Champion Tier - "The Shadow Over Middledew" - A Lunch Break Hereos Adventure (Patreon)

Update April 28th, 2023: It's here! Lunch Break Hereos has finished polishing up the adventure "The Shadow Over Middledew," and I have attached it to this post. You will find the adventure pdf (including print-friendly), tokens, and portraits. Hope you enjoy it!

Hey everyone, and happy Release Monday!

I should start with an apology. I went a tad overboard with this launch, and I have a ton of maps to share with you! This has led to a large number of map files which I'll do my best to organize below.

For today's release, I created three brand new maps to support the newest Lunch Break Hereos adventure: The Shadow Over Middledew.

This adventure takes your players into the town of Middledew and all across the Thornwood Forest. The maps in this release are:

• Forest Road
• Forest Cliffs
• Forest Cave

Additionally, this adventure uses a previous map I created for the town of Middledew, which can be found here.

After a noble marriage, the family curse re-surfaces and turns the newly wedded husband into a werebat. Fleeing his new home, he's trying to rebuild his old life, but the thirst and hunger for blood is growing ever stronger.

The people of Middledew have been plagued with theft and the murder of their livestock, and their roads are no longer safe, with the Thornwood bandits attacking traders.

Rumor is the curse is now spreading to others! Attracting more than your adventurers, a vampire hunter can be found investigating this curse, but he's not inclined to share the reward with any newcomers.

Will your party be able to cure this curse and save those who have been turned? Or will you need to put these creatures to the sword?

This release comes with the following core maps to support encounters in the Thornwood Forest:

• Forest Road [40x30] - This map features a twisting road cutting through the Thornwood Forest. Its sloping hills and large boulders provide ample terrain for an ambush by the Thornwood Bandits!
• Forest Cliffs [40x40] - As your players search for the cure to the curse, they will have to reach a 300-foot cliff. For this map, I wanted to create the feeling of a large rocky cliff looming over your players as they trudge through the Thornwood Forest. I created a rocky ravine at the base of the cliffs and added a (rather) large bird nest for some resting Giant Eagles.
• Forest Cave [30x40] - This map features more of the Thornwood Forest along with the remains of the bandit camp. Your players can investigate what happened and maybe find a few bandits alive to question. If they look through the thicket, they will find the overgrown entrance to the cave where the creature has been building its "lair." Trying to rebuild a life lost.. but is it too far gone to save? You'll find stolen items from the town of Middledew at the entrance overlooking a large cave lake, in the center of which is an island that contains a makeshift "room" for the creature to live in. I also created a variant of this map that removes the adventure-specific items (the bandit camp and island room) and replaces them with generic features so you can use this map outside of the encounter.

Additionally, thanks to feedback from community members, I have created variants of all three locations without tree canopies (I kept the shadows and added tree trunks to help with placement). These versions could help show the "under tree" layer to help with token placement.

I created four variants for each of the maps in this release as follows:

• Day (with and without sun rays)
• Night
• Gloom (with and without fog)
• Rain

For my Champion Tier Patrons, you get the following in this release:

• 3 Core Maps
• Grid / Gridless versions for all
• "No Tree" Versions for all
• Day with and without sun rays
• Night
• Gloom with and without fog
• Rain
• 4k / 8k resolution
• Webp files in 4k & 8k resolution
• VTT Sizing guide
• Alt version of the Cave to use as a generic location
• Written adventure PDF, portraits, tokens, along with a printer-friendly version

Wow, that was a lot, and I apologize for the lack of brevity! Now that this large project is complete, I will be pivoting back to Ghosts of Saltmarsh by tackling the Guard Barracks & Jail location.

After this, I plan on creating a V2.0 for the Gates of Barovia map, and I have something really exciting to share for this one. One of our amazing Patreon Community members has most graciously donated some hand-drawn art for me to use for the broken statues! I am so honored to be provided with these assets and really excited to create this rework!

Well, I think I've written enough for today. As always, thank you so much for all of your continued support, and I hope you enjoy the maps and adventure!

Cheers,

DM Andy