Category: The Deep Spire

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The Complete Black Loch Token Collection

These are the rest of the tokens for the Black Loch. You can download the complete collection here.

The collection also contains the previous tokens I made for the Black Loch, as well as the ship tokens, so there should now be tokens of every creature I’ve mentioned in the lore, as well as every significant character.

With that crossed off the list, there’s only one thing left to do: draw the last map. The final location is a place called Charwall and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it until I found some inspiration in a couple of proposals for the Black Loch Conclave.

The first proposal was for a colony of dragonborn who worship Kaliphex the Immortal (the dragon in the picture above). The second proposal was for a kobold settlement in a series of watery tunnels– a sort of “Kobold Venice,” if you will. Those proposals sparked some ideas and I put them together to create Charwall.

Basically, Charwall is a settlement of draconic races, with dragonborn, dragonkin, half-dragons and kobolds living together. Most of the residents aren’t from the underdark and they’re not exactly sure why they came to Charwall. They just know that they were drawn to the place, by something.

That something is Kaliphex the Immortal, an 11,000-year-old red dragon who resides nearby. It’s unclear even to Kaliphex what’s causing this, but she came to the Black Loch to be alone and now a group of dragonkin appear to be worshipping her. I’ll figure out the details of what’s going on as I work on the map.

As I said, this will be the last part of the Black Loch. It’s been quite a journey so far and I hope it’s turned out as well as you’d hoped. I’ve got another journey in mind after this is done and I’m looking forward to telling you about it.

Well, I’m gonna get to work. Let’s get this thing over the finish line.

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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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The Deep Spire: All Levels

Here are the non-annotated version and the unfurnished version. Also, here are the DM notes in case you missed the last post.

Sorry, this took a bit longer than I expected, mostly due to the Photoshop-crashingly large size of the image file. As soon as the stores open back up, I’m buying a new computer. I bought my current one when my previous machine died and it’s still kicking, but it’s time for an upgrade. I haven’t bought anything other than food in almost a year, so as soon as the stores open back up, I’m going to the local indie computer place with the name that probably sounded super hi-tech in 1989 and I’m gonna tell them I need a machine that will literally melt a hole through my desk the second the video card starts running. I’m “supporting local businesses,” or at least that’s my excuse.

Anyway, there are a couple more things I still need to make for this, including some multi-floor maps. You can use this one with all the floors, of course, but I’m going to make some maps with three levels each as well. I think I can get all that posted later today.

Well, I hope you like the Deep Spire! It was a month’s work, but I think it’s a pretty good start to the Black Loch. Let me know what you think!

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The Deep Spire: 6th Level and the Citadel

Here are the annotated version and the unfurnished version. And here are the  DM notes.

The last part of the Deep Spire is done and so are the DM notes, which… well, they started off as “notes” but, by the end, they were somewhere between a “lengthy screed” and a “borderline manifesto.” Anyway, they go pretty deep into the history of the spire and the people who live there.

For those disinclined to read them, the TL;DR is this: a clan of orog raiders called the Tideborne settled the place, a drow noble house rescued the orogs from disaster and moved in, then they opened the place up to settlers and traders to make money.

If you’re not familiar with orogs, they’re The Other Underdark Race. I like them for when I want an NPC who isn’t a duergar, drow or deep gnome, but I also don’t want them to be some weird crap like a cloaker or whatever. Orogs are basically orcs, except better. They’re Orcs 2.0. They’re bigger, as smart as humans and have sophisticated, well-organized societies.

Of course, they’re not any less into the raiding scene than orcs are, but, to be fair, that’s a very practical trade in a society where everyone is the size of Andre the Giant.

Anyway, the DM notes will give you plenty to read, so I’ll leave the post at that. There’s a few more things to make for the spire, including some tokens I mentioned previously and an assembled map with all of the spire in it. I’m going to make an annotated version of that as well, which will have a little more flavor to it, now that I’ve got more of the lore figured out. It shouldn’t take more than two days, so I’ll be back with that soon. Hopefully a few people will have made it through the DM notes by then, haha.

All right, back to work!

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The Deep Spire: 5th Level

Here’s the annotated version and the unfurnished version.

This part of the Deep Spire looks a little different from the rest. I’ll talk about why in the DM notes, which will be coming with the next map, but I’ll explain it a bit here.

So, this part of the spire is occupied entirely by a drow noble house: House Vaerixas. They were once the ruling house of the city of Vlyn’darastyl, but they now live here in exile.

