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

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Index Card Dungeon II – Map 15 – Pool of Drifting Lights

This is the fifteenth and final map in the Index Card Dungeon II set. It sits to the southeast of Map 14 (the Cave of the Candleman), and northwest of Map 13 (The Sorcerer’s Tomb) via the secret passage on that map.

This map is dominated by a single large cave. Even the rooms to the southwest were not cut from the stone, but were built up with stone to divide them from the cavern. The air here is damp and cold, carrying the scent of melted wax. A stream enters the cave from a narrow cleft in the north wall, spilling into a deep, glassy pool before vanishing into a submerged hole on the far side. The surface is so still in places that it mirrors the cave ceiling perfectly, except for the occasional flicker of blue light that dances across it.

A heavy, iron-banded door stands closed on the west side of the cavern, leading to a couple of rooms and then the secret passage to Map 13. The hinges of the door are flecked with wax drips that have run upwards, against gravity. Steps have been cut into the stone floor of the cave on the south side, with faint footprints leading to and from the pool. Floating on the pool are thin, curled flakes of pale wax, almost like flower petals.

A solitary wax servitor of the Candleman (a half-melted humanoid figure with no face – something akin to what a half-melted wax replica of Gollum would look like) lives in the pool and will likely come out when there are people in the cave. It carries a single lit candle in its cupped hands. It won’t attack unless provoked, but it tries to press the candle into the hands of a visitor before retreating back to the pool. Like the Candleman’s candle, this candle burns with a cold blue flame – the flame always dances in the direction towards the Candleman, but it carries the same slow curse, slowly stiffening the carrier into a wax effigy of themselves.

This is the last map of the Index Card Dungeon II set. I’m working on an overview of the full set that shows the linkages and so on, but there’s a good chance I won’t get it done and published before I leave for a one-week vacation on Friday.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,000 x 5,400 pixels (30 x 18 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 2,100 x 1,260 or 4,200 x 2,520, respectively.

Index Card Dungeon II – Map 15 – Pool of Drifting Lights

This is the fifteenth and final map in the Index Card Dungeon II set. It sits to the southeast of Map 14 (the Cave of the Candleman), and northwest of Map 13 (The Sorcerer’s Tomb) via the sec…

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Tideworn Grotto

An old smuggler’s haven expanded into the coastal rock by Deep One adherents, the tideworn grotto now lies half-submerged and forgotten. The smugglers are long drowned or transformed, but the grotto still pulses with the lingering touches of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The tides within do not obey the moon; they obey memory, ritual, and the drowned gods.

The map shows the grotto at low tide – most of the grotto is underwater at high tide except for the top of the coral stairs and a few small areas around the edges of the caves.

The entrance from above descends through a slick, spiralling stairwell encrusted with dead coral and barnacle-pocked stone. Weathered and worn humanoid statues line the descent – so worn that little can be discerned except that their mouths are all wide open, as if gasping warnings. The top statue ends up ankle-deep in the briny water at the highest tide, and the statues serve as an indicator or warning as the tide comes in and out.

In the easternmost cave, a stone altar and five standing stones emerge from the depths at low tide. The stones are carved with serpentine motifs and representations of Dagon and Hydra. Just to the north of the shrine is the bound keeper – a water elemental tied down by chains of rusted iron and coral. It was once the guardian of the grotto, but now it seethes with betrayal. It offers knowledge and treasures from the sea in exchange for freedom, but its revenge will flood more than just the grotto.

The largest cavern houses a roaring whirlpool, its spiral visible even in total darkness. It siphons not only water, but light and magic. Torches dim, spells fizzle, and illusions unravel near its edge. The whirlpool is anchored by a submerged stone ring inscribed with runes that pulse faintly when arcane energy is nearby. Smugglers once used this chamber to dispose of cursed cargo, but some say the whirlpool remembers what it devours.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 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 2,240 x 2,240 or 4,480 x 4,480, respectively.

Tideworn Grotto

An old smuggler’s haven expanded into the coastal rock by Deep One adherents, the tideworn grotto now lies half-submerged and forgotten. The smugglers are long drowned or transformed, but the…

dysonlogos.blog