Month: August 2020

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Brazenthrone – The Hollows

Here’s the non-annotated version and the DM notes.

The Hollows are the closest thing Brazenthrone has to slums. They’re the poorest neighborhood in the city and, secretly, the home of the local Thieves’ Guild. They also have the lowest ceiling of any chamber in the city.

Rising only seven feet above the floor, the walls of the buildings here go from the ground to the chamber’s roof, making the streets more like winding tunnels. The second level is actually a separate chamber altogether, located directly above the first. Imagine going to work in the mines, then coming home to a place every bit as cramped. That’s life in the Hollows. There’s more information about the area– particularly the Thieves’ Guild– in the DM notes, if you’re interested.

There are five more parts of Brazenthrone to go and I think the next one will be the Mushroom Farms. There’s going to be a distillery there that makes something called “Dwarven White Whiskey,” which is a drink my players encountered once at a tavern. I’ll explain more about it when the map is done.

But before that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: an abandoned fortress with a lighthouse at the end of a peninsula, taken over by pirates and turned into a black market trading port. Well, I’m gonna start sketching that out! See you in a bit!

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The Red Towers II: Orcstralia

Here’s the alternate version of the Red Towers for those of you who prefer a drier greenskin lair. I was thinking of calling it “Stinky Uluru,” but I didn’t think anyone would get it except Australians and people who played Civilization 5.

I decided everyone should have the annotated version of this map. It seemed like some things might be a little confusing without it. Anyway, here’s some other stuff. Check the previous post if you’re not sure what the tokens are for:

Next up is another Brazenthrone map: the Hollows. This is the bad part of town, where your players can go to fence some stolen loot, join the thieves’ guild or just score drugs. This is the sixth-to-last chamber of Brazenthrone left to go! After two years of drawing, it’s nearly finished! Can you believe it?

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The Red Towers

Greenskin Rock got a new name and this is it. I like sea stacks and I like the idea of something living in one.

You’ve got all the things a semi-primitive demihuman race needs in here. There’s an eating area with a fighting pit, a shrine to whatever unpleasant-smelling god these heathens worship, along with cells so the sacrifices don’t wander off. There’s a kennel for wargs or wolves or… Yorkshire Terriers? Whatever kind of pets the inhabitants are into. Plus a brewery, a rookery, a well and a few other things.

By the way, I did something new with this map. Those planks on the ground level are sort of like primitive drawbridges, which can be pulled in to keep people out. I made an alternate version of the map with the planks removed and I made the planks into VTT tokens, so DMs can place or remove them, should the need come up in your game. These can also be printed for those of you whose tabletops are non-virtual. Anyway, here’s all that stuff:

There’s going to be another alternate version of this map as well, which I should have for you in a day or two. This map seems like it could just as easily be a rock formation in the desert and, since it’s easy enough to change, I’m going to do it. Anyway, hope you like it! I’ll be back with the low-humidity version soon!

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Brazenthrone – Excavation

This is a new, unnamed chamber of Brazenthrone currently being excavated. It’s at 19 on this map. This is where dwarven cities come from: lots and lots of tedious digging. Fortunately, that’s a thing dwarves happen to be into. For them, hammering away at rock is like… taking a walk in the woods. Or petting a kitten. You can hardly even call it work.

With that done, there are now six chambers of the city left to draw. Six! There are three small residential districts, plus the Iron Mines, the Mushroom Farms and the Old Palace. I don’t see any way that this doesn’t get finished by the end of the year at the latest.

Coming up next is Greenskin Rock, a cluster of sea stacks with a goblin or kobold community living inside. After that, we’re back to Brazenthrone with the Hollows (12 on the map above). It’s a residential district, but there are two things that make it a little more interesting than most: first, it’s the bad part of town. Crime, heroin, bad language… they’ve got it all. And second, it’s where the thieves’ guild is secretly located. I’m not sure where I’m going to hide it away, but I’ll come up with something interesting.

All right, I’m gonna get to it!

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All those dungeons and not a single dragon until today.

 

You can download the tokens from Google Drive or from patreon.

If you were in need of tokens for dragons or flying mounts, you should be all set. Personally, I haven’t used a dragon in my game in a pretty long time. Like, years at least. I mean, sure, dragons are cool and all, but they’re not as essential to D&D as the name would have you believe. Dungeons? You do usually need those. Dragons? Highly optional.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work on Brazenthrone! Hope you like the tokens!

