Ambush on the Forest Road
A felled pine across a forest road at dawn: goblins in the trees, a ford ahead.
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The place
Setting: Dawn under the trees, a campfire still smouldering in the rocks
A rutted road winding through fir and pine at dawn, climbing past a pine felled across it, then dipping to the ford of the Ashbrook, which cuts a gully through the forest from north to south with morning mist lying in it. The merchant's cart has pulled up short of the felled tree with its cargo tumbled at the verge. Nowhere to run except into the trees, and the trees are where the ambushers are. Cover is real: boulders and fallen logs block lines, the trunks split the party, and the road is the only clear ground.
The ambushers are placed: a goblin boss at the camp in the trees, two goblins and a goblin archer hidden in the woods to the north, two wolves in the brush to the south and a bugbear waiting at the ford. The party of four, a fighter, a cleric, an elf ranger and a sorcerer, is escorting the merchant. Off the road lies the goblins' camp with a smouldering fire pit, a straw bed and their loot, and across the ford stands a woodcutter's cottage under a mossy roof, furnished inside, with old Hobb at home and smoke rising from the chimney.
What the recipe places
- 1 floor and road ops
- 40 props, lines and scatters
- 5 lights and effects
- 13 miniatures
Encounters it was built for
- The ambush springs: goblins from the trees on both sides, and the cart is cover and the prize.
- A wolf pack circling in from the brush while the party protects the merchant.
- The ford: the bugbear waits where the water slows everyone, and in the 2024 rules a bugbear warrior reaches 10 feet.
- Follow the tracks: after the ambush the survivors flee to the camp in the trees, and the fight continues by the fire pit.
- The woodcutter's cottage as a refuge: hold the door while old Hobb bars the shutters.
Tips
- Mark the goblins Hidden from players and show them when the ambush springs; players do not receive hidden minis until then.
- Wolves move 40 feet in 5e, eight squares; drag one and the ruler shows how far that reaches through the trees.
- In Play, press U to lift the cottage roof and see inside.
- Drag the time-of-day slider to noon for a very different mood with no other changes.
- The scatter and line ops in a scene recipe placed these trees; it is easy to grow the forest.
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Free top-down battle map
A flat, gridded version of Ambush on the Forest Road for any other tabletop: straight down, north up, 50 by 43 squares at 70 pixels per 5-foot square, with no miniatures on it. Set your tabletop's grid to 70 px and it lines up.
Free under CC BY 4.0: use it, share it and change it, in paid work too, as long as you credit TerrainTale. Some buildings in it are other artists' CC BY models, credited on the About page.
Questions
Can I change Ambush on the Forest Road after loading it?
Yes. A template is a normal scene once built: paint, drag, delete and add to it, then save it as your own project.
How long does it take to load?
A few seconds. The recipe compiles instantly and the models it uses download from the built-in library on first use, then stay cached.
Can I make my own template?
Write a recipe (see Build with AI) and import it with File ▸ Import Scene JSON, or save any scene as a project and reopen it from the welcome screen.
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