I draw the occasional D&D map

[Dyson Logos]

A simple map today – I was experimenting with grid design and and layers of elevation, and more fiddling with steep cliff-like elevation changes, and this circular stony hill was the result. It should work well for a obvious place to set up camp when travelling, or more likely, where travelling PCs discover that others have already set up camp along the route.

There’s a spot where a small campfire has been kept on a few occasions, in the lee of the taller portion of the hill, and the rocks have been set up at the slope up to the main hilltop to help make it more defensible.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/10/stony-hill/

 

[MichaelArkAngel]

God damn, you make me want to bust out my Rapidograph pens, and start creating again!!! I have been spoiled by Photoshop for so long, but your stuff is always inspiring, even for this 40-something guy!!!

 

[Dyson Logos]

Instead of continuing along the southern edge of Prince’s Harbour, this month I decided it was time to draw the heart of the town itself. This really shows off how the town is a low-density unwalled affair. While located at the edge of the Flindlands, the actual wilderness around the town is more hazardous because of wild animals than any kind of organized hostile forces. This is the kind of place where there is more to fear from a rabid bear, or the slow encroachment of a chaos cult within the town itself.

The heart of Prince’s Harbour includes a number of small docks and wharves for fishing in the Gnoll’s Ear River, and behind a screen of trees from the river is the heart of the town itself – the cluster of structures around the large building just north of the centre of the map is the priory that took in the prince that the town is now named after, with the church set directly across the main street from it.

The Priory is now the heart of the town administration, and serves very little religious purpose anymore. For town meetings and announcements the prior uses the Prince’s Commons – the empty block with only a small gazebo-like structure in the middle. In the winter town meetings are often moved to the church instead otherwise no one would stick around.

A small island in the Gnoll’s Ear is home to Caft Manor, heart of the Caft family who own a lot of the tenant farmland around Prince’s Harbour. Caft Manor is passed down to the head of the family from generation to generation, and is currently home to “Elder” John Caft who is only 26, the youngest head of the family in anyone’s memory.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/12/princes-harbour-map-3/

 

[Dyson Logos]

We must travel deeper via the third eye!

There are depths beyond this world to which we must travel. We must open the third eye and follow what lays beyond. The true challenge is finding out how to open it. The eye is closed and no matter what we whisper into the ear, it does not open for us.

It is the expansion of the mind we explore for the clues to open the third eye. The mushroom folk who live there claim to have the secret. But they will not give it to us willingly. They misdirect and obfuscate. They speak of states of mind we are not prepared for. Only when we have killed each and every one of them are we satisfied that they do not have any secret keys to the third eye.

But we start to see things differently. As if the ichor of these mushroom "people" has infected us, transitioned us somehow. And when we return stumbling and hallucinating to the chamber of the third eye we can all see how it opens, and reveal the stairway beyond.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/14/we-must-travel-deeper-via-the-third-eye/

 

[Dyson Logos]

“Vymrrysian scholars have long theorized as to the true nature of the Black Monolith, that totemic object which stabs out from the Infrared Octagonal Hills to the southeast like a knife. While some holdouts still cling to the notion that it was constructed by a long-since-exterminated civilization, most modern academics believe it to have originated from one of the many thousands of suns that dot the night sky. Many an aristocrat has sent scouting or raiding parties to the Monolith, bringing back a variety of alien gems, metals, and the like, assuming they were able to get past the structure’s formidable security measures.”

– From the Ynemvelt Archives

The Zealous Geometers have claimed the Black Monolith as their own, but how can you resist the call of adventure and treasure?

The Black Monolith from Another Sun was originally drawn by Jesse Goldshear and posted to his blog, Yenemvelt – Another World. This redraw is done in cooperation with Jesse’s blessing. The fully stocked level can be found on his blog (linked to from the map page).

Over the next month or two I’ll be redrawing the map of level 2 of the Black Monolith, and then I’ll keep up with Jesse’s expansions to the Monolith as he develops them.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/16/black-monolith-from-another-sun-level-1/

 

[Dyson Logos]

The ancient house appears to be a massive sprawling mansion from outside. Inside it shows all the signs of unplanned and almost cancer-like growth and change. New wings added haphazardly, sections renovated to new purposes and sealing off other sections in the process. Rooms and sections that can only be accessed through windows from gardens. Stairs that lead nowhere, doors that open into brick walls.

