The ambitious design of the Cirrus Archives and its three primary vaults requires the unity of over 100 master craftsmen in their respective fields. The estimated cost of the entire vault level is believed to exceed the sum total of the entirety of the Grand Nostridinian military. Engineered, artificed, alchemically treated, and enchanted with every single ward and defense that can be placed upon a location to protect it, all to house three individual vaults. Inside which a demi-plane is constructed, protecting the contents safely away in a pocket dimension housed behind 10 feet of solid black iron.
A Decoy vault was designed to thwart heist crews only interested in the coin. To protect the greater collection deeper in the vaults, a fabulous fortune is left outside the Main Vault door as a kind of insurance.
Past the great vault door is the electrified room. Every 6 seconds, one of the lines of metal flooring charges up. The following 6 seconds, a deadly shock fires along that line. This can easily be avoided by those who know the pattern and step carefully when opening the next vault door
Oh and then there are the lasers.
The Unknownwood holds many secrets, its perpetual autumn. The painful silence cut only by the ever present wind. This forest is old and those who live here do not particularly appreciate intrusions. Deep deep in the wood, where only one who is truely lost could reach is the hut. A single chicken leg that glimpse into a cascade of black fur and feathers. Home to the Baba Yaga, first sister of the first coven. If you can handle her tricks and riddles and trails she may even reward your brashness with some of her ancient secrets.
But she just as soon may boil your bones and hand them from her teetering chimney. Depends on the day-
This map is my second shot at Baba Yaga, I did one map for her hut way way back when I first started making phased maps and it was, I think- my worst map. One of those projects you look back on and facepalm. But I’ve grown a lot as an artist since then and I can say I'm super proud of what it eventually became five years later!
It towers on the back of a giant Royal Mammoth filled with Primal and murderous fallen elves ready to swing down to any unlucky settlement in the path of their titanic living battlement.
The nomadic stronghold lumbers its way across the glaciers of Algere. A fortress of wood, bone, and rope that anchored to a titanic mammoth's body. Its battlements flutter with banners of lost elven kingdoms taken by a curse. Its barbarian elves are all cursed with a madness that grows stronger the longer they are away from the fey realms of Wilder. Their survival hinges on movement, venturing back to Wilder to sustain themselves through its power before leaving to raid the settlements of Algēre like divers surfacing for air.
The wild elves have transformed their curse into a weapon. Unlike any other fallen elven cultures, they have embraced their feral brothers who have gone completely monstrous for lack of fey essence, wielding them as tools of war. Cages dangle from the great mammoth’s sides, holding those among them who have succumbed fully to the curse. During raids, these feral elves are unleashed upon their enemies, descending in a tide of unchecked primal fury. Once the cursed have ravaged the battlefield, the rest of the Yamir forces descend from the fortress to finish the attack.
Huge pieces of metal scrap are thrown all around you as you desperately scramble to shut down the out of control machine spewing fire and smog from it’s Scrapyard Incinerator.
Scrapcity is a sprawling junkyard metropolis where mechs are as common as cars. A rusted maze of broken war machines, salvaged armor plating, and makeshift dwellings welded together from the skeletons of giant long-dead constructs. Smoke curls from chimneys built into old missile pods. Streets are carved between the legs of toppled titans. Ruled by scavengers, tinkerers, and war profiteers, those who thrive on the leftovers of the stalemated conflict.
Nothing metal in the Scrap-City stays dead for long. If it could walk when it died, it walks again.
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Sometimes an encounter is more about avoidance and survival than combat outright. In this map I imagine players trying to avoid the claw and debris it throws around, the smoke and fire all while trying to shut the machine down and achieve whatever goal brought them there. Originally I was working on an airship battlemap with the claw here but I got really inspired, I think by watching Dimension 20’s Cloudward, Ho (best season yet, Imo)
As a cartographer, I must acknowledge that much of my trade is performed for military endeavors. I don't like it nor am I proud of it, We have all seen what devastation war is capable of. Some things of the past are better LEFT in the past.
~Ida Holly
In the final days of the Last War, House Cannith unleashed its mightiest creations: the warforged colossi. These enormous mechanical warriors thundered across Cyre, crushing everything in their paths and leaving ruin behind them. Meant to end the war decisively, the colossi pulverized hundreds of soldiers beneath their feet and incinerated whole legions with beams of fiery light that shot from their chests. This rampage was cut short on the Day of Mourning. The arcane cataclysm that engulfed Cyre destroyed most of the warforged colossi, causing them to collapse into lifeless heaps.
But some survived, and are still out there waiting to be awakened. Cannith artificers are eager to track them down. Powerful men in the world have a vested interest in claiming these wrecks for themselves because the possibility of having one under your command could change the face of Eberron.
This behemoth of a map is a sequel to "The Monster Factory" and is a commission by patron Bishop869 to grow his Eberron game. It is 16(!) phases, the most I've ever done. This battle sets the scene of a final encounter between a BBEG and the party, and as such, I tried my very best to make it feel cinematic and epic! It revisits the Colossus I had created in "Atop the Colossus" but imagines it in Eberron.
