Mountain Glacier Battle Map - Launch

Hello Adventurers! Here is our next release, the Mountain Glacier. I wanted to make sure this was usable for people running campaigns in temperate locations as well as the frozen north. I had a ton of fun working out how to get the ice to ‘read’ as ice from above, maybe there is a little artistic license but I feel it works well. This could be used as an obstacle to be traversed while traveling through the wilderness and will certainly have some ice-themed monsters to spoil your party’s day.

Map Schedule Update!

I’m afraid I’ve dropped behind on my schedule for the month due to illness, and life in general getting in the way. With just a few days before the end of the month, I simply don’t have enough time to create the Pit of the Spider Queen before the month’s end. I’ll get working on it this week and plan to get it to you as the first map of July. Apologies for the delay! I requested new map ideas from you a couple of weeks ago and the response was amazing. I have a huge list of fun map ideas to choose from. I’ll post a July update in a few days when I’ve finalised my plans.

I want to thank all you wonderful people for supporting me in creating new maps and PDF notes each month. You and people like you are the reason creators in this hobby can continue to do what we do :D I hope you have a great week and as always happy adventuring! Now let’s try and make our way over this glacier. Tie a rope to the halfling and send him out ahead, it will be safer that way…

Introduction

The mountain air is thin, making it hard to catch your breath. The bitterly cold wind freezes any exposed skin and makes your eyes water. The sky is clear, the sun high and bright but giving off little heat. Only a smattering of pine trees and clumps of coarse grasses grow at this altitude.

As you crest the next hill you see a valley before you filled with ice. The glacier snakes along the valley like a river, frozen in ripples partially covered in snow. At its base, where the valley opens out is a huge lake, crystal clear and still, reflecting the sky above.

You make your way down the valley to the edge of the glacier. You notice creaking and the sounds of ice shifting. Deeper, you hear running water within the ice. Across the glacier, you notice cracks and fissures big enough to swallow your entire party. You decide to tie yourselves together with lengths of rope, and cautiously make your way onto the ice.

Your Halfling companion takes the lead making his way slowly across the snow-dusted ice, each step taken with the utmost caution. At the midway point, he raises a hand and pauses. You begin to hear the sounds of shifting ice below your feet, the halfling takes a step back and drops through the ice with a yelp. You brace and the rope goes taught, the small man’s weight easy to hold. He shouts from within the fissure “Pull me up! Oh gods quickly, there’s something down here!”. As you begin to pull back you feel a tug on the rope, your feet slide towards the fissure, and the halfling screams once before going silent. You pull back with all your strength, but your feet slip further. Then with a snap, the rope breaks and you fall back into the snow. Deep within the ice, something roars a challenge. You stumble to your feet, draw your weapons, and wait to see what emerges from the ice.

Notes and Tips

• 30x45 grid map
• Some Glacier trivia. Glaciers are compacted snow that has turned to ice and due to its huge mass flows very slowly like a river. A moulin is a hole in a glacier, formed by water, they can be very deep. A crevasse is a deep crack in a glacier that forms due to the movement of the glacier.
• This would make a perfect environmental obstacle for the party to traverse. The lake could continue along the valley making it the only timely route to continue.
• The snow could be hiding crevasses and moulin (holes) within the glacier, as your party moves across it, roll dice to see if these open up below the party.
• A pack of wolves, with a winter wolf at their head, are hunting the party. The final confrontation could be on the ice. Throw in a Frost Giant to make it more deadly.
• Things could be living inside the glacier, a Remorhaz comes to mind. It’s a horrifying creature to meet in any location, but on an unstable ice sheet, well that’s just bad.
• Ice Mephits are fairly weak but fun and frustrating to fight for a lower-level party.
• A relic of power is buried deep within the ice, a cult or group of evil wizards is looking to dig it out. Have the party disrupt the excavation.
• Oh look at that, it’s an evil abomination buried in the ice! And it just winked at the party. Roll initiative!

Variants

Night/Day versions of all the maps

Snow version for people running Rime of the Frost Maiden

How about some tropical lava actions?

Or maybe some nine hells sightseeing?

Or maybe Frostfell, also known as the Para-Elemental Plane of Ice