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The Village of Spyr-Anaisz

Here’s the non-annotated version of the map.

Spyr-Anaisz is a small drow village in the Black Loch. The residents here aren’t big city drow, they’re rural drow. Drow hillbillies, if you will.

I don’t picture them chewing tobacco or wearing cowboy hats, but I imagine there’s a different sort of culture here. A bit less backstabbing and cutting throats to get ahead. Not much infighting among the nobility, since there’s only one noble house. And I think the city drow would probably look down on them, as inferior drow from an inferior place.

With an economy based around fishing and mushroom farming, Spyr-Anaisz isn’t a particularly wealthy community, but they are a fairly safe one. Built in and around a cluster of giant stalactites, the village hangs 80′ (25m) above the ground, making the list of dangerous creatures the people of Spyr-Anaisz have to worry about quite a bit shorter than it would be if they lived down below with everyone else. It isn’t the most convenient living arrangement, but sometimes convenience has to come second to security. Especially in the Underdark.

Next up, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner. This will be a multi-level village built in and around the branches and trunk of a giant tree, with bridges running between the buildings. I haven’t drawn a map like this in ages and I’m really glad to get another chance.

It’s not the first map of a tree village anyone’s ever made, but I think it’ll be a pretty unique take on the idea. I’ve got a lot of ideas about it swimming around in my head right now and I really want to start sketching things out and see how they look on paper. I think I’m gonna get started on that now.

Well, I hope you like Spyr-Anaisz. Let me know what you think!

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A few things to mention before I leave for Mont-Saint-Michel

As I mentioned previously, I’m heading to France today. I’m going to visit Mont-St-Michel, the Chateau de Chenonceau and the Chateau de Breze. I’ll be gone for a little over a week, which is a little weird for me, since I very much like what I do and hardly take a day off. Anyway, before I leave, there are a few things I wanted to mention.

First, the picture above is the Silver Dragon Inn, an inn with a dragon’s lair underneath. I did get everything drawn (including the lair), but I didn’t manage to color it before the trip. I’ll finish it up as soon as I get back.

Second, I promised a while back that I’d draw another spelljammer map in three months or so. When I get back from France, it’ll have been three months, so that’ll be the next map. I said it’d be a larger, late-game spelljammer and I’m going to let patrons decide which one. I’ll be posting the vote on my patreon as soon as I’m done posting this.

Third, one of the places I’m going, the Chateau de Breze, is something I’ve wanted to draw a map of for a long time. The best way I can explain this place is that it’s a castle with a sprawling set of tunnels and chambers below. It’s like it has a D&D map from 1986 underneath it. Seriously, have a look.

I haven’t been able to draw the place because I’ve never been able to find a decent floor plan. But I’m going to bring a sketchbook with me and make one. I won’t be drawing it for a while, but I wanted to mention it anyway. I haven’t forgotten about that Indian temple, either. It’ll still be the next historical map, but I might wait until the Black Loch is done.

Finally, if there’s anything you need while I’m gone, feel free to send me a message. I’ll get online a few times while I’m away and answer any messages.

Before I go, I should say that I’ve wanted to see Mont-St-Michel for a long time and I want to thank all my patrons for giving me the ability to finally go. This is kind of a big deal for me and I want you all to know that I truly do appreciate it.

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My wife drew this map.

I’ve been drawing fantasy maps for a living for about 3 1/2 years now and, in my house, there is exactly one map framed and hanging on the wall. It is this map. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. This might be my favorite map ever.

For context, this is a map of all the places in North America that my wife could identify. It’s important to mention that she’s from Ireland and she was VERY hung over at the time. So, you can laugh at her knowledge of American geography, but only if you know whether Limerick is east or west of Dun Laoghaire. And you have to know how to pronounce Dun Laoghaire.

So, let’s talk about the map. At the top, we have Canada, or rather, CANADA, which is looking good. Below that, we’ve got Ohio, along with Lake Erie above it. Not the most famous place, but it’s where I’m from. Then we’ve got fLorida further down, capitalized in the traditional way. Then, at the bottom, there’s Mexico, which looks pretty solid. Note the possibly-unintentional Baja Peninsula.

Along the west coast, things get interesting. You’ve got an unlabeled California and Oregon, along with a tiny… I’m not sure. Possibly some sort of Canadian Mini-Florida? In any case, she drew an X on it, so there’s apparently treasure.

