Here are the drawings for the floating island city. As you can see from the sideview, there’s an underground level as well, which will be in the finished map. It’ll be like a tiny, flying underdark. A sort of “overdark,” if you will.
Anyway, I’m gonna start coloring this thing. Let me know what you think so far!
Saintsblade Abbey is the home of an order of paladins, devout followers of the God of Doing the Right Thing. Here, these holy warriors train rigorously in the ways of battle. Because, on occasion, Doing the Right Thing involves caving people’s skulls in with a hammer.
I think this map could be good for an adventure where the party’s paladin returns home to deal with some catastrophe that befell his order. Maybe there’s heresy in the ranks, or a conflict with a rival church, or a schism that threatens to tear the order apart. Or maybe they put that idiot Thaddeus in charge (god, can you imagine). Plenty of possibilities.
I still need to catch up on the Cartographic Congress before I get back to the Vatican, so next I’ll be drawing a floating, arcane city, similar to the Netherese Enclaves of the Forgotten Realms. This will be a city map rather than a battlemap, so it won’t be as big a project as it sounds, but I think it’s a cool concept and I’ve been looking forward to it. After that, it’s back to the Vatican.
Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what you think!
This map is largely based on the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, but I made enough changes that I didn’t want to call it Mesa Verde, since that sort of presents it as being an accurate representation. So instead of Green Mesa, I went with Red Mesa.
This place was built around 1200 AD and was only lived in for 100 years before it was abandoned. No one is sure why the people left, but the thing I’m curious about is why no one else moved in. I mean, if me and my friends lived in tents and we stumbled across a bunch of unoccupied stone houses, I’d definitely be moving in. It is a FREE TOWN. Who says no to that? Of course, I’m sure they had their reasons. Maybe the river dried up. Maybe the vibes were off. Or maybe the area had spotty internet. We’ll probably never know.
I need to catch up on drawing Cartographic Congress maps, so next I’ll be drawing a fortified abbey that’s the base of a Templar-style military order. It’ll be any paladin’s dream home, featuring a chapel, statues of stern-looking dudes holding swords, and private rooms for self-flagellation. It’s the perfect place to read the holy scriptures, practice your swordsmanship and feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for that impure thought you had four years ago.
All right, that’s about it. Let me know what you think!
