Category: The Black Loch

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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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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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Deep Gnome Mining Outpost (Work-In-Progress)

These are the upper two levels of the deep gnome settlement I’m working on. I decided it’d be abandoned after raiders sacked the place, since I think this would be much more interesting to explore as a dungeon than as a town. In any case, there’ll be an unfurnished version as well.

I don’t typically write adventures for my maps, but inspiration struck me with this and I have… let’s call it the framework of an adventure for you. There are a couple details you need to plug in, but it’s basically all there. It’s nothing complicated, but I think it’d be fun.

By the way, the picture above is the scan of the drawings. Normally, I just take a photo when I post work-in-progress pics, but, at the moment, the only camera I have access to is the one on my wife’s Kindle. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to take a decent picture with that thing and failing miserably. This is the best photo I could get that potato to take. The worst wouldn’t even be identifiable as a drawing, haha.

Anyway, all the drawing is done for this and I’m in the middle of coloring it now. I’d better get back to it!

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The Lair of Kaliphex

In case anyone is having a hard time understanding this complex labyrinth of a map, I made an annotated version to break it down for you. Hopefully that clears everything up.

There’s an unfurnished version, too, in case you need a cave without a giant, golden head and huge piles of cash. I suspect your players will prefer the one with the money, but it’s up to you.

So, the Lair of Kaliphex is a part of the Black Loch and is home to the resident dragon. Patrons can read about her in the DM notes, but here are the important parts:

  1. Kaliphex is a red dragon.
  2. She’s around 11,000 years old. Even for a dragon, that’s ridiculously old.
  3. She’s not evil. She’s not good, either, but she’s killed and destroyed so much that it just doesn’t do anything for her anymore.
  4. She’s lived on a number of different worlds. The last one may have been the Old World, where the tabletop wargame Warhammer was set. And she may— possibly— own Ghal Maraz.

For those of you unfamiliar with Warhammer, Ghal Maraz is the specific warhammer from which the game gets its name. It was made by dwarves, wielded by a god and seemed like an appropriate thing for an 11,000-year-old dragon to have.

In case you’re wondering, I do play Warhammer. My army is mixed Destruction and it’s pretty weird. The general is an ogre on a pink stonehorn. I’ve also got some orc cavalry whose armor is painted with elaborate heraldry like Brettonian knights. I call them the “High Orc Noble Cavalry.” And then there’s Pamela the Devourer, a colossal squig wearing way too much makeup and crashing through a wall like a demented Kool-Aid man. I want to be clear that no part of that last sentence was a joke or an exaggeration. I paint some weird stuff.

I also play Warhammer 40K, for which I have a Tyranid army. I mainly play Tyranids because I like the models, but it’s also nice to be on the team that’s winning. I haven’t actually played in quite a while, but I’m looking forward to meeting up with a friend for a game as soon as the Warhammer store re-opens. He’s probably reading this and, yes, I mean you. I haven’t forgotten.

Next, I’m going to be drawing a spelljammer. I drew a mind flayer dreadnought a few months ago, but this is going to be a more reasonable-sized vessel. Something for the party to cruise around in. Spelljammer is the one setting where people are still using maps from 1995 and I think it’d be good to get a proper map out there for DMs running their games offworld. I’m not sure exactly what kind of ship design I’ll be doing, but it’s not going to be the kind that just looks like a boat.

Well, I’m gonna go look at some spelljammers. If you’ve got any suggestions, let me know!

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Black Loch Tokens

You can download these tokens here.

These are tokens for everybody in the Black Loch with a name, plus some Tideborne orogs, Darksong Knights and an assortment of kuo-toa. And a chicken. There are also some alternate versions, most of which are just different skin colors.

Here’s a link to the DM notes for the Deep Spire in case you need a reminder of who these people are. That’s where everyone with a name is from, with the exception of the three ogres, who are from the Chesterboro Arms.

