The Elderberry Coven
Board
“The Red Wizards of Toril became aware of this world about two centuries ago. By using the plane shift spell, they were able to send forth a group tasked with establishing a colony. The kingdom they ended up in, knew no centralized training in wizardry. A tactical disadvantage, which allowed the colonists to offer their services to the ruler of the realm, whose kingdom was just in recovery from civil war. The Red Wizards were appointed to maintain an unclaimed patch of land close to the capital: The Elderberry coven. An ‘island’ of untamed wilderness, connected to the Feywild, amidst the cultivated farmland of the realm. There they moved into the ruins of a monastery of the god of knowledge and arcana, whose former inhabitants had the misfortune to be on the ‘wrong side’ during the civil war. Being Red Wizards they originally had dark, ambitious schemes in mind, but then crisis struck their home on Toril and the colony broke off contact and became independent. Their aggressive philosophy mellowed out over times. Their settlement grew into a village that now hosts the countries biggest school for wizardry. But not all of the Red Wizards here may have given up on the hunger for power…”
This is the biggest board I’ve built to date, I worked on it on and off for like two years. The idea for a Red Wizard Enclave in the Elderberry Coven of my homebrew campaign setting came to be, when a player suggested playing a Red Wizard, which actually didn’t exist there. We talked it through and came up with a colony of Red Wizards from Toril, that had lost or broken off contact to home.
The map contains the repurposed monastery, with the red hall (where the Red Wizards dine together), class rooms, dorm rooms, a library, laboratories, teacher’s room, offices, personal quarters of wizards and their families, the old sanctuary and a few secrets among other things. The “backyard” includes a bath house, a storage, stables, a forge and lodging for the servants employed here.
Outside the walls and moat you’ll find a small village with houses for more wizards and servants and their families, paths and gardens, a megalithic grave (“The Druid’s Tomb”) and a more contemporary graveyard. The settlement itself is directly surrounded by the most dense vegetation imaginable. The Elderberry Coven is by all means a highly biodiverse and strange place.
Within the woods you’ll find a tree house, which the younger students built, the Lovers’ Cascade, a picturesque spring and waterfall below the Elder Tree, where the older students like to hang out (and make out).
The river that emerges there is split artificially a bit further down the hill to provide water for the moat.
Other paths lead to the “Toss Henge” an ancient stone circle, most likely from the times when the Elderberry Coven was still ruled by some powerful high druid. Nowadays only a lonely treant (called the “Old Guardian”) and a few shamblers roam that place. The standing stones have mostly fallen over, but the place still seems to hold mystical power.
Not far from the “Toss Henge” are the Brambles thicket of thorn bushes, where an extremely territorial tribe of sprites has build their tiny houses. Students are strictly forbidden from entering the Brambles: “Your parents will be charged with a hefty body retrieval fee.”
Even further up the hill is a rocky outcropping known as the Looming Wedge, that provides an excellent view over the enclave below. Adventurous persons might find the hidden entrance to the caves below the wedge. And who climbs into them deep enough may even find an entrance to the Everdark (my world’s equivalent to the Underdark).