Posts

Posted on

The Stygian City 16, 17 & 18 (Work-in-Progress)

Here’s the art for the next three levels of the Stygian City. We’ve got the myconid colony on 16, an ancient oracle on 17 and the ruins of the warlocks’ guild on 18. As you can see, some things happened there that were not super amazing. Magic do be like that sometimes.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Spain to see some friends for a couple days, so I might be a little slow to respond to messages, but I’ll check my email once a day if I’m able. This is where my D&D group moved, by the way. Half of my players had kids and didn’t have time to play anymore and the other half moved to Spain. Then the ones that had kids moved to Spain too.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for things to do in Barcelona, let me know. In the meantime, I’m gonna get to it and see how much of this I can get colored before I leave.

Posted on

Mycenaean Citadel

This map was heavily inspired by the Citadel of Tiryns in ancient Mycenae. If you’re not familiar with Mycenae, it was an ancient civilization that occupied all the parts of Greece you’re likely to visit on vacation.

Tiryns is old enough that it was mentioned in the Iliad. It was built around 2500 BC and abandoned by 200 BC. This place actually appears in the Hercules mythology as well. It was the home of King Eurystheus, who ordered Hercules to go beat down the Nemean Lion, the hydra and so on. So if your party comes here and picks up a quest or two, they wouldn’t be the first.

Next, I’m going to draw a roof level for this map for patrons. That should only take a day or two and then I’ll get started on the next few levels of the Stygian City. Anyway, I hope you like it. Let me know what you think!

Posted on

The Stygian City 13, 14 & 15: The Kuo-Toa Colony

On the 13th level, the pit intersects with a small, underground river, which eventually leads to the underdark. So, after the city became abandoned, it was only a matter of time before the kuo-toa found the place and moved in. Which they did.

The kuo-toa Archpriest who rules the colony wants to expand his territory, but unfortunately, he’s stuck between an ancient night hag above and a circle of myconids below. He’s scared of the night hag and he should be. She’s got half a dozen Pit Fiends on speed dial. But he feels like he’s got a chance against the myconids, so he’s planning an attack across the broken bridge over the 15th level that serves as the border between their domains.

The 16th level– the center of the myconid colony– will look a lot like the mold-covered half of the 15th. A huge fungal garden growing around a set of ancient fountains. After that, things are going to start getting weird as we get closer to Ghanya. The myconids are the last friendly folks for the party to encounter in the pit.

There are only six more levels to draw before we reach the bottom and I think this should be done before the end of the year. I’ve got a few ideas for the next megaproject and the one after that and I’ll talk about those before too long to see what everyone thinks.

But next up, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, a Bronze Age Mycenaean citadel. Here’s one example, although I don’t know if I’ll be drawing a map inspired by that one specifically. Anyway, Greek stuff! Everybody loves Greek stuff.

Well, I’m gonna browse some pictures of Mycenaean palaces. Hope you like how the Stygian City is coming. Let me know what you think!

Posted on

The Stygian City: 13, 14 & 15 (Work-in-Progress)

This is the art for the kuo-toa settlement in the Stygian City. A small, underground river flows past the 13th level, which is how the fish people found the abandoned settlement and moved in. On the 15th level, a broken bridge across the pit separates the kuo-toa from the myconid colony below.

By the way, I’ve revised the plans a bit for the rest of the project. Here’s what I’ve got in mind now:

1-2: The village
3: Villagers’ mines
4: A maze of tunnels and collapsed chambers overrun by mold
5: Caverns inhabited by giant bats
6: Catacombs
7: Goblin village
8: Giant spiders, huge webs strung across the pit
9: Ancient temple
10: Industrial workshops
11: Hag’s thralls
12: Night Hag’s palace
13: Kuo-toa settlement and river
14: Main kuo-toa settlement
15: Bridge across pit between kuo-toa and myconids
16: Myconid colony around a crumbling fountain
17: Ancient oracle and library with a long-abandoned scholars’ camp containing notes about the pit’s history
18: Undead/Demons. Magic Stuff?
19: Ancient prison
20: Ceremonial jumping point with temple
21: The bottom: Ghanya (with several variants of the bottom level, including a sealed vault/prison, underdark entrance, trash and debris and aboleth lair).

