Category: Brazenthrone

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The Thronebrazing Kit – Also, the Foundry Module is now online.

Do you use Foundry? Are you dissatisfied with how small Brazenthrone is and wish you could make more of it? If you answered no to both, there’s nothing here for you, feel free to go about your day.

Foundry first. Here’s the manifest URL so you can install it the grown up way: http://modules.milbysmaps.com/MMPublic/module.json

That’s all.

On to Brazenthrone. I was asked about making assets to allow people to create new chambers of the city. I said, sure, I can put a few things together for you. Then I just went completely overboard and, next thing I know, I’m clipping stuff out of a dozen different maps, saying, “Better get that duplex hammer, you never know if someone’s gonna need one of those.”

So, here’s 80 or so assets. These include the ones I made previously and some new ones. There are empty chambers, floors and walls that tile seamlessly and an assortment of various other stuff. It should be enough to let you smash something together in Photoshop, anyway. The person asking for these said he was interested in making a Dungeondraft asset pack out of them, so there are 256ppi versions for that as well. By the way, let me know if there’s anything else you need for that.

Okay, that’s all for now. I’m going to bed.

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Brazenthrone – Freeholders’ Hall – Everyone’s Edition

Here’s the non-annotated version for those of you who don’t like words and numbers all over your maps. Also, here are the DM notes.

You know what? This is the second-to-last chamber of Brazenthrone and I’m just going to give everyone the patron content for the rest of it. You can download it from Google Drive here or from this page on my patreon.

There’s not too much to say about Freeholders’ Hall. It’s where the mushroom farmers live. There’s a high clan that lives there, too. And there’s a statue of a naked man. You can read about it in the DM notes if you’re interested.

Yesterday, I wrote about how I found a way to include dynamic lighting with my maps for Roll20 users and I made commands to generate the walls for you with this map as well. They’re in there with the VTT files and there’s a file explaining how to do it.

For those of you running games on Foundry, Fantasy Grounds and other platforms, I need you to know this: I know you are out there, I appreciate your support and I am going to do everything I can to make this happen for you too.

So far, what I’ve learned is this: there was a script called SVG Loader that could import wall lines in Foundry, although it may no longer be compatible with recent updates. I’m going to try it out anyway and see if it works. If I can get it to work for me, I should be able to load up a map, import the walls and export the whole thing as a module file. If I can’t, maybe I can get an older version of Foundry that the script was compatible with? Who knows, I’m just spitballing, but I’ll get to work trying things out tomorrow. I can’t promise you I’ll be able to do this for every platform soon, but I can promise you that I’ll try.

The next map will be last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, a dwarven mining and smelting outpost built into a cliffside. After that, we’re knocking out the last part of Brazenthrone: the Old Palace. It’s a ruined palace adjacent to the Old Quarter and I think it’ll be pretty cool. I wanted to save it for last so hopefully the dwarven city of Brazenthrone finishes on a bang.
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Brazenthrone – The Iron Mines

 

First, here’s the non-annotated version. The grid size for VTT is in the filename. You knew that, right? Just checking.

I’ve never lost my enthusiasm for drawing Brazenthrone, but I am looking forward to the next big project, which makes me somewhat glad to be wrapping it up soon. Also, when Brazenthrone is done, I get to take this map and make it about 60% bigger. Because apparently I drew all that and it wasn’t enough, so I drew a whole lot more, haha.

So what’s the next big project? It’ll be a map of an entire setting. That setting will be a sea in the Underdark called the Black Loch. I’ll talk more about it soon, but you can read about it in this post.

Before I get started on that, I’ll also be finishing the Great Vote maps. The ones left to draw are:

  1. Fortified Oasis – The middle of the desert. The only water for days. And someone built a stone fortress around it. This will be a middle-eastern design.
  2. The Fallen Tower – A large, broken tower. Part of it remains standing, the rest lies on the ground in several large segments.
  3. Aarakocra Village – Aarakocra are avian humanoids. This will be a cliffside or mountain community of them, featuring various things unique to a community of people who can all fly.
  4. Floating Market – This is a real thing. I’ll make a map of one.
  5. The Deepspire – A fortress city in the seas of the Underdark, carved into the sides of a massive column of rock stretching from the sea floor to the roof of the cavern.

In fact, I’ll be drawing the Fallen Tower next. After that, I’ll be doing the second-to-last chamber of Brazenthrone, Freeholders’ Hall (27 on this map). If you’ve got any questions about the Black Loch or my plans for the post-Brazenthrone world (or anything else), just ask!

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Brazenthrone – Greenstone Hall

Greenstone Hall is a residential district of Brazenthrone with a large, green crystal formation embedded in the floor. Discovered when the chamber was excavated, not much is known about it other than the fact that it’s magical. Once seen as a cause for concern, it’s managed to blend into the background after eight centuries of not causing any apparent problems.

With this chamber finished, we’ve got three more parts of Brazenthrone left to do, the next of which will be the Iron Mines. But before that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, a hanging wizard’s tower built into a stalactite. It’s a concept that allows for some unusual design decisions compared to your standard tube of rocks poking out of the ground. I think it might lead to something pretty interesting when it’s finished. Well, I’ll be back with it in a bit and we’ll see!

