Category: Annotated – For Patrons

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Lyndorne Falls

In the seven years that I’ve been making maps for a living, I’ve drawn exactly six city maps. When I say a “city map,” I mean not a battlemap. So stuff like Vayl’s Firth doesn’t count. Here’s the list, from oldest to newest, along with my opinions on them:

  1. Irredeemable garbage
  2. Crap, but crap with a few merits. The lore may have saved it.
  3. Somehow, I think this is worse than the previous one.
  4. This one might have been okay if I hadn’t decided to color the buildings pink for some reason.
  5. This map is what Rogue One is to Star Wars sequels. Not incredible, but much better than all the other garbage.
  6. This map. I think it might be kind of good. I don’t know how or why this happened.

The basic idea for this place is that Lyndorne Falls is a unique kind of trade city. Goods come in on riverboats at the top of the waterfall and they’re moved down to the bottom on cargo lifts, where they get sold on to seafaring traders. Enabling goods from upriver to reach the sea makes this place a big deal, especially if there are a lot of towns out there. Also, the cliffs and the surrounding jungle serve as natural walls to protect the city. On the whole, I’d say it’s a fairly unique town that wouldn’t be hard to find a place for in most settings.

Next, I’m gonna get started on the Vatican megaproject. I’ll be drawing this one piece at a time and I’ll alternate between Vatican maps and other maps, but I’ll start with the famous stuff. First, I’ll be drawing St. Peter’s Square, which looks like this. It’s not the most interesting part of Vatican City, but it is the biggest and it should help me to calibrate the size properly so that all the pieces fit together in the end.

All right, I’m gonna go transubstantiate some paper into a map. Our journey begins.

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Hackett’s Pass Blockhouse

This map is a good place for an on-the-road encounter. It probably starts with the party traveling through the mountains and finding themselves in front of the gates here. Then, somebody tells them they need to pay a toll if they want to pass.

Now, in real life, people would see two options in this scenario: pay the toll or turn around and leave. But in D&D, nobody ever even considers the second option. The choices are to pay the toll or to kill every single one of these punks. And, unless the toll is very reasonable, I’d usually bet on option 2. Killing a few dozen people in order to avoid forking over a hundred bucks is just another day at the office in the Forgotten Realms. In any case, it’s a fun encounter to throw at your players in the middle of a long journey. And once in a while they do surprise you.

Next, I’ll be drawing a map of a multi-level waterfall city in the jungle that extends from the top of the falls, across multiple cliff outcrops and down to the bottom. This will be a city map (like this, for example), not a battlemap like Vayl’s Firth. I’m way outside my comfort zone with this– which I like– but it makes me a bit nervous going into it. So let me grab a pencil and see if I can figure out how to draw this place.

Well, that’s about it for now. If you’ve got any thoughts or questions, by all means let me know!

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Sarissa Square Market

Sarissa Square is an arcade market with a variety of shops, vendor stalls and a tavern. It’s a place where your players can have a drink, get pickpocketed, browse a few shops and steal, like, 1gp worth of rope or something despite the fact that they drag a giant wagon full of cash around wherever they go.

Some of you may be asking, “Is this a mall?” Well, it isn’t not a mall. But it’s less of a mall than another map I drew and that one was based on a real design that was almost constructed in Venice in the 1500s. Also, there’s a place called the Chester Rows in Cheshire, England, which is pretty much just a shopping mall that dates back to the middle ages. So, look, if Middle Ages Italy and England can have malls, Waterdeep can have a mall. Or, excuse me, an “arcade market.”

By the way, this was inspired by Pike Place Market in Seattle. The part of it the map is based on is fairly new, so I had to medieval the hell out of it, but I think I got the basic design of the place in there. Also, they do have a bar in there, so the tavern is accurate.

Next up, I’ll be drawing an orcish fortress that walls off a mountain pass. I’ve actually been meaning to draw a fortress in a mountain pass for years now and I can’t believe I actually haven’t drawn one yet. That madness is about to end. After that, I’ve got one or two more maps to draw and then we can get started on the next megaproject: a complete map of the Vatican. Because screw it, let’s draw a whole country. Are you in? I hope so, because this is happening.

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The Necropolis of Khamos

I won’t claim that this is a perfectly accurate depiction of Egyptian tombs, but I did do some research on the Valley of the Kings and other necropolises and I tried to capture the general spirit of the layout.

The middle tomb on the left is a good example. The stairs lead down from the entrance into a room with a deep pit. This is called a “well chamber” and most tombs in the Valley of the Kings had one. A little past that is a room with a ship in it. You might think no one would be buried with an entire ship. And you might be wrong about that. Keep in mind that these are the people that built the biggest thing in the world for a funeral.

The Egyptians took funerals seriously. These folks didn’t just order some flower arrangements and give speeches about all the nice things grandpa did back in the day. They built grandpa a temple, ornately painted the walls, filled the place with luxuries, then put him in four lavishly-decorated coffins, each a bit larger than the last. How many coffins are your relatives in? One? Pathetic.

Well, this is the second of two tomb maps in a row and it’s time to move on to other subject matter. Next, I’ll be drawing a large, indoor market on the side of a steep hill. It’ll be inspired by Seattle’s Pike Place Market, but in a middle ages kind of style. No Starbucks, no Sunglass Hut, no parking lot. I’ll try to make it a unique marketplace for a major city. A good place to do some shopping and get into a fight.

Well, that’s it for now. If you’re a patron and you’re thinking about using this map, check out the DM notes for a list of suggestions for traps to use here. And if you’ve got any questions or thoughts about the map, let me know!

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I’m back! Vayl’s Firth is Finished!

  

You can download all these maps here.

It’s been over a month since I posted for non-patrons, but, as promised, here’s the complete city map and the upper levels.

If you want to become a patron, there are individual maps of all the islands, plus unfurnished versions, annotated maps, DM notes, a Foundry module and various other stuff. There’s a lot. It took me three hours to upload all the patrons’ edition maps. Admittedly, I’m on a trash-tier internet connection at the moment, but still.

For anyone who can’t afford that, every part of the map is here for you to use and I hope you enjoy it.

With Vayl’s Firth finished, I’m going to get caught up on all the Cartographic Congress maps that have been chosen since I started drawing this. And then, at some point, I’ll get to work on the next megaproject: The Vatican.

Well, that’s about it. So, what do you think of Vayl’s Firth? I hope it lived up to your expectations. In any case, let me know what you think!