The Town of Pottsfield, located somewhere in The Unknown,Over the Garden Wall, Is thrilled to welcome all to take part in the harvest! So long as you don’t trample the crops… If you do, Enoch will be forced to sentence you to... a few hours of manual labor.
For the entire month of October, as always, I'll be creating horror-themed maps—four in total. This marks the third year of this tradition, and it's officially becoming a favorite! This year, we're taking a page out of Laudna's book. The theme of all of them for 2023 is FUN SCARY! Last week was the Addams Family Mansion. This week We’re getting a little lost Over the Garden Wall!
Specifically Pottsfield from episode two! Where perhaps your players don’t receive sucha favorable punishment from the Gord headed skeletons. The encounter is imagined as a clash with the leader of the chamber of commerce, Enoch, who may or may not be a cat inside of a giant autumnal maypole.
Dodging his flailing ribbons, braving the high winds and kicking up, leaf filled dust as the creature flails in a whirling dervish. The map has 12 phases, but phases 8-12 actually loop into each other allowing the boss to continue spiraling as long as the battle goes on!
“These creatures are hardly creatures at all. It feels more true to call them walking disasters.” - Ida Holly.
What horrors slumber in the soil of our world, resting, waiting to reawaken and unleash a new age of chaos? The Tarrasque has attacked this world so many times yet few remember the last, 1000 years pass after each time it falls before it returns to slumber. Generations of beings speak of it, the tales turn to legends turn to myths. And again it is forgotten, and the world becomes complacent and vulnerable.
That is until the Elven envoy arrives at the King's court, with a dire warning.
This map is another Big ol’ boss fight map! I wanted an epic encounter with one of DnD’s most iconic creatures. Since the Tarrasque in 5e is cr 30 it would be almost impossible for a party to actually face one without some incredible outside help, so that led me to think how can you use on in an encounter? The idea for this one is actually less intended for combat and more intended to be a desperate scramble to simply survive as the creature rampages, perhaps buying time for reinforcements or some massive spell to go off. Either way, the battlefield is designed to try and force the players to get creative and move around a lot! I did include an extra phase with a “sleeping” Tarrasque just in case your players surprise you and defeat this legendary foe!
With timeless lives and boundless intellect I am forced to wonder if our most brilliant minds were not consumed, would we too be this advanced? - Ida Holly, on elder brains.
“The hive was unlike others the historians wrote about, few if any Psyoniccally controlled minions. Its walls were reinforced like armor. Pipes and gaskets all around hissed and the air was thick with chemical smells.
When we reached Xzvel’s Brine pool it didn’t even seem startled. In our minds it welcomed us… and when a massive door behind it opened the dread machine inside- whatever that monster was building- it tore our party apart with fire and acid and light… You mustn’t venture down there, I beg you!”
This is the last map of my April boss fights only series! I did three others, a rotting heart, a pirate raid, and a frozen horror! For this one, I imagined “who led them all” and came up with the idea of a sort of Elder brain BBEG who has been testing the heroes up to this point! If you saw the others you’ll see in each of the vats is a small nod to them- implying this elder brain somehow created them.
The Druid circles are isolated far from the cities. But don’t get it wrong. Out in the woods, they are protecting us all from things we will never even encounter. - Ida Holly
“It grows every day.” the old fishermen says, lugging cages of sickly looking river-life up onto the dock where you stand. “Slow enough that no one seems to pay it much mind. But we notice. Those of us out there along the rivers. Something is making this whole forest sick. Half my haul comes back looking like this.”
“Black Dragon, I’d wager. Made its lair out there in the wetlands.” A fisherwoman chimes in from her own boat. “Neigh- its gotta be one of them Otyughs. You smell it out there?” “Otyuga-what now?!” The whole dock begins bickering back and forth leaving you with little to go on as you head out deep into the woods- following the rot.
This map is the 3rd in my April boss fight series. This time I went for something that doesn't move about- but creates loads of tough terrain and challenges for the players to navigate to reach the heart at the center of the tree.
“You’ll always remember the day, That uhhh… that.. Hang on, it’ll come to me.” - Ida Holly
Your boots barely reach the trap door. The man with the black sack on his head checks the noose. And all through your mind hundreds of opportunities to right the wrongs you’d done in the eyes of the merchant lords play on repeat.
This is the end. The drummers ring out their drums. Wait… that's- not drums. The eyes of the crowd cast out to sea. A silhouette casts a long shadow over the rolling sunset tide, As if sailing out of hell itself there is a hush. Than chaos. The building behind you explodes as cannon fire blares all around you. The Adine’s Sorrow begins its raid and your new life as a pirate begins.
This map is a part of my April series of boss fight maps. For this one, I imagined what it would be like to have a boss encounter with a pirate ship! I treated the ship as I would any on-map boss monster, and included a version without the ship on it for DMs who prefer to have more control. I took a ton of inspiration from Disneyland’s Pirate’s ride, specifically the scene where Barbossa's ship is firing at the port.
