Author: MattMilby

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The Town of Tortuga Upon the Great Zaratan Monhatnus – Main Deck

 

First off:  “What is a zaratan?”

A zaratan is a giant turtle that sleeps for years at a time.  They often come to look like islands, with plants and even trees growing from their backs.  Sometimes, people– knowingly or unknowingly– inhabit those “islands.”  The main problem with living on a zaratan is this: when they get hungry, they wake up and look for food.  And when they look for food, they dive.  Which is catastrophic for anyone living on the creature’s back.  So, in order to prevent this, the zaratan must be fed.  Even sleeping, it will eat anything coming into its mouth.  The town of Tortuga is well-prepared to handle this, having a small fleet of fishing boats and a large crane to deliver their offerings.

The idea for this map came from a patron, who suggested a city on a zaratan.  That’s been done before, of course, but it’s typically a small village with a few huts.  I thought it’d be interesting to make the most overpopulated zaratan ever.

My idea was that the town of Tortuga grew so much that they had to keep building higher and higher, which necessitated constructing the wooden deck on their host’s back.  After all, it’s hard to build a solid foundation on a curved surface, especially when you can’t dig or drill down into it without pissing off a creature that can bite the head off a storm giant.

Here’s a (mostly) gridless version, a black and white version, a version without annotations and a gridless version without annotations.

Since this map is so complicated, I’m releasing this partially annotated edition to all, but there is a fully annotated Patrons’ Edition with around 45 rooms marked available on the patreon.

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Work In Progress

 

This is a work-in-progress picture of the next map.  It wasn’t originally going to be quite so big, but somewhere in the planning stage it turned into kind of a semi-megaproject and now I’ve got six levels planned and… anyway, it’ll take a bit longer than usual.  I’ll probably have the first level by Wednesday and the rest of it about a week after that.

I love zaratans.

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Brazenthrone

Well, it happened.  The patreon goal has been reached.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to go from 6 patrons to 50 in two weeks, so thank you very much to all of you who threw in to support me.

What am I going to do for you in return?  I’m going to draw The Dwarven City of Brazenthrone.

Picture this:  a small dwarven settlement nestled on the side of a mountain with caravans coming and going.  This isn’t the city.  This is an outpost for trade with the surface world.  Behind it, a pair of huge bronze doors are set into the mountain.  These will lead us inside.

Continue reading “Brazenthrone”

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The Old Rampart Inn

 

The idea for this map was chosen by the 3rd Cartographic Congress, based on Senator MacTorg’s proposal of an inn, such as one might find several days’ travel outside of town.

Due to its location away from any population centers, the Old Rampart Inn was built on a hill, amidst the ruins of an old fort.  This, along with the stone walls and crenellated roof of the inn’s small tower, make it a fairly defensible location.  By inn standards, anyway.  Additional features include stables and an outhouse for all your excretory needs.

Here is the black and white version.  Nothing but lines, like a birthday party at the Escobars’.

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

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Small Town Jail – A Place For Naughty PCs

 

Do you have one of those people in your group who plays D&D the way you’d play GTA5?  You know, the type of player who thinks the major themes of your campaign are public intoxication, dead hookers and arson?  Well, I don’t have a cure for that problem, but this might be a good band-aid.  Who knows?  Maybe it’ll make them a better person.  You can hope, anyway.

Here’s the black and white version.

ALSO, I just received a module written for Finbarr’s Marsh from u/anthson on Reddit.  It’s called The Haunting of Finbarr’s Marsh and it’ll be posted on this page, along with any others anyone wants to share.  Thanks, anthson!

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The Crimson Chateau

 

Here’s a little something for the Ravenloft players.  It’s a lovely six-bedroom, three-privy Victorian with two balconies, a back patio and, best of all, a fully-equipped underground vampire lair, complete with a hidden entrance.  Plus, it’s in a great school district.

Here’s the black and white version, in case your game is too goth for color.

There’s an annotated version and DM notes for this map for patrons.

BY THE WAY, someone recently told me they were writing a campaign for Finbarr’s Marsh and asked if I’d like to see it when it’s done.  I told them I’d love to and that I’d be happy to put it up on the site.  This goes for anyone else who’s got a campaign or adventure for Finbarr’s that they’d like to share.

I think it’d be especially useful for less-experienced DMs who might want to use the map, but find the size and complexity of it intimidating to write for.  And it might provide inspiration for other DMs who want to write a story there but aren’t sure where to start.