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Ironbird Aerie – Gunpowder-Free Version

Here’s the alternate version of Ironbird Aerie without the cannons and fancy engines. Some DMs make their players kill a dragon the old fashioned way. Others let them blow a hole through its chest with an 18-pound smoothbore siege gun, spraying chunks of Sky Godzilla into the next county. Both are perfectly valid options and now this place can accommodate either.

Next up is an area of Brazenthrone currently under excavation. This unfinished and unnamed hall is at 19 on this map. After that, we’re doing the next Great Vote map, Greenskin Rock. This map will feature one or more sea stacks with a goblin or kobold community living in tunnels inside. I’ve wanted to put a sea stack in a map for a while now and my day has arrived! Also, the flying creature tokens I mentioned will be along sometime in the next week or so.

Anyway, I don’t think the Brazenthrone map will take long, so I’ll be back with that soon!

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Ironbird Aerie – Gunpowder Version

Ironbird Aerie might look like a truck stop for airships and flying mounts, but that’s only because it kind of is. This is the first of two versions of this map, the second of which will be a little lower-tech, with no gunpowder weapons or mechanical engines. It won’t take long to modify and I should have it for you tomorrow.

I’m also going to make some tokens for flying creatures to go with this. The list I’ve got so far includes: dragon, griffon, hippogriff, pegasus, nightmare and giant eagle. If there’s anything notable I’m forgetting about, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

If you need an airship to roll into this place on, might I suggest the highly reasonable Century Pelican or the highly unreasonable Tempest of Reckoning?

There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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Brazenthrone – The Oreworks – Third Level

And here’s the last level of the Oreworks. Is there much here on the third floor? No. Is there a hole through which your players can drop someone into a blast furnace? Yes sir, there is.

Honestly, I think the real potential of the Oreworks is that there’s all kinds of dangerous stuff sitting around that can make a fight here a lot more interesting. Furnaces, molten metal, an assortment of smashing machines… there are a lot of hilariously terrible ways to die here. Something to think about.

Anyway, next up is a mountaintop airship port. A place to gas up the ol’ flying machine, make some repairs, sell off some loot, have a few drinks and get in a fight. It’s not going to be nearly as much like a truck stop as I’m making it sound. After that, it’s back to Brazenthrone. I’m not sure what I’m doing next, but it’s not the Old Palace. I’m saving that for last to make sure it ends on a high note.

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Brazenthrone – The Oreworks – Second Level

Here’s the second floor of Brazenthrone‘s Oreworks. Not too much going on, but now you know what those horses are walking around in circles for. Also, the Miners’ Guildhall isn’t just a bar, even though it is mostly a bar.

I’ve actually got the third level done as well, I just need to make the VTT and print versions and so forth. I’ll have it up later tonight. All right, I’m gonna grab something to eat and get on that.

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Brazenthrone – The Oreworks – Ground Level

First, here’s a few things:

This is the first of three levels of Brazenthrone‘s Oreworks. This took a bit of research to draw, since– like most people– I wasn’t all that familiar with the processes and equipment involved in pre-modern ore processing and steelmaking.

It took some reading, but I got the basic idea and there’s an explanation of all the equipment depicted here in the DM notes, which I’m giving out to everyone so you don’t have to spend half the day on Wikipedia just to understand this map. I’m not sure my explanation of this stuff is completely accurate, but it’s accurate enough for D&D purposes. If you’re a welder or a steelworker or someone else who actually knows about this stuff… I mean, I don’t think you’ll facepalm, but I also can’t guarantee you won’t facepalm.

There are a few different methods of steelmaking that I could’ve chosen for the dwarves of Brazenthrone, but I decided that they used a Bessemer Converter. Having been invented in the mid-1800s, this is somewhat advanced technology for a middle-ages setting, but dwarven steelmaking is meant to be advanced and, more importantly, I think it looks cool.

I’ve got the second and third levels of this mostly drawn and I’ll have them up in the next few days. After that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: a mountaintop airship port.

Well, I’ll be back with the rest of the Oreworks. There’s a lot going on in this map, so if you have any questions about it, just ask!