In Parts One and Two I explored the mapping of the King’s Road. Now it’s time to move on to the next map used in the module, the Forest Lair. This map is divided into two parts, interior and exterior. The interior map will likely be made with Dwarven Forge, but the exterior map calls for more terrain-building hijinks, including learning how to do water and a waterfall. So, let’s get to work! Here’s the original map:

I started out by using the bendable carving tool to carve out the shape of a river. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the Realistic Water tips before starting, so I made it too deep to use the stuff. Then I painted it a base gray to make it dark, sprayed it with glue, and laid down a bed of gravel (hint: kitty litter).

I wanted the river to have layers of color even though I wasn’t going to do much with the “water” itself, so I mixed some green paints and threw some moss onto the riverbed.

Since I’d cut the river so deep, I decided another solution was needed for the water. While browsing the hobby shop for options, I ran across some molded plastic textures, among them water. I chose the stormy water since this river was so close to a waterfall. It also helped me hide my inexperience by giving me an interesting visual that didn’t require a lot of work. So, I bought two sheets of it and traced the lines of the river to cut.

Finally, I needed to build up the fords before I locked the river in place. I got out the large fishtank rocks, which turned out to be the perfect color to contrast with the rest of the river, and built them up.

Finally I painted the area green, added flocking (which looks terrible this time around…I don’t like the technique, which created clumps and smears…it was a problem with the glue as well as the shaking), and stretched some polyfiber along the riverbed to mimic strands of moss. Finally, the two sections of water were locked into place by using an exacto knife to cut channels into the river walls. Here’s the “finished” product.

In Part Four I’ll be making the greenery, the summoning circle, and the pile of junk, as well as adding a cliff face and the waterfall. Whew, work’s just getting started on this piece!