Fey Shrine, Adept (Patreon)

Welcome back Adepts, this week's map is the Fey Shrine (24x25), and your extra version is one which I'm calling 'Mystical'! By that, I mean that this one features many of the same effects from the regular Fey version of the map, but cranked up to the extreme, plus some additional glowy/sparkly effects that help to emphasize the magical nature of this version. Honestly, it wasn't what I was intending on making for you guys (I think I was intending on making some kind of spooky version), but I stumbled onto this one while tweaking some effects and I really think it looks awesome! 

1. My plans for this one started with the idea of a stone platform emerging from the water  in a fey forest clearing, maybe with some fun sunbeams cutting through the image. I wasn't particularly certain what I wanted to do with the platform, but as always I knew it would have to be somewhat vague in design so that it can fit easily into whichever stories the DM has planned. 

Also, you can see that I had some kind of standing stones arranged around the shrine in a circle, which might have been fun, but I always feel like these things don't read particularly well in battlemaps (at least in ones like mine which are entirely top-down, so you can't make out the pillars beneath them). In hindsight, I probably should have drawn them in despite that, they would have been a very nice addition to the map. 

2. I wasn't too sure how I wanted to draw the transition between the grass and water- usually I would include a bit of sand between the two or maybe a small rock ledge, but the coloring from the sand probably wouldn't look nice with the colors I had in mind and the rock walls didn't match the vibe I wanted to go for. Instead I decided to do what I had done with my most recent batch of swamp maps and just have that grass border up directly to the water, which I like for how verdant this makes the map feel, like the grass is overflowing over the side of the ground. That might just be my impression though- I've seen comments saying that it comes across like peat moss, which I also enjoy.

3. It's been a little while since I've made a Fey map, so I had some new thoughts on what to do differently with the colors this time. Particularly, I think I changed the palette to be more vibrant while also toning down the colors in the lighting and shadows, so everything feels a bit less washed-out. 

Also, after glancing through my past Fey maps, I decided that I would need to workshop new colors for the water, noticing that none of my previous attempts looked quite right. The darkish blue I chose this time is fine, not offensive, but not quite right yet. The biggest issue I have is ensuring that it contrasts nicely with the grass. Something about the fey palette makes me want to color the water almost identically to the grass, which is a huge no-no. The thing is, I bet it would have been fine to color the two similarly if I had something between them, like the rock ledge I mentioned earlier, it probably would have giving enough space that they wouldn't be confused for one another.