Anyway, if you’ve got a module written for it (not just notes or an outline, but an adventure that’s usable by other DMs), feel free to send it my way whenever it’s done.  I’ll put up a page on the site for them once I get something.  There’s no rules on content or formatting, but if there’s, like, bugbear orgies or something, please let me know so I can give people a heads-up.

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The Source of the Lifespring

 

I have two versions of this and I’m not sure which I like more, so I’m uploading them both.  This is the other version, with brighter colors.  There’s also the version with no colors, as usual.  Hopefully you like one of those.

Thanks again to everyone who joined my patreon.  That was definitely a much bigger response to Finbarr’s Marsh than I was expecting.  And if you liked Finbarr’s Marsh, I have good news: you ain’t seen nothing yet.  The next megaproject is going to be 6-8 times that size.  And it may be kicking off a lot sooner than I expected.

This map has DM notes available for patrons.

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Finbarr’s Marsh – The Crypts – IT’S FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Black and white version

This has been one hell of a long project, but it’s finally done!  And as much as I loved making it, I am really looking forward to drawing something else.

So, here’s the final tally:  Finbarr’s Marsh has 135 buildings with 703 rooms across 10 different floors (7 above ground and 3 below).  It took almost a month to draw (I’d say around 200 hours) on 14 sheets of A3/Tabloid paper (equivalent to 28 normal-sized sheets of paper).  Here’s a photo of the whole thing on paper, by the way.

Also, I’ve put up a goal on my Patreon.  Here it is:

When I reach 50 patrons, I will start work on another megaproject. This will be a map of an underground dwarven city. It will include a surface settlement, a gateway into the mountain, fortified tunnels, a huge central ward (itself almost the size of Finbarr’s Marsh) and four Quarters– the Common Quarter, the Noble Quarter, the Anvil Quarter and the Old Quarter. These will each be around half the size of Finbarr’s. In addition, there will be maps of the mines, the mushroom farms, the High King’s palace, the prison, the Grand Temple, residential areas, the treasure vaults, the gnomes’ district, an underdark trading outpost, adjacent ruins, and more. It will be usable as either an inhabited city or as a huge abandoned ruin big enough to run entire campaigns in. I want to make something absolutely legendary in size and scope. This is the best idea I have in me. I made Finbarr’s Marsh in part to prove to myself that I can do it. Let’s make it happen.

If and when this goal is reached, I will alternate between drawing maps for this project and other maps.  I cannot tell you that it will be the biggest map you have ever seen, but it will be the biggest map I have ever seen.

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Finbarr’s Marsh – The Sewers

 

This is the second to last map of Finbarr’s Marsh.  The crypts will be up in a few days.

So let’s talk about the sewers.  First, I need to mention elevation.  The underground level is above this, which means it’s fully above the water level.  Why?  The island has steep sides and the ground level is about 15 feet above the water.  With that out of the way, let’s talk about the locations.

The kuo-toan temple on the left predates the city and was in ruins by the time the first settlers showed up.  The passages into it were eventually blocked off with stone because, well, no one wants an open passage leading right under their castle.

The Drainers are human.  They’re poor and live in the sewers, subsisting on mushrooms and selling their excess fertilizer to farmers in the area.  They smell.  But everything down here smells, so it’s fine.  The authorities know about them and have told them they can stay.  But no more digging.

The Theives’ Guild’s bread and butter, unusually, isn’t theiving, but dealing in smuggled goods.  They have an arrangement with some fishermen to bring goods in from cargo ships, a few crates at a time, evading the customs tariffs and any laws concerning contraband.  They buy the goods from the fishermen, then sell them around the city at a tidy profit.  They’re secretly working with one of the wealthy trading houses as well (the De Barras).  They do also steal stuff.  Sometimes.

The sea trolls (scrags) aren’t a huge priority for the city guard, although they can be troublesome.  And the entrance to their lair is small and completely underwater, which would make dealing with them an enormous pain.

The Witch of the Pipes is whoever you want her to be.

Here’s a version without annotations and a black and white line art version.

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Finbarr’s Marsh – Underground

 

There’s not a ton going on in this level of the city, but, I mean, how much is going on in your basement?  We’ve got a few points of interest: the Royal Treasury, a dungeon, a strange magical gateway in the Tower of Thaumaturgy and a secret room.

Next up is the level below this:  the sewers.  After that, the crypts.  We’re on the homestretch!

Here’s the black and white version.

There’s an annotated Patrons’ Edition of this map.