Category: Annotated – For Patrons

Posted on

St. Peter’s Basilica – The Reliquary Lodges

This is the last part of St. Peter’s Basilica, which means all that’s left to draw is… *checks notes* everything else in Vatican City. Not a problem.

These small rooms were built into the large columns around the basilica’s main dome, each with it’s own balcony. Here’s a photo. Each one contains a notable relic: the True Cross, the Spear of Longinus (aka the Spear of Destiny), St. Veronica’s Veil, and the Head of St. Andrew. Here’s a picture of the spear, which is kept in a crystal vase. And here’s a picture of the Head of St. Andrew, which is kept in a container that I think we can all agree is very head-shaped and very normal.

The next map of the Vatican will be the sacristy, since it’s adjacent to the basilica, but first, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: a village built inside the ruins of a huge amphitheater similar to the Colosseum. I’m thinking of circular tiers of houses around the sides, a market in the center, Maybe some sewers, cisterns and shady stuff in the underworks.

I’m pretty into this idea and I expect it to be a fairly large map. Not quite a megaproject, but a lot bigger than Templemore Village, which was a similar sort of idea. Anyway, if you’ve got any suggestions or interesting ideas about it, by all means let me know. I’ll be back once I’ve got something to show you. Until then!

Posted on

Rindlestone Hall

This map isn’t quite a real place, but it’s strongly inspired by one. Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, England is located over a cave called Peak Cavern, or “the Devil’s Arse.” According to legend, this cave “was where thieves’ cant was created by a meeting between Cock Lorel, leader of the rogues, and Giles Hather, the King of the Gypsies.”

Now, if you’re like me, you just heard a bunch of stuff you didn’t think existed outside of D&D. Thieves’ Cant is a real thing? And there’s a King of the Gypsies?! And– wait, rogues? What else are you hiding, England? Are paladins real, too? Can Anglican priests cast spells? Do your druids shapeshift? I WANT ANSWERS DAMMIT.

Okay, okay, I’m calm. Look, I just wasn’t expecting to learn that rogues and Gypsy Kings were inventing real-life Thieves’ Cant in a cave underneath a castle. I thought the most D&D thing in English maybe-history was Robin Hood and this kind of blows that away. Wow.

So, next up, I’ll be drawing the last part of St. Peter’s Basilica: the reliquary lodges. These are located inside the four main columns around the center of the basilica, so they’re pretty small and should only take a couple days to finish. I’ll say more about them when I’m done.

All right, I’m gonna get to it. See you soon!

Posted on

Fort Irongall on the River Styx

Hell. Hell never changes. Wait, that’s war. Does hell change? I’m not sure. In the traditional D&D cosmology, there are nine hells and they’re all different, so I think we can conclude that hell does, in fact, change. In a sense, anyway.

With that settled, I’m curious what you think about my depiction of hell. We’ve got the River Styx, some pools of blood (which I imagine is what it rains in hell), and a variety of skulls, corpses, heads on poles and so on. I wanted to draw something a little different from the standard-issue “pit of fire,” but I wasn’t trying to completely reinvent hell. Anyway, I hope it works for you.

With this done, we’re back to our regularly scheduled maps of Vatican City. I’ll be drawing the Roman Necropolis next, which is the second-to-last part of St. Peter’s Basilica. That’ll be three maps in a row with quite a lot of death in them. I hope you guys like death. Any death fans out there? Let’s hope so. Anyway, I’m gonna go look up some floor plans for that and get to it. See you soon!

Posted on

The Vatican Grottoes

For me, the Vatican Grottoes are one of the most interesting parts of Vatican City. From St. Peter’s Basilica, you can enter through the stairs in front of the central altar, as well as the stairs in the four large columns around it.

There are mainly two things in the grottoes: tombs and chapels. The tombs are mostly those of former popes, but you’ve also got a cardinal, a queen of Cyprus, and a few others down there. A lot of the chapels are dedicated to nations, specifically: Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Mexico. I’m not sure what it takes to get your country a chapel in the Vatican Grottoes, but it must be pretty difficult if Italy didn’t make the cut. I’m just saying, they’re pretty Catholic and they’re literally across the street.

Below the grottoes, there’s one more level: the Necropolis. This is a group of ancient Roman tombs that were rediscovered in the 1940s. This will be the next part of the Vatican I’ll be drawing.

