Author: MattMilby

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The Gates of Brazenthrone

“How big is Brazenthrone going to get,” you ask? This is just the door.

The next part will be the entrance tunnel and the fortified inner gates (marked as 3 here). They’re the fallback defensive position in case the main gates are taken and they’re basically a meat grinder. You’ll see why.

Before that, we’ve got an Alchemists’ Guildhall and Manufactory, the map chosen by the Cartographic Congress last month.

Finally, here’s the non-annotated version and the black and white. DM notes for this map are available to patrons. Also, starting with this map, I’ll be making VTT versions of all maps, sized for Roll20, for patrons.

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The Grey Huntress – A Ship for the Underdark

This is the ship my PCs are currently on, cruising through the Underdark with a crew of orogs whose occupation might be described as “often but not always pirates.”

Since the Underdark lacks wind, this ship lacks sails. Instead, it’s powered entirely by rowers on the lower deck. And since the Underdark is a dangerous place, this ship is equipped with a pretty solid arsenal of weaponry. Still, there’s nothing here that rules it out as a surface ship if you’d prefer to use it as one. In the Greek and Roman times, this is more or less the kind of warship you might have seen.

Here’s the black and white version. And there’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available on the patreon.

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Brazenthrone Surface Trading Outpost

Here’s the first part of Brazenthrone: the outpost for trading with surface-dwelling peoples just outside the gates. On the city layout map, it’s marked as 1.

The next map to go up will be a ship. After that, the next Brazenthrone map will be the city gates, at 2. Initially, I had planned for these to be fairly simple and not the city’s main line of defense, but I had a change of heart. Brazenthrone is getting some big, impressive, heavily-fortified gates.

Here’s a non-annotated version of this map and here’s the black and white version. Also, DM notes and a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms numbered and labeled is available on the patreon.

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The Century Pelican (with 4 engine variants)

VTT Version 15×24

She’s the finest airship in all of your party’s price range. “But wait!” you say. “That’s a mechanical engine. In my world, airships are powered by…”

By the way, I’ll be out of town for a few days for Christmas, so the next post will probably be around a week from now. Have a good holiday!

An annotated version of this map and DM notes are available to patrons.

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The Dwarven City of Brazenthrone – The Layout

Here’s the black and white version and the non-annotated version.

This is the basic layout of the map I will be drawing over the next year.  Keep in mind that this is at a 70 foot scale, which means that each tile here will become 196 tiles when drawn at a 5 foot scale.  To illustrate how big this will be, the Great Hall, marked as (4) here, is about the size of the ground level of Finbarr’s Marsh (including the surrounding water).

A few things to mention:

  • All of these will have multiple levels.
  • The mines are just a sketch. They will look completely different in the 5 foot scale maps.
  • I will be drawing the residential districts (the unmarked chambers on the map).
  • All of the chambers here will be assembled as one big map when they’re all finished.  And that one map will be so huge it’ll be impractical to use, but it’ll probably be really cool.
  • Finally, any and all of this is subject to change.  A measurement error here and a new idea there will almost certainly lead to changes and/or additions at some point.  But this is the general idea.

I will be alternating between drawing maps for this and drawing other maps.  My next map will be an airship.  After that, Brazenthrone’s Surface Outpost. Then something else.  Then back to Brazenthrone.  And so on.

Alright, let’s do this.

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Tortuga – Overview and DM Notes

Here’s the final map of Tortuga: the overview.  The image above is the gridless version because I think it looks better.  I’m not sure why.  Here’s the gridded map.

Also, I’m giving away the DM notes on this one because they explain some important things about this map, as well as my thoughts on the ways it can be used in a campaign (especially as a traveling home city for PCs).  Here they are:

So, now that the six-story turtle town is out of the way, it’s time to start on something much, much bigger: Brazenthrone.  I’ll have a map of the layout of the city up on Monday.