Anyway, I hope they’re useful to you! By the way, are the kuo-toa a little too murloc? I’m still not sure. Whatever, here’s a picture of everyone hanging out in the Chesterboro:

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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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Glogdolp: A Kuo-Toa Village

Here’s the annotated version.

Glogdolp is a kuo-toa village in the Black Loch. The main things they do here are mollusk farming and slaving. That big jail isn’t there to deal with widespread naughtiness.

Glogdolp is at the tail end of a larger kuo-toan nation called the Bluescale Empire, which stretches down the river to the south. They don’t have much of a presence in the Loch at the moment, but they have plans to change that. Those plans aren’t really happening in Glogdolp, but when we get to the nearby kuo-toa stronghold, you’ll get a look at the kind of nonsense they have in mind.

Basically, it’s crabs. Huge crabs. Like, stupidly huge crabs. Siege crabs. The Bluescale Empire is secretly breeding them and, at some point, they intend to use them to take over the loch.

Personally, I think Glogdolp would be a good place for a rescue mission. The kind that starts with a few potions of water breathing, so the party can sneak in through the underwater caverns. Or you could even have the party stop here to ask about something, then have them happen to see a bunch of slaves getting led into the cells. You know, start pushing some emotional buttons, get an argument going between the paladin and the rogue. We have to save them! We totally don’t. My god says we do! I don’t care about your god. You did when he was curing your Thayvian Crotch Leprosy!

Next, I’m going to draw a roof-level map of Glogdolp, which should only take a day or two. After that, I’m going to draw some tokens. Specifically, I’m going to make tokens pertaining to the Black Loch. So, kuo-toa, Lim the Ogre,  the orogs and drow of the Deep Spire, and so forth. If I’m going to draw all the places in the Black Loch, I might as well draw the people as well. That shouldn’t take long either.

By the way, if you don’t know about the tokens I made, there are around 270 of them and they’re free. You can download them all here.

Anyway, I hope you like the map! Let me know what you think of the Black Loch so far!

There are DM notes for this map available to patrons.

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Kuo Toa-Village – Work-In-Progress

I’m in the middle of coloring this at the moment. There are also a series of underwater caverns below, but I’ll show you those when it’s done.

The main thing the kuo-toa in this village do is capture travelers to serve as slaves or sacrifices. This is one of the reasons people stay at the godawful inn nearby. When the choice is either sleeping on a bed that smells like weapons-grade cat urine or getting brutally sacrificed to an imaginary fish goddess, most people would choose the former.

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The Chesterboro Arms – Lim the Ogre, Proprietor

Here’s the non-annotated version and here are the DM notes. This map is a part of the Black Loch.

The Chesterboro Arms is a straight up dump. Nobody thinks they’d ever stay at a place like the Chester, but then they find themselves in a REALLY scary part of the underdark. Wherever you look, there are bandits, monsters and all kinds of awful crap that wants to kill you. You probably shouldn’t even be there and you’re damn sure not sleeping there, so you press on. And you keep pressing on. And after a couple days of walking, you’d give anything just for a nap.

And then you see it: the Chesterboro Inn. Is the food good? You don’t care. Have the beds ever been washed? You don’t care. Is it safe to sleep here? Well, the innkeeper is the biggest ogre you’ve ever seen, so… yeah, probably. And, sure, the building looks like it’s going to collapse, but what are the odds that it happens today?

If you have questions about the Chesterboro Arms, you should understand that you’re supposed to have questions. I didn’t just set out to make this place crappy, I wanted it to be hilariously crappy. The outhouse is huge. You have to go through a bedroom to get to the storeroom. There’s a shed full of chairs. I don’t really have an explanation for that stuff, except that they seemed like things Lim the Ogre would do. Speaking of which, if you want to know the story of how an ogre opens an inn, that’s in the DM notes.

I’m going to draw another Black Loch map next, maybe the kuo-toa village. After that, I’ll do something other than the loch. You know, mix it up a bit. Anyway, I hope you like the Chesterboro! If your party ends up going there, please tell me how it went. I seriously want to know.