As with most drow cities, the dominant deity of Vlyn’darastyl was Lolth. But, unusually, the deity revered by their ruling family was not. For ages, House Vaerixas worshipped Eilistraee, the drow goddess of freedom and beauty, instead. While the other nobles may have preferred a ruling house that was more in line with the others, they had grown accustomed to it and, for their part, House Vaerixas made no attempt to impose their goddess or her rules on the rest.

Then the Matron Mother died and her daughter Ysri took her place. While the old matron was devoted to her goddess, Ysri Vaerixas was a zealot. Under her rule, the will of Eilistraee would never be denied or compromised. After abolishing slavery– an institution abhorrent to Eilistraee– the other houses rose up against Ysri, forcing her to flee with the surviving members of House Vaerixas.

They came to the Deep Spire, occupied at the time by a gang of raiders in need of protection from a coming assault. Ysri made their leader an offer: she would establish a home in the spire and an arrangement of co-rulership would be created between her house and the bandits. In exchange, the renowned and feared Darksong Knights of House Vaerixas– paladins of Eilistraee– would stand in their defense. The bandit leader reluctantly agreed and their agreement has stood ever since.

Many things have changed in the spire since then, but Ysri’s burning need for retribution has not. She resides in the spire for now, but she doesn’t plan to forever.

So, the story of the spire is coming together. You are, of course, free to tell your own, but I feel like a map this big needs to have some lore in order to make it easier to use for those DMs who don’t have the time to worldbuild it all from scratch.

The next map will be the last part of the spire and will include the floor above this, as well as the citadel, which you can see here. After that, I’ll put the whole thing into one big image. I didn’t think that’d be a usable size for VTTs, but I just found out that Foundry can handle maps up to 50MB. Like, 50 megs. Fifty. Holy crap. So, I’ll make a VTT version of that as well.

Also, I’m in the process of fixing up the public Foundry module. There’s nothing new in there, but I’ve been tidying it up, so you may want to update it if you’re using it soon. There’s more tidying to do and I’ll let you know when it’s finished.

Man, I can’t wait for the other VTTs to catch up to Foundry’s file size limit. I’ve got 50MB ideas and, if you give me a 50MB canvas, I am just going to take my foot completely off the brakes. We will be on the autobahn to Crazy Town.

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The Deep Spire: 4th Level

Also, here’s the annotated version and here’s the unfurnished version.

Higher and higher we go! I usually crop my maps closer to the edges, but I want to leave in all of the background so you can see the lower levels spiraling below. It should be fine, since this is only 44×43 anyway, which is fairly small as my maps go.

This level of the Deep Spire is predominantly inhabited by deep gnomes and has a gemcutter’s workshop, a tinkerer and the spire’s second tavern, where the locals drink. The tavern is hidden away from the main walkway in order to keep the visiting sailors from finding the place.

There’s also has a big, open plaza, which is a good spot for an encounter that requires a little more space than you’d find in most of the spire. And it’s still located conveniently close to the edge, meaning your players can chuck the enemies over the side. Or, if your players are being all “Phoenix Wright, Rules Attorney,” you can have the enemies chuck them over the side. Plenty of exciting possibilities.

The next level will be the drow neighborhood, which will have, among other things, the estate of a drow noble house living in exile. The last level will begin with a gatehouse, which guards the barracks on the other side and the citadel beyond that. I’ll probably just make the 6th level and the citadel one single map, so there will be two more to go.

Well, despite my repeated requests, this map refuses to draw itself, so I’d better get back to it!

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The Deep Spire: 3rd Level

Here’s the unfurnished version.

I haven’t written the DM notes for the Deep Spire yet, but I have been thinking about what will be in them. Particularly the lore.

My story about this place– and, of course, everyone is welcome to replace any or all of it with their own– is that it’s a community of exiles. Drow, duergar, deep gnomes and other underdark denizens who fled or were cast out of their own societies come here to live among the other undesirables.

Here’s a few of the ideas I’ve come up with for residents of the spire:

  • A duergar married to a mountain dwarf from Brazenthrone.
  • A friendly, outgoing deep gnome merchant who’s responsible for seven murders in his hometown.
  • A duergar paladin of Moradin, god of the mountain dwarves.
  • A completely sane and reasonable derro.
  • A male drow who fled his abusive family and fell in love with a human who was the most compassionate, caring woman he’d ever met. She’s actually a semi-notorious ex-pirate with a vengeful disposition, but she is very kindhearted by drow standards.

While the locals generally tolerate other races fairly well– a necessity for living here– language and culture have led to some parts of the spire being predominantly one race or another. The third level here is mostly duergar. There are quite a few of them in the spire, largely due to the fact that their strict societies reject anything but total obedience and conformity. And any sort of fun is basically illegal.

