Category: Annotated – For Patrons

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Spelljammer: The Living Ship

Sometimes the druid or the ranger gets to pick the spelljammer and you end up with a Living Ship. The most notable feature of this vessel is a treant rooted into the deck. Since the ship and the treant are fused together, the treant can repair hull damage and keep the air envelope clean. And, in the event of enemy boarding, it can rip the heads off anything dumb enough to come near it. And, now that I think of it, the treant can clean out the privies, too. Humans do poop plant food, after all.

I know a lot of you play old-school Spelljammer and may be wondering what book this is from. It’s actually a new vessel from the 5th edition Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. It’s a bit different from other vessels and, for DMs whose last campaign started in a Dragonfly, this’ll give you the option of changing things up a bit in the next one.

For patrons, I made a seafaring version of the ship and I’m going to make another one without the treant as well. This ship is a little boring without the treant, but sometimes you need a boring starter ship for your party. They have to earn that ship of the line. Anyway, I’ll have that up in a day or two.

Okay, I’ll see you then. Let me know what you think of the map!

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The Ironclad Raider

The ironclad raider is probably a ship best suited for one of four things:

  • The big bad guy in a naval campaign, who you want the party to have to run away from (because if they roll well and sink him in session five, what then?)
  • Gnomes
  • Dwarves, if your dwarves are into boats
  • That one kingdom in your setting that’s way more technologically advanced than everyone else

When I drew this, I tried to capture a bit of that “brought to you by the designers of the cybertruck” look that early ironclads had, but a touch less derpy-looking. And let’s be honest: early ironclads were super derpy. The mid-to-late 1800s truly were the awkward teenage years of naval warfare.

I made a few alternate versions of this map for patrons, including ballista-armed and unarmed versions, as well as a version of the ship sailing on lava. This map came from a Cartographic Congress proposal and the original idea was for a ship that sailed on the elemental sea of fire. I think the water version will probably be more useful to most people, but hey, if patrons vote for a lava ship, I’m gonna deliver a lava ship.

Speaking of patrons voting on ships, I posted a vote to decide on the next spelljammer map and patrons chose the Living Ship. This is from the new 5e Spelljammer book and it basically looks like a sailing ship with a treant growing out of it. I’m drawing that next and I’ll make a seafaring version as well for DMs running monoplanetary campaigns.

Anyway, that’s it for the moment. If you’ve got any questions or thoughts about the ironclad, let me know!

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The Impossible Vault

So this is about as evil a dungeon as I could come up with. Despite the name, it’s not literally impossible, but it is rough. The details are in the DM notes, but here are the main features:

  • There are golems that release poisonous gas from vents in the walls behind them when they attack. So you have to fight golems in a room that’s quickly being filled with poison gas.
  • There’s a trap room that… look, it’s hard to explain. Read about it here at number 2. It’s pretty devious.
  • There’s a puzzle room that doesn’t do anything. You can move stuff around all you like and it won’t open a door.
  • The vault at the end is a decoy. The real vault is hidden by a secret door, which is behind the poison gas vents. Which the party will probably try to cover up as soon as they’re done fighting the golems.

It’s a small dungeon, but if you’re going to troll your party this hard, you’ve gotta keep it short. Anyway, if you run your party through this, let me know how it went. I feel like some really ridiculous stuff could end up happening here and I’d love to hear about it.

Next up, I’ll be drawing a Salamander Ironclad Warship. It’s a big, armored ship designed for the elemental plane of fire, but it’ll work just as well as a seafaring vessel. I’ll tell you up front: for most of you, this is probably the bad guy’s ship.

After that, I’ll be drawing a new spelljammer map. I’ll post a vote later today so patrons can decide which one you want to see. Anyway, that’s it for now. If you’ve got any thoughts on the Impossible Vault, by all means let me know!

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Alverfjord

So, I mainly see Alverfjord as three things potentially:

  1. A village where a land-dwelling race lives alongside an aquatic race (such as sea elves, tritons, merfolk, etc). This was the original idea.
  2. A village whose residents are covertly controlled by someone living below. This could be an aboleth, a group of illithids or a coven of sea hags.
  3. A village whose residents are secretly up to some shady stuff, which they do in the tunnels below. Maybe this is a cult or some kind of criminal activity, like smuggling, fencing pirate loot or running ye olde meth lab.

For patrons, I’ll be making a low-tide version of this map, which should be up tomorrow. Most of the underground level is dry in that version and I suspect it’ll be better for people who want to use this for option #3 above.

Also, thanks to everyone for the feedback about the Vatican megaproject! The response was overwhelmingly positive, so I will be drawing that later this year. First, however, I’ll be drawing the river delta city project, which I should be able to start on in the next few months. I want to get a few maps drawn first, but I don’t think they’ll take too long. One of those is a spelljammer and I’ll be holding a vote among patrons to find out what kind of vessel you’d like to see. I haven’t drawn one in a while and it’s probably time.

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. I’ll be back with the low tide version for patrons tomorrow. Let me know what you think of the map!

