After my players finish delving their way into Wave Echo Cave, we’re probably going to do a few Mighty Protectors sessions and then move on to Storm King’s Thunder (because it has a direct hook into Phandelver). But somewhere in between, I’m planning to run a fun-looking single-session freebie adventure called The Wild Sheep Chase. Its primary environment is different from anything I’ve made tiles for, so I decided to try to build what amounts to a fairly complex group of set pieces for it. These will be specific enough to fit this scenario really well, but still modular enough to be used elsewhere in the future.

Spoilers are baaaad.

This post and future ones in this series will contain minor environment-related spoilers for the Sheep Chase, so those concerned about that should proceed accordingly. If you’re one of my players and we haven’t reached this session yet, not only should you not proceed, but I’m standing behind you right now, watching, and I know what you’re doing, and will punish you by adding a swarm of giant vampire wraith stirge dragons to the adventure at the worst possible moment.

Ewe can’t bleat a treehouse

Most of the action in this adventure takes place on and around a trio of tree-top platforms of varying heights and sizes – so that’s where I started. I used my Proxxon with its circle jig to cut the necessary circles a little bit larger than the map called for, to allow for a ring of bark around the perimeter. Cutting the largest one was difficult because it was about the biggest piece that would fit under the arm of the cutter, and I had to keep doing partial cuts and trimming corners off so the piece would continue to rotate unimpeded.

With the initial circles cut out, I drew a series of concentric rings on the top of each piece. I then went around the outside edges and chipped pieces off to create the bark texture. I debated back and forth about whether to add a grid layout as well, and in the end decided to do so.

My frequent technique of dragging a wire brush across foam to create a faux wood grain wouldn’t work here, because I intended the floor platforms to look like a cross-cut perpendicular to the grain. To try to create this effect, I scrubbed the soot off a grill-cleaning brush and proceeded to pound the surfaces with it.

As a test platform for color combinations, I took a curved scrap foam piece and added similar textures to it. I tried an assortment of base and dry-brushing colors and a few different washes to figure out what look I liked best.

For the bark what seemed to work was Nutmeg brown with a dry brush of Trail Tan, a black wash, and then another very light dry-brush of the same tan. For the exposed wood sections the best look, oddly enough, was achieved with Suede, a color much more light gray than brown. The secret was to coat it with a brown wash I’d made a while back – it tanned the raised surfaces and settled nicely into the rings and grid.

The “flock” pun practically writes itself

… but I cud have thought this part through a little more.

The mid-sized platform described in the adventure is partly filled with soil and has trees, bushes, and flowers growing in it. There’s a small curved footpath leading between the walkways that connect it to the ground and the next platform, and the rest is covered with foliage. So, naturally, I started on the flocking process.

Only after the grout and grass were applied and dried did it occur to me that it would have been better to just leave it as a bare wood platform instead. It would be useful this way in a wider variety of scenarios, and I could achieve the look I wanted for this adventure by stacking scatter terrain on top. While un-flocking the circle wasn’t possible, I ended it there and instead created a couple of new pieces mounted on ePVC bits and decorated with moss, dollar-store flower clippings, and some of the Shadow’s Edge flower tufts I mentioned in my post about trees.

I’ll also put a couple of those trees on the platform to complete the look.

Next time: Big tree trunks to support the platforms!