Category: Annotated – For Patrons

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The Benthic Academy: An Undersea Ruin

Here’s another version of the map with air pockets in some of the rooms.

When I draw a ruin, I like to trash the place. I don’t want it to just be a building with holes in the walls, I want it to look like a hotel room the Rolling Stones spent the night in in 1976.

In this particular map, however, some parts are less trashed than others. That’s because the Benthic Academy is a college of magic– or, at least, it was until whatever disaster swept it under the waves. Unlike most places, the academy has magical wards holding some of it together, particularly the library (on the right), the faculty rooms (bottom center), and the dean’s residence (upper left).

The wards were meant to prevent cracked walls, broken windows and leaks, but they’ve done such a great job that, even after years underwater, a lot of the academy is still in one piece. Depending on which version of the map you use, they may have even caused a few of the upper-level rooms to retain air pockets.

If you might be using this map, I’ve got a few suggestions. First, I’d recommend considering your party’s underwater capabilities when planning encounters. Keep in mind that most melee weapons roll with disadvantage underwater. And, even if your players stop to re-equip themselves at Tridents-R-Us, you may need to consider how dependent they are on any magic weapons they won’t be using. If that Hammer of Hit Point Obliteration is doing a lot of work, you may want to dial the enemies back a little. Also, remember that Lightning Bolt and Fireball aren’t really on the menu anymore.

Second, I’d start the party out on the roof level. Since they’re swimming down into this, that’s the first thing they’ll see.

And finally, if the spellcasting PCs can’t cast Water Breathing enough times to  get the whole party down there, just put a few potions of water breathing into the loot of the adventure before this one. Don’t worry, handing out suspiciously convenient water breathing potions before an underwater quest is an ancient DM tradition.

Next up, I’ll be drawing another map from the Black Loch: the surface entrance. This isn’t a stairway, it’s a series of waterfalls, and it’s probably the quickest way into the Underdark from the surface. Is it the safest way? Probably not, but that’s your party’s problem. Also, since this entrance presumably leads down from a river on the surface, it allows for the possibility of traveling to the Underdark accidentally. And the best part: it’s one-way.

Anyway, I’m gonna start sketching that out. Let me know what you think of the Benthic Academy!

There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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Hyphis – A Myconid Colony

For those newer DMs who may be unfamiliar with the race: myconids. TL;DR: Mushroom people. No, not like Toad from Mario Brothers. But also, yes, kind of like that.

There are two things I want to specifically point out about this map. The first is the middle floor. The brown room. That’s compost, which is what myconids consume for sustenance. What are they composting? Well, they’re by the water, so it’s probably mostly fish. Which means that room is covered, wall-to-wall, with decomposing fish. Imagine the smell of a fish market. Now imagine that the fish are completely covering the floor. Now imagine that all those fish have been putrefying for a month. YUP.

In game terms, what this means is: saving throws vs. immediate projectile vomiting with the force of a shotgun blast. That’s always a good time to be the DM. If you’re on a VTT, see if you can find a sound effect for this. And be sure to check the tanky PCs’ character drawings, because if Paladin Fancypants is sporting a closed-face helmet, he is now both sick AND drowning. If that’s not a memorable D&D moment just waiting to happen, I don’t know what is.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the giant mushroom running through all 3 levels of the map. My lore for it (and, of course, feel free to ignore it) is that it’s an 800-year-old sentient mushroom that the myconids made friends with. It can see and hear anything that happens in the vicinity of its spores, which, at this point, can be found almost everywhere in the Black Loch. So, it’s kind of an oracle. It’s called the Red Warden and nobody, itself included, knows what it is or where it came from.

In any case, it could be a source of information, should your party need it. A good place to come to get some answers if you don’t mind walking through rotting seafood and puking like a drunken 14-year-old. It’s fine, the top floor will be a nice bit of eyebleach. They’ll love it.

