D&D General Maps, Maps, Maps! Dungeons, Ruins, Caverns, Temples, and more... aka Where Dyson Dumps His Maps.

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Longboat Mountain: Silver Vale Cave

Today we explore the top level of the old silver mine that lends its name to Silver Vale (location A on the Longboat Mountain overview – posted earlier this week). The old silver mine has been long worked out, but now others have moved into it…

The upper level of the mine is mostly a cave that had some mining in the south side that were in turn converted into storage and holding areas. The main cave drops down into the lower caves, some of which are partially flooded, and the remnants of the silver mine in the depths (which will be detailed next month as we continue with the Longboat Mountain series).

A colony of Dark Creepers has taken over the mine but find these caves too “exposed” and generally avoid them. To their annoyance, this has allowed a small group of goblin refugees to move in.

The goblins maintain a watch in the northeast corner of the cave where they can monitor use of the trail up to the mountain through the small cave entrance that overlooks the trail (the entrance is well concealed, appearing just to be a shallow overhang in the hill unlike the main cave entrance to the south). Otherwise they have one “family” group living in the central chamber where they’ve secured the doors, and a second family in what appears to have been a strongroom for the silver at some point in the southwest corner of the structure.

The Dark Creepers are trying to spook the goblins out of the caves, while also trying to do the same for the prospectors in the vale (and not get eaten by the giant birds in the process).

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,300 x 6,600 pixels (31 x 22 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10‘ squares that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,170 x 1,540 pixels or 4,340 x 3,080 pixels, respectively.

Longboat Mountain: Silver Vale Cave

Today we explore the top level of the old silver mine that lends its name to Silver Vale (location A on the Longboat Mountain overview – posted earlier this week). The old silver mine has bee…

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[LordEntrails]

I love how you continue to share your work. That's pretty awesome of you.
I appreciate how you not only post the maps, but some information about it. Even if I'm not going to use a map, it's fun to read and imagine!

 

[Dyson Logos]

I love how you continue to share your work. That's pretty awesome of you.

The big thanks belongs to the patrons who support me on Patreon. They make this continued flow of 10 maps a month possible. Without them I'd be likely working in marketing again and doing this when I could on the side.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 6

The Scavengers’ Deep is a reminder of the amount of work that went into underground structures during the great war. Generally, the elves only built underground when hiding their breeding and research facilities, whereas the forces of the kingdoms, assisted by the dwarves, were constantly building underground as the elves were unrelenting and would completely raze any surface defences that they defeated.

But the structures now known as the Scavengers’ Deep are atypical, an elven complex mixing some (ruined) surface structures, natural caves, and significant sprawling underground complexes dedicated to research, training, and breeding their slave species.

This is the sixth map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – sitting just south of Map 4 and west of the rocky defile entrance at the eastern edge of Map 5.

The rocky defile continues from Map 5 almost to the centre of this map. The defile (still open to the sky above except where a small bridge spans over it) descends to a pond that collects from two sources and proceeds further underground. Following the water to its source through the caves on the north side leads to the giant mushroom cave of map 4 and eventually to the two streams that feed into it on maps 1 and 3. Following the new water source up into the caves to the east and we find a large cave with a kidney-shaped pond fed by a small waterfall that comes from further to the east.

This part of the Scavengers’ Deep again has two sections provided as upper- or lower-level vignettes. These are of the two “watch towers” that are built into the end of the defile, overlooking the pond.

The northern tower is built into the defile wall as well as the wall of the cave to the north of the defile, peeking into said cave before climbing above it. This tower extends down one level and up three levels above the entry and the top level digs back into the hillside giving the top layer a much larger footprint than the lower levels.

The southern tower isn’t quite as tall, and is breached up at the highest level allowing birds and stirges access to the complex within.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 14,400 x 14,400 pixels (48 x 48 squares) in size. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the suggested 10′ squares that this is designed around) – so resizing it to either 3,360 x 3,360 or 6,720 x 6720 pixels in size, respectively.

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 6

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 6 (300 dpi promo) The Scavengers’ Deep is a reminder of the amount of work that went into underground structures during the great war. Generally, the elves …

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[Dyson Logos]

Here’s a low-resolution compilation of the six existing maps of the Scavengers’ Deep set. If printed at miniature play scale (where 1 inch equals 5 feet), each of the individual maps making up the Deep would be 8 feet by 8 feet in size (so with this release, the Deep is now 16 feet wide by 24 feet long).

