Countryside Series
Added 2025-01-22 16:30:14 +0000 UTCDear Fellow Darkish,
We're excited to bring you a brand new series: Countryside Series!
This series encompasses all rural-themed maps, including fields, villages, trails, and more, located outside and adjacent to the Central City. Adventurers, villagers, shepherds, and merchants frequently travel these routes, making them relatively safe. However, one must always be on guard for bandits lurking in the shadows and monsters from nearby forests and swamps who occasionally invade this area. It's best to stay alert, as you never know what dangers may be hidden among these green hills. Whether you choose to help the people living in these lands or not is entirely up to you.
Enjoy!
Note: You can visit the post of the desired map by simply clicking on its title
The Farmer Village is the perfect first campaign for any adventurer.
Children play at being heroes from an early age, and it is easy to imagine brave young adventurers seeking their first fortune by slaying slime and goblins in the countryside surrounding the village.
The locals are simple, farmers and craftsmen will be happy to welcome new hands willing to help and finding something to do will not be difficult as long as you want to stay.
Windmill Path is a peaceful country trail, where it’s not uncommon to encounter farmers working the beautiful nearby wheat fields or customers heading to buy flour.
The large windmill is a well-maintained stone and wood building of great importance to the local inhabitants.
However, such abundance of food and the bit of money earned from milling and selling flour can attract the attention of criminals, monsters, and tax collectors.
A group of heroes stumbling upon the windmill will surely find something to do.
Villager House is a simple wooden home, likely built by the very hands of those who lived here or by their ancestors a generation or two before.
The furnishings are modest and practical, yet comfortable.
The house consists of a single large room, where the space is divided by a central wooden cabinet—serving as both the main storage area and a makeshift partition, providing a semblance of privacy for those who wish to sleep or wash.
The numerous crates, sacks, and barrels tell the story of a simple rural life, where stockpiling supplies is essential for surviving the harsh winters.
Traveler Path is a broad and well-kept trail connecting the kingdom’s flourishing regions.
The terrain is easy to traverse, and the roads are even fenced where necessary to prevent accidents with wagons.
A clean water source serves travelers and animals, making the area a perfect spot to camp overnight, as someone has done on the small hill at the end of the road.
The remains of a broken wagon and a shattered crate remind merchants and inexperienced travelers to hire a bodyguard if they intend to travel at night or with valuable cargo, because even on such tranquil roads, accidents can happen.
Adventurer’s Campsite is the perfect clearing to set up your tents and rest between adventures. A bridge veers off the main road, leading adventurers across the river to a small glade surrounded by hills.
In the vicinity, many medicinal plants, mushrooms, bushes laden with ripe berries grow, and the river is teeming with fish.
The excellent, easily defensible position and abundance of resources make this natural corner perfect for pitching your tents and reorganizing.
Abandoned Pass is a sprawling encounter map offering a variety of intriguing scenarios to explore and battle within.
A path surrounded by hills leads us to a stagnant river, its flow obstructed by a massive dam.
Beyond the murky waters, exploring the area reveals various ruins, old traces of settlements likely raided by monsters and long since abandoned.
All around are signs of assaults on passing merchants, and a destroyed wagon and various crates tell a tale of nearby monsters likely celebrating their successful hunt.
We embark on our new journey from this pass, renowned for its peril. Collapses, monsters, and bandits put a strain on the adventurers who dare to traverse it, but it remains a crucial point of transit.
Caravans and nobles often hire bodyguards to pass through safely, but it wouldn't be unusual for brave heroes to encounter characters in distress who have ventured there alone.
Fort Ruins is all that remains of an ancient structure, its purpose long forgotten.
Time and nature have reclaimed the area, covering the stone with thick moss and creeping vines.
The isolated location and crumbling walls have made these ruins the perfect hideout for outlaws—and their stolen treasures.
One can easily imagine how loot plundered from passing caravans and travelers ends up hidden within the deep chasm that splits the fort’s floor.
A careful observer might even spot crates and sacks filled with stolen goods.
Getting to them, however, is another matter.
First, you’ll have to deal with the ones standing guard.
Sacred Spring is a pool of pure water fed by a gentle cascade. At the foot of the falls, perpetually misted by the spray, stands the weathered statue of an ancient goddess. Even without knowing which spirit or deity it honors, you can’t shake the sense that something—or someone—is watching over and blessing this hallowed spot.
Ask around the nearby villages, and you’ll hear tales of miraculous healing powers in these waters—and stories of lost travelers who found the hidden path to the spring as if it had appeared to guide them through the forest.
Reaching the Sacred Spring isn’t difficult—if you know where to look.
Simply follow the river upstream along the beaten trail, and the falls will reveal themselves.
We've noticed how much you enjoyed the Central City Series, and that inspired us to create more series like this one. We hope you'll love the Countryside Series just as much. Each time we release a new map for this environment, we’ll update this post to include it. Additionally, this post will be added to the Map Archive, so all members can easily find it in the pinned post.
Would you like to see specific maps for this environment? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below!
That's all for now, dear Fellow Darkish!
As always, we wish you great adventures and NAT20!
The Darkest Maps Team
Comments
I love interconnected maps!
Captain Blackwood
2025-02-04 00:42:40 +0000 UTC
