Category: Annotated – For Patrons

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Great Bombard: Spelljammer goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt

The Great Bombard isn’t a ship, it’s a gun. A really big gun. This gun does has a ship attached to it, though. This accessory, mounted under the barrel, allows a crew to move the gun through space and blow things up in a variety of interesting and exotic locations.

If you allow your party to acquire a Great Bombard, I don’t think that’s unreasonable. But you do need to keep it in mind when planning adventures from that point on. Ask yourself, “Can my players solve this problem using nothing but their big gun?” If so, you may want to make a few adjustments so the party has to put a little more work in. That said, you’ve got to let them blow something up every once in a while. That’s half the fun of having a ship like this, after all.

Since the new Spelljammer was recently released, I’ll probably draw another spelljammer map sometime in the next two months. I’ll hold a vote to let patrons decide which one you’d like to see.

But first, I’ll be drawing India’s Akshardham Temple. Then, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: the Indian island fortress of Murud-Janjira. I’ll be drawing it about how it is in this photo: overgrown and in ruins. Personally, I think that’s much more interesting (and it also gets around the problem that the only labeled floor plans I’ve been able to find are in Hindi).

Well, I hope you like the Great Bombard. I’m gonna get started on this Indian double-feature. Let me know what you think!

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The Generalife: A Palace of the Alhambra

I visited the Alhambra a few years ago and, before I went, I was considering drawing a map of the place. When I got there, I realized how completely insane a task that would be. Here’s the entire Alhambra complex. This map– the Generalife– is the little thing in the top right. I’ve drawn a four-level map of Mont-St-Michel and I’m pretty sure the Alhambra would take longer than that did.

To give you an idea of how big this place is, there are six other palaces in the Alhambra. And if that sounds crazy, there used to be two more. If you plan to be in Spain, I highly recommend going to see it. There are a lot of castles in the world, but only a few of them will make your head literally, physically explode and this is one of them.

Next up, I’ll be drawing the Great Bombard spelljammer I promised a few months back. It’s basically an enormous cannon with a ship wrapped around it. You could call it the A-10 Warthog of spelljammers. I’ll make a seafaring version as well for those running monoplanetary campaigns.

After that, I’ll be drawing Akshardham Temple, a Hindu temple in New Delhi. When someone builds something that looks this good from the top down, I basically have to make a map of it.

Okay, that’s it for now. I hope you like the map! Let me know what you think.

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The Chronomancer’s Tower

There are a lot of possibilities for this map, but I feel like the most interesting would be for this thing to be a time machine. You turn a few wheels, set some dials and you’re off to the future. Or the past. This could allow the party to get some ancient, lost artifact or talk to that one guy who knew that thing the party wants to know but has been dead for 2000 years.

Alternatively, you could just completely jump the shark and send the players to Stephen Hawking’s dinner party for time travelers. That idea might not be for everyone, but I thought I’d throw it out there. It’d be pretty funny if you’ve got a group that would get the joke.

Next, I’ll be finishing up a few things for the Black Loch. I made a list of everything left to do in this post, but I’m going to start by making the final version of the Black Loch region map, replacing the generic place names with the proper names.

Then, I’ll be tackling everything else on the list, which means I should be posting something here almost every day for the next week or so. After that, I’ll get started on the last Black Loch map. All right, I hope that sounds good. I’m gonna get some sleep and get started in the morning!

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Cinderfork Foundry

Cinderfork Foundry is a duergar armorsmithing operation built around an exposed magma vent. Is that safe? No, it’s not. But pumping a bellows is hard work and it’s nice to have a pool of molten rock do the job for free. Well, it’s free if you don’t count the expense of a few people dying because a tectonic plate jiggled a bit, squeezing 80 tons of magma into the room. But of course you don’t count that. Or maybe you do. Look, I’m not an accountant.

If you use this map, remember that it’s insanely hot in there, especially the top floor. You could make an encounter here a little more interesting by giving the party exhaustion penalties, which increase every few rounds. It’d make the players really feel the environment, while also giving them an incentive to get things done fast. You might also want to think about how much damage you’re gonna hand out to anyone who gets chucked into the magma, because, chances are, someone’s going for a swim.

Next up, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: an ancient clock tower with a chronomancer’s workshop below. I’ve looked into some real clock towers for inspiration and I have to say, there are some actual clock towers that are a lot wilder than anything I’d have ever come up with. Here’s a clock tower in Bern, Switzerland. Now, let me read you a description of that:

Every hour, a performance involving automated figures is set in motion by the astronomical clock. A dancing jester rings two bells and cues a parade of bears, Chronos turns over an hourglass and opens his mouth, and a gilded rooster raises its wings and crows to start the show.

So, I think we can all agree that Switzerland wins. Congratulations to Switzerland, you win at clocks. Forever.

