Helix Spring, Adept (Patreon)

I'm back again with a new and interesting one, the Helix Spring (35x35)! This map is a little different than usual, there's something obviously abnormal going on here that you'll have to work with in your story. My typical maps are made to be as generically useful as possible without needing to explain away or integrate elements of the map, but eeeeevery once in a while I like to have a bit of fun and make something a bit unusual. 

Your alternate version of this map is a nice Eerie variant- spooky! I think it's a particularly good one too, the lighting makes the strange spiral feel especially weird. I imagine the story behind this clearing becomes a little less lighthearted in this one, or at the very least the water coming from this spring might not be exactly safe to drink. 

1. I came at this one in a frenzy, adamant that I could make one more map before this month is over. It was a weird month, I've been busy, and I couldn't believe that I only released 2 maps, 2 shy of my regular (not recently) 4. I decided that 2 maps was unacceptable, so I threw myself into making one more with the time I had. 

As always, forest maps are the quickest for me to make, especially when they are a reasonable size. However I didn't want to just throw a boring ol' forest map at my patrons, I've made you plenty of those, so I decided to add 2 extra twists on top and count on those being interesting enough to warrant a map with a somewhat simple layout. The twists being a strangely unnatural water feature and a non-typical forest biome (which would only come into play during the coloring). 

I tried out a few different strange water designs early, things like tiered natural fountains and cavernous pits, but I didn't think I'd have the time to pull those off satisfyingly. Then I began to think that this would probably end up being another Feywild map, which gave me the idea of strangely-shaped ponds and streams, which reminded me of a certain area in Guild Wars 2 with a spiral path leading to a giant climbable plant. 

2. As I mentioned, I started this map thinking it was going to be a Fey one, partially because I had just recently drawn a bunch of mushrooms for the Feywild Crossroads and I figured those would fit in here pretty nicely. Along those same lines, I also copied over the roots and lily pads, feeling that they would add a little depth to the map. 

The trees, rocks, and ledges copied over nicely from several recent maps as well, meaning that the grass actually became the most time-consuming layer here. However, since I'm a high-functioning procrastinator, I know when putting off projects is no longer an option, so I wasted no time agonizing over anything. In all, I went from the initial sketch to completed outlines in an afternoon. 

Oh, also the jagged rocks in the center were a late addition, after everything else was in place. I hated the look of the apparently pointless spiral and felt that it needed something to draw players in, some peculiar stones seemed like just the right addition and would give me something to play around with when it came to coloring.

3. Here's the thing, I did actually make a full Fey version of this map as I originally intended. Then I started making my alternate versions of the map and I ended up with some weird glowing rocks, and I thought it might be kinda cool if they were bringing color to a dreary forest, and it actually was cool! I stopped for lunch, thought about it a little, and came back feeling like this one was more interesting than the Fey version, confident that it would at least be more provocative.  By the way, that Fey variant is available for Expert patrons, if you're curious, and it really isn't bad at all either.

I'm just hopeful that it isn't too weird, I try to prioritize generic usefulness in my maps and this certainly isn't generically useful. But hey, at least it's fun!