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Last Tower of the Mage Lords

I’m back with a pretty fancy wizard tube for you. This isn’t your standard 4-level tower for a wizard who hasn’t talked to anyone but his cat in the last 2 years. This is for a wizard with friends. Maybe even a few wizards, plus an assortment of apprentices, servants and guards.

Of course, there’s also another other option. It’s not for everybody, but– look, do you have airships in your setting? Because this can be an airship if you want it to be. There’s nobody stopping you. There’s already magic making this thing levitate, so it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that there might be magic that lets you fly it around as well. I just wanted to mention that in case anybody has a use for that idea.

I should mention that the name of this place is somewhat misleading. If you’re a patron, this is actually the first tower of the mage lords, since I’ll be making you two alternate versions of the map: one on land and one in the sea. That shouldn’t take more than a day or two. After that, I’ll get started on the last alternate level of the Stygian City: the underwater aboleth lair.

All right, I’ll be back soon. Let me know what you think!

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Thornhall

Thornhall is the palace of a lord of the wilds. A fey king, a high druid, a wood elf prince, or maybe even a hag could live here. The walls and roof are made of tangled roots and vines, twisting around each other in a giant mass of vegetation. It’s a lovely place to live for anyone who doesn’t mind a leaky roof and a slight mold problem.

Next, I’ll be getting to work on the alternate bottom levels of the Stygian City. These maps will be for patrons and will include:

  • A sealed vault meant to hold an entity or artifact
  • A passage to the underdark
  • Nothing but trash and debris
  • An underwater aboleth lair

With the exception of the aboleth lair, these shouldn’t be too complicated. I’ll draw the first three next, then the aboleth lair later. That one might actually be two separate levels, so it’ll take a bit more time. Once that’s out of the way, I’ll be looking to get started on the next megaproject.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what you think of the map!

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The Stygian City: Bottom of the Pit

So, here we are at the bottom. Remember that circle-and-star symbol I’ve been drawing on the floors throughout this dungeon? Yeah. This is what that’s about.

So, the Stygian City is finished, but it’s not. For patrons, I’ll be drawing a few alternate bottom levels, which will include an underwater aboleth lair, a vault for some kind of artifact or entity, and a gateway to the underdark (or Hell or wherever). I’m also going to draw one where the bottom is just full of trash and debris, because I think that’d be pretty funny. What did you expect to find down there? A giant monster?

In my last post, I talked about an idea for the next megaproject. Just to let you know, the response was overwhelmingly positive, so that will be happening. I want to finish up the alternate levels of the Stygian City first, so it’ll probably be a couple months before I get started, but I’ll get to it before long.

I’m also going to make a Stygian City Codex for patrons, a brief overview of each level for non-patrons and there are a few more things I want to add to the DM notes.

But before all that, I’ll be drawing the next Cartographic Congress map, the Palace of Thorns. This is the palace of a dark fae lord, which is covered in vines and thorny overgrowth. I don’t know how I’m going to draw this place just yet, but I’ll figure it out.

Anyway, I hope you like the way I finished out the Stygian City! Let me know what you think.

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The Village of Dhelduhr

Dhelduhr is a dwarven village carved into the cliffsides of a canyon. This is most of it, but I still need to draw the entrance. In the center-right of the map, there are some stairs up to the clifftop, where there’ll be a small building with some stables.

I also want to make an underdark version of the map for patrons. This place would fit pretty well in that setting, but I need to get rid of the plants and the colors are a little bright. I’ll have all that done in a day or two, then I’ll get to work on the last three levels of the Stygian City.

Okay, see you tomorrow!

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The Stygian City 16, 17 & 18: The Myconid Village

The next batch of floors in the Stygian City includes a myconid village on the 16th level, an ancient oracle on the 17th and a center for magical research on the 18th. The next three floors will be the last and will include the thing that lies at the bottom of the pit: Ghanya. I’m also going to draw three or four alternate bottom levels for patrons, but that’s it for the canonical Stygian City.

To a large extent, I’ve been writing the lore of this place around building players up for a horrifying revelation when they reach the bottom and discover that people dug this giant hole and built a city around it so they could feed themselves to a monster. So I’ve really been looking forward to drawing the freakish monstrosity at the bottom of the pit and I’ll be doing that before long.

First, though, I’ll be drawing a map of a village carved into the sides of a river canyon with windows and balconies dotting the rock faces and rope bridges strung between the sides. It looks cool in my head, which usually means it’ll make a good map.

Anyway, if you’ve got any questions or thoughts about the map, let me know.

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Mycenaean Citadel

This map was heavily inspired by the Citadel of Tiryns in ancient Mycenae. If you’re not familiar with Mycenae, it was an ancient civilization that occupied all the parts of Greece you’re likely to visit on vacation.

Tiryns is old enough that it was mentioned in the Iliad. It was built around 2500 BC and abandoned by 200 BC. This place actually appears in the Hercules mythology as well. It was the home of King Eurystheus, who ordered Hercules to go beat down the Nemean Lion, the hydra and so on. So if your party comes here and picks up a quest or two, they wouldn’t be the first.

Next, I’m going to draw a roof level for this map for patrons. That should only take a day or two and then I’ll get started on the next few levels of the Stygian City. Anyway, I hope you like it. Let me know what you think!