This sprawling Winchester House-inspired map was crafted for jim pinto’s “House of Keys” RPG, the first of several in the Iron Medusa setting – a lawless RPG setting inspired by Slavic folklore.

It was drawn with a Sharpie marker and a black gel pen on an 11 x 17 page.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/18/house-of-keys-ground-floor/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Overlooking the grand ballroom of the House of Keys is an upper level balcony,a hint that perhaps one of the sets of stairs in the building actually leads upstairs instead of into a blank wall.

The upstairs is, of course, a confusing maze of tight corridors and small rooms, and of course contains a number of rooms that are no longer accessible – including a small complex of rooms and a space full of dusty life-sized statues. One of the garden light shafts pierces up through the second floor, and is then bisected by a small hallway on the third floor.

This is the second map of the Winchester Mystery House-inspired map created for jim pinto's House of Keys RPG, the first of several in the Iron Medusa setting - a lawless RPG setting inspired by Slavic folklore.

It was drawn with Sharpie markers and black gel pens.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/20/house-of-keys-upstairs/

 

[Dyson Logos]

The first thing you note when descending the stairs into the ancient jungle temple is a hissing sound, like sand pouring through a massive hourglass. The walls down here are a heavy greenish stone, set in massive blocks without mortar. The main chamber at the base of the stairs is a multi-leveled affair, with piers, stairs and columns breaking up the large space.

Then the skeletons slip forward from the darkness and begin firing volleys of arrows at intruders while giant spider crawl down behind the cover of the columns to attack.

More skeletons, these ones riding on the giant spiders, are based in the two chambers behind the stairs leading into the temple. And the hissing always seems to be getting louder from the doors at the other end of the chamber.

In the oddly shaped chamber beyond, the hissing continues but the waves of skeletons & spiders cease. Old spider webs criss-cross this space and in the northern most portion of the chamber there is the MacGuffin – the (chest / sword / orb / skull of a minor god / preserved toe of a saint / egg of the bullywug queen / ceramic pig) that you have been seeking.

It is only when you pick it up that the hissing stops.

Run.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/26/the-temple-of-boom/

 

[Dyson Logos]

Beneath the Bastion of the Prince of Clubs are the dungeons – consisting of great halls, deep galleries, the hollow library, and the Grey Oubliette – a small island fortress in a cavern, accessible only through the fortress above.

Beyond the Oubliette, forgotten by most and rarely even remembered by the Prince of Clubs, is the Sanctum of the Entwined, a chapel dedicated to the conjoined twin gods of the last days who grant the prince his immortal form and awaken him from his ennui via the Archon Tamaru when they feel a nudge is needed to help push events to the brink of destruction whence they will finally be freed.

The Archon is much less aware of the puppeteers behind her partners actions and sudden bouts of activity and destruction. She remains unaware that they work through her to awaken the lust for destruction within him when needed.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2018/12/31/dungeons-of-the-prince-of-clubs/

 

[Dyson Logos]

We trekked across the Dry Reaches, searching for the lost Ziggurat of Mur. On the fourth evening we came across the ruins of an old palace or temple, slowly being conquered by the sands.

Originally we aimed towards it as an obvious location for a night camp to keep out of the cold desert wind as well as to conceal our fire from other (less friendly) explorers. But immediately we spotted the signs of habitation – trails in the sand, scales, and buried dry scat. We explored quietly but found no actual residents – although one of the upper rooms was being used as a sort of larder with a number of desert lizards hanging from hooks in the ceiling.

They waited until most of us were inside exploring to strike. They climbed out of the sand around the palace, attacking our pack animals and burro handlers before surrounding the palace. They looked like lizard folk, but orange, yellow and brown in colour. They slept in the sands, mobilizing to hunt in the morning and evening. The sand devils were ferocious, fearless, and fought until there were but a handful remaining who ran off into the desert making strange howling noises.

We did not sleep that night, waiting for their return.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/04/sands/