I’m not sure how useful this map is for RPG purposes, but I put a grid on it just in case. I also made a hex version because, you know, why not.

Well, I hope you like this as much as I do, although I’m not sure that’s possible. This map makes me unspeakably happy.

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Two Things

First, if you’re a patron, I need you to break a tie in the Cartographic Congress. The vote has been 10-10 for several days now, so I’m opening it up to all patrons. It’s time to finish this.

Second, there are a few streamers who have been using my maps lately and I wanted to mention them in case anyone was interested. I get a huge thrill out of seeing videos of people using my stuff. I don’t know, it’s like my map is on TV.

Anyway, DM Filly is running a Spelljammer campaign on Twitch called “Dragonfly” and he’s using my Dragonfly map. I was actually watching his campaign before he started using it and, the first time he did, I swear to god, I did exactly what Leo is doing in the picture above. Here’s links:

Also, Andyisyoda is a Minecraft streamer who’s been building some of my maps on his stream. He recently built Five Arches and, before that, Finbarr’s Marsh.

If anyone else out there is streaming their game and wants to use my maps, you are welcome to do so pretty much unconditionally. If you already are, feel free to post a link to your stream/youtube/podcast/etc in the comments.

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The Black Loch Conclave (AKA “The Unholyrood”)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I wanted to hold a vote to give more people a voice in the creation of the Black Loch. Here are the details on that:

First, I’m going to send out a message to all patrons asking for proposals for new locations for the loch. If you have an idea for a place you think would make an interesting addition, please reply to the message with a brief description of your idea (or a long one, if necessary). In any case, I’ll get more details from you if your proposal is chosen.

The call for proposals will be sent through patreon’s messaging system, so if you don’t check that very often, please do. I’ll be sending it out tonight.

I’ll start the voting in a week or two, depending on the number of proposals. The first round of voting will consist of multiple votes, with around 10 proposals each.

After that, the two proposals with the most votes from each ballot will be pitted against each other in a second round of voting. Runoff votes will be held until one location wins. That location will be added to the loch and, of .

There are a few rules:

  1. One proposal per person.
  2. No megaprojects. If you think your proposal might be a megaproject, send it to me anyway and I’ll let you know. Keep in mind that the Flying Rook and Five Arches are not megaprojects, so you can still think pretty big.
  3. With the above exception, you can propose any kind of location you like. It can be tied in with the existing lore of the Black Loch or it can be entirely new.
  4. If you have a proposal, there’s no time limit to tell me, as long as you let me know before the final first-round vote is posted. This could be as long as a month from now, but I’ll make sure you have at least two weeks.
  5. All patrons can participate in all votes. All votes count equally.

And that’s it. If you have any questions, leave a comment or shoot me a message!

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Black Loch Naval Battlemaps and Tokens

You can download the ship tokens and maps here.

I spent yesterday and today making a bunch of stuff to help you run naval battles in the Black Loch. Most of it is in the picture above. There are nine ship tokens, plus two tokens of the loch’s resident sea creature, the Whisperer. One of the tokens shows the Whisperer clearly and the other is just a dark shadow under the water to freak your players out with.

There are also four maps that are mostly water. Since I want to get started on the next Black Loch map, I decided to keep this fairly simple, so all the water maps are basically just the map above, cropped in different ways. They’re nothing fancy, but they’ll let you run naval battles in the loch without having to use a sea map that looks like a sunny day in the Caribbean.

Anyway, with that done, I’m going to get started on the Submerged Temple, a kuo-toa holy place in the Black Loch. I’m thinking it’ll be partly above water, but mostly below. Maybe like a pyramid with the tip above water? I’m not sure, I’ll figure it out after a few sketches.

There’s one other thing: I’m unable to continue updating the EncounterPlus module with new maps. I’m sorry to those of you who use EncounterPlus, but the program I use to export the module hasn’t been working properly, possibly due to a conflict with a recent release of Foundry. If things change and I can start updating the module again, I promise that I will. Until then, I’m really sorry.

Also, I mentioned in an earlier post that I’m planning to hold a vote of all patrons for a new Black Loch location. I’ll post about that in a day or two and send out a call for proposals for locations to add to the loch.

Okay, I’m gonna start sketching that temple. I hope you like the naval battlemaps! Are they the most boring maps I’ve ever made? I think they might be, haha.