Anyway, I’m not sure I’m going to do anything quite that crazy, but hopefully I’ll manage to come up with something that doesn’t put the Swiss to sleep. After that, I’ll start on the last few things I need to take care of with the Black Loch, which should be finished later this month.

Well, I’m gonna go find out what the inside of a clock tower looks like. If you’ve got any suggestions for clocks I should have a look at, let me know!

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Clogwyn Prison

Clogwyn Prison was once a dwarven prison in the Black Loch. It used to be above the water, but a giant hole opened in the roof of the loch and the surface sea above started pouring water in. This hole was called the Great Breach and the rise in sea level it caused put quite a few places underwater.

This was inconvenient for some, but less so for others. For the coven of sea hags that moved into Clogwyn Prison afterwards, it was pretty fantastic. And you have to imagine that the kuo-toa were, at worst, fine with it.

I think Clogwyn would be a pretty interesting place to pass by on a ship. It’s the kind of thing you might not need to hook a party into exploring, since they’re probably going to be pretty curious about why the roof of a building is sticking up out of the water. Just make sure they found a few potions of water breathing on their last adventure if they’re going to need them.

There are only two locations left to draw in the Black Loch: the duergar outpost and the fortress ruins. I’m going to draw the duergar outpost next, but before I draw the last map, I want to get everything else done first. Because there are a few other things to do to finish the Black Loch and, when I draw the last map, I want that to be the last thing left.

So I’m going to take care of the other stuff first. This includes:

  1. Updating the History and Lore of the Black Loch with all the new locations and characters.
  2. Drawing tokens of all the characters and creatures of the loch that weren’t in the first batch.
  3. Updating the regional map of the Black Loch with the proper names of the locations (now that they all have proper names).
  4. Drawing some simple maps of caves and tunnels. These aren’t specific locations, just maps to use as backdrops for encounters around the loch.
  5. Making a Black Loch Codex with all the DM notes and annotated maps in one collection for patrons.

All of these are small tasks. A day or two each, at most. I think I can get all of it done, along with the last two maps, before the end of next month. Then I’ve got a new spelljammer to draw, as well as an Indian temple. And, of course, with the Black Loch done, we’ll need to talk about the next big project. I’ll fill you in on the plan and you can let me know if you think it’s worth spending the next few years drawing.

Well, I think that’s it. If you’ve got any thoughts on any of that, let me know!

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The Sanctum of Psor’il

Here’s an alternate version without the worm.

For a number of reasons, I don’t draw monsters in maps. It might look like that’s what I did here, but… it is and isn’t a monster. Allow me to explain. Psor’il, the aboleth who resides here, is trying to bring a creature from a bizarre, hostile dimension into the Black Loch.

To allow it to cross over, the aboleth’s minions are making a substance called “schismic flux,” which weakens the barrier between dimensions. They’ve weakened it quite a bit, but not enough for the creature to pass through. So, at the moment, the creature is stuck in between planes. And it’s visible in this world, but it’s not tangible yet. In other words, the monster is scenery. Weird, scary scenery, but not a monster. Yet.

I’m very curious what your opinions on it are. I was trying to make this place as strange as possible and that was one of the things I came up with. I also made a version without the worm in case anyone objects.

Next, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: a sewer system with tunnels that cut through ancient, dwarven ruins, leading deep into the earth. After that, I’ll be back to the Black Loch to draw one of the last 3 locations.

Anyway, I’d love to know what you think about the map. And I know it’s kind of a strange one, so if you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask!

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The Blind Colossus

The Blind Colossus is a huge, eyeless statue in the Black Loch. Sailors who have seen it think it depicts a human, which is a strange sight deep in the underdark.

The truth is that the Blind Colossus was built by a tribe of humans called the Ardyeni, barbarian raiders who were driven underground thousands of years ago. They lived in the Black Loch for over a millennium, building a city and several outlying towns in the deep reaches of the loch. They are the ancient ancestors of the race known as “grimlocks.”

There’s a long story about how this happened in the DM notes, but I’ll try to summarize it for everyone. A few hundred years after the tribe was driven into the underdark, an Ardyeni mage created a device to speak to the gods. It sort of worked.

The Ardyeni king spoke with an entity named Bylir, who wasn’t a god, but a being from the Far Realm. The best explanation I can give is that Bylir is the sort of thing H.P. Lovecraft would write a story about. Not a god, not a demon, but very powerful. Definitely not your friend.

Anyway, the Ardyeni started to worship this thing. Bylir gave them blindsight, which let them see in the darkness. Then Bylir took their eyes away. Then it began demanding blood sacrifices. And finally, after a few centuries, Bylir gave them to an aboleth as slaves.

Several thousand years later, the device used to contact Bylir still survives inside the Blind Colossus. The descendants of the Ardyeni survive as well, but have changed a lot and are no longer considered human. Many of them still serve the aboleth, who lives in the ruins of their ancient civilization.

