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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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The Astronomer’s Tower

So this is a fairly classic wizard’s tower. I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, but I did want to make it more interesting than your average, military-issue wizard tube.

The top floor has a telescope and an armillary sphere, which is basically a 3-dimensional astrolabe. It calculates the position and movement of stars. Beyond that, I’m not sure there’s too much to explain.

I drew a ruined version of this map for patrons, which should be done by tomorrow. After that, I’ll get back to drawing more of the Stygian City. Anyway, I hope you like the map. Let me know what you think!

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The Ruined Tower (Work-in-Progress)

This map was originally meant to be a ruined mage’s tower, but I decided to make an intact version as well. Having two versions of the same map lets you do some interesting things, like have the party fix it up and move in. Or you can have the party enter the ruins, then find a magic orb that sends them back in time to when the tower was occupied. If you’ve got any other ideas for it, let me know.

Anyway, I’m coloring these now and they shouldn’t take too long.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what that thing by the big telescope is, it’s an armillary sphere.

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The Black Ziggurat

This map was heavily inspired by the Great Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu in Iraq. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a ziggurat, that’s probably the ziggurat you saw. I designed this primarily as the headquarters of an evil organization, but it could be used as a temple, cult lair or just a dungeon in the desert.

I made a bunch of alternate versions of this place for patrons, one of which was unintentional. Here’s how that happened. I was trying to make a version where the ziggurat was floating through the astral plane and I figured I’d do it by changing the colors. I’d make the sand blue so it’d look like nebulous waves of… you know, astral stuff in the background. My thinking was, it wouldn’t look like sand anymore since sand isn’t blue. Then I got up, grabbed a cup of coffee and, when I sat back down, I realized I had just made a night version of the map.

Anyway, I also made a proper astral version and another version without most of the interior (which is more accurate to the Ziggurat of Ur). Then there are unfurnished versions with and without the statues. Hopefully this fulfills all your ziggurat-related needs, whatever they may be.

Next, I’ll be drawing a ruined mage’s tower. I’ve got some ideas about how to make this place interesting, but let’s see how they look on paper. It’s definitely not going to be just a big cylinder, though. The world has plenty of maps like that. Once that’s done, I’ll get back to drawing more of the Stygian City.

All right, that’s it for now. Hope you like the map!

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The Stygian City: Goblin Village, Spiders’ Nest and Temple

The 7th level of the pit is home to a clan of goblins, who get by on a healthy diet of giant bats, giant spiders and mushrooms (which are basically a vegetable). Below that, the 8th level is overrun with spiders and in dire need of a treatment that only Dr. Flamethrower can provide.

Then there’s the 9th level. Most of this floor is a giant temple to Ghanya (the deity of the people who built the pit). But there’s a smaller group of rooms that are disconnected from the rest. This was once a tomb, but is now the residence of a vampire named Khrani, who sleeps here during the day, then flies out with the bats at night. Compared to the rest of the pit, her rooms are pretty nice. Just because you live in a literal hole in the ground doesn’t mean you can’t live in a nice hole in the ground.

For patrons, I’ve updated the DM notes quite a bit. There are new entries for these three levels as well as a new section with suggested creatures to populate each level with. When this is finished, the DM notes are going to be… not quite a campaign, but as close as I’ve come to writing one for any of my maps. Have a look and let me know what you think so far.

Next, I’ll be drawing the Black Citadel. This is going to be a ziggurat that serves as the lair of an evil organization. Imagine the party is finally heading out to confront the National Association of Sinister Wizards and, after an arduous journey, they finally arrive and they see this. No need to double-check the address, that’s definitely the place. Even the word ‘ziggurat’ sounds sinister. Ziggurat.

Anyway, I’m gonna get started on that. Once it’s done, I’ll be getting back to the pit. Speaking of which, tell me what you think so far!