Before that, however, I’ll be drawing the next Cartographic Congress winner, an infernal fortress that guards the banks of the River Styx, with watchtowers overlooking the river and lots of rusty, bloody bulwarks, cages, etc. So, that’s certainly something to draw in between maps of the Vatican, haha. Well, I’m gonna get started on that. Let me know what you think of the grottoes!

Posted on

Templemore Village

Here’s the finished village of Templemore, built on the ruins of a great, ancient temple. My story about the place is that the temple was dedicated to a long-forgotten goddess of luck. While the residents don’t worship her (or even know who she is), she bestows her blessing of good fortune upon them nonetheless. So if the players show up at the tavern and start gambling with the old fellas at the corner table, things are likely to go very poorly for them.

There are variations of that story that could be fun, too. If you change the goddess and the blessing, there are a lot of potentially interesting scenarios that could become the seed for an adventure. Like, what if it’s the goddess of time and she stops the residents from aging. Or what if it’s the goddess of death and everyone rises from the dead after they die. Or what if the goddess is angry that they’re here and curses them instead. There are a lot of ways you could go with it if you want to get creative.

Next up, I’ll be drawing the Vatican Grottoes underneath St. Peter’s Basilica. These are a series of tunnels, chapels and tombs, including the tomb of St. Peter himself. This won’t take nearly as long as the main floor of the Basilica itself, but, as you can see in this picture, they went pretty hard on both the floors and the statuary, so it’ll take a bit longer than it would have if the Vatican had hired a cheaper contractor. Also, I want to add that I love statues of animals by sculptors who’ve never seen that animal in real life and the lions in that picture are a great example.

Anyway, I think that’s about it. I hope you like the map. Let me know what you think!

Posted on

The Town of Chalymn

Chalymn is a small chunk of a city on the world’s surface that rose up into the sky to avoid a coming disaster. The large citadel in the center belongs to Magister Viskand, the powerful mage who ripped Chalymn loose from the earth. It’s not entirely clear if the magister saved everyone else on the rock intentionally, or if he just wanted to bring a little more land with him, but, look, they’re alive and that’s what matters.

If Chalymn demonstrates one thing, it’s that a little, floating rock in the sky can have anything that they have on the surface. The surface has lakes? Chalymn has a lake. The surface has a complex network of tunnels and cities deep underground? Well, Chalymn has one of those, too. It could be a very interesting place to visit if your party happens to get a ride on an airship at some point. Or a spelljammer.

Speaking of which, I’m going to make a spelljammer version of the map with a space background for patrons, which I should have done by tomorrow.

Well, this is the second, or maybe third city map I’ve drawn that I don’t think is garbage, but I’m curious to hear what you think. How’d I do? If you’ve got any thoughts or suggestions, let me know!

Posted on

Saintsblade Abbey

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!

Posted on

Mesa Roja

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!

Posted on

Cladwater Lift Lock: The Ramparts

Here’s the upper level of Cladwater Lift Lock, as promised. And for patrons, I made a night version as well.

With that done, I’ll be getting back to the Vatican City megaproject, where I’ll be drawing St. Peter’s Basilica. Because the place is gargantuan and the floor is extremely elaborate, I’m not sure how long it’ll take, but I’ll post some work-in-progress pics along the way to show you how it’s going.

The basilica is an incredible work of art and I’m going to try to capture as much of that as I can in the map. But, ultimately, there’s only so much I can do. I’m going to show you two photos. Okay? This is Notre Dame in Paris. A world-famous masterpiece of architecture, no question. And this is St. Peter’s Basilica. I mean, like… that’s just bananas. My point is that I’ll do what I can, but I can only do so much in the face of that.

All right, I’m going in. Wish me luck.

Posted on

Cladwater Lift Lock

So the idea for this map is that it’s an outpost with a lock that lets riverboats cross a waterfall. If you’ve never seen one, boat elevators are a real thing. Here’s a Canadian one. And here’s Scotland’s super deluxe fancy one. I’m not sure if there are any that go over waterfalls, but it seems possible.

These things don’t go too far back in history, but Germany had one in 1789, so you should be able to get away with it in a fantasy setting. If you need an excuse, the phrase “dwarven engineering” has been letting DMs get away with putting sci-fi stuff in the middle ages for years. There’s a little pro tip for you.

As you may have noticed, this place does have stairs and there is an upper level to draw. It’s nothing fancy, just some ramparts, but I’ll draw that next. It should only take a day, two at most. After that, we’re back to Vatican City, where I’ll be getting started on St. Peter’s Basilica and its perfectly reasonable floor.

All right, I’ll be back with that soon! If you’ve got any questions or thoughts about the map, let me know.