afternoonmaps

Heart of the Colossus Battle Map - Launch

Added 2025-07-31 19:32:55 +0000 UTC

Hello Adventurers! Here is our second map this month, a unique cavern with some weird fossilised features, and what appears to be a stone heart (yes, I know soft tissue doesn’t fossilise, but MAGIC!). It could be a location in a larger exploration into the Underdark, or a one-off location for the conclusion of a quest. Either way, it should come in handy for an interesting combat encounter.

Next Maps

The Country Sheriff’s Office will be worked on next, with the Stone Quarry coming later in the month.

Country Sheriff's Office (Local Jail/Lockup)
This would be a stone and wooden building on a main street in a village or small town. It contains a Sheriff's office along with a small lockup, jail or holding cells. The sort of place someone is held for the night when found to be drunk and disorderly or when awaiting trial at a local Courthouse.
Stone Quarry
I’ve created a few maps with a similar vibe, but I've never actually made a Quarry map. I enjoy researching how these places operated in the past, so this will be a fun project, and we’ll all learn a little more about how the past worked.

Upcoming Maps

I thought you’d like to see a little further ahead. These, along with a few other ideas I have, are likely to be added to the Next Maps list soon, but I do not have a set schedule for them as of yet.

Dark Sage’s Lighthouse
I love lighthouses. I’ve already created a little lighthouse island, but I want to create something on a larger scale, so I’ll create a wizard tower with a lighthouse theme. It will have a few floors and a cave network under it.
Courtroom/Courthouse
Another one of those buildings your party may end up in, especially if they are bad boys and girls :) Now you’ll have a battle map to have a fun courtroom brawl in!

As always, thank you for your support. Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to continue to make these battle maps for this wonderful hobby! If you have any ideas for future maps, please let me know here or in private messages. Thanks again and happy adventuring!

Downloads

The files, thumbnails, and tags can be accessed on the Map List Page. You must be logged in to Patreon and signed up for the correct tier to access them. Remember, you are only charged for map releases; you can download all the old maps at no extra cost!

Map Description

As you continue along the narrow tunnel, you begin to notice something strange about the walls. Organic shapes protrude from the stone, some resembling fossilised cartilage or bone, while others resemble sinew or muscle. Moving further along the tunnel, these artefacts only increase in number and prominence.

As you step out into a large cavern, you see ridges of dark stone running along the sides of the walls. Spaced along the walls, at relatively even intervals, are what appear to be giant rib bones. On one side of the cavern is a huge stone object, its shape roughly resembling a monstrous heart. You hear a low rumble and a vibration through your feet. Two strong thuds in quick succession, two beats, followed a few seconds later by two more. The stone heart glows slightly with each reverberation.

Notes and Tips

30x30 Grid Map
This can be a travel encounter while moving through the Underdark or other cave system, or it could be the conclusion to a quest.
The cavern could be the chest cavity of some long-dead colossal monster or some kind of organic, magical location created by dark magic.
I’ve created a few exits or entrances to allow creatures to join a combat encounter.
The bones could split open, revealing some sort of subterranean bug that feeds on ancient colossus body parts.
Have the main part of the floor of the cavern be sticky with some kind of oil, which could be flammable or simply hard to move through.
This fossilised bone material could be a valuable magical component.
The heart will almost certainly have some magical properties.
The Goo of Life: The floor of the cavern is covered in a sticky goo that glows when it's touched. Creatures from the cave system come here to feed on it. The goo is slightly magical and transforms the local wildlife into strange and unique versions of themselves. They could be more aggressive and have magical powers.
Heart Health: A dying noble commissions your party to travel to this location to collect a piece of the colossus heart to heal his own. But as legend tells, the cavern is guarded, and few who travel to this cave ever return.
Right in the Gut: This ancient dead colossus has parasites. They cling to the walls, and when they sense prey (the party), they drop to the floor and skitter towards anything warm and full of blood.