Top 10 Battlemaps for Planescape: Turn of Fortune’s Wheel

Written by: Zachary Velcoff

This post is the first in a four-part series about the best battlemaps for the Planescape setting. In this article, we’ll review the top 10 maps for Planescape: Turn of Fortune’s Wheel, the 5th Edition module, which was published on October 17th, 2023, alongside the setting book, Planescape: Sigil and the Outlands, and the monster compendium, Morte’s Planar Parade.

After this article, the series will continue with the best battlemaps for the City of Sigil, the Outlands, and their Gate-Towns.

Introduction

A group of amnesiacs awakens in the basement of the Sigil Mortuary and embarks on a journey to discover who they are and what happened to them. The forces of order seek to stop a glitch in the fabric of reality. An arcanoloth casino owner plays a dangerous game for the highest stakes imaginable. A lost troop of modrons parades endlessly through the deadly domain of a beholder god. And in Sigil, the City of Doors, ascendant factions vie for power, enigmatic dabus repair buildings and maintain portals, berks do what they can to get by, and the inscrutable, almighty Lady of Pain watches over it all.

This blog post will highlight ten Czepeku maps compatible with Turn of Fortune’s Wheel to supplement the maps from the module and to empower Dungeon Masters who are running the campaign with visual aids for locations the book describes but does not explicitly depict.

Needless to say, this post contains big spoilers for Turn of Fortune’s Wheel. Players, proceed at your own peril!

Court of Justice

Some time after our heroes emerge from the bowels of the Mortuary, the law catches up with them. Harmonium peacekeepers attempt to place the party under arrest, and if the PCs surrender or get knocked out, they’ll be brought to the High Courts in the Lady’s Ward to stand trial for their crimes against reality. The Blue variant of Czepeku’s Court of Justice is great for the Grand Court, where a factol, planetar, or even pit fiend judge might preside over our heroes’ trial before Shemeshka’s agent, Farrow, steps in to rescue them.

Sewer Tunnels

Farrow leads the party into Undersigil, a realm of sewer tunnels, tombs, and forgotten places beneath the City of Doors. Following an underground route to Shemeshka’s casino, our heroes meet a cranium rat squeaker and a band of malicious bakers. While exploring the bowels of Undersigil, the party may traverse the Drowned Nations. The Original variants of Czepeku’s Sewer Tunnels are perfect for this watery domain. Here, the party might encounter troglodytes or kuo-toa; the sahuagin baron, Grat the Glass-Jawed, and his monstrous shark, Ripper; or the mysterious aboleth, Abadoom.

Warforged Titan Scrapyard

Shemeshka, the proprietor of Fortune’s Wheel, offers to help the PCs discover their pasts in exchange for them tracking down a rogue modron lost in the Outlands. In pursuit of R04M, the players travel to the Gate-Towns that connect the Outlands to the sixteen Outer Planes. This journey brings them to Curst, Gate-Town to the Tarterian Depths of Carceri. Like the plane to which its Shackled Gate leads, the town of Curst is a prison. The party’s escape attempt takes them to the town dump, where they're likely to encounter rust monsters, otyughs, Mercykiller bloodhounds, and even more cunning creatures: the cantankerous green hag, Dolores; the oddball copper dragon, Tudhog the Junk Wyrm; or the naked cranium rat, The Node. Czepeku’s Warforged Titan Scrapyard is perfect for adventures and encounters in the Dump; the Sunset variant captures the oranges and rust browns of Curst.

Yggdrasil Roots

The party's quest through the Outlands brings them to Glorium, Gate-Town to the Heroic Domains of Ysgard. Here, they'll do battle with a pair of whirlwyrms, then compete for glory defending the bariaur town of Grakenok. In addition to its whirlpool gate, Glorium harbors another, secret gate: the roots of Yggdrasil, guarded by the druids of the Worldroot Circle. Because the party is updating their damaged mimir with data restored at the Gate-Town’s gates, they might venture to Glorium’s hidden gate and prove to its guardian, the treant Yggatha, that they are worthy of the knowledge of this sacred place. Czepeku’s Yggdrasil Roots map is perfect for this encounter, particularly its Portal Empty variant.

