The Dark of Hot Springs islands uses a densely packed key, where every hex has three notable locations that can be discovered. It isn’t quite a landmark/hidden/secret structure, but it offers the players clear choices between exploring deeper or moving on.

Oh, shoot, WARNING: spoilers ahead!

There is an ancient temple in one of the hexes that has been converted by steam imps into a gambling den and nightclub. Svarku, the efreeti tyrant, has a history of coming down, getting loaded, and wrecking the place, but the imps couldn’t possibly enforce a ban on him, so instead they have an enchantment that makes Svarku forget the place exists every time he leaves. Of course, when my players met Svarku, they mentioned the temple, and he said, “huh, I’ve never heard of that, I’ll have to check it out.” Oops!

But they couldn’t let that stop them, because Dilly the druid had committed to performing there that night. They headed over and had just finished their act when they heard Shark’s bombastic voice ring through the halls. Not wanting to deal with him again so soon, they headed to the lower levels of the temple where they got into some more trouble before escaping through a hole in the floor… which dropped them two hundred feet into an underground lake.

They treaded water for a few minutes in the absolute darkness before spotting a blinking light in the distance. They headed towards it, and it was headed towards them! Turns out it was attached to the head of this fine fellow:

He looks friendly, right? He motioned to them to follow and they did. They arrived at a small, rocky island and were able to briefly get out of the wet. There was a weird statue on top of the peak of the island, but they didn’t pay it much mind.

Meanwhile, their new fish friend was blinking his light in strange patterns out into the darkness. The waters churned, and a sea serpent attacked! Fishman bailed off the backside of the island, and the gang fought off the serpent, killing it as it tried to flee. Quoth the druid: “I can’t believe that fish guy bailed on us when the serpent attacked!” No kidding, he was sacrificing you to it! Groans of realization all round, good stuff.

I did my usual slap chop routine on the fish guy, but for some reason the orange I used for his body ended up with a weird greenish tint. I was mildly irked, but it all came to together when I added that bright turquoise blue to his fins, and I ended up liking him a lot.

Below: terrain by Dwarven Forge, fish guy and fish god minis by Artisan Guild. I had a problem printing the fish god shrine. The bottom rocky chunk peeled away from its supports as it printed, so I had to fix it with some green stuff. It was my first time trying that, and I think it went ok. It’s a neat material to use. There are folks on the Dwarven Forge Discord who do some amazing work with it, cutting up their pieces and modifying them to their liking.