I’m a cartographer and a historian. I seek to best understand the world around me. But not all things should be written down. Some things are best forgotten. - Ida Holly
An exposition has traveled deep into the icy glacier cavern, some relics were found from what may have been a ship from long ago- but they haven’t returned in days. Expecting the worst, crossing the ice on dog sleds, descends into the tunnel, repelled by rope and lit by the teal-colored light of the sun through the ice.
A feeling of dread grows further as you delve into the glacier. You should not be here, you don’t belong here. Thoughts like this enter unbidden. At last, you find the ship, around it, bones- must be some ancient sailors. Sailors… with dog sleds.
This map is the first of my April boss fight series! I wanted to put the players against an enemy who was mostly immobile for a majority of the encounter but eventually breaks free and goes absolutely ape. Like all monster-on-map encounters I make, this one also includes a blank background for a finer level of control!
Every adventurer has their nemesis, but their true enemy… the real BBEG is “THE DOOR”
Look, there is no shame in it. Delving dungeons means stumbling into traps here and there and after one trap you get a little on edge. You start checking everything, touching as little as possible. You expect anything with an obvious solution to be a possible death sentence. And so you slow down, talk everything through. Scrutinize the smallest details so you don't get caught unaware. And when your party comes to a door you become suspicious and spend 2-3 hours poking and prodding what might just be a normal- unlocked door.
Well sometimes you're right. This door wants to beat your ass.
The Door is a phased bossfight encounter I designed (honestly sort of as a joke) to throw against those overly cautious parties. Every anxious dungeon crawler deserves their chance to tell their party I told you so. The obvious next true BBEG map I need to make, ”Scheduling”.
A classic battlemap of mine, while I still hold a special place in my heart for it this map no longer reflects my current skill level and so I’m offering a steep discount at more than half off! Please enjoy! If you really love it let me know and mabye I’ll remake it at a quailty more reflective of my current work!
~Bal
I have read of wars and plagues. Of the horrors of man and monster. But I have never known the meaning of devastation until today.
~ Ida Holly
Artificers have built golems of Iron, bone, and clay but the ability to build a Colossus is lost to a forgotten area and with good reason. A lone standing Goliath whose shadow blocks the sun for a mile from its foot has stood silent vigil on the coast for centuries. But something horrible has awoken it. Something with intentions to change the face of this world forever.
The Colossus marches its unstoppable march forward. Forcing the Castle’s soldiers to attack as best they can, Leaping the 100s foot plummet to reach its shoulders and do what they can to return it to its eon’s slumber before it’s too late.
This map was a labor of love, My patrons asked for it and I put everything I had into making it. It was- well it was a lot more work than I realized. It required well over 100 hours and two full weeks to get to where it is now. I intended to include a “Win” phase where the Colossus falls before delivering the final blow, and maybe I will. But I hope artists out there can agree that sometimes it is better to just say “I need to be done”. I hope it’s well-received by the TTRPG community, but even if this dies in new, I’ll be proud I took the leap to make something, way out of my comfort zone, something I think is truly epic.
If you like this map, please consider sharing it with others. Word of mouth is the best way to keep doing insane time-consuming projects like this one.
If you hate it tell your enemies about it, really stick it to them. Everybody wins!
You never miss if you’re aiming at everything. Cyberpunk Mech Fight is a Phased boss encounter with a steel giant raining rockets and bullets down from above. It’ll take some pretty creative moves to avoid its Cluster rockets!
“I heard machines are replacing humans in most industries, I guess that includes stealing catalytic converters.”
There are more horrible things than death, So when Cybernet-X LLC sent its kill mech out they considered that a kindness, Not what I would personally consider a fair severance pay but I suppose I’ll have to take the documents I stole and make my money back.
They say when you sign up to be a proper Corpo you die twice, Soul than body. But You never miss it if you're aiming at everything.
My first boss fight phased map outside of the Fantasy genre! I’m a huge cyberpunk fan and just love out insane and over the top everything is- SO I wanted to make a bossfight that felt equally as turned up to 11!
“And to think. These beasts aren't even the largest monsters can become.” - Ida Holly
Titan Elemental vs. Warforged Colossus: two god-like giants warring at the heart of the city. Could any power even hope to stop their clash now?
Above you, great giants clash, but the battle rages on! Their duel creates an ever-shifting battlefield as you face your opponents below their feet. You use whatever tactics you can to avoid their massive feet and awesome weapons, as everything in their path is reduced to rubble. Time is running out to end this encounter and escape before they unleash their true power.
Magic vs. Tech! This map is inspired by all the wonderful titanic robot anime I watched growing up, mixed with a bit of WWE and Pacific Rim. The warforged titan (nicknamed Alexander) is an old favorite of mine, and I really wanted to revisit him and give him a Crudilexian makeover—something a little more Dieselpunk. This map was really challenging; it took four sleepless nights in a row to complete. Even if no one sees it, I'm super proud of it. It was incredibly fun to make, and sometimes you have to create the kind of thing you love as an artist. And I happen to love big, huge mechs and explosions!
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