Launch Maps - Japanese Castle Exterior, Bamboo Forest Shrine, Beach Episode Remake, Silk Pony Inn

Click here to browse & download the launch maps!

Hello, gamemasters!

These maps have been available from the very moment of launch, but they still deserve an announcement, I think. Consider this a reminder to check them out if you haven't already! The free maps are in the header.

Bamboo Forest Shrine

The first I created chronologically & perhaps my favorite of the three when you add the bamboo canopies on top. When loaded into Foundry, this map has a really cool effect with the forest roof overlay tiles.

Thoughts

• The bamboo whispers to passerbys the spoken words of past travelers.

• Two ghostly warriors make havoc without regard for the living unlucky enough to be there for it.

• The ancient, inhuman caretaker has just lost her most important spiritual prisoner.

Explorer Contents

• Bamboo Forest Shrine: A dilapidated old shrine in a dense bamboo forest.

• Stream: A thin gravelly stream runs down where a path might otherwise be!

• Canopy Overlays: Built for VTT canopy usage!

• Shrine Spiritual Confluence: A swirl of magic surrounds the shrine.

• Day/Night Variants: Wherever applicable!

Master Contents

• Shrine: A dilapidated old shrine in a dense bamboo forest.

• Path: A winding path through the forest, dotted with roadside shrines, lanterns, and idols.

• River: A path that crosses a river, with or without bridge.

• Blood River: A flow of gore crossing a hellishly-lit landscape, with or without bridge. What is this, the setting of a nightmare? A nasty thorn-filled hole in Avernus?

• Shrine Spiritual Confluence: A swirl of magic surrounds the shrine.

• Stream: A thin gravelly stream runs down where a path might otherwise be!

• Forest: A bamboo grove without the slightest hint of artificial structures, for characters who have absolutely gotten themselves lost, or who’ve encountered things in the middle of nowhere.

• Canopy Overlays: Built for VTT canopy usage!

• Day/Night Variants: Wherever applicable!

Beach Episode Remake

A peaceful beach arrayed with the elements of a small party. Someone here’s been enjoying themselves; what’s the occasion? Who got invited? More importantly, who WASN’T invited? Thieves? Challengers? An obnoxious rival? The players themselves?

This one is fun for me, because it's a direct comparison for how far I've come. Check out the 2020 original adjacent to the new version:

Thoughts

• Savannas don’t show up enough in peoples’ campaigns. Deserts get a rap as consisting entirely of dunes! The chaparral variants could be used as a desert coastline, if you wanted.

Explorer Contents

• Beach Episode: A large sandy coastline with rolling waves & an intermittent dirt cliff.

• Party: A small beach party being thrown on the beach! Are you invited, or are you crashing it?

• Night/Rain/Fog: For all applicable variants!

• Murder: A bloody mess. The body’s been discarded, washed away in the surf. Who did this? Who was killed?

Master Contents

• Beach Episode: A large sandy coastline with rolling waves & an intermittent dirt cliff.

• Party: A small beach party being thrown on the beach! Are you invited, or are you crashing it?

• Chaparral: A dry grassy shoreline dotted with poplar trees for an arid or desert climate.

• Spring: Blooming cherry trees line the beach.

• Cave: A sandy cave has been dug into the beach. For spring, chaparral, & grasslands.

• Murder: A bloody mess. The body’s been discarded, washed away in the surf. Who did this? Who was killed? For all three biomes!

• Night/Rain/Fog: For all applicable variants!

Japanese Castle Exterior

Here stands tall & proud the walls of Shogun Akiyama! Whether this castle rest on shore, up a mountain, or in a desert, it’s been covered & drawn in great detail. No bloody battle could break these mighty walls … right?

A surprising degree of spookiness for this map. It’s mostly the Deadlands variants that give me that feel, I think, but between the blood moons & the massacres the rest of the themes get plenty of it too. These castle walls are prepped for a siege; just supply the combatants.

Thoughts

• Multiple simultaneous attack angles work nicely.

• Walls like these are neutralized by flying beasts. The design of this castle implies it exists in a realm where those are rare. Perhaps it’d be a shock to the occupants to see them employed.

• Those great barricading foundation walls by the sea (or grasslands, for some variants) could probably be scaled if you were slippery enough.

Explorer Contents

• Shoreline Castle Exterior: A Japanese castle on the coast & its surroundings!

• Aurora, Rain, Fog, Massacre, Blood Moon: For the shoreline castle!

Master Contents

• Shoreline Castle Exterior: A Japanese castle on the coast & its surroundings!

• Sandland: No rivers in the desert here. Just a lonely fortress with a patch of greenery.

• Grasslands & Forests: Two separate environments for those who don’t want their castle to be on the shore! Forests are dangerous for a castle; who can see what’s coming?

• Deadlands: An accursed land, or a demon’s realm? A seemingly haunted castle with a much darker tone, surrounded by fierce thorny woods.

• Night Variants: For all location themes!

• Fog: For all location themes!

• Rain: For all location themes! Sandland gets a sandstorm instead.

• Massacre: A bloody slaughter swept through here long before you arrived! For all location themes!

• Aurora: A brilliant aurora! To celebrate something? An earth-shaking omen? For all location themes!

• Blood Moon: A creeping scarlet mist, a bloody tone to the skies. Where water rests, it turns a brilliant red and stings of iron. For all location themes!

The Silk Pony Inn

A notorious gambling den popular with thieves & assassins. Some say the owner holds secret bloody bouts for prize money in the cellar on nights of the full moon. Others say a cult holds residence behind those barred wooden doors..?

Thoughts

• Perhaps guards protect the cellar. They don’t want the law or the uninitiated to be snooping down there.

• I wonder if the corpses from the illicit cellar fights have a buyer … or a consumer.

• A valuable treasure is hidden in the gambling nook.

Explorer Contents

• Silk Pony Inn: The notorious gambling den, brothel, brawling cellar & thieves’ lair — three floors’ worth, plus the roof.

• Night Variants: For both above-ground stories & the roof!

• Canopy Overlays: Separate roof tiles for canopy usage, if preferred!

Master Contents

• Silk Pony Inn: The notorious gambling den, brothel, brawling cellar & thieves’ lair — three floors’ worth, plus the roof.

• Day/Night/Rain Variants: Wherever applicable!

• Clean Basement: In case you don’t want your fights to be quite so questionable.

• Cult Basement: An altar & rug setup in the basement for those who prefer cultists instead of crooks.

• Fire: Okay, who knocked over the lantern? Let’s hope the party isn’t asleep in one of those rooms when it happens.

• Canopy Overlays: Separate roof tiles built for VTT canopy usage!

Formats

All maps are provided with & without square grids in WEBP format. (Please note that while WEBP is compatible with all major VTTs, it may not be previewable in old Windows 10 photo viewers.)

In addition, a Foundry module with a compendium of pre-built scenes for major variants is provided in the DnDungeon Master packs!

Furthermore, full-color PDF files in both single-page and divided poster formats are provided for printing!

• The divided poster PDFs are cut into US Letter-size pages; they have guidelines, sheet numbering, & a convenient sheet for sticking them together after you’ve printed them out, and have margins so that you don’t have to be pixel-perfect when cutting with your scissors.

• The single-sheet PDFs are suitable for making high-quality prints via print shops & on large-scale printers.

Download the maps from the Cyclopean website!