Category: Annotated – For Patrons

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

The Stygian City 13, 14 & 15: The Kuo-Toa Colony

On the 13th level, the pit intersects with a small, underground river, which eventually leads to the underdark. So, after the city became abandoned, it was only a matter of time before the kuo-toa found the place and moved in. Which they did.

The kuo-toa Archpriest who rules the colony wants to expand his territory, but unfortunately, he’s stuck between an ancient night hag above and a circle of myconids below. He’s scared of the night hag and he should be. She’s got half a dozen Pit Fiends on speed dial. But he feels like he’s got a chance against the myconids, so he’s planning an attack across the broken bridge over the 15th level that serves as the border between their domains.

The 16th level– the center of the myconid colony– will look a lot like the mold-covered half of the 15th. A huge fungal garden growing around a set of ancient fountains. After that, things are going to start getting weird as we get closer to Ghanya. The myconids are the last friendly folks for the party to encounter in the pit.

There are only six more levels to draw before we reach the bottom and I think this should be done before the end of the year. I’ve got a few ideas for the next megaproject and the one after that and I’ll talk about those before too long to see what everyone thinks.

But next up, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, a Bronze Age Mycenaean citadel. Here’s one example, although I don’t know if I’ll be drawing a map inspired by that one specifically. Anyway, Greek stuff! Everybody loves Greek stuff.

Well, I’m gonna browse some pictures of Mycenaean palaces. Hope you like how the Stygian City is coming. Let me know what you think!

Posted on

Dragonriders’ Hall

I usually talk about the map in these posts, but this one is what it says on the tin. It’s a stable/livery/hatchery for dragons. Let’s talk about Council of Wyrms instead.

Council of Wyrms was a 2nd Edition D&D boxed set with rules for making dragon player characters. And it was absolutely terrible. Did I buy it? Yes I did. In my defense, I was 15 and a lot of stuff seems like a better idea than it is when you’re 15.

I tried it for one session before realizing what the problem was with letting the players be dragons. At level one, they can fly. And they have innate spellcasting abilities. And a lot of hit points. And they can blow away just about anything with their breath weapons. And, if being really big and scary is a problem for some reason, they can shapeshift into a human. Keep in mind, this isn’t one dragon. This is the whole party. So, imagine trying to write an encounter that’s challenging for four dragons. Here’s what that looks like:

“Roll for initiative. What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna barf hot death on all the enemies.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

“The bad guys all take nine billion damage. You win.”

Did anyone else ever run a Council of Wyrms game? If so, let me know how it went for you. I struggle to imagine what a successful campaign would look like, but who knows? It’s probably happened at least once.

Next up, I’ll be getting back to the Stygian City. This thing is about halfway done and I feel like it should be finished by the end of the year, or at least close. There’s going to be an underground river in this area and a kuo-toa settlement in the ruins. I’m not sure what the lore around the kuo-toa will be, but if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. So far, all I can tell you is that they’ll be rivals with the myconids living further down.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Please do not buy Council of Wyrms. It is very, very bad.

Posted on

The Astronomer’s Tower

So this is a fairly classic wizard’s tower. I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, but I did want to make it more interesting than your average, military-issue wizard tube.

The top floor has a telescope and an armillary sphere, which is basically a 3-dimensional astrolabe. It calculates the position and movement of stars. Beyond that, I’m not sure there’s too much to explain.

I drew a ruined version of this map for patrons, which should be done by tomorrow. After that, I’ll get back to drawing more of the Stygian City. Anyway, I hope you like the map. Let me know what you think!