I draw the occasional D&D map

[PAGE 14? Whoa... for those discovering this thread part-way through, all these maps are available in higher resolution versions, many with a free commercial use license, at the blog: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com ]



Heart of Darkling – DiTullio Islands

Several rivers run into the Darkling Lake - the vast underground "sea" at the end of the Darkling River. The Ditullio Islands are a small fishing community of mad derro tucked against the shore of the Darkling Lake where two smaller rivers enter it.

The DiTullio derro are paranoid and hostile to everyone, and often to each other. But they truly fear the aboleth lords who lurk in the darkest depths of the Darkling Lake. They have erected a number of small stone houses on their islands, and laid claim to a heavy stone tower that predates their settlement (likely crafted by magic as the stone is nearly perfectly smooth).

They fish on their boats when they seek solitude, but most of their food comes from the nets set to capture fish that come from the smaller river outlet which pours into the Darkling down a twelve foot waterfall. The constant sound of the waterfall only serves to heighten the paranoia of the Derro, but they dare not move away from it as it is their best food source.

While much of the city is served by “surface sewers” to move waste and water, in parts of the old town there exist proper underground sewers that date back to the previous empire’s attempts to clean up the city as a whole. Basements in these neighbourhoods occasionally incorporate parts of the sewer construction, or vice versa. And of course, in the trope of D&D sewers, they have become home to wererats and other foul creatures that represent the decay and seedy side of civilization.

This map focuses on one of the more interesting parts of the sewers under Delren Street. The central location (top centre of the map) is an old basement that is no longer connected to the structure above it and that is linked into the sewers by a secret door. This basement is currently in use by Skittler, an old wererat sorcerer who maintains a small study and bedroom in a side chamber. The rest of the basement is kept fairly clean, with Skittler sweeping it out regularly (and leaving a small pile of dust right outside the secret door).

South of Skittler’s lair is the lair of a couple of less “human” wererats. The entrance to this lair are a pair of large rat-holes in the walls of the sewer – however recently they’ve taken to bringing in larger items to make themselves more comfortable, and have had to enlarge one of their holes to do so – meaning that it is only a matter of time before someone discovers this hiding place.

To the right we have a maintenance access to the sewers (a hatch leading down stairs to the sewers themselves. Extended sections of this area have been barred off with a permanent portculis-type wall. At the upper-right edge of the map we have a section of these structures that has been sealed off from the sewers proper and converted into the basement of a small inn above.

Along the blighted coast, beyond the lands of snow and ice and the adventurers’ boom-town of Gravelthorpe there is an old white stone pier on a quiet lonely shore. In the right seasons you can sometimes find the ruined road that leads into the hills from there and eventually to the valley of the Three Pillars of Ssa-Tun.

The three pillars of Ssa-Tun are massive spires of marbled white and purple stone that reach up over a hundred feet from the ground and descend to unknown depths. Leading to these pillars are a few old ruins reduced to small mounds of rubble, and a much more intact set of ruins built up around the pillars themselves.

And of course, these ruins are inhabited by something unpleasant, alien, and milky white in colour. For the pillars of Ssa-Tun are used, when the stars are right and the proper incantations made, to travel to three specific sites in the Alabaster Hells.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/16/ruins-at-the-three-pillars-of-ssa-tun/

When activated through specific rituals “when the stars are right”, the three pillars of Ssa-Tun act as portals to anchor points in the Alabaster Hells. One of the three pillar-gates leads here, to a small cavern containing a lake of milky-white fluid. As with most things in the Alabaster Hells, everything here is not-quite-white in colour – from the pale grey walls to the heavy quartz pillars that seem to hold up the ceiling of the cave, to the milky-white liquid that seems to be slowly filling the cave.

Guests here quickly discover that the pillar in the centre of the alabaster node doesn’t act as a return gate – and instead they must return through one of the four other gates that can be summoned. At the end of each row of quartz pillars a gate can be called with a quick ritual and splashing the milky waters on the inward faces of the two pillars in question. The ritual, fortunately, is inscribed on the walls of the hall to the “west”. The waters, unfortunately, are both toxic and strongly alkali.