There are DM notes for this map available to patrons.

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Brazenthrone – The Mushroom Farms – Ground Level

Here’s the non-annotated version and here are the DM notes, which I’m giving out to everybody because there are some unintuitive things about the Mushroom Farms and I want everyone to understand why they are the way they are.

One of the buildings here is Meard’s Dwarven White Whiskey distillery. White whiskey is a thing I came up with while thinking about dwarven liquor. I thought, “Dwarves are known for drinking really strong ale, right? So what is their liquor like? How strong is that?” This was my answer.

I introduced white whiskey to my players at a tavern once. The bartender told them it’s too strong for anyone but dwarves, so, of course, everyone HAD to try it. He put a tiny metal cup in front of each of them, filled them up and backed away. When the players threw their drinks back, I told everyone who wasn’t a dwarf to make a CON save. Those who failed vomited immediately, violently and copiously.

Later, they came to find out what’s in white whiskey: alcohol. And nothing else. It’s just a bottle of ethyl alcohol. That’s dwarven liquor.

The second (and final) level of the Mushroom farms is close to being finished and I should have it up later tonight, tomorrow at the latest. It’s just roofs, but that’s part of the protocol.

After that, I’m drawing the floating fortress warship that was voted on as an honorary Great Vote winner several months back. It’s been a while since I’ve done a ship map and it’s about time for another one. Unless the half a ship in Whiskey Point counts, which it doesn’t. Okay, I’m gonna go finish up the mushroom farms!

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Brazenthrone – The Hollows

Here’s the non-annotated version and the DM notes.

The Hollows are the closest thing Brazenthrone has to slums. They’re the poorest neighborhood in the city and, secretly, the home of the local Thieves’ Guild. They also have the lowest ceiling of any chamber in the city.

Rising only seven feet above the floor, the walls of the buildings here go from the ground to the chamber’s roof, making the streets more like winding tunnels. The second level is actually a separate chamber altogether, located directly above the first. Imagine going to work in the mines, then coming home to a place every bit as cramped. That’s life in the Hollows. There’s more information about the area– particularly the Thieves’ Guild– in the DM notes, if you’re interested.

There are five more parts of Brazenthrone to go and I think the next one will be the Mushroom Farms. There’s going to be a distillery there that makes something called “Dwarven White Whiskey,” which is a drink my players encountered once at a tavern. I’ll explain more about it when the map is done.

But before that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: an abandoned fortress with a lighthouse at the end of a peninsula, taken over by pirates and turned into a black market trading port. Well, I’m gonna start sketching that out! See you in a bit!

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Brazenthrone – Excavation

This is a new, unnamed chamber of Brazenthrone currently being excavated. It’s at 19 on this map. This is where dwarven cities come from: lots and lots of tedious digging. Fortunately, that’s a thing dwarves happen to be into. For them, hammering away at rock is like… taking a walk in the woods. Or petting a kitten. You can hardly even call it work.

With that done, there are now six chambers of the city left to draw. Six! There are three small residential districts, plus the Iron Mines, the Mushroom Farms and the Old Palace. I don’t see any way that this doesn’t get finished by the end of the year at the latest.

Coming up next is Greenskin Rock, a cluster of sea stacks with a goblin or kobold community living inside. After that, we’re back to Brazenthrone with the Hollows (12 on the map above). It’s a residential district, but there are two things that make it a little more interesting than most: first, it’s the bad part of town. Crime, heroin, bad language… they’ve got it all. And second, it’s where the thieves’ guild is secretly located. I’m not sure where I’m going to hide it away, but I’ll come up with something interesting.

All right, I’m gonna get to it!

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Brazenthrone – The Oreworks – Third Level

And here’s the last level of the Oreworks. Is there much here on the third floor? No. Is there a hole through which your players can drop someone into a blast furnace? Yes sir, there is.

Honestly, I think the real potential of the Oreworks is that there’s all kinds of dangerous stuff sitting around that can make a fight here a lot more interesting. Furnaces, molten metal, an assortment of smashing machines… there are a lot of hilariously terrible ways to die here. Something to think about.

Anyway, next up is a mountaintop airship port. A place to gas up the ol’ flying machine, make some repairs, sell off some loot, have a few drinks and get in a fight. It’s not going to be nearly as much like a truck stop as I’m making it sound. After that, it’s back to Brazenthrone. I’m not sure what I’m doing next, but it’s not the Old Palace. I’m saving that for last to make sure it ends on a high note.

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Brazenthrone – The Oreworks – Second Level

Here’s the second floor of Brazenthrone‘s Oreworks. Not too much going on, but now you know what those horses are walking around in circles for. Also, the Miners’ Guildhall isn’t just a bar, even though it is mostly a bar.

I’ve actually got the third level done as well, I just need to make the VTT and print versions and so forth. I’ll have it up later tonight. All right, I’m gonna grab something to eat and get on that.