Anyway, next up is the Benthic Academy, the underwater ruins of an ancient college of magic. After that, I’ll probably draw another map from the Black Loch.

Well, I hope you like Hyphis! Let me know what you think!

There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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The Château de Chenonceau

God the French make some cool stuff. “Let’s just build it over the river.” Sure, why not, here’s money, let’s do it. Amazing.

While I was researching this place, I learned a bit about the castle’s most famous resident, Catherine de Medici. She was the queen of France in the mid-1500s, who later ruled the country as Queen Regent after her husband died. She was also a woman who liked to party and, by all accounts, she threw a GREAT one. There’s actually a wikipedia page specifically about her parties. Parties that happened 500 years ago. Let me go ahead and quote that for you:

Catherine arranged entertainments that lasted for several days, including fancy-dress jousting and chivalrous events in allegorical settings. On Mardi Gras, the day after the banquet in the meadow, knights dressed as Greeks and Trojans fought over scantily clad damsels trapped by a giant and a dwarf in a tower on an enchanted island. The fighting climaxed with the tower losing its magical properties and bursting into flames.

Sure, you know, typical Saturday for me too. She also put on the first fireworks display in France, as well as– at least once– a party where the food was served by topless women. Keep in mind that this was the 1500s. At a time when they would light you on fire if they thought you were a witch, this lady was running strip shows. Wild.

Anyway, I know a lot of people were looking forward to this map, so I hope it’s everything you were hoping for! I’m planning to do some more historical maps before too long, but next I’m going to return to the Black Loch. I’ll be drawing the myconid colony next, then I’ll be drawing the next Cartographic Congress map: the underwater ruins of the Benthic Academy, an ancient college of magic. After that, I’ll probably be getting back to the Black Loch again, since I want to make some more progress on that. In any case, I’ll be drawing more of the loch over the next couple months.

Well, I’m gonna start drawing some mushrooms. Let me know what you think of the Chateau!

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

 

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The Cobalt Flotilla: The Ships

Turtle Ship
Barge
Drua

And the rest:

I don’t often post 11 maps in one day. It feels like a lot, even if I did make those 11 maps for the purpose of making one big map. Anyway, I hope everyone’s good on ships for a while, because after drawing all these, it might be a minute before I do another one.

In any case, I’d say everyone’s collection of ship maps just got a lot more diverse. You’ve got three Japanese ships, a Korean ship, a Filipino ship, a Portuguese ship, a Fijian ship, a few kinda-sorta Chinese boats and a Polynesian raft. Hopefully they make your seafaring campaigns a bit more interesting.

All right, next up is the Château de Chenonceau, a magnificent French castle built across a river. Imagine the Twins from Game of Thrones, except they were an only child. And a lot classier. I’ve been looking forward to drawing it since I found the floor plans and I’m going to get to work the second I stop typing.

Well, I hope everyone likes the flotilla! It took a lot longer than I expected, but I think it turned out really well and there are a lot of possibilities for how to use it. Overall, I’d say it was worth it and, hopefully, most of you agree.

One last thing: I’d like to apologize for mentioning Game of Thrones. It’s been two years since season 8, but for some of you it may still be too soon. Stay strong, we’ll get through this together.

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Ollin’s Borehole – Unfurnished

I don’t have too much to say about the unfurnished version of Ollin’s Borehole, but I have a ton to say about the next map, so let’s talk about that instead.

The Cobalt Flotilla is a home for a nomadic, seafaring community. It consists of a number of vessels, large and small. Now, the thing that makes the flotilla unique is when they come together. They tether their ships to each other, lay out planks and rope bridges to connect them and form a sort of island where they can all get together to trade, make decisions as a group, and so on.