And most importantly, it would be foolish to thing that nothing resides under those waters...

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/19/ssa-tuns-lake-of-milk/

The Hag's Swamp

“Yes now, the Hag’s Swamp you say? It is to the southeast of the keep – mostly swampy wetlands with a few hills and a copse of fir trees. Some say there are lizard folk what live in them swamp, but I figure you stick the the higher ground and the fir trees and you can keep safe from ’em.”

The Hag’s Swamp is best known for the lizard folk lair in the middle of it, and less well known for the giant poisonous spiders that live in the fir trees. But there are a few other points of interest marked out on this close-up of the map.

An old burned out village once belonged to fishing community on one of the river islands. When the fisherfolk fell into conflict with the lizard folk, they moved to the keep and torched the place themselves out of spite.

A second house, in much better repair, is on the edge of the forest just east of the giant spiders. Obviously the resident here has some “arrangement” with the other local creatures – while she claims it is that she offers them no competition, the reality is the swamp hag that lives here does so in peace because all other residents of the area live in fear of her.

On a hill to the northeast is a set of three black menhirs set over a small cave. The old mound was used by the druids living among the fisherfolk, and a couple of times a month they still come together, sneak out of the keep, and return here for their rituals.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/23/the-hags-swamp/

Congrats on the caves of chaos! I want to print it out to mini scale.

And that other thing!

darjr said:

Congrats on the caves of chaos! I want to print it out to mini scale.

And that other thing!

Click to expand...

Thanks! At mini scale that map would be... 88" x 120-something inches I think.

And that other thing!

The Cockatrice Pit

A number of townfolk head out to the Old Grant Farm about once or twice a month in a semi-secretive manner. They are a motley crew, a mix of the well-to-do and grubby farmers and the woodswoman ranger.

It turns out this town has a very draconian “legal system” where punishment for not fitting in or disturbing the way things are involves the cockatrice pit.

Behind the barn at Old Grant’s farm is a deep square hole dug into the ground. At the bottom of the hole is a small cave, home to “the chickens” – a pair of cockatrice that are used to dispense a very final “justice” to those who fall afoul of the locals.

Most people are just thrown in and left for the cockatrices to petrify and consume, but some are instead lowered on ropes to be fished back out afterwards and used as displays in some of the finer establishments in town.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/the-cockatrice-pit/

As the month rolls into the dog days of summer, it is time to tally up the votes of the awesome patrons who keep the site alive via the Patreon campaign and release some of our older maps under the commercial use license. This month we start off with a town drawn five years ago – the Fortress at Hawksford.

While this was once a fortress of the Ukho Confederacy, the citadel fell forty years ago to mercenaries of the Udruviel Dynasty. With the collapse of both those polities over the next decade, the Fortress at Hawksford has managed to remain ungoverned. And while no external governance has been imposed on the people of Hawksford, they have also resisted the creation of an official government of their own. Which isn’t to say the place is completely disorganized – commerce continues as normal and the walls are patrolled by various “concerned citizen groups” who try to track the comings and goings of visitors and locals alike.

The stone walls and gatehouses remain in good shape although they see little maintenance now so it is only a matter of time before they start to wear down. A large number of dwarves make the town their home, happily away from the governance of humans and elves alike.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/release-the-kraken-upon-the-fortress-at-hawksford/

Beneath the Immortal Fortress are a number of small dungeons, tombs, crypts, and oubliettes. As the fortress itself is still inhabited and the residents know better than to explore these lower areas, they remain generally unmolested, with the entrances of the more dangerous areas under guard in case anything should creep out.

These particular crypts were considered inconsequential until a planes-hopping sage showed up with a map indicating something important within – so if you can get into the fortress, getting to the crypts themselves shouldn’t be too hard of a task.

Behind the scenes, this is actually a redraw of a small crossword puzzle posted during the Alternate Reality Game that was played online leading up to the Stream of Eyes event where they announced the upcoming release of the two 5e Waterdeep books this autumn.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/crypts-of-the-immortal-fortress/