I draw the occasional D&D map

[Dyson Logos]

A small asymmetric square tower, Brentil Tower stands alone overlooking Banrior Chasm where the hordes of modronic rats once came crashing into these lands.

Currently secured and locked down by the the Sorcerer Lord Iosselmon, barring the use of magics to break in, the only way to unlock the doors are the magical keys distributed to the lieutenants of his Red Rangers.

On the nights of the new moon, you can sometimes see the luminous form of someone pacing in the enclosed balcony on the upper floor of the tower. It is said that Iosselmon’s Red Rangers don’t just use the tower to rest on their tours, but that they have to come here in order to feed whoever or whatever is prisoner up there.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/07/brentil-tower/

 

[Dyson Logos]

This small “dungeon” is home to a circle of elementalists who focus on water magics (who call themselves the Blue Warlocks). Excavated and expanded upon from a small cave that linked to an underground river, it now serves as workshops, training and teaching space, and as the repository of a small library of elemental lore.

As the name suggests, the waters here are magical in their own right – the Blue Warlocks use these waters to both enhance their magics and potions, as well as in the research into new spells and items. One of the original Blue Warlocks linked the source of the river to the elemental plane of water as well as a trickle of energy from the positive energy plane.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/10/arcane-waters/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Home to the elven bandit Illsong and their dozen-or-so fellows, the Hollowstone camp sits atop (and cuts into) a small rocky promontory in the False Loch Woods.


HollowStone is slowly developing into a small fortress. If Illsong remains untroubled in their occasional banditry and adventuring pursuits, HollowStone will gradually be built up into a potent little keep with its shadow extending over much of the False Loch and perhaps into the bordering principalities.


For now through, the camp is a mix of magically-cut passages through the natural stone paired with defenses built out of the tailings from the excavations and some “wall of stone” spells.


https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/14/hollowstone/

 

[recon35]

These remind me of my 14-year-old self pouring over B2 and the sample dungeon in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. Thank you!

 

[Dyson Logos]

Raised by a talented Wizard-Noble of old Phalorm, the Seven Spires is a small ornate castle made of seven overlapping towers set on the edge of the Neverwinter woods.

The small castle was used officially as a research space for the wizard-noble, but also served as an escape from court politics in the young war-based nation of Phalorm, and as a watch point over the growing orc menace in the region. Being fairly close to the settlement of Neverwinter, ties were maintained with that growing settlement and information about the movement of the orcs was exchanged.

The Seven Spires were unfortunately built on a dirt plain where bedrock was too deep to dig down to. In time this means the spires are doomed to slow collapse as the weight of the towers presses down and outwards on the foundations.

Whether or not Phalorm survives the orc hordes it was meant to defy (it doesn't, the orcs destroy it less than a century after it was founded), there is only so much time before the years will do the orcs' work for them and the towers begin to collapse upon themselves. Less than 900 years later, the seven spires will look more like a jagged collection of broken teeth than the castle as shown here.

With full credit to +Mike Schley for the original Cragmaw Castle map upon which this is based. I love that map and found it really inspirational.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/17/the-seven-spires/

 

[Dyson Logos]

“You have in your possession a sword and a shield together with a rucksack containing provisions (food and drink) for the trip. You have been preparing for your quest by training yourself in swordplay and exercising vigorously to buildup your stamina.”

The very mountain is menacing – it seems to have been savaged by the claws of a massive beast. Not an actual volcano, the top of the mountain is covered in strange red vegetation that gives it its name.

This is the setting of the first of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone – The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I got a copy of this book some time in 1982 and fell in love with the rich detailed illustrations of Russ Nicholson throughout and the mix of RPG game elements into a choose your own adventure book.

Through dozens of playthroughs, I only actually finished the adventure once – I even have an instinctive routing through the dungeons following the right-hand path to the bridge over the river – but I have thoroughly explored the passages and rooms leading up to that river. It was on the other side of the underground river that my adventures routinely went wrong.

Last month, I finally sat down with the old tattered book and gave it another run – this time marking every choice, every room, and every passage. It took me a day to complete this map of the southern half of the dungeons – everything up to the underground river.

Now I just need to map the chambers on the other side, and the maze between them and the warlock himself…

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/21/firetop-mountain/

 

[Dyson Logos]

“The Warlock himself was a sorcerer of great power. Some described him as old, others as young. Some said his power came from an enchanted deck of cards, others from the silky black gloves that he wore.”

Once you have crossed the underground river (across the rickety bridge, by boat, or swimming in piranha and crocodile infested waters), the areas under Firetop Mountain feel… different. Where the earlier portions contained many guards, once you get past the immediate structures around the beach, the dungeons become winding, confusing, and home to wandering patrols. Many secret doors here are one-way affairs and dead-ends often have teleport traps instead of secret passages…

It is thus a great relief to stumble into the final caves, only to discover that before you even face the Warlock in order to get to his treasure, you must deal with a fierce dragon that lairs in the cavern.

Through dozens of playings of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, I only got through the maze a few times before giving up (often because I was playing it at school during a break). You could navigate the rest of the book without a map, but if you failed to map this section, you were effectively wandering blind – doubly so if you made the mistake of triggering one of the teleportation traps.

So last month I finally sat down and navigated every bend, dead-end, secret door, nook, and cranny of the maze. In my head the maze was small – maybe 1/4 the size it appears here. But getting the corridors to fit together well ended up stretching them out significantly until the north side map was nearly as big as the (much more densely populated) south side.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/24/and-the-warlock/

 

[Blackmoor_Film]

Gonna have to "barrow" those Seven Spires maps for the current Blackmoor campaign. I've gotten tired of the players always going to the dungeon, so I am putting a door in the dungeon that leads to a wilderness. Kind of like the wardrobe in the CS Lewis books.

Thanks Dyson!

 

[Dyson Logos]

Once the source of a small river that ran through these badlands, these caves are still home to the river, but it remains underground now instead of working through the nooks and crannies of the slate fields.

Broken up into multiple elevations throughout, these caves have been home to beasts and men alike seeking water and refuge from the badlands. Now they are home to Mohkath, a reclusive mantisfolk necromancer. He uses the space to study and is attended to (and defended by) a very strange assortment of animated giant beetles and skeletal constructs.

Some locals are happy to have a potent wizard nearby, even if it is a creepy one. They bring Mohkath offerings of food and skeletal remains in order to try to curry his favour in case they ever need his intervention in local affairs. But most are wary of a necromancer living nearby – and more than a few would sleep much better at night should someone take care of the whole “bug necromancer” issue.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/28/dry-river-caves/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Mayer’s Fort is a small mountain village backed by a fierce stone walled keep. Initially a small mountain keep for a retiring adventurer, the addition of a monastery outside the keep walls slowly encouraged a small village to build up around the keep and across the river on the grassy verge.

Mayer’s Fort lacks an inn or tavern, and instead social life in the small community centres around the open garden at the monastery (the H-shaped building in the bottom middle of the map) and the bakery across the road from it.

With only 150 people, and a nobleman’s keep here, there are very few visitors that need a place to stay who don’t either already know someone in town (that they have probably come to trade with), or who have high enough social standing to seek the lord’s hospitality.

On the other hand, the town is high-brow enough to offer a magic shop (not where you buy magic items, but where you can get spell components, foci, and the other things that wizards, druids, and clerics shop for), a bookbinder, and an illuminator – all based out of the monastery and the building just southeast of it.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/31/mayers-fort/