Hey everyone, and happy New Release Monday! Today, I have for you a new swamp map inspired by an encounter created by Pyram King for his Legends of Saltmarsh supplement. Pyram has been creating stellar content for both Curse of Strahd and Ghosts of Saltmarsh using my maps to key encounters off it, and he's done an amazing job with it.
This time, he's created an encounter on the border of the Hool Marshes & The Drowned Forest of a Gnoll Camp, striking out at travelers on the road. You can find Pyram's Legends of Saltmarsh for free here.
To start, I made this map in two core variants:
With the Gnoll Camp, featuring leatherbound tents, cages, and LOTS of bone and meat to gnaw on! In the back, there are stakes in the murky swamp water to tie prisoners to, surrounded by Violet Fungus, making it a deadly trap to both escape and rescue the prisoners.
Without the Gnoll Camp. I've removed all the specific camp features to make this a generic swamp map. Perfect to slate into any swamp encounters you might be running!
Additionally, each variant has a "No Trees" version as well, which removes the massive treetops of the swamp trees growing in this region. I wanted these trees to feel massive and looming overhead without sacrificing too much of the map's playable area. But the no trees version is a great way to show the "under the branches" view if you want a clearer view of the map.
Lastly, on color moods, you will not find my traditional "Warm" mood here since I didn't think it was very fitting for a swamp. Instead, for my swamp maps, I'm introducing a new color mood called "Murky". This is a murky-greenish tone that I feel really enhances the tones of the swamp colors.
The camp features barricades to defend around the perimeter, various tents and bedrolls, a massive bonfire, and carts of slaughtered travelers that have been nearly picked to the bone. The Gnolls are vicious, and their insatiable hunger knows no bounds. I wanted to represent that here on the map. From gnawed bones to slabs of meat, I wanted to create the feeling of dread when your players approach. This would also make for a great Bullywug or Goblin camp as well!
Toward the back of the Camp version, I added three stakes to which to tie captured villagers. These stakes are buried within a few inches of murky water as well as surrounded by Violet Fungus. The sounds of the splashing water would alert any of the nearby Gnolls if a rescue is attempted, as well as the poisonous spore clouds which erupt from the Violet Fungus if they are disturbed. This would make for a daring rescue encounter with high "stakes" (Get it??)
I left this part off of the "no camp" portion as I wanted that version to be as generic as possible to fit any sort of swamp encounter you had in mind.
Here is a shot of the "No Camp" version. Same swamp, just minus all the camp bits and the Violet Fungus area in the back!
Click the download link below for your tier to download all the map files.
The Foundry / Champion Tier Download
The Foundry / Champion Tier Printable PDFs Download
Contains:
4k / 8k Jpg / Webp
Six Color Moods
Weather Overlays in 4k / 8k
Treetop Overlay Tiles in 4k / 8k
Printable PDFs
Access to the Foundry VTT Module once released
The Grand Library Tier Download
The Grand Library Tier Printable PDFs Download
Contains:
4k / 8k Jpg / Webp
Six Color Moods
Weather Overlays in 4k / 8k
Printable PDFs
The Great Hall Tier Download
Contains:
4k / 8k Jpg / Webp
Two Color Moods
Weather Overlays in 4k / 8k
Public Download
Contains:
4k Jpg / Webp
One Color Mood
Weather Overlays in 4k
Whether you're using the Pyram Encounter or not, I think this map should prove versatile with all sorts of swampy encounters you can dream up. I hope it'll see lots of table-time at your home games.
I hope you've enjoyed the maps that came out this month. I had two swamp maps, the Refugee Camp from CoS Reloaded, and the huge Foundry Building map from the Lothburgh setting.
Next month, in May, I have some really exciting releases I'm cooking up, including the next location map from Saltmarsh and a rework of my Van Richten's Tower map from CoS! Can't wait to share those with you all.
Thank you ALL for your continued support of my work and your trust in me to deliver exciting battlemaps for your table. I won't let you down!
Cheers friends,
DM Andy