Sunwell Caravanserai
A desert caravanserai by a palm-ringed spring, its market raided by gnolls off the dunes.
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The place
Setting: Hot afternoon, a heat haze over the dunes
A caravanserai in the dunes beside the Sunwell, a spring-fed pool of turquoise water in a hollow, ringed with date palms, fan palms and reeds. The caravanserai is one whitewashed building under terracotta tiles, a U of three wings round a flagstone courtyard with a well and a date palm, closed on the south by a wall with a gate arch. Lift the roofs in Play and every room is furnished: the hall with its kitchen hearth, long tables, a divan and the caravan master's strongbox; storerooms of barrels and crates; lodgings with straw beds.
Outside the gate a market is in full swing, with a dark trader's tent, striped stalls, a food stall and the caravan's carts. The party has just come up the south road when the raid begins: a gnoll pack lord, three gnolls and two hyenas come over the east dunes, two more gnolls wait behind the north crest, and the caravan master, a guard, the traders and the keeper of the well are caught in the middle.
What the recipe places
- 1 floor and road ops
- 2 wall runs
- 79 props, lines and scatters
- 1 lights and effects
- 17 miniatures
Encounters it was built for
- Hold the gate: the courtyard wall and the gate arch are the only fortification for a mile of sand.
- The market fight: stalls and carts as cover, traders to protect, and gnolls coming from two directions.
- Down to the water: the keeper of the well is cut off at the Sunwell, and the palms are the only shade and cover.
- Through the rooms: the fight moves into the wings, from storeroom to hall, door by door.
- The pack lord on the dunes: high ground, a clear view of the whole market, and the hyenas at its heels.
Tips
- In Play, press U to lift the roofs and fight through the caravanserai room by room.
- Drag the time-of-day slider toward evening for long shadows across the courtyard.
- Mark the two gnolls behind the north crest Hidden from players, then show them when the first wave breaks.
- The dunes are real terrain: the ruler counts the height of every shot from the crest.
- Wading in the Sunwell is difficult terrain; the shallow edge and the deep middle read clearly from above.
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Free top-down battle map
A flat, gridded version of Sunwell Caravanserai for any other tabletop: straight down, north up, 38 by 34 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 Sunwell Caravanserai 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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