To make it more interesting, I decided that I wanted all the ships to be really different. There will be some European-style ships, of course, but a lot of European ships tend to share a similar basic shape and layout and I wanted to draw some REALLY different ships in there. So I did some research and I found a few. Where did I find them, you ask? Asia. Allow me to introduce some highly interesting ships you may not be familiar with:

  • Atakebune – A Japanese warship, largely used as boarding vessels. (Wikipedia)
  • Turtle Ship – A Korean warship with a completely enclosed upper deck, covered with spikes to deter boarders.
  • Karakoa – A double-outrigger raiding ship from the Philippines.
  • Drua – A double-hulled ship for Fijian chieftains.

I’m also going to include some riverboats, rafts, longboats and smaller vessels to give it even more variety.

Also, I’ve decided to draw the ships separately. I’ll make a map of the assembled flotilla tethered together, of course, but drawing them separately means I can make maps of each individual ship as well so you can use them independently. And I’ll make tokens of the ones that are too small to warrant their own map.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what was happening. I’m gonna go draw some boats!

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Ollin’s Borehole – An Abandoned Deep Gnome Mining Outpost

Ollin’s Borehole is a sapphire mine in the Black Loch. Well, it was a sapphire mine until some duergar bandits found the place, smashed their way in and killed everyone. Since then, it’s just been another hole in the ground. But, as holes in the ground go, I think this one is pretty interesting.

I wrote… let’s call it “the framework of an adventure” for this map. I’m hesitant to call it an adventure because there are a few things missing from it, most notably the monsters. I left them out because I wanted to make it flexible for parties of any level. So, if your players are level 2, this place is full of kobolds. If they’re level 10, it’s full of umber hulks. You get the idea. I also don’t specify the amount of loot to be found, largely for the same reason. Basically, I left out the stuff that I’d typically change when running an adventure that was made for parties of a different level than mine is.

Anyway, it’s called “The Lost Sapphires” and it’s in the DM notes. I’m curious what you all think of it, so I’m giving it away to everyone. It’s nothing complicated, just a single-session dungeon run, but it’s an easy way to get your party into Ollin’s Borehole. I can’t promise you’ll love it, but I can promise it will explain why there’s a big pile of beds at the bottom of the pit.

And I can promise that you will have a 15-minute argument about how much those beds should mitigate falling damage if your party’s rules lawyer lands on them. I apologize for that in advance.

I’ve got an unfurnished version of this map on the way, which I’ll have for you tomorrow. After that, I’ll be drawing the Cobalt Flotilla,  a floating community made up of a bunch of ships lashed together, forming a big, wooden island. And then I’ll be drawing a historical map, the Château de Chenonceau. It’s one of those places that’s straight out of a fantasy map, except people actually built the thing in real life. As inspiring as I found it, it seems like the least I could do is draw a map of the place so it can have a few more battles.

There’s an annotated version of this map available to patrons.

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Dragonfly-Class Spelljammer – “The Mid-Priced Toyota of Fantasy Spacecraft”

I’ve never run a Spelljammer campaign, per se, but I have run campaigns where some mild-to-moderate spelljamming did take place (including my current one). If you don’t understand the appeal of the setting, let me try to explain it.

First, picture the show Firefly. Now, imagine that Kaylee is an elf. Imagine Wash is a wizard. And Shepherd Book is a priest of Tempus who always tries to solve people’s issues by asking, “When was the last time you purified yourself in the holy flames of battle?” That’s basically Spelljammer. Oh, and the Firefly would probably look like an actual firefly.

There’s some freaky stuff out in space, too.  For example: a giant skull full of mind flayers that are torturing beholders. Or how about a clump of pirate-infested asteroids held together by a giant plant? Or, my personal favorite, a big old cloud of wild magic shaped like a boat. For the record, that last one gives you, the DM, license to do literally anything. “Siderion, you are now neon yellow. And your arm turns into a sheep.” What? Are you serious? “You fall down. The sheep is heavy.”

I’m not sure what I’m drawing next, but I’ve got a few things I want to announce about some stuff I’m planning over the next year and I’ll let you know in a day or two when I post about that. I don’t want to hype this up like it’s some huge thing, but I think most of you will be into it.

