My very first original battlemap created using a new program I grabbed up last week (see below).
Made it for combat with a plant monster roughly 30 feet from shore, in a pond/lake about chest deep. I wanted cover, concealment, water to cross and around the enemy, some difficult terrain and a real risk of drowning with a good trip, and/or grapple and pin. More water is shown than land as I envisioned encounter developments that drew the player characters further and further from shore. No grid as I made it to be used more easily with programs like Roll20.
In my mind, the tree stumps shown were full trees but with the tops (leafy bits) hidden so the map was “cleaner”, but feel free to re-conceptualize as you see fit. Made in about 20 minutes usingDungeonDraft.
To be clear, only the battle map concept is mine, all the assets used belong to the program and its respective artists and/or community market.
Feel free to use it with that in mind.
If you enjoy it, let me know with a Like or (even better) a Reblog. It’ll motivate me to share others I create.
Villain: Captain Barrgo Dyer, head of the Civil Guard
“The Masters o’ this city have left the task of keepin the peace, an’ I’ll more n happily break yer yapping jaw rather than let any of your caterwauling trouble their ears. Am I understood, gutterskum?“
Setup: Despite presenting themselves as defenders of law and order, Captain Dyer and his “Civs” are perhaps one of the largest criminal organizations at work in the city today, squeezing the populace for coin with one hand while cracking skulls with the other.
Originally intended to be a stop-gap measure after a series of disastrous grain shortages led to riots and fires across the city’s wards, the civil guards were made a permanent fixture of city infrastructure almost twenty years ago, replacing the patchwork of neighborhood watch organizations and mutual protection pacts that dealt with crime and disruption since. Where as those groups had been loyal to their communities, the Civs were loyal only to the nobles and guilds who paid into their charter, and had no qualms about enforcing peace at spearpoint.
Taking eagerly to being a blunt instrument for uncaring overlords, Barrgo ascended up the ranks and secured his place as Captain of the Guard, and has since used his position and the resources granted to him by it to turn the city into one large protection racket. Every law enforcement agency takes bribes to look the other way on occasion, but Barrgo’s ambitions were larger: squeezing neighborhoods and individual merchants for “donations” while feeding information to his criminal contacts about who was and wasn’t under his force’s protection. He also changed the entire ecosystem of crime within the city, allowing specific illegal enterprises to pay for his lenience, while at the same time sending him after their competitors. Years of this “bidding war” have seen Barrgo become a rich man, and an unofficial kingpin of the city’s underworld, with all but the most minor crime or graft requiring his approval.
Adventure Hooks:
The Status Quo suits the Captain just fine, and he vigorously opposes any force or actor that would seek to disrupt it, even if they might have the city’s best interests at heart. Should the party go about warning the populace of a looming threat or even trying to solve a crime on their own, it’s very likely they’ll be getting a visit from a number of armored thugs intending to intimidate them into silence. This “intimidation” can escalate to full on beatings and abduction if the party crosses one of the nobles or guilds who pays into Barrgo’s charter, making him a great secondary villain alongside aristocratic antagonists to good to do their own dirtywork
While each Civil garrison has its own lockup, real troublemakers get tossed in the Shitpit: the Guard’s clandestine prison operated without the city’s oversight, and converted from an old Cistern. The party is likely to find one or all of their number in the Pit should they offend Barrgo personally, or if they happen to need the services or knowledge of someone who did.
Defeating Barrgo is easier said than done, as exposing his criminal enterprise or outright killing the man doesn’t stop the system of thuggery and corruption he’s built up around him. If the party truly wishes to abolish the Civil guard, and prevent the rise of a new Captian Dyer, they’ll need to rally the populace and petition the city’s rulers, replacing the Guard with a a system with more oversight and accountability built direclty into it.
