I draw the occasional D&D map

[Wik]

I saw this post on twitter earlier today. It looks like a pretty fun map, and the cube is very much some weird old school D&D.

You know, I love your regional maps and always look over them pretty heavily. What's funny is that I'd never use one in my games - and I've used a lot of your maps in my table games. But despite that, I actually find your regional maps more valuable. They give me ideas for my own regional maps, and regional maps are things that get used over and over again through the years.

 

[Dyson Logos]

The votes for February’s “Release the Kraken” have brought us to a piece that I think would be a perfect fit into any Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign – Paradise Control.

When I was asked for an underground casino map for a D&D game, I immediately had a flashback to the classic Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle adventure that came bundled with the 1980 & 1981 editions of TSR’s Top Secret RPG by Merle Rasmussen. One of the organizations hidden beneath the streets of the city is Pair-a-Dice, a full-fledged secret casino floor set underground.

Now, realistically an underground casino in a faux-medieval environment would most likely resemble a prohibition-era gambling den more than what we think of as a casino – a couple of rooms where people can play their games of chance and maybe store some drinks and a couple of security goons. But this is full on fantasy, so I went with something a little more full-on James Bond, Dragonslayer.

Paradise Control is a small casino when compared to modern mega-casinos, but is quite the underground establishment. It was built out of the basements of multiple structures in town, although disconnected from the actual buildings above during the construction phase. A few disconnected basements remain around the casino, but the only way to the surface is the stairs at the main entrance and a secret sewer escape system.

There are two staircases down to the lobby of Paradise Control from a pair of local businesses. The lobby channels clients towards the main floor with three gambling “pits”, two bars, a linked restaurant and a few halls that can be rented, used for parties, or set up as additional gambling space as needed.

The lower left portion of the map is the service hallways for general staff, including storage space and sewer access (for trash disposal). The upper right passages link the kitchen to the dinning area, and also provide access for security to the various rooms of the establishment (the security room is in the upper right corner and comes with a set of three cells for taking care of problems).

Finally on the lower right we have a pair of offices off the main room, one of which has secret doors to the the southern banquet hall as well as to a secret stairwell down to the sewer area.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/03/04/release-the-kraken-on-paradise-control/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Part of a much larger estate that has fallen to advanced decrepitude, Lorean’s Manor sits on a hillside rank with overgrown weeds and brush. Somewhere in the untended brush are a number of collapsed and half-collapsed outbuildings including the kitchens and staff buildings, coach house, and so on.

Standing before these overgrown gardens and ruins is the Lorean’s Manor. The lowest parts of the structure are hidden by errant trees and heavy ground cover, but the high arched roofs and tower make it impossible to miss for now. It is to this decrepit estate that Rosalinde Lorean returned from her studies among the mages of the Hill Islands. With the death of her great aunt, she is now head of the estate and tries to keep things in order while entertaining her great uncle’s delusions that the estate and family are still as important as they were in his youth.

As the estate has almost no money, Rosalinde has replaced the staff with faerie folk that she rescued from a collapsing faerie circle during her time on the Hill Islands. These fae provide the family with food as well as cobbler and seamstress work (although they certainly don’t do any yard work). They flit in and about the old structures where fanciful mushrooms now sprout.

Of course, once the players have met Rosalinde and her fae companions (probably to get some minor MacGuffin), it is time to change things up at the manor. The new circles the fae have been building are invaded by the same dark goblins that overran their previous circle on the Hill Islands, and they establish an unseelie beachhead in our world at the old Lorean estate. Rosalinde and her uncle are locked away in the tower as the goblin king takes up residence in the manor house and his minions spread around the estate and begin to check out the nearby town…

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/03/05/loreans-manor/

 

[Samcro]

Nice casino !
I will take a look on it, can you check this website for more casinos games and plans ?
Thank you !

 

[Dyson Logos]

A small fortification near the Hewbank in the Eagle Hills, Brenovale Castle was abandoned a few years ago when plague struck. By the time help arrived, those left behind were dead and bloated, surrounded by foul insects that appeared to carry the infection.

Constructed rapidly through wizardry, the castle remains effectively untouched today – the only sign that anything has changed is the lead plague seals on the front doors have been broken, and no sign of the infected dead can be found within.

But there are weird sloshing sounds coming from behind a collection of barrels in the basement. When moved they expose an old door, sealed not with the lead plague-seals, but with old red wax run through with long strands of human hair. And the sounds from behind the door seem to be receding to some place even deeper…

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/03/08/brenovale-castle/

 

[jayoungr]

Oh, hey! Are you the person who did the maps for Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica? I made a separate thread about this, but I might as well get it straight from the source: are those maps available anywhere for purchase as individual image files? In particular, I'm looking for the Notorious Nightclub maps.

 

[Dyson Logos]

These lands were once the territories of the god-king Zueshel who was struck down by the Culling Blade wielded by each of the Seven Heretics in turn. Through the blade it is said that they each gained a portion of his power. Modern heretics say that this runs against the very beliefs of the Seven Heretics, who struck down Zueshel while announcing that he was no god to begin with.

Regardless, with the end of Zueshel’s reign, the people turned their worship to the Seven Heretics and a number of temples were built around the land. The greatest of these is said to house their bodies in a secret crypt, where they remain as they were when the heretics died – never decomposing.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/03/11/temple-of-the-seven-heretics/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Oh, hey! Are you the person who did the maps for Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica? I made a separate thread about this, but I might as well get it straight from the source: are those maps available anywhere for purchase as individual image files? In particular, I'm looking for the Notorious Nightclub maps.

I /believe/ they are all available as high res images as part of the book on D&D Beyond.

 

[jayoungr]

I /believe/ they are all available as high res images as part of the book on D&D Beyond.

Okay. I was hoping to find just individual maps without having to get the whole book in multiple formats (I already own it in print), but I guess that's the model nowadays. Thanks!

 

[Dyson Logos]

Most of the temples of Zueshel were destroyed after the Seven Heretics struck down the God-King – however a few rebuilt into pyramid-temples dedicated to the heretics themselves. Most of these contain (or at least claim to contain) a holy relic of either the death of Zueshel or from the later deaths of the Seven Heretics.

This particular temple claims to have the son of one of the seven heretics entombed in the reliquary below it. It serves both as an administrative centre of the rural province it is in as well as a place of quiet contemplation. Pilgrims carry water to the temple and pour it into the pool in the northeast corner as they silently ask for the intervention of the heretics or the child below into their daily affairs.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/03/14/temple2/