Ambush (Patreon)

Dense forest, broken cart, fallen tree trunk. What happened here? Where are the travelers? Where are the bodies? What is hidden in the dark around this place?

"Ambush" [30x30]  has 2 map variants (plus grid, no-grid, JPG, PNG and PDF versions, ready for Roll20, Foundry or your favourite VTT platform)

As you go on a track you see an abandoned cart and a fallen tree in front of it. Is someone still there?

When you come closer you see that the wheels of the cart are broken, it seems like something hit them from the side, but there’s no sign of a fight. You heard about wild animals and monsters around here, but they would go for supplies, not for the people inside.

After a short investigation there’s one interesting thing - it seems like the cart’s doors were opened from the inside with a great force, maybe some explosives were thrown inside? But it would harm passengers. Magic? Most likely, but someone sitting inside had to use it.

One of your colleagues lifted up the seats, revealing a chest full of papers. Most of them had insignia of the local aristocrats from two different families.

Arranged marriage?

 It’s very common here, but what if a girl didn’t want to marry this one man? Or maybe her lover decided to rescue her from this situation? So many questions, so little answers.

And as you speak, the wind blowing into your direction brings the smell of cooking meat and you are able to spot smoke from the fireplace. Maybe those who sit there will know something about this accident…

With every step into the woods you all hear laughs and music. On the small meadow there are people dancing, looking like a bunch of kids with flowers in their hair and mostly naked bodies. Huge fire is burning in the center of this meadow, right next to it there’s a group of people - tied and with pieces of clothes in their mouths. They look scared and their appearance doesn't fit to the surrounding.

Cart was looking good, so they should have money, how much is their lives worth?

All the content is registered under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial CCBY-NC-SA. This means anyone can use it, share it or modify it. 

It cannot be used commercially. Finally, credit must be given to me as the author, and a link to this web page must be included if it is shared or redistributed.