That's an interesting idea.

Looks like you've got a lot of stuff sorted out already.

That's better. The labels are no longer screaming out of the map like before, but I think you may need to increase the opacity or the extent of that one glow. There's at least one label I can't easily read - the temple of Fah. I might not have adjusted it to perfection, but only enough to show you how little you could sometimes get away with.

Better again.

The thing about sheet effects is they do take a lot of tweaking to achieve perfection, so you may wake up tomorrow morning and take one look at it and decide to change it again.

I don't think it's too much, but it may still be on the borderline of too little. Small adjustments are better than large ones till you hit the sweet spot between not enough and glaring. And then there will always be issues with subtle but efficient text glows where some may still not be able to see it even though you can.

It's coming along nicely, but where Tahoma might be an extremely tidy font, but it is also extremely thin, like writing with a micro pen. You might benefit from using a slightly bolder font so it stands out a bit more from the details of the mountains. It's a non-serifed font, so consider whether it really works with the serifed Avalon Quest.

Using coloured labels can sometimes be nice, but other times it's not as clear as plain black or white labels. If you go black and white (either black text with white glow or white text with black glow) there's more contrast to lift them out of the map a little - especially with a style as beautifully detailed as Mike's.

Have you considered using text along a curve to try and space out the letters of the mountain ranges along the spine of each range?

EDIT: A note here about using black and white - sometimes you might have to use the very palest grey and the very darkest grey instead of absolute black and absolute white, as the absolute black and white can interract oddly with the very black lines and very white parts of the style.

Creepy Crypts also uses the same method, only the knockout is placed on 2 sheets with different sheet effects and different fills, so you get a rocky or cobbly wall lining the cavity you knock out. It was probably a little bit too confusing for an annual style for new mappers, but the basic concept of eating holes in the dirt and rock will hopefully become more mainstream as it frees us all from cave entrance issues and having to make floor masks.

Oh yes.

Are ents a were-something?

I think that's already looking a lot better - especially when viewed at the true export size when you click the image.

Another improvement.

The labels are quite clear now at forum resolution, and once you click the image and look at the full size they are good.

Varicolour symbols aren't too difficult to make. If you have the Tome its on p113. If you need any help just shout.