Cerulean Jungle Caverns 40x30 Battlemap | VTT and PDF

Update : Uploaded an Illustrated version of the Ancient Icy Crystal Caverns Adventure Prompt!

You arrive at a village in the middle of a desolated forest. For miles around you there is nothing but dead trees and barren red soil. People shamble about town in dirty clothes while children play with broken sticks and rocks.

When a man resting outside his small wooden hut notices you, he jumps up and approaches. You see, the town doesn’t normally get visitors—especially after the logging company left the township some year ago.

He explains that this used to be a flourishing township with great wealth and many jobs. It was founded by Loganis, a company specializing in the collection and processing of rare—and often magically touched—natural resources.

This location was once home to a vibrant and almost alien forest. Teal trees and ferns could be seen all around, while the grass grew a strange shade of reddy-orange and the waters flowed a greenish hue.

That is, until Loganis began their harvesting program. Hired by the company, the men of this town began logging the forest and shipping off the valuable wood. After a year however the forest began to die. The flora became sapped of color and quickly dissolved into a reddy ash as if the life was sucked right out of it.

After about a week the remaining forest was gone, turned into a wasteland all but for a small pass which remained forested. When this pass was approached the men were attacked by creatures of colorful wood. After this Loganis chose to abandon the township in search of greater financial returns, with perhaps less risk.

Since this, the people of this town have suffered great poverty and have become desperate. The man begs you to assist himself and a few of the men to retrieve but perhaps a dozen trees from the pass, with the lumber they’d be able to pay to relocate their families to a new part of the kingdom with more opportunity.

But when you arrive at the pass, you’re greeted by the same colorful wooden creatures that once attacked the men…

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The creatures are dryads, who—mad at the logging that was happening in their forest—took back all the life into this small pass; causing what forest once existed beyond to crumble to dust. They have been nurturing that which remains here, in their last haven.

They are furious at these man-creatures for destroying their verdant woodlands and will fight those who trespass here. But if you explain your cause, that you seek just a few more trees for the villagers, so they can move their families elsewhere and find more work, their hearts will soften.

The dryads will offer some seeds of these great trees, but they will take years to grow. During this time some of the townsfolk will likely die of starvation, but if they tend to the trees they will be wealthier in the next generation.

However, if you kill the dryads instead you will be wealthier now, and no-one need starve.