Roleplaying
I decided we look at the DM map for the backyard to day, and then look at the maps for the first of the second guest room floors.
The DM map for the backyard will look like this, with only a few points of interest marked. Some may think that I am over ambitious when it comes to mark things on the DM map, but bettr to mark one thing tom many than one thing to few. I’ve played many commercial adventures where you have a reference in the text and you don’t get a clue on where is that? For example, let’s say we have a secret trapdoor in the kitchen floor,and it was nicely drawn by the map artist, but during post production and image compression, that nice trapdoor is almost invisible unless you zoom really deep into the image. Then the text refers to the trapdoor as a vital key element in an encounter, and there is nor marker on the map for that. This can ruin the encounter.
So, this is the DM map.
Description: (1) The door leading to the kitchen.
(2) The locked, thick steel door. (3) A dead and slightly rotten tree:
When the PCs arrive here, read or paraphrase the following text:
You exit the kitchen and enters a pretty large, grass covered backyard. Even though it is pretty dark outside, you can see a small stone laid footpath, and a few tables and benches.To the north, you see dense bushes, and along the foot path stand one single dead tree.There seems to be only one other exit from this backyard, a sturdy iron gate.
Level one
To see the hidden bandits in the bushes, a Perception DC (12) is required.
Level seven
To see the hidden bandits in the bushes, a Perception DC (18) is required.
DM Note
The bandits will try to stay hidden, but will attack the PCs if they feel threatened.
The iron door at (2) is locked really good, and it has been secured by several iron bars on the outer side, so it impossible to open it, treat it as a wall. The small hatch that the bandits passed the goods through is also securely shut, and impossible to open from this side. The iron door is a dead end.
The dead tree is just a dead tree, but it might scare the PCs to think it might come alive.
If the PCs starts to look for the bandits they will fire their crossbows, which they have had hidden in the bushes the whole time.
Now, let us make some more maps, so we can round up this first part of the adventure.
These are the two floors (first floor and second floor ) from the original adventure.
First floor
Second floor.
We’re gonna make two new maps for these, with a similar layout, but only create a battle map for where it is really needed, the top floor suite where the Baroness was resting peacefully until recently. Tomorrow, map making day, again.
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