1-16 are pretty much locked in, but if you’ve got any thoughts about what might fit in anywhere below that, let me know. If I like it and I can work it in, I just might.

Posted on

Dragonriders’ Hall

I usually talk about the map in these posts, but this one is what it says on the tin. It’s a stable/livery/hatchery for dragons. Let’s talk about Council of Wyrms instead.

Council of Wyrms was a 2nd Edition D&D boxed set with rules for making dragon player characters. And it was absolutely terrible. Did I buy it? Yes I did. In my defense, I was 15 and a lot of stuff seems like a better idea than it is when you’re 15.

I tried it for one session before realizing what the problem was with letting the players be dragons. At level one, they can fly. And they have innate spellcasting abilities. And a lot of hit points. And they can blow away just about anything with their breath weapons. And, if being really big and scary is a problem for some reason, they can shapeshift into a human. Keep in mind, this isn’t one dragon. This is the whole party. So, imagine trying to write an encounter that’s challenging for four dragons. Here’s what that looks like:

“Roll for initiative. What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna barf hot death on all the enemies.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

“The bad guys all take nine billion damage. You win.”

Did anyone else ever run a Council of Wyrms game? If so, let me know how it went for you. I struggle to imagine what a successful campaign would look like, but who knows? It’s probably happened at least once.

Next up, I’ll be getting back to the Stygian City. This thing is about halfway done and I feel like it should be finished by the end of the year, or at least close. There’s going to be an underground river in this area and a kuo-toa settlement in the ruins. I’m not sure what the lore around the kuo-toa will be, but if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. So far, all I can tell you is that they’ll be rivals with the myconids living further down.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Please do not buy Council of Wyrms. It is very, very bad.

Posted on

The Stygian City 10, 11 & 12: The Hag’s Domain

Here’s the non-annotated version of the map.

The next three levels of the Stygian City are finally finished and, as you can see, there’s a lot going on. I’m giving out the annotated version to everyone and, for patrons, there are in-depth explanations of everything in the DM notes. I wrote 4 pages of notes on these three floors alone, including some encounters and suggestions for monsters to populate the place with. If nothing else, read the part about the flesh golems in the 12th level. If I need to see a psychiatrist for coming up with something like that, let me know.

The next few levels of the map will be a kuo-toa settlement with an underground river running through it. After that, there’ll be a myconid colony, with whom the kuo-toa are in a state of… not friends. I’d say this project is about halfway done at this point, maybe a little more. Feels like pretty good progress to me.

Next, I’ll be drawing a draconic hatchery, where dragons and wyverns are raised, trained and ridden. Riding dragons is often regarded as some highly 1990s D&D, but let’s be honest: it still goes hard. And I feel like it’s something that everyone thinks all experienced players have done at some point, but hardly anyone has. So, you know, something to think about.

Anyway, if you’ve got any thoughts or questions about the map or anything else, by all means let me know.

Posted on

The Stygian City – The Night Hag’s Palace (Work-in-Progress)

This is the 12th level of the pit, which has its own upper level just above the pen in the photo. There’s a lot going on here and I promise I’ll explain it, room by room, in the DM notes.

The short version of the story is that an ancient hag is living here with her derro minions and an assortment of demons, flesh golems and various other creatures and she’s trying to wake up Ghanya, the entity living at the bottom of the pit (info on that here).

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work and get these colored. If you’ve got any thoughts or questions about any of this, let me know!

Posted on

The Stygian City (Work-in-Progress)

These are the 10th and 11th levels of the giant pit megadungeon. I’m still working on the 12th. These three floors are the domain of an ancient hag named Black Hazel. Her minions reside on the 10th and 11th and she lives in the old palace on the 12th.

There’s going to be some insane stuff on the 12th level. There’s a workshop for making flesh golems with a room full of body parts next door. There’s also a pool filled with some kind of writhing biomass. And, of course, there’s also a room containing the hag’s collection of Completely Normal Stuff™. I think you’ll like it.

Anyway, I should have that drawn and inked in a few more days. Until then, let me know what you think so far!