These are the upper decks of the flotilla. The three levels below this are pretty close to finished as well, so I should only need another couple days to get it done. I hope no one was expecting this to be a reasonable-sized map, because it definitely will not be.
Okay, I’ve gotta go to sleep.
The other day, I said I’d be coloring and releasing these ships one at a time. At some point, it occurred to me that that’s insane and that it’d be much faster to color them all together and post the separate maps afterwards. So I put all the decks of all the ships into one image to do that and… well, this is what that looks like.
The main thing I’m trying to say is that this might take a little longer than I’d originally expected. That’s 17 ships and boats, with a combined 35 decks. Which is kind of a lot. Anyway, I may need a couple more days on this, so I wanted to let everyone know. Well, I’m gonna dive back in! I’ll be back when I’ve got them done.
By the way, that raft in the bottom right is the Kon-Tiki. Okay, back to work.
Sorry for the crappy photo, the only decent camera I currently have access to is the one on my wife’s phone and she’s out of town.
This is all of the ships in the Cobalt Flotilla, crammed into one picture as best as I could. The plan from here is this: I’m going to color these individually and post the maps of the larger ships as they get done. After that, I’ll finish coloring the rest, put them all together into one map and post that. And then I’ll post the smaller boats as tokens.
All in all, I’d guess this will take 5-6 days and you’ll be getting about six maps in all. Five of the big ships, plus one of the whole flotilla. Okay, I’m gonna stop typing and get to work!
As it turns out, drawing an island made of boats requires a lot of boats. I’ve got two and a half more pages of boats drawn on top of this. Two more and we should be good.
I think this is gonna be pretty cool. All right, I’m gonna go draw more boats.
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!
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.
“This place must have some really strong ale. Looks like the whole building is drunk.”
So, this is the basic design I’ve settled on for the Deepspire. There’s a long walkway that spirals around the column of rock, with homes, stores, temples and so forth leading off from it, carved deeper into the stone.
Underneath it all is the harbor, where ships can come to trade. Keep in mind that ships in the Underdark aren’t going to have sails or masts, so they shouldn’t have a problem getting in and out of there.
Next to the harbor entrance is a defensive tower. Then, carved into a separate rock formation at the top, is the citadel. I’ve got some basic ideas worked out about how the place will be organized, but nothing concrete. All of this is still subject to change.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you a look at what I’m working on. I’ve gotten some work done on the layout of the harbor, which will be the first part I draw. From there, I’ll work my way up to the top, one tier at a time.
I’ll write some lore for this as well, although I haven’t thought too much about it yet. I’m thinking this might be a mullti-race settlement. That’s pretty unusual in the Underdark, but that’s also why I like the idea. And there won’t be too much reason it couldn’t be used as a drow, duergar or other species’ settlement if you prefer.
Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work. I’ll keep you updated. I think this is going to be really cool. Let me know what you think!
Here’s a look at the map I’m working on of an estate in the Shadowfell. This idea was chosen by the Cartographic Congress and I was asked to make it “dark and surreal.” Hopefully it’s a sufficient degree of both, because this place is maximum weird.
The second picture is the entry hall, with a big stone head leaking black stuff into a fountain from its eyes. That’s pretty representative of the decor here. Also, the walls are meant to look like spinal columns because, I don’t know, it’s kind of metal. And things get even weirder upstairs. I’d actually say the picture above is only the building’s second-most disturbing fountain.
Anyway, I’ll need another day, maybe two to get the rest of it colored and then I’ll be back with the finished map.
Say what you will about mind flayers, but they understand the need for a well-funded space program.
