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

[Dyson Logos]

Grey Waters Cave

A stream bearing grey silt enters Deep Lake about a day from Dreamer’s Reach. Following the stream to its source in the Goblin Hills, one finds that the stream emerges from one of the hills before winding its way to the lake and uphill from the cave is a set of somewhat impractical stairs leading to a tall stone door inset into the hill, watched over by a cupola with arrow slits cut into the stone beside it. The structures under the hill were built by creatures roughly the size of ogres, so the halls are tall and the doors are at a much larger scale than most humans expect. Whoever built it is remembered only by the strange scale of the structure – as the current inhabitants are of much more diminutive stature.

The actual “Grey Waters Cave” is a set of large caverns that cut deep into the hill with lower and narrower sections as one progresses into the damp and unlit stone. In the “central” chamber of the cave there is another door to the hillside chambers, as well as a tomb on the west side. The entrance to the tomb is flanked by a pair of very rough-cut statues that give an approximation of the size and humanoid form of the builders, but the statues lack any real details or even faces – standing silent watch with what appear to be crossed arms, looking down on intruders into these chambers.

Part of the chambers near the entrance overlooks the pool cavern where the grey waters collect before spilling out into the stream, nearly twenty feet above the floor of the cavern proper. Curtains of salvaged tarps are set between the massive columns here, and the area is used for storage by the current residents as well as to post a guard watching over the cave proper.

The Greyfoot Goblins now occupy the chambers but give wide clearance to the tombs which they believe to be haunted. A group of them live on a high point in the cave proper, exiled from the main tribe in the structures over their pro-social behaviour – but they remain here where they can fish from grey waters and occasionally offer help and assistance to the rest of the tribe.

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 that work with this design) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Grey Waters Cave

Grey Waters Cave (300 dpi) A stream bearing grey silt enters Deep Lake about a day from Dreamer’s Reach. Following the stream to its source in the Goblin Hills, one finds that the stream emer…

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[ichabod]

No, but it is something I'm doing more of now.

To be honest, of the times I HAVE done this, I've had maybe five positive comments on it so I stopped.

Let me throw out another positive comment for door directions, then.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Rathenau’s Lakeside Tower

Today we have a small tower on a lakeside hill, with an attached wooden structure used as a small barracks.

A thaumaturge of some renown, Rathenau maintains this quiet retreat near enough to Winterspire to be able to run errands there and to be in the safe zone around the major urban centre, but far enough away that they don’t deal with frequent visitors.

The structure looks off-balance – with a single-storey wooden add-on to the west, and a turret starting on the second level (directly above the front door) on the right. Rathenau’s tower is currently set up with the magic-user’s bedroom on the third floor with a further quiet meeting room in the top floor of the attached turret.

Sitting on the shores of a small brackish lake just barely separated from the nearby sea, competition to work for Rathenau and be housed here is fairly fierce – as few would challenge the thaumaturge directly, and the lake does provide for an idyllic place to while away the afternoons fishing. Generally there are a pair of mercenaries here (living in the room with two beds in the wooden side structure), and Rathenau’s “lieutenant” (a long-trusted younger adventurer) in the next room. Rathenau and the lieutenant both enjoy gardening as a hobby, so the window boxes on the south and east faces of the barracks are well-populated with fragrant herbs and flowers.

Yes, some grid lines are missing in this one. Dunno how that happened, must have been really distracted when I was finishing this piece off – they are all on the upper right of the terrain part of the map, so shouldn’t have much impact on your use.

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 that work with this design) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Rathenau’s Lakeside Tower

Yes, some grid lines are missing in this one. Dunno how that happened, must have been really distracted when I was finishing this piece off – they are all on the upper right of the terrain pa…

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[Dyson Logos]

The Scorched Vault

The worship of Kelnak Kur is rarely allowed in civilized areas, and even the places where it is more widespread are restrictive about where the temples are built. The demon of incandescent fires, patron of fires, purity, and destruction is not a welcomed guest but is worshiped nonetheless. The Scorched Vault is a shrine to Kelnak Kur found outside of Let Gaullu – dug into a stony hill where purifying flames will do little damage to the town or its farms.

