January 2021 – Milby's Maps

January 29, 2021January 29, 2021

The Deepspire (Work-In-Progress)

So, this is the basic design I’ve settled on for the Deepspire. There’s a long walkway that spirals around the column of rock, with homes, stores, temples and so forth leading off from it, carved deeper into the stone.

Underneath it all is the harbor, where ships can come to trade. Keep in mind that ships in the Underdark aren’t going to have sails or masts, so they shouldn’t have a problem getting in and out of there.

Next to the harbor entrance is a defensive tower. Then, carved into a separate rock formation at the top, is the citadel. I’ve got some basic ideas worked out about how the place will be organized, but nothing concrete. All of this is still subject to change.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a look at what I’m working on. I’ve gotten some work done on the layout of the harbor, which will be the first part I draw. From there, I’ll work my way up to the top, one tier at a time.

I’ll write some lore for this as well, although I haven’t thought too much about it yet. I’m thinking this might be a mullti-race settlement. That’s pretty unusual in the Underdark, but that’s also why I like the idea. And there won’t be too much reason it couldn’t be used as a drow, duergar or other species’ settlement if you prefer.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work. I’ll keep you updated. I think this is going to be really cool. Let me know what you think!

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021

A Dark Place

This is the most grim, surreal place I could come up with. While it’s meant to be an estate on the Plane of Shadow, I think it could be good for a nightmare or someplace in hell.

People always depict hell with fire and lava and, you know what? That’s just not scary. When I send my players to hell, I want them to be soaking their pants. Will a statue of an eyeless, obese man vomiting blackish liquid into a basin accomplish that? I don’t know, but I’d say it’ll make them more uncomfortable than molten rock.

I don’t have much of an explanation for the strange things in this map and I don’t think there needs to be one. This stuff doesn’t necessarily need to be interactable, it can just be decor. Personally, I wouldn’t give my players an explanation of anything here. This is a place you send your players when you want them to be scared and people are more scared when they don’t understand what’s going on. Whose head is this? You don’t know. What’s this dark liquid? You don’t know. What do these symbols represent? You don’t know.

And then there’s the top floor. I meant for it to look like reality was falling apart, but there are plenty of other things that might be going on there. I think having the party fight a giant, writhing mass of eyes and teeth would be a nice way to cap things off.

Anyway, next up is the Deepspire, a fortress city in the seas of the Underdark, carved into the sides of a massive column of rock stretching from the sea floor to the roof of the cavern. I’m not sure how big this will be, but it’ll probably be close to what I’d call a megaproject. I’ll be posting it level by level, so you’ll get it one piece at a time until it’s finished. Once I’ve got it planned out a little more, I’ll have more details for you.

One last thing: before I got started on this map, I said that if it didn’t make Warhammer 40K look like My Little Pony, it would be a failure. That might’ve been setting the bar a bit high, but, well, how’d I do?

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

January 24, 2021

A Dark Place (Work-in-Progress)

Here’s a look at the map I’m working on of an estate in the Shadowfell. This idea was chosen by the Cartographic Congress and I was asked to make it “dark and surreal.” Hopefully it’s a sufficient degree of both, because this place is maximum weird.

The second picture is the entry hall, with a big stone head leaking black stuff into a fountain from its eyes. That’s pretty representative of the decor here. Also, the walls are meant to look like spinal columns because, I don’t know, it’s kind of metal. And things get even weirder upstairs. I’d actually say the picture above is only the building’s second-most disturbing fountain.

Anyway, I’ll need another day, maybe two to get the rest of it colored and then I’ll be back with the finished map.

January 19, 2021

So, I forgot to post this. It’s the floating market, except with nothing floating and no market.

Also, there’s boat tokens, in case you liked the boats, but you didn’t like where I put the boats and you want them to be somewhere else. Or on another map.

I made this a couple weeks ago and I thought I’d posted it, but I just realized I hadn’t. Sorry about that, but here it is now. I thought this map might be more useful to some people with an empty river and it only took a few hours to make, so I did. And then I completely forgot about it. Oops.

Anyway, I’m working on the map of an estate on the plane of shadow and it is easily the most unsettling map I’ve ever made. There’s a fountain of black liquid pouring from the eyes of a stone head. There’s a bed covered in teeth. And there’s a room where reality is falling apart.

The Shadowfell is a strange and alien place and I want this map to reflect that. It’s not the flaming abyss of damnation, exactly, but it’s definitely not just some place where it’s hard to see. It’s kind of a Diet Hell. I want this map to be a place your players don’t want to be and, unless they are really into H.R. Giger, I don’t think they will.

Well, just thought I’d give you an update on how that’s coming. I’m gonna start inking it tonight and I should have it done and posted in a few more days.

