Month: May 2022

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Whaleship-Class Spelljammer

The whaleship is a spelljammer for people who want to go to space, but don’t want to leave anything behind. ANYTHING. Not the billiard table, the pool, the tavern, or anyone they know. It’s all coming. Hell, bring the whole village. It’s fine, there’s room for everybody, sheep included.

The whaleship is designed as a passenger liner and cargo ship, but some DMs may want to use it as a player vessel, so I included a few versions of the ship retrofitted with weapons. Here’s the lightly-armed version and here’s the heavily-armed version (aka “the Whalehammer 40K”). Also, here’s a token of the ship.

Next, I’ll be going back to the Black Loch and drawing the drow settlement. After that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, “a multi-level village built in and around the branches and trunk of a giant tree, with the buildings of the village connected by bridges.” After that, I’ll probably be working on the Black Loch for the rest of the month.

All right, I’m gonna get some sleep. Let me know what you think of the whaleship!

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Whaleship Spelljammer (Work-in-Progress)

You voted for the biggest spelljammer and this is all the art for it. This thing has five decks with 17 private cabins, 12 bathrooms, a 2-floor lounge, a billiards room, a poker room, a pool and a harpsichord.

The whaleship is a passenger liner, but I suspect some DMs will have other things in mind for it, so I’ll be making three versions of the map: unarmed, lightly armed, and Whalehammer 40K.

I’m about to start coloring all this now, so I’ll be back with the map in a few more days. Hope you like it so far!

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The Silver Dragon Inn

A lot of inns have fanciful names, like “The Dancing Fox.” But you walk in, look around… no dancing fox. Not even a non-dancing fox. Deep down, you knew there wouldn’t be a fox, but you had a little hope and it was still a bit disappointing.

The Silver Dragon Inn doesn’t have that problem. This place delivers on the promise of its name, with an actual silver dragon lairing just underneath it. The original idea behind the map was that the innkeeper is secretly the dragon in human form, but there are a lot of different things you could do with it.

I’d recommend doing whatever you think your players won’t expect. Here are a few ideas:

  • The innkeeper admits to being the dragon.
  • The innkeeper claims to be the dragon, but isn’t.
  • The innkeeper works for the dragon.
  • The innkeeper controls the dragon somehow.
  • There is no dragon, the innkeeper is making it all up.
  • The dragon, the inn and everything else in your campaign was all a dream and the PCs are a bunch of sleeping farmhands.

Next up is the spelljammer I promised a few months ago. I held a vote on which one to draw and the Whaleship was the winner. Designed as a passenger liner, it’s got plenty of space for crew and cargo and I think it’ll make a good reward for high-level parties that have paid their dues.

By the way, if you hadn’t heard, Spelljammer is coming back. Wizards of the Coast announced it on April Fool’s Day and everyone thought it was a joke, but apparently they were serious. After making several settings that everyone has already forgotten about, it looks like WotC is finally ready to throw in the towel and give the people what they want. Maybe if we’re lucky, Planescape will be next.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Let me know what you think!

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A few things to mention before I leave for Mont-Saint-Michel

As I mentioned previously, I’m heading to France today. I’m going to visit Mont-St-Michel, the Chateau de Chenonceau and the Chateau de Breze. I’ll be gone for a little over a week, which is a little weird for me, since I very much like what I do and hardly take a day off. Anyway, before I leave, there are a few things I wanted to mention.

First, the picture above is the Silver Dragon Inn, an inn with a dragon’s lair underneath. I did get everything drawn (including the lair), but I didn’t manage to color it before the trip. I’ll finish it up as soon as I get back.

Second, I promised a while back that I’d draw another spelljammer map in three months or so. When I get back from France, it’ll have been three months, so that’ll be the next map. I said it’d be a larger, late-game spelljammer and I’m going to let patrons decide which one. I’ll be posting the vote on my patreon as soon as I’m done posting this.

Third, one of the places I’m going, the Chateau de Breze, is something I’ve wanted to draw a map of for a long time. The best way I can explain this place is that it’s a castle with a sprawling set of tunnels and chambers below. It’s like it has a D&D map from 1986 underneath it. Seriously, have a look.

I haven’t been able to draw the place because I’ve never been able to find a decent floor plan. But I’m going to bring a sketchbook with me and make one. I won’t be drawing it for a while, but I wanted to mention it anyway. I haven’t forgotten about that Indian temple, either. It’ll still be the next historical map, but I might wait until the Black Loch is done.

Finally, if there’s anything you need while I’m gone, feel free to send me a message. I’ll get online a few times while I’m away and answer any messages.

Before I go, I should say that I’ve wanted to see Mont-St-Michel for a long time and I want to thank all my patrons for giving me the ability to finally go. This is kind of a big deal for me and I want you all to know that I truly do appreciate it.