The levels above this will be predominantly deep gnomes and drow. The top level, which connects to the citadel, will be devoted to the guards. I’ve got some thoughts on who the guards will be and who’s in charge of the place, but it’s still pretty nebulous, so I’ll talk more about that once I’ve worked it out a bit more.

Anyway, I hope you like how it’s coming along. Let me know what you think so far!

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The Deep Spire: The Grotto – Also, the next big project: The Black Loch

Three maps in nine days feels like a pretty good pace. Although, to be fair, all three maps are actually part of a larger map of the Deep Spire. Which is, itself, part of an even larger map of the Black Loch. Speaking of which, I haven’t mentioned the loch in a while, so let’s go over it again for anyone who isn’t aware.

After finishing Brazenthrone, an enormous dwarven city that took two years to draw, I said I had plans for another huge project. That project is the Black Loch and it will involve mapping out an entire campaign setting.

The Black Loch is a small sea in the Underdark, maybe 100 miles (160km) across. My plan is to make a regional map of the loch, with around 15-20 different locations marked on it. There will be towns, caves, ruins and so forth. For every place marked on the map, I will draw a 5′ scale battlemap of the location itself.

Once it’s finished, you’ll have a map of an entire region of the Underdark and, for every place in that region your players might want to go, there will be a battlemap. If they head to the kuo-toa village, you have a map of that. The island with the ancient ruins? You have a map of that too. The duergar outpost, the underwater temple, the abandoned illithid settlement? Complete maps and DM notes for all of them, ready to go.

While I haven’t drawn the regional map of the Black Loch yet, there are maps of two of the locations that will be on it. One is the Deep Spire. The other is the The Drow City of Vlyn’darastyl, which is the only place that will have a city map instead of a battlemap.

I intend to draw the regional map of the loch in the next month or two. Once that’s finished, I’ll start working on maps of each of the locations. I don’t have a specific schedule planned, but I want to do at least one Black Loch location per month until it’s done. Like Brazenthrone, it’ll be a big project and I want to make steady progress, but I don’t want to draw it exclusively from start to finish.

Anyway, that’s the plan. It’s completely insane and it’ll be a ton of work, but that’s what makes it my kind of plan. I hope you’re looking forward to it.

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The Deep Spire: The Harbor Tower

Here’s the unfurnished version of this map.

This is a hollowed-out column of rock overlooking the entrance to the Deep Spire’s harbor. There’s not too much going on here. Some artillery, some guards’ quarters and, most notably, the jail. That’s where you go if you commit a crime and you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, they just take you to the top of the spire and throw you off. The Deep Spire only has two punishments:

  1. Death
  2. Get the hell out.

If you’re in jail, you were fortunate enough to get number two and they’re waiting for the next ship on its way elsewhere. Anyway, just something to keep in mind, especially if you have a player who has a high probability of peeing in the well.

Next up is the grotto, which I should get finished by tomorrow. I’ll be back with that soon!

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The Deep Spire, 2nd Level

First, here’s the annotated version and the unfurnished version.

There’s a bunch of stuff I want to tell you about this, so let’s get started. This is the trade district of the spire. Most of the shops are here, the tavern is here… basically, this is the part of town where traders come to do business and get sloppy drunk before heading off.

The annotated version is sort of a first draft and I intend to make another one with every floor included once it’s all done. I don’t plan to change much, but I want to add some flavor. I’ll give the tavern a name, stuff like that. By the way, if you’re wondering about the unmarked rooms, they’re residences.

Two other parts of the spire are visible here, but will be getting their own maps. On the bottom left is the tower overlooking the harbor entrance, which you can see in this drawing of the exterior. On the right, underneath the bridge, is the grotto. Both of these are already drawn and will be posted here in a day or two.

This map has an unusual feature that might be a problem for some DMs, mainly those on VTTs. From here up, the levels of the map aren’t connected by stairs. It’s one big spiral all the way to the top, which means you could potentially have an encounter on one level that spills over onto the next one. And no one wants to have to switch between maps that much.

Ideally, you’d plan your encounters to take place away from the transition between levels, but you know how players are. Sometimes they’ll just pick a fight with some rando and you’ve got to roll initiative when you weren’t expecting to.

Anyway, I think I have a solution to this: tokens. Big tokens with about 1/4 of the next floor on them. In Foundry, these would be “tiles,” but it’s the same thing. You can just overlay part of the next floor onto the current one and any fight that spills over can be handled without switching maps. You could even place them in advance and hide them, to be revealed if necessary. I think they should make things easier, but if you have any thoughts about it, let me know.

As I said, I’ve got the tower and the grotto maps ready to color and I should have them done in a day or so each. I’m gonna get to work on those. Hope you like the spire so far!