• Snakeoil Salesman’s Camp - A simple camp on the edge of a town or village. An ornate caravan with a small stage is set up here, with a place for locals to gather for a show of flimflam and exaggerated claims.

Thanks for your support, both new and old patrons. With your help, I can continue to create maps for this wonderful TTRPG community. If you have ideas for new maps, let me know. I’m always open to new ideas! Have a great week, and as always, happy adventuring!

Now, let's get going before the sun comes up. We can use the mist for cover. I’m sure the spooky howling we heard all night was just a pack of wild dogs or something. And the hysterical laughter was just some drunk farmers heading back from the pub. I’ll admit the Lady in White was harder to explain. No one should be that transparent, even at this early in the morning.

Downloads

As always, the files, along with thumbnails and tags, can be accessed on the Map List Page. You must be logged in to Patreon and signed up to the correct tier to access them. And remember, you are only charged for map releases; you can download all the old maps at no extra cost!

Map Description

Early morning mist hangs in the air like a shroud across the countryside. The road is sunken into the landscape, its muddy, steep sides covered in damp and dripping vegetation. As you make your way along the road, the mist swirls around you, obscuring your vision and making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of you. Sound is deadened, your friends’ footsteps muffled. Ahead on the road, you see a shadow loom into view, its shape indistinct within the mist. Distance is difficult to gauge. It could be the size of a man, horse or something as unthreatening as a deer.

Notes and Tips

• 30x30 Grid Map

• Countryside lanes can be full of odd encounters. Where wilderness locations are dangerous because of wild things, farmland and rural locations are fun because of their connection to people and the folk myths that come with them. Lean into ghost stories based on rural themes. Ghostly apparitions based on local deaths or murders, hounds of ill omen, rural fey folk and Will-o’-Wisp.

• The lane's sides are steep and challenging to climb. Creatures will tumble or slide down easily enough, but getting back up will require dex or strength checks.

• Mist can obscure sight (including night vision), which can be very useful when half of your party can see in darkness. It adds the element of mystery, lost when players can see all the nasty things in the dark.

• The Devil Rides Out! - This is the devil's road, or so the locals claim. They do not travel this road at night and will happily tell the party this if asked. They say the devil can be seen riding along the road at dusk and dawn. All who meet him are damned to be taken with him to hell. The facts can be anything you wish, from a ghoul that haunts the lane due to its shadowy nature, or maybe it's really a damned spirit of some evil man hunting for souls to pay off his debt to some supernatural entity.

• The Hounds They Hunt - A pack of supernatural hounds hunt the mists. The party hears a bugle call and barking in the distance. A lone figure runs into view and is chased by spectral hounds. The figure runs to the party and begs for help. This figure could be a farmer who upset the local fey lord (dallied with his daughter, maybe?) or a criminal being chased by literal hell hounds. Helping him will mean taking on the hounds and maybe their owner.

• The Graspy Hands - Some folklore can be a little weird. Inspired by an urban legend about spectral hairy hands, these could be spectral hands that grasp, push and attack the party. They likely belong to some malevolent troll or fey creature who will attack the party with supernatural strength. Maybe it's using some faulty invisibility spell or item, and its hands become visible when it attacks.

• It Shouldn’t Stand Like That - The mists obscure whatever is out on the road, and at first, it seems like the party has just encountered a deer. Oddly, it doesn’t run as the party gets closer. At some point, the deer stands on its hind legs, and its eyes begin to glow a dull red. Have it make some weird sound. Clicking is always a good choice.

Variants

Day/Night variants of all the maps.

 A moorland variant, because you can't walk more than a few feet without tripping over a ghost or hellhound on the moors.

 A desert variant, it makes up for the lack of dank, foreboding atmosphere with it's coarse and rough and irritating sand - which gets everywhere.

 A farmland variant, because sometimes a herd of cows can be a real menace! Or maybe Werecows? OK, perhaps something better than Werecows, but you get the idea.

 And a snow variant because you want to roll for frostbite at least once per campaign.