Category: Desert

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The Great Pyramid of Khufu, depicted before it was looted.

Here’s the non-annotated version and here’s another non-annotated version without the treasure.

I didn’t draw this because it’s the most famous pyramid in the world, I drew it because I genuinely think it’s fascinating. But exactly what is fascinating about it is hard to convey in a map alone, which is why I made the version above to explain it. There’s a mysterious tunnel that leads nowhere. There’s a set of three granite slabs that were dropped down to seal the burial chamber. There’s a narrow, vertical passage with a hidden entrance. And it runs through a cave.

I think this would be a great place for an adventure. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just have somebody tell the party it’s there and it’s full of treasure, then have them figure out how to get inside. Personally, I think it’d be fun to let the players think it’s just a fantasy map. Then, after the session is over, tell them they just looted the Great Pyramid. Yeah, in Giza, the big one. Yep, that’s what that was.

Well, I’m not drawing another pyramid next. Instead, I’m going to draw the regional map of the Black Loch. I expect this to change over time as I come up with new ideas and develop the lore of the place, so think of it as the Black Loch v1.0. It’ll have a bunch of locations marked on it, which should give you an idea of what it’s going to look like as it comes together. Any changes I end up making will probably add things rather than subtract them, so I’d say you can probably expect to see maps of whatever is there.

Anyway, I hope you like the map! This concludes our Egyptian tetrahedral mausoleum double feature.

There are DM notes for this map available to patrons.

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The Pyramid of Sobek

If you’re looking for a slightly more classic pyramid, here’s the alternate “cool but can you dial that back just a bit” version.

Sobek is the Egyptian god of the Nile and is depicted here a few times. Fun fact: Sobek was history’s first dragonborn. A lot of people thought Wizards of the Coast came up with them in 4th ed. D&D, but the truth is, the Egyptians came up with them around 2500BC. True story, look it up.

The bottom level of the pyramid was inspired by Tutankhamun’s tomb, the red stone sarcophagus being a good example of that. Some of the upper levels, on the other hand, get a little less historical and a little more this guy. That may not be quite what everybody’s looking for, but that’s why I made the alternate version.

I spent some time looking at the insides of actual pyramids while drawing this. Not because I was trying to make it historically accurate, but because I wanted it to have a similar sort of feel. One of the pyramids I looked at quite a bit was the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the largest of the pyramids of Giza. I briefly considered designing this map around that, but that wasn’t going to work. I do still want to draw it, though, and I’ve decided I’m going to do that next.

Let me explain why. It’s not a perfect place for an RPG map, but it has some things going for it:

  1. It feels authentic, because it is. I think that counts for a lot.
  2. I want to draw it as it was before it was looted. This lets you give your players the experience of being the first people to break into the Great Pyramid and I think that would be pretty awesome.
  3. Breaking in without boring a hole through the side (which is what happened) would involve this: smashing a stone seal over the entrance, heading into a tunnel that leads deep underground, finding the entrance to a narrow passage concealed behind a wall, then climbing 150′ (50m) up that nearly vertical passage, which runs through a small, natural cave. There’s more, but are you intrigued yet?

I don’t know if this sounds as interesting to anyone else as it does to me, but I really think this could be an amazing experience and I’ve got a powerful urge to draw the place. In any case, it shouldn’t take that long.

Well, I’m gonna get started. I hope I didn’t talk up the next pyramid so much that people lost interest in this one. In any case, let me know what you think!

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

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Wahat Al-Hasan Oasis

I did quite a bit of research for this map, particularly on Middle Eastern architecture and furnishings. It isn’t based on any real place, but it was inspired by the Masjid Wazir Khan in Pakistan and the Buland Darwaza in India.

As I was skimming through the various reference material I used here, I came across something largely unrelated, but ridiculously awesome: zamburaks. This is a small cannon mounted on a camel. Not pulled by a camel, mounted on the camel. It’s a camel with a cannon turret on its back and I swear to god it was a real thing that people did. My players are in the middle of a frozen wasteland at the moment and I want to stop everything and drag them out to a desert just so I can have them get shot at by a camel cannon.

I’ll resist the urge to do that, but maybe you don’t have to. See the stables in the map there? *Slaps roof* This bad boy can fit six zamburaks in it. I am just saying.

Next up is last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: a village for an amphibious people, located on a hill that is submerged during high tide. An inn at the top of the hill is the only structure permanently above water. I’ve got a lot of ideas churning around for this one and I think it’ll end up being pretty interesting. Anyway, let me know what you think of the map! Or zamburaks.

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The Red Towers II: Orcstralia

Here’s the alternate version of the Red Towers for those of you who prefer a drier greenskin lair. I was thinking of calling it “Stinky Uluru,” but I didn’t think anyone would get it except Australians and people who played Civilization 5.

I decided everyone should have the annotated version of this map. It seemed like some things might be a little confusing without it. Anyway, here’s some other stuff. Check the previous post if you’re not sure what the tokens are for:

Next up is another Brazenthrone map: the Hollows. This is the bad part of town, where your players can go to fence some stolen loot, join the thieves’ guild or just score drugs. This is the sixth-to-last chamber of Brazenthrone left to go! After two years of drawing, it’s nearly finished! Can you believe it?

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The Shattered Gates – The Last Remnant of an Ancient, Forgotten City

Normally, when I finish a map, I just open up my ideas notebook and pick another to do next. This time, as soon as I picked it up, I realized that all those ideas were up for a vote and I couldn’t draw them yet. So, I came up with this.

This is something I thought would be an interesting place to run an adventure. I didn’t have any particular sort of story in mind. Mainly I thought it’d make a unique lair for goblins, bandits or whoever else is getting their ass kicked this week. If you’re using it as an uninhabited ruin, here’s a version without the bridges.

After this is the Pits of Justice, then I think I’ll get started on Old Madeleine’s Inn and Fighting Pit. That’s an idea that’s been in the book for a long time and I’m really glad you guys picked it.

There are DM notes for this map available to patrons.

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The Source of the Lifespring

 

I have two versions of this and I’m not sure which I like more, so I’m uploading them both.  This is the other version, with brighter colors.  There’s also the version with no colors, as usual.  Hopefully you like one of those.

Thanks again to everyone who joined my patreon.  That was definitely a much bigger response to Finbarr’s Marsh than I was expecting.  And if you liked Finbarr’s Marsh, I have good news: you ain’t seen nothing yet.  The next megaproject is going to be 6-8 times that size.  And it may be kicking off a lot sooner than I expected.

This map has DM notes available for patrons.