January 16, 2021

Windward Point Rookery: An Aarakocra Village

Windward Point is a place that isn’t meant to accommodate the non-flying. There are no stairs between levels and no paths to walk between them, which might make things interesting for your players. The rogue and the wizard will be fine. The rogue can climb reliably well and the wizard can fly from place to place. But the cleric? He’s gonna end up praying for his god to fix his broken legs by the time he’s done here. No athletics OR acrobatics? Best of luck, fella.

In case you’re unfamiliar with aarakocra, they’re a bird-like humanoid race that looks like this. Well, until fifth edition, when they apparently grew some arms. This leads me to a point I wanted to mention: the lore about aarakocra is REALLY inconsistent. At least one of you is looking at this and thinking, “Aarakocra would never live there, they’re too claustrophobic.” And you’re right, there are sources that say that. But there are other sources that say aarakocra used to live in cities carved into cliffs. So how do I decide which version to go with? I chose the version I thought was more interesting.

In any case, I think it’s reasonable to imagine that some tribes of aarakocra could be comfortable with lifestyles that others aren’t. Humans are certainly like that. You’ve seen those survivalist shows, right? They drop Bear Grylls or whoever into an arctic wasteland and he shows you how to build a fire, find food, get to safety. Remember that, somewhere, a few hundred kilometers to his north, is an Inuit village where people are just going about their day.

Anyway, next up is a dark, surreal estate on the plane of shadow. I’ve been looking forward to drawing this one and I have every intention of making it as grim and bizarre as humanly possible. If this thing doesn’t make Warhammer 40K look like My Little Pony, I will have failed.

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

January 11, 2021December 21, 2021

The dynamic lighting for Brazenthrone is finished.

With the rest of Brazenthrone taken care of, patrons using Roll20, Foundry or EncounterPlus will never have to draw wall segments for any part of the city ever again. And neither will I. THANK GOD.

Anyway, I’m going to start sketching out the next map. Here’s where to get the dynamic lighting stuff:

Roll20

Non-patrons can download the wall commands (which draw in the walls and doors using the UniversalVTTImporter script) from here. They’re in the ZIP file. Instructions are included.

Patrons can download all the commands from the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the Roll20 Wall Commands folder.

Foundry

The public Brazenthrone module can be downloaded with this manifest URL.

The link for the patrons’ module can be found in the Table of Contents (pinned as the top post on my patreon page, visible to patrons only). If you already have the patrons’ module, you can just update it.

EncounterPlus

Download the public Brazenthrone module here.

The patrons’ Brazenthrone module is in the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the EncounterPlus Modules folder.

January 9, 2021

Mind Flayer Dreadnought Spelljammer

You’ve gotta love Spelljammer. Want to travel into space? Just duct tape a spelljamming helm to the deck of a stolen fishing boat and you’re off to explore the stars.

Mind flayers, however– former masters of the universe that they are– tend to be a bit more sophisticated about interstellar travel. Dreadnoughts are the capital ship of the illithid fleet and they weren’t built for catching seabass. In addition to carrying a variety of weapons on board, the dreadnought also holds a fleet of boreworms, small attack ships with a single crewman. Boreworms aren’t fighters, they’re actually boarding ships, designed to crash into the side of a ship, punch through the hull, then eject the illithid pilot into the enemy vessel.

If you find some things about this ship unusual, remember that mind flayers are a little different than the rest of us. As a brain-eating species, they don’t need a dining table or a kitchen. And illithids love pools. That might be their main motivation to rule the universe: more time in the bath.

As I promised, I’m going to spend the day doing the dynamic lighting for Brazenthrone. I think I can get the rest of it finished by tomorrow. I honestly thought this would take longer and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

Next up is the aarakocra village, the second-to-last of the Great Vote maps. The last will be the Deepspire, a fortress city in the seas of the Underdark, carved into the sides of a massive column of rock stretching from the sea floor to the roof of the cavern. This is going to be a part of the Black Loch and will be pretty huge, so I’m going to do the next Cartographic Congress map before I get started.

That map will be a dark, surreal estate on the plane of shadow. I hope you like weird, because that is going to be WEIRD. I’m going for “Salvador Dali plus MC Escher plus your worst childhood nightmare.” We’ll see how that goes.

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

January 6, 2021

This Machine Jams Spells (Work-in-Progress)

Say what you will about mind flayers, but they understand the need for a well-funded space program.

January 1, 2021December 22, 2021

Another hard day’s work in the dynamic lighting mines

I got quite a bit done on the VTT walls and doors for Brazenthrone. Links to download this stuff for Roll20, Foundry and EncounterPlus are below. These maps are now lighting-ready and available to the public:

The Noble Quarter (4 levels)
The Old Quarter (3 levels)

Those maps, along with the ones I did earlier, will complete the public module. There’s now a patrons’ module as well, with the following lighting-ready maps:

Delvers’ Rest
The Grand Temple
The Iron Mines
The Old Mines
The Mushroom Farms
The Pits of Justice
The Underdark Trading Outpost

I think I can probably finish this up in one more session. Most of what’s left is small chambers and I don’t think they’ll be much trouble. Anyway, here’s where to download everything: