Author: MattMilby

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The Stygian City: Caves and Catacombs

The next three levels of the Stygian City are finished! As promised, I updated the previous levels with the lower level windows. I also renamed all the previous levels. I’d originally named the first three floors 0, 1 and 2, but I realized that it would take less time to change them to 1, 2 and 3 than it would to answer questions about that for the next several years.

For patrons, I updated the DM notes with an overview of the history of the pit and how it came to be. I made a copy of this story for non-patrons as well, which you can find above. I’m very curious to know what everyone thinks about it. In any case, this whole place is designed to be very flexible, so if you’ve got a better idea of what to do with it, you can tell your story instead.

Next up is a drow academy of war, where drow males can go to become useful for something other than reproduction or being beaten for the entertainment of others. There’ll be an arena, training areas, maybe even a classroom where students come to study Drow Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. After that, I’ll probably draw another few levels of the pit.

Well, I hope you like how it’s coming so far! Check out the DM notes and let me know what you think of the story. And if you’re not a patron, check this post tomorrow and I’ll have a copy for you too.

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The Stygian City: Caves and Catacombs (Work-in-Progress)

The next three levels of The Stygian City are drawn and ready to color.

I realize that this “city” doesn’t look much like one yet. But I promise it will, starting with the levels after this. The upper floors were carved out when the builders were still mostly living on the surface.

By the way, when I post this, I’ll update the DM notes with an overview of the history of the pit, so you’ll have a basic idea of what this place is and why it was built. It’s kind of horrible and I hope you’ll like it.

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The Pyramids of Cuamiztli

Gods expect different things from their followers. Some simply want people to believe in them. Others want people to follow their teachings, honor them or pray. The Old Gods of Mexico weren’t into that kind of touchy-feely crap. They wanted human hearts. And they wanted a lot of them.

At the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs were said to have sacrificed around 4,000 people over the course of four days. Here’s how that goes: the priest cuts open the victim’s chest, rips out the heart, puts it in a stone bowl. Then, they chuck the body down the steps of the pyramid. And finally, someone chops off the head and puts it on the skull rack. Repeat 3999 times.

I’m not going to say I approve of that sort of thing, but the Aztecs were certainly dedicated to their gods. And you’d think that if they ever needed a little divine intervention– like, say, blowing a few Spanish ships off course– they might get it. Alas.

Next, I’ll be drawing the next few levels of The Stygian City. These will include caves inhabited by giant bats and a series of catacombs.

Well, I think this is the first map I’ve drawn that was inspired by something in the Americas. Or maybe I’m forgetting something. Feel free to correct me about that. Either way, let me know what you think!

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Aztec Temple Complex (Work-in-Progress)

When I started on this, I spent a good hour trying to find out what Mesoamerican pyramids looked like inside. As it turns out, there usually is no interior other than the temple at the top.

But do you know what’s inside a lot of pyramids? More pyramids. There was a gigantic pyramid called the Templo Mayor in Mexico City that was destroyed by the conquistadors and they found six pyramids nested inside it.

Here’s a picture of what it would’ve looked like before it was razed. Imagine if that thing was in the middle of Mexico City right now. God, that would be cool.

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I changed some things. What do you think?

Shortly after I posted the first part of the pit, I decided that I hated the colors. And, when you’re planning to draw another twenty or so maps with those colors, that’s a problem. So I made some adjustments and partially recolored the underground levels. I think the colors for the surface were basically fine and, besides, the rest is going to be underground.

So, what do you think?

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The Stygian City: Into the Pit

Our gigantic dungeon starts here, in a small village called Ekersfield. The villagers live in and around the top of the pit, mining iron ore from the level below. This is the nice part of the pit. The welcome center, if you will. Past this point, most of the pit’s inhabitants get a lot less friendly.

So, there’s an unusual problem with this project and its kind of unavoidable. See, the map above is finished… but it’s not. If you look at the uppermost level, you can see the windows in the sides of the lower levels of the pit. But on the bottom level, there aren’t any. That’s because I haven’t drawn the maps below this yet and I don’t know where they’ll be. So I’m going to have to update these maps after I draw the next ones. Which will also have to be updated later. And so on. A bit of a pain, but no big deal.

For patrons, I’m also making modular versions of the maps. These are individual floors which can be rearranged as you like. Here’s how they work: first, the lower level windows won’t be shown on the sides of the pit. And second, all the stairs descend counter-clockwise. The stairs won’t always be in the same place, but they’ll always move in the same direction and, if you want, you can rotate the map to get them close to each other. With only three floors, that isn’t super relevant just yet, but there will be a day when there are 20+ floors and it will be then.

Thus begins another very large project. They always seem too big to ever get done, but they always do. Brazenthrone took two years to draw, but it got finished. The Black Loch took a year and a half, but it got done too. I think this will take less than a year, but we’ll see. In any case, it’ll be done one day and, hopefully, you’ll like it. But for now, how’s it looking? Off to a good start?

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The Pit: Ekersfield (Work-in-Progress)

The surface level of the pit is done. It’s not quaint, exactly, but it’s about as quaint as a village can get with a huge, ominous hole in the middle of town.

I’ve got the two levels below this about halfway done as well and they should be finished in a few more days. All right, I’m gonna get back to it.

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The Pit: The Village of Ekersfield and the Mines (Work-in-Progress)

These are the first three levels of the giant pit megadungeon I’m working on. I’ve got 23 levels planned, but I get the feeling it’ll end up being closer to 30 by the time it’s done. You can see the current plan at the link above, but I think some of those areas are going to end up having more than one floor. And I’ll probably let patrons propose ideas for and vote on a couple more levels to add to the pit as well.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to coloring all this. Let me know what you think so far!

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The Goblin Queen’s War Wagon

It’s a little awkward when the party travels a long distance and nothing happens along the way. I mean, if they’re going on a 300 mile journey, I don’t want to just tell them, “Okay, you’re there. Now what?” But I also don’t want to involve them in some complicated adventure that’s going to take 5 sessions, because that’s a little more of a detour than I’m looking for.

Traveling encounters are almost their own category of adventure. Not so long that you have to spend more than a session or two on it, but enough to avoid giving the players the impression that they just teleported. And a little something more than, “2d6 giant rats cross your path, roll for initiative.”

I like this map as a traveling encounter. A bunch of goblins in a Winnebago isn’t something you see everyday and it’d make for a fun fight. But it’s low commitment as well, so they can get back to reassembling the Sacred Crystals of the Ancient Ones or whatever they’re up to. Simple, but not boring.

Someone should write a whole book full of traveling encounters. That’d be really useful. I know some of the people reading this write and publish adventures, so feel free to steal that idea.

Anyway, I’m going to make an alternate version of this map for patrons, which shouldn’t take more than a day. It’ll be a “de-goblinized” version for DMs who want to use this map for humans or… well, anyone else that isn’t green. It’ll have elephants up front and be moderately less filthy. All right, I’ll be back with that soon. In the meantime, let me know what you think!

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The Forgotten Place

The Forgotten Place is an ancient ruin unearthed from the sands. It’s the perfect place for your party to do some archaeology, or– perhaps– some “archaeology.” In case you’re not aware of the difference between those two words, let me explain: the one with the quotes means grave-robbing.

I’d probably go with the second option in a D&D game. Brushing the dust off of pot shards to learn about the customs of ancient peoples may be morally and academically superior to scoring fat sacks of loot from a dead guy, but, well, moral superiority doesn’t buy you full plate and a castle.

I also want to mention that some of you may have more use for half of this map than you do for the whole thing. Maybe you like the desert ruins, but you want them to lead down into a different dungeon. Or maybe you like the underground part, but you want to put it under an old cathedral. Either way, go for it. Mix and match. There are no rules in RPGs*.

Anyway, the next map will be the Goblin Queen’s Carriage. This is going to be a giant carriage/war wagon that a tribe of goblins use as a mobile raiding camp. If you picture it looking like something out of Warhammer Fantasy, then we are very much on the same page. I think it’ll be a map that offers a lot of fun possibilities. After that, I’ll be getting started on the giant pit megadungeon that I’ve been talking about.

Well, that should do it for now. If anyone’s got any ideas on what might be pulling the giant goblin carriage, let me know. I feel like horses would be boring, but a giant seems like a bit much. My best idea right now is yaks, so if you can top that, I’ll consider it.

*There are multiple books full of rules in almost all RPGs.