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The Whisperer – A Creature from the Black Loch

A few weeks ago, I posted a map called the Smoldering Abyss. It was part of the Black Loch and one of the more notable things living there was a monster called “the Whisperer.” Well, Jamie, a longtime patron, offered to write up some stats and do an illustration of the creature.

You can download it here. If it’s the kind of thing you’d like to see more of, Jamie and his partner Josh are making monsters over at their patreon page, Odd’s Gardens. Josh is an insanely talented artist and the dude is probably going to end up illustrating the actual Monster Manual one day, but, until then, he and Jamie are making their own.

By the way, let me just back up that last statement: This is Josh and this is the 5th ed. Monster Manual. Tell me I’m wrong.

Anyway, have a look at their stuff. The art is unreal and there are free versions of most of the creatures.

Well, I’m about to start inking the next map. It’s a town built on a bridge over a canyon and I’ll post photos once I’m done in a day or two. I’m really happy with it so far and I think you’re gonna like it. Okay, back to work.

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The result of a hard day’s work in the token mines.

You can download these tokens here.

With the exception of one random elf, all 17 of these tokens fall into one of two categories:

  1. The forces of evil
  2. Camels

Let’s talk about one of the camels. A year or so ago, I mentioned something I’d discovered called a “zamburak.” This is a camel with a swivel-mounted cannon on its back and it is an actual, 100% real thing. And now you have a token for it in case you’d like to light your players up with some camel-based artillery! However it goes down, I’d say it’ll be their first time having that particular experience.

But the best part won’t be the battle. It’ll be when Dave Smartguy tells you how completely unrealistic a cannon mounted on a camel is. Google it, Dave. Go on, do it. We’ll wait.

As I said, I’ll be drawing another Black Loch map next. This one isn’t marked on the map, but it’s just as important: a ship. Chances are, if you decide to run a game in the loch, your players will need one and all the maps of galleons, cogs, caravels and other sailing ships are going to look a little out of place in a sea without wind. So I’ll be drawing a modest-sized galley with no masts that’s better suited to the environment. I expect it won’t take long.

Anyway, I hope you like the tokens! If you’re new here, I’ve got about 300 more tokens for you here. And 11 more here. Oh, and here’s another 43. Feel free to share these with anyone who might need them.

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Finbarr’s Marsh in Minecraft

A Youtuber named Andyisyoda is building all of Finbarr’s Marsh in Minecraft at the moment and it’s incredibly impressive. If you’re interested in seeing it come together, here’s a playlist of his build videos so far.

Also, I’ve got good news and bad news about Fort Bourtange. The good news is– and I say this in the most humble way possible– it looks really good. The bad news is I’m going to need another week to finish coloring it. The full size version is pretty massive and I underestimated the amount of time it’d take to color and shade everything. Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work on it and I’ll be back to you when it’s finished!

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Fort Bourtange – Second Update

This is the linework for Fort Bourtange finished and ready for coloring. I’m planning to crop this map to a few different sizes, since I don’t think most people will need this much space around the fort. This will be the largest size, however, and is intended for people who want to do something crazy with it, like have a full-on battle between two armies. I’m not gonna lie, the grid size on it is absurd.

I also wanted to mention that I’m not going to draw the upper levels of the buildings here. The best way to explain the reason is that I think including them makes the map worse. They’re all small– mostly attics and lofts– and there’s nothing interesting going on up there. If I include them, that means doubling the size of an already huge map, which means more to load on a VTT or more to print for the table. Mont-St-Michel had interesting stuff on the upper levels, but this place doesn’t and I think it’s better to just leave it at one floor. Hopefully, everybody’s cool with that.

Before I get to coloring this, I want to share a few things I’ve learned while doing research for this map:

  1. William the Silent, who ordered the construction of Fort Bourtange, looked like this. I have never seen a 500-year-old portrait of someone who looks anywhere near as badass as that. Everyone else is a ponce in a wig. But that dude? That dude is serious.
  2. Fort Bourtange has three drawbridges. One of them has a bathroom on it and it’s still in use. Don’t swim in the moat.
  3. This is unrelated to the fort, but super interesting: Grutte Pier was an early Renaissance Dutch man the size of Andre the Giant. A mercenary group called the Black Band raided his village and killed his wife, after which Pier started a peasant rebellion. Later, he became a pirate. This guy was the D&D character you created when you were 15, except he was real. This was his sword.