The Stairs (2014)

From publisher blurb:

This Product is a 40 x 40 inch, full color battlemap of a set of Stairs cut into a mountain.

The Product comes with the Square, Hex and No Overlay versions and the Virtual Tabletop Maps.

“You want me to climb that? I’m starting to think this treasure trove won’t be worth the risk.”

DramaScape challenges your group to climb The Stairs to reach or escape the caves of treasure. If the treasures are worth the journey, then simply getting to the adventure site should be difficult and fraught with danger.

The Stairs is a single exterior map, showing a stone staircase chiseled into a mountainside leading up to the mountain's zenith or dark caves, or whatever else the Game Master envisions.

The Stairs is intended for use in fantasy games, although clever Game Master could find good use for The Stairs in military games, pulp games, and science fiction games as well.

The Stairs can be used as a transitional map connecting a dangerous location at the bottom with the journey’s end at the top, or vice versa.

Adventure hooks.

The Escape: The group has managed to enter the cave and steal the dragon’s treasure horde, but the dragon and its minions are less than happy about it. The group found their way back to the original entrance, only to discover it had been blocked by their pursuers. Luckily, the group knew of an alternative escape route at the back of the mountain, a set of narrow and dangerous stone staircases. As the group charge down the stairs, their pursuers chase after them, showering them with missiles and rolling boulders off the mountain to crush the treasure hunters or block their escape.

The Illusionist: An illusionist has been hypnotizing local women into following him to a nearby cave; they never return to their village. The locals are afraid to climb the stairs to reach the Illusionist’s lair, and they also lack any way to combat his magic. For all anyone knows, the illusionist could be building himself a harem of enslaved females, or be preparing a magic ritual that requires human sacrifices…

The group is hired by the relatives of those kidnapped to end the illusionist’s reign of terror. Climbing the stairs to the illusionist’s lair is in itself a daunting task, but the additional magical defenses of false stone steps and mini-avalanche traps make the journey even deadlier still. To make matters even worse, the illusionist’s henchmen archers patrol the top of the stairs, raining arrows down at the heroes as they attempt the climb. Some of the archers are not real however, but merely illusory copies to keep would-be heroes guessing.

If they reach the top, the group has the choice of two different caves that could be the lair of the illusionist. One is a cavern brimming with illusory beasts and traps to distract the group enough to let Illusionist try to escape from the other and down the stairs, leading the group on a second charge of The Stairs.