Speaking of which, the next map will be the lair of that aboleth. It’s one of four more maps left to draw for the Black Loch and I’ve got some interesting ideas for it.

Anyway, I think the Blind Colossus came out pretty well, but it’s a fairly unusual map and I’m curious what people think about it. If you’ve got any thoughts, let me know!

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Scarhide Yard

Scarhide Yard is a shipyard run by deep gnome engineers and grimlock laborers in the Black Loch. This strange partnership began when a group of gnomes approached a tribe of starving grimlock hunters with 300 pounds of meat. The gnomes needed workers to build ships and the grimlocks needed food,  so they came to an arrangement. The gnomes got their laborers and the grimlocks got as much meat as they could eat, forever.

Sixty years later, the gnomes are still overseeing operations, but the shorter-lived grimlocks have passed the torch to the next generation. This is good, but, potentially, also bad. The good part is that this generation of grimlocks wasn’t raised to hunt. They were raised as carpenters and shipwrights and they’re a lot better at it than their parents were.

The bad part is that they eat a lot. And, unlike their parents, they have never known hunger. They’ve never been without the endless supply of meat that the gnomes send for every week or two. And if that meat stops arriving? That’s a scary thought for the gnomes. Best not to let that happen.

If you’re looking for a ship for your party to purchase (or steal) from here, you might have a look at the Grinning Widow. It’s a ship designed for the underdark and it’s exactly the kind of thing Scarhide Yard would build.

This map was partly inspired by Leo’s proposal to the Black Loch Conclave. I was always planning to have a grimlock settlement here, but Leo made me realize that I’d forgotten to put a shipyard in the loch, so I sort of hybridized the two ideas into Scarhide Yard. Anyway, I hope you all like how it turned out!

Next, I’ll be drawing another one of the five remaining locations in the Black Loch. This time, it’ll be the Blind Colossus, a huge, eyeless statue standing in the deep reaches of the loch. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing with the place, but it’ll definitely have some mysterious rooms and passages inside it, built by an ancient civilization for unclear reasons. Ideally, I’d like it to be unsettling, but highly intriguing. The kind of place that your players feel like they shouldn’t go into, but feel compelled to explore anyway. We’ll see how it goes.

All right, I’m gonna start sketching. Let me know what you think!

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Brackenbury Manor (Inspired by Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, England)

Brackenbury Manor is almost a real place. If it were a real place, the real place that it would be is Little Moreton Hall. Little Moreton is a 16th-century manor house in Cheshire, England, which looks unsettling in a way that I’m not sure really comes through in the map. Here’s a picture to show you what I mean. If that building looks completely fine to you, you’ve had too much to drink.

I didn’t originally plan on including the gardens in the map, but after my last post, someone suggested that I should. And they were absolutely right. See, here’s the thing: these are the hedges. They’re cut into tunnels. You can walk through the hedges! I don’t know about you, but the DM part of my brain couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be to have a monster hiding in there, waiting to jump on someone the second they come around the corner. In any case, I think the extra effort was well-spent.

Next up, I’ll be drawing the grimlock settlement from the Black Loch. It has a shipyard, where most of the ships in the loch are built. The basic story is this: a team of deep gnome engineers builds ships using grimlock laborers. The grimlocks, who don’t care about money, are paid in meat. This situation has been working out for years, with rich gnomes and fat grimlocks. And there’s no reason to think it won’t. Unless they run out of meat. That would be a problem, especially for the gnomes. This is a bad place to be the last thing made of meat.

The grimlock shipyard is one of only 6 maps left to draw for the Black Loch. Aside from that, there are some tokens to draw, as well as a few generic backdrop maps (caves, tunnels, etc), but it’s getting pretty close to being finished!

Anyway, that’s it for now. Hope you like the map! Let me know what you think!

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Elderseed Sanctuary

Elderseed Sanctuary is a small treehouse settlement in a giant baobab. I designed it with a druid community in mind, but it could easily be a village of wild elves as well. Or aarakocra. Or avariel. Or weresquirrels.

Here’s a question to think about: is it a treant? If so, that makes this place mobile, which allows for some interesting possibilities. For example, your party could make camp in the woods and wake up next to this thing. That could be a handy approach if your party isn’t great at following a trail of breadcrumbs to the next adventure. Just park the next adventure on top of all their stuff and see if they can work out what to do.

Next up, I’ll be drawing another map from the Black Loch. This time, it’ll be the ancient crypt on Cairnhollow Isle. I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing with it, but I think it’ll be a fairly decrepit series of winding tunnels and catacombs, leading to a huge, elaborate burial chamber at the end. I’ve got a bunch of maps of the Paris Catacombs, so hopefully I can give the map a fairly authentic feel.

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