 

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Graxworm – Map 4 – East Eye Orreries

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its valuable materials – leather, scales, ichor, tendons, and more. Practically every bit has some value to someone, and in the long term the expectation is that nothing will remain, not even the massive bones. We’ve started our explorations of the Graxworm at the top – the head of the deceased creature – today we are on the opposite side of the skull from last time – the eastern eye socket.

Climbing above Graxworm Town via the stairs cut into the rearmost teeth of the great dead wyrm, one eventually reaches the eye sockets. From here the paths diverge – leading further up to the watch towers on the horns, or back down into the skull towards the council chambers. There is also a small passage in the walls (an old tear duct) that leads forward and down to the sinuses of the great beast. This is the eastern eye socket that is used as an observatory and contains a pair of linked orreries to attempt to make sense of the skies as well as the conjunctions of micro-planes, demiplanes, and various “outer” and “inner” planes.

The two orreries move slowly and often seem to be on the verge of colliding with each other. A small telescope is also on the edge of the eye socket, but most attention is spent on planar conjunctions and stellar phenomena that is visible to the naked eye.

For those using the east stairs to get to the council chambers, a pierced wall with curtains has been erected to separate the flow of workers and petitioners from those working and studying in the eye socket. A few study tables are here, but the actual library of the orreries is in the rooms cut into the southern bone structure of the socket. Here we have a library, a study area (including quarters for the head librarian separated from the study area by curtains and bookshelves), and beyond that the "secret stacks" where more important and esoteric texts are kept under lock and key.

The Graxworm Megadungeon was proposed to me by Gallant Knight Games – a dungeon set within the corpse of a dragon some seven miles in length. If I were to map out the whole thing we’d be looking at a good 100+ maps, so instead we’ll be focusing on points of interest as a sort of “point crawl” megadungeon setting. We’ll be posting a few maps in the set every month for… well… quite some time!

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 6,600 x 9,600 pixels in size (22 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,540 x 2,240 or 3,080 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.

Graxworm – Map 4 – East Eye Orreries

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its …

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Dyson Logos]

Graxworm – Map 5 – The Council Chambers

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its valuable materials – leather, scales, ichor, tendons, and more. Practically every bit has some value to someone, and in the long term the expectation is that nothing will remain, not even the massive bones. We’ve started our explorations of the Graxworm at the top – the head of the deceased creature – today we climb into the centre of the skull where the brain has been harvested and the council chambers now sit.

Above the hive of scum and villainy that is Graxtown in the mouth of the deceased Graxworm (the corpse of which is being converted into a massive weapons and war materiel harvesting and production site) is the seat of Graxtown’s government – embedded in the thick skull of the wyrm is the brainpan of the beast. While remarkably small compared to the vast size of the beast, it still contained a brain over 200 feet wide by 300 feet long.

For most, the council chamber is reached via one of the passages from the empty eye sockets. There are also accessways to both tiers of the chamber from the spinal cord (which in turn is accessible via the throat at the back of Graxtown), but this entranceway is guarded and closed to all but the council members and their guests.

The main council chamber is decorated with massive bone pillars reaching up to the dark skull above, and is divided into two parts. The northern section rises above the southern by about 12 feet and is where the council sits during public sessions. The southern section contains a sunken central atrium with raised sections around it. This area is where the people of Graxtown come to witness any of the council’s major decisions (or to attend special events that they host including parading spies & special guests around).

Around the main chamber are a number of smaller chambers cut into the skull. The northern ones are for the council and their staff, with a few smaller chambers attached to the lower sections containing documents for those seeking information from the councillors.

Off to each side of the chamber are the passages up to the eye sockets as well as stairs that join those from the eye sockets and lead up to the watch towers set into the horns above.

Finally, in the south end of the chamber is the sealed and locked route to the sinuses and nasal passages, bracketed by a pair of “suites” used by powerful factions within the Graxworm when they wish to match over council activities. On the right we have the chambers of one of the more powerful necromantic clans who worship the death god that is “supervising” the tearing down of the Graxworm caracass. On the left we have a more secret suite of a group that operates in shadows and does not want to be known to or seen by the populace at large.

The Graxworm Megadungeon was proposed to me by Gallant Knight Games – a dungeon set within the corpse of a dragon some seven miles in length. If I were to map out the whole thing we’d be looking at a good 100+ maps, so instead we’ll be focusing on points of interest as a sort of “point crawl” megadungeon setting. We’ll be posting a few maps in the set every month for… well… quite some time!

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,200 x 13,200 pixels in size (34 x 44 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Graxworm – Map 5 – The Council Chambers

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its …

dysonlogos.blog