The priests of incandescent fires are completely hairless and dress in little more than leather kilts and bronze cuirasses. The elder of this temple (the Flamebringer) carries a charred human skull that burns in perpetuity – it is used to deliver the “blessing of Kelnak Kur”, igniting whomever it touches. The Flamebringer is erratic and angry, seeing corruption and impurities in the world and desperately wanting to bring purifying flames to the entire town of Let Gaullu. He knows that the pure will survive, their homes untouched, as the fires of Kelnak Kur destroy the foul presence of government, infidels, the idle, and the impure. And while the worship of the lord of incandescent fires is actually supported locally, the majority of the laity find the Flamebringer to be a most terrifying voice of the demon – most would much prefer one who looked to purify the lands in a less destructive and more “one on one” manner.

The unholy number of the demon lord is six, and thus much of the temple is built in hexagonal shapes. It consists of two levels, with the lower chambers reached via stairs down in the right and left chambers of the upper temple. The whole structure is of stone and metal – only the tapestries are not, and they are in turn made of heavy cured leather harvested from massive lizards hunted in the depths of the deserts a few days west. Many shops in town are closed early twice a week so the faithful can make the walk to the Scorched Vault and pray for their purification as the sun sets over town.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,200 x 6,600 pixels in size (34 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 work with this design) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 1,540 or 4,760 x 3,080 pixels, respectively.

The Scorched Vault

The Scorched Vault (300 dpi promo) The worship of Kelnak Kur is rarely allowed in civilized areas, and even the places where it is more widespread are restrictive about where the temples are built.…

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[Yaarel]

Heh, "Kid-Nap" inn. That's a good pun, maybe not the Greatest Of All Time, but still pretty darn good...

Oh. I didnt get at first − even after reading your post.

kid-nap = goat-sleep

That took me a while.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Graxworm – Map 1 – Graxworm Gate

The main entrance into the Graxworm megadungeon is not at the base of the mountain, but the top. 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.

The teeth of the worm are enormous, out of scale with the already massive creature. They serve as a city wall around Graxworm Town with a pair of massive 30-foot-wide gates through which caravans enter and depart the town bearing loads of dragon material for other lands. These gates sit in 30 foot thick walls with murder holes over the gateways and battlements for defenders to operate from. The rest of the curtain walls between the teeth are less imposing than the gates, averaging about 15 feet wide and just relying on the jaw and gums to act as a wall once we get past the front teeth.

The map shows the main gates and some of the front-most structures of Graxworm Town in detail, with the upper level of the wall on the far right.

Just within the walls we have a number of establishments that cater to the traffic in and out of town. Inns, taverns, equippers, and general stores abound here along with smaller shops selling trinkets and foodstuffs. The town beyond is very much a “gold rush” town – with an emphasis on entertainment, cheap lodgings, and expensive pass-times. A perfect place for an adventuring group to blend in if they can bluff their way through the main gates.

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 that work with this design) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Graxworm – Map 1 – Graxworm Gate

Graxworm – Map 1 – Graxworm Gate (300 dpi promo) The main entrance into the Graxworm megadungeon is not at the base of the mountain, but the top. The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon o…

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[Dyson Logos]

The current state of the Graxworm Megadungeon (overview)

 

[Dyson Logos]

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 4

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 fourth map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – sitting just east of Map 2 and south of Map 3. The central point of interest in this map is the massive cavern that the waters run through that is overlooked via massive crystalline windows by the chamber on the east side of Map 2. This cavern is multi-tiered with several elevated portions (including one that was accessed via wooden stairs that have long collapsed) and has the stream come in from the north before descending into a shallow pool and then flowing down to the south (and to map 6). This cavern contains a classic dungeon element – a field of giant fungi that are a useful food source for those who choose not to leave the depths.

The upper left portion of this map is a small complex that links both maps 2 & 3 and was used by researchers to observe the creatures dwelling in the caverns. The rest of the area is the natural caverns and extended areas dug out by the elves and the other inhabitants to extend said caves.