Anyway, I hope those of you running Spelljammer games approve of my choice of ship! I don’t think I’ll be doing another spelljammer soon, but I may draw another one later in the year. I’m thinking it’d be something a bit bigger than this. Like, the kind of ship your party graduates to after this one. Maybe an elven Man O’ War? If you’ve got any suggestions, let me know and I’ll keep them in mind. In any case, tell me what you think of the map!

There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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The Casino de Mont Acceaux

So, this is the first casino I’ve drawn and I’ve got a question for the gamblers out there: is the carpet ugly enough? I don’t know why, but “All Casinos Have Carpet That Hurts Your Eyes” is so consistently true, it could almost be a law of thermodynamics. Anyway, I gave it my best shot.

The Mont Acceaux isn’t meant to be Vegas, I drew it with the Monte Carlo in mind. Actually, the ground level is very similar, the main difference being that I removed the opera house.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Monte Carlo is a 150-year-old casino in Monaco. It’s ridiculously classy, everyone speaks French and no one has a gambling problem, they’re just there for the atmosphere. If James Bond was a place, this is the place that he would be.

You might send your players here to rob the joint, but you could also just let them hear about it and stop by to gamble. Hopefully they don’t lose all the money they’ve accumulated from the hundreds and hundreds of people they’ve killed over the years on two hours of blackjack. That would just be… hilarious. Of course, if that happens, you probably need to prepare for them to rob it, because that’s probably what they do next.

Next up, I’ll be drawing something from the Black Loch. I think I’m going to do the dragon’s lair. Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve drawn one of those yet, so I guess it’s about time I did.

By the way, sorry this took so long. I ended up deciding to recolor the whole thing because it just looked really bad. It took another couple days on account of that, but I’d rather take the extra time and make it look good than give you something terrible. Anyway, I hope it was worth it!

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Glogdolp – Roofs

Not too much going on in the roof level, but there is one thing I wanted to mention. If you look around the buildings, you’ll see little triangles pointing to the walls. Those are to indicate where the doors are. It occurred to me recently that that might be useful for some people, so I decided to try it and see what you all think.

Anyway, next I’ll be drawing some tokens for the Black Loch. Drow and kuo-toa and Lim the Big Dumb Ogre and so forth. Those will probably be done in a day or two. After that, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: a wizard’s casino. I’m thinking this is going to be more Monte Carlo than Vegas, but let’s see how it goes. In any case, after that, I think we’ll be headed back to the loch!

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The Vale of Pentandra

The Vale of Pentandra was a map chosen by the Cartographic Congress. Ben, who proposed it, wanted an elven city in the rainforest with a magical portal in the center, surrounded by two huge trees arching overhead.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I like the portal. Sometimes, as a DM, you want your players to be somewhere really far away. And you don’t want to say, “You get on your horses, clap the coconuts for two months and you’re there,” but you also might not want to do three sessions of “stuff happens while you’re on the road.” Having a way to avoid either of those things in a way that feels natural can be nice. Ready to stop doing Chult stuff and start doing Waterdeep stuff? This might be a nice place for the party to hear a rumor about.

I apologize for this taking so long, but I wanted to get it looking right and that required a lot of changing things around this time. Also– feel free to laugh at me– I got everything done an hour ago, was ready to post this, and realized I forgot to put a scale on it. I managed to forget about that for the entire week and a half it took me to plan, draw and color this. YEP THAT’S ME PROFESSIONAL FANTASY CARTOGRAPHER RIGHT HERE.

Anyway, I’ll be getting to work on the Black Loch next. I’m going to draw the inn on the left side of the map. I know there are a million maps of inns out there, but this one is going to be a little unusual, because this place is owned and operated by a clan of ogres. And it features only the finest ogre furnishings. Ogre-crafted tables. Ogre-crafted bar. Ogre-crafted doors and walls. Starting to get the picture? Your players think they’ve stayed at a crappy dump of an inn before. They have no idea.