Yggdrasil Trunk

During their trek across the Outlands, our heroes visit Sylvania, Gate-Town to the Olympian Glades of Arborea. In this enchanted forest settlement, the party must track down a gate whose location shifts at random while contending with a titanic party-crasher. The empyrean Kopoha wants entrance to the Yearning Timbers, an elite event venue in the hollowed trunk of a banyan tree and the current site of a private party. Czepeku's Yggdrasil Trunk map is ideal for the PCs' confrontation with Kopoha or for another event at Yearning Timbers, such as a vampire masquerade. The Dragon Soul variant lends itself well to the showy colors of the Outlands’ most prestigious club.

Treetop Dungeon

In the Outlands, our heroes arrive at Faunel, Gate-Town to the Wilderness of the Beastlands. Here, three sapient animal lords vie for sovereignty while a wicked band of poachers seeks their hides. The party's search for the Vile Hunt may bring them to the Eagle's Aerie, a treetop settlement led by the giant albatross, Parvaz. Although Parvaz is at first unwilling to share what he knows of the gnoll hunters, he might part with that knowledge in exchange for the party's defense of Eagle's Aerie from an angry roc. The Village variants of Czepeku's Treetop Dungeon are perfect for the showdown with that gargantuan bird.

Gryphon Roost Inn

In Excelsior, the Gate-Town to the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia, the party is deputized by the hound archon, Varrel, who needs an outsider's help investigating a string of disappearances. The party's search for missing residents brings them to the homes of two victims, the dragonborn Adorae and the human Wobeke, both last seen at their homes. The dwellings of Excelsior's Chandelier district sit atop floating earth motes that orbit the Godstrand, the great tower atop which lies the Gate-Town's gate. I'd make one or both of these victims a permanent resident of Czepeku’s Gryphon Roost Inn, and let the party’s investigation take them here. If you want to spice things up, you could have agents of Serenity and Uncle Longteeth ambush our heroes at the scene of the crime. The Autumn variant is perfect, since Excelsior’s fruit trees are in a perpetual state of ripeness, always ready for harvest.

Train Station Platforms

In Automata, Gate-Town to the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, our heroes seek access to the gate through which the Great Modron March enters the Outlands, like clockwork, once every 289 years. To cut through the bureaucratic red tape stalling their quest, the players might opt to do the Council of Order a favor and agree to recover a stolen logbook. The log for the Concordant Express was taken from the Concord Terminus by the githzerai outlaw Beltha, who hides in the Inverse, a realm beneath–and antithetical to–the orderly Gate-Town above. The Steam Train Day variant of Czepeku’s Train Station Platforms is great for the Concord Terminus. Here, the party might investigate the crime scene or help the three-horned tiefling Romerillo escape bounty hunters by sneaking them aboard the train.

Spider Queen Throne

Once the party has restored their mimir’s lost data, it will point them toward the likely location of the lost modron, R04M: inside the Spire that towers over the Outlands. The PCs travel through the Rilmani town of Dendradis, and, from there, into the Spire. Then, they must cross the Desert of Rust, traverse the Whisker, pass the Tomb of the Frog, meet the Scholar of Impossibilities, and then, in the Ravenous Darkness, face a darkweaver. The Umbral variant of Czepeku's Spider Queen Throne is excellent for this fight with a telepathic aberrant spider at the heart of a massive black web.

Lair of the Many-Eyed God

After escaping the Spire with R04M and confronting Shemeshka, whose role in their misfortune is finally revealed, the party returns to the Outlands to rescue the marching modrons from Gzemnid's Realm before their warped understanding of reality can break the very alignment of the multiverse. Here, the party must contend with the beholder god of deception, gases, and obscurement, who’s more interested in eating the modrons than seeing them freed from Tyrant's Spiral. The Original variant of Czepeku's Lair of the Many-Eyed God is ideal for the players' confrontation with Gzemnid. Will your PCs choose to bargain with it, or are you brave or foolish enough to fight it?