Hard to believe, but I'm just about halfway done with my full 2E AP. I've now got a good thread of story and I've dropped a lot of locations, but I don't feel like I can tie down the second half without making some map decisions. I need to know where in the Northfells the rest of the action is going to occur. Looking over the map and what I've got so far, I see a few changes I need to make. I should have a few more small forests near the "starter towns" of Fallinghollow and Jannasthorpe. I also think I want the end to be in the large swath of forest to the north. Just north of *that* might be some other kingdom, but I think I want it to be a frozen ocean, to put a better limit on the Northfells. So I just painted it blue! Here is my updated overland map.


 
So here are the locations I've name-dropped so far, and where I think they fit well on this map.



Now, with all that in mind, let me place numbers for each of my chapters. I already know that 1, 2, and 3 are all near Fallinghollow, 5 and 6 are in Velkendir, and so on. But I want to put down every chapter number, so I know where I can put the rest of the action. So I put this together:



I have to admit that I've kept myself a few steps ahead of these blog posts, and I've already seen that adventures 11 and 18 are going to be partly aquatic; there are lots of aquatic monsters appropriate for those levels. That's part of why I needed an ocean at the top of the map--it's a place for krakens and baomals and such. But I don't yet have everything planned; I don't yet know what adventures 12 to 15 are going to look like, other than that they'll line up with my overall outline from the beginning of this project.

I'm now reconsidering the name of my overall AP as well. Heartwood Blight is good, but the biggest forest on my map isn't really at the heart of anything. Whatever that big forest is called, I'll add "Blight" to the end and make that the adventure path name. Icewood Blight? Maybe, but that implies the whole adventure path is winter- or cold-themed, and it's not. I'll keep thinking, and any suggestions are welcome.

But now I've literally got a map to adventure, and I'll keep pushing forward!