This part of the Scavengers’ Deep again has two sections provided as upper-level vignettes. The first is a gallery above the large cavern, looking over it from the east side. This gallery extends into a small set of caves that were used as living space by the offcast mutants of the elven breeding pits (and are still occupied to this day by whoever has moved in here since – with easy access to the mushroom cavern, this is a nice defensible place to live for someone with dark vision). The second sits above the caverns on the upper right, extending them via a pair of higher inhabited cave chambers.

Entry/Exit points from this map mostly through the small dungeon complex on the upper right – with tunnels connecting to both maps 2 & 3 – as well as the river that runs beside it. A cave entrance from map 2 leads to an elevated section of caves well above the main cavern, and a magically sealed door links to whatever areas are further to the east. The stream (and a nearby cave passage) extend to the south and thus to map 6 when it is added to the set.

Here’s a low-resolution compilation of the four existing maps of the Scavengers’ Deep set. Expect more maps of the Scavengers’ Deep over the coming months, probably at a rate of one map per month.

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 4

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 4 (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]

The Cathedral at Andasrael Ford

There was once a cathedral near the small ford a few miles north of where the Sunny Run joins the White Foam River. A small hill between the cathedral and the Sunny Run became home to “support businesses” for pilgrims and clergy and gradually this became the small town of Andasrael Ford. The Andasrael Cathedral burned down in the night in a mighty firestorm thirty years ago, leaving the ford and town with the name and a large field of scorched and blackened stone.

Since the night of the fire, things have felt less and less safe here, and the village has gone through a few changes over the decades. Many of the old buildings were put to the torch during a couple of years of intense raiding until the raiders were finally dispatched by the city troops – and the town was rebuilt in a very “regular” north/south orientation along with the addition of a palisade wall along the crest of the hill. Farmers live within the walls and venture to their fields during the days, leaving the area outside the village to the druid in the southwest, the ruins of the cathedral to the east, and the town graveyard to the north.

This map was drawn for an upcoming adventure written by Pauli Kidd for Goblinoid Games’ second edition of Labyrinth Lord (coming soon). Of course, Pauli has their own material for the adventure – what I’ve written above is just my quick take on the environment based on the map itself, not the text from the adventure.

The Cathedral at Andasrael Ford

There was once a cathedral near the small ford a few miles north of where the Sunny Run joins the White Foam River. A small hill between the cathedral and the Sunny Run became home to “suppor…

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[Dyson Logos]

Iseldec’s Drop (Levels 1-4)

Iseldec’s tower is nothing more than a circle of stones scattered around a field now, practically highlighting the wide entrance to the dungeons that sit beneath the ruins. But the dungeons promise to be at least as deep underground as Iseldec’s tower once reached above the lands – a vertical shaft connects untold small dungeon levels that seem to cling tightly around it. The shaft itself is open to the sky above, as it once continued into the tower proper. Through the shaft and the entrance hall (and whatever places the dungeons connect to) untold foulness has crept into the old stone dungeons.

Here are the first four levels of “Iseldec’s Drop” – and each level is indeed a very “tight” arrangement (fitting into a 160 foot x 160 foot area) connected by both stairs and the central “drop” shaft. The shaft provides airflow, waste disposal, and a certain amount of vertical mobility for a nest of harpies that lives on one of the lower levels (who in turn make sure not to disturb the small family of cockatrices that also use the shaft).

These uppermost levels are home to the more “traditional” dungeon denizens that would move in from the surface above – goblinoids in search of a base of operations and protection from the hated sun.

Points of interest include a fairly new and quite heavy rope suspended over the side of the shaft and extending down to the lower levels, a secret chamber on level 3 that connects to the level above, and the defensive entry into the dungeon proper that is rarely watched carefully by the goblins during the day because the sunlight hurts their eyes and they’d rather be napping.

(Levels 5-8 are also drawn, and will appear here in April)

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 that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,240 pixels or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.

Iseldec’s Drop (Levels 1-4)

Iseldec’s Drop (Levels 1-4) (300 dpi promo – no commercial license) Iseldec’s tower is nothing more than a circle of stones scattered around a field now, practically highlighting …

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