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

[Dyson Logos]

I am curious.. is there a map of what it looks like from a dwarven mine with an entrance to the underdark? What would that look like?

The Dyson Megadelve (which I drew over ten years ago?!?!) incorporates a whole series of dwarven mines with further descents to deeper unmapped levels.

The Dyson MegaDelve

The Dyson MegaDelve is a dungeon map that I started in late 2014 and finished in early 2015. It started as a “small” megadungeon and gradually evolved into a 30-map monstrosity. That&#8…

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[Dyson Logos]

Iseldec’s Drop – Levels 20-23

We are finally at the deepest parts of Iseldec’s Drop. This section is over two hundred feet below the fortress on level 19 and is only connected to the levels above via the shaft (the barrel for some planetary-scale defence system?). And even these final levels are difficult to travel between. Again, down the shaft proper hangs that long and heavy hemp rope from many levels and hundreds of feet above. The rope down here is sodden, soaking up water from the base of the shaft.

Level 20 feels like some ancient cave shrine – natural caves around the shaft with statues of primordial spirits and deities of the underworld along the upper tiers. A small 4 foot by 4 foot grate eight feet up the wall opens into a small crawlway through precisely cut stone to another 20 foot wide shaft that looks down over levels 21 & 22. Again, the only accesses to the lower levels are via the shafts – three shafts extend down to level 22, while the main shaft skips this level completely.

Level 22 hints at the purpose of this structure. Magical structures of the ancients are built into this level and some still hum with mystical energy, illuminating crystals embedded in them. The northeastern chambers are accessed via a small pair of 3 foot curved crawlways on this level – they were traditionally accessed via a small shaft and ladder from level 23, but the chambers on that level have partially collapsed, and this same shaft is one of the only means of getting down to them now.

The lowest level of the Drop, level 23, has a canal cut into the floor to channel water from a stream that flows in from the northwest and down to the southeast. The structures on the north side are partially collapsed, and whatever means of access was meant to be used to these structures is gone with them, although a secret emergency door links them to the north side of the stream.

(And of course, level 23 is shaped like the five-fingered hand of Eris because… well… All Hail Discordia!)

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 20-23)

Iseldec’s Drop – Levels 20-23 (300 dpi promo, no commercial license) We are finally at the deepest parts of Iseldec’s Drop. This section is over two hundred feet below the fortres…

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[S.Woodlander]

The Dyson Megadelve (which I drew over ten years ago?!?!) incorporates a whole series of dwarven mines with further descents to deeper unmapped levels.

The Dyson MegaDelve

The Dyson MegaDelve is a dungeon map that I started in late 2014 and finished in early 2015. It started as a “small” megadungeon and gradually evolved into a 30-map monstrosity. That&#8…

dysonlogos.blog

OH fantastic - thank you!!

 

[Dyson Logos]

Building 8 – Leather Worker

Back to the shops along the intersection of Market & Random. Based on a Patreon request from Mark Clover, I’m drawing up individual floor plans for a number of shops, stores, vendors, and businesses along a single market block. As I draw these, I also have the overhead views drawn out on a map of the city block as I go, so when the series is complete you can use them on their own, or as a fully mapped out block of shops.

This is our eighth shop on the street, sandwiched into the space between the Random & Market Tavern, and The Riddle of Steel (a building shared by a blacksmith and fortune teller), and across from Hammerhead Loans.

Red’s Leather is a very small shop with a closed-off yard behind it where work on raw leather is done – while most of the leather here is purchased from one of the local tanneries, Red also does custom work and produces specialized leathers from hides brought in by adventurers, scavengers, and monster slayers. This is much to the chagrin of the fortune teller next door as the stench that comes from the back yard when chemically tanning hellhound hide can chase off customers for a few days.

Red goes home in the evenings, but the upper level of the main workshop has a bed where Red’s apprentice lives and sleeps (and guards the shop). The ground floor has a small shop in the front displaying Red’s wares, and the back is a much larger and taller workshop space with a small mezzanine on the south side that is the housing for the aforementioned apprentice.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 3,900 pixels (32 x 13 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 910 pixels.

Red’s Leather Works

Building 8 – Leather Worker (300 dpi promo, no commercial license) Back to the shops along the intersection of Market & Random. Based on a Patreon request from Mark Clover, I’m draw…

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[Dyson Logos]

Temple of the Worm

A manifestation of the god of death has been summoned within this relatively minor temple to its worship. Someone managed to break one of the seals of death and a massive death worm, a demon of the dead, now squirms in the main fane.

The temple itself is not a major one in the city or of the faith in question – a small structure (for a temple) of brown stone with a polished copper roof. The temple is significantly asymmetric, and in a roughly horseshoe shape with a wall enclosing the small courtyard that contains sixteen massive pillars each inscribed with the catechism of the lord of death.

The southern portion of the building is where the scribes work – accepting petitions from townsfolk, and working through the appropriate paperwork for the funeral rights of the deceased. These scribes reside in their clanhouses, coming to the temple to work. The scribes have a secret door that opens behind the small shrine outside. The door is only 3 feet by 3 feet, and is intended for the collection of offerings left at the shrine, not for actual egress from the building. Behind the scribes are three windowless cells belonging to junior priests (connected by a narrow secret passage) and the ramp down to the crypts below the temple (where much of the paperwork is stored regarding the histories of the dead and where their bodies can be found).

The northern portion of the temple includes the multi-tiered main fane (currently hosting the avatar of the Lord of Death), a smaller private shrine, and some libraries containing documents that are considered important enough not to stash in the crypts below.

Since a massive death worm may not be what you want in this temple, I’ve included versions without it on my blog.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 7,200 pixels (32 x 24 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 1,680 pixels or 4,480 x 3,360 pixels, respectively.

Temple of the Worm

Temple of the Worm (300 dpi promo, no commercial license) A manifestation of the god of death has been summoned within this relatively minor temple to its worship. Someone managed to break one of t…

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[Dyson Logos]

Temple Of The Worm – Upper Levels

We return to the Temple Of The Worm from earlier this week with these two upper levels of the temple structure. This level is reached via three sets of stairs in the upper-right portion of the ground floor map – one leading into the upper level of the administrative part of the temple, and the other two leading into the upper mezzanines above the main fane, looking down on the primary ritual space (and the great death worm that is blindly writhing there now).

This is still a small temple structure, with four more cells upstairs for those of the clergy and caretakers who do not live in their clanhouses elsewhere in the city. Unlike the downstairs cells, these are slightly larger and have small windows to the outside – but larger doesn’t always mean roomier, as they’ve been stuffed full of furnishings and the centre two have two beds each.

The roof of the southeastern portion of the temple has a low wall around it and is accessible via a door on this floor so temple guards can be posted here during times of troubles. Further, the third floor has an even taller perimeter wall (about five feet tall) with stairs leading up to the top of it – this floor is rarely used currently except when there are funerary rites for important followers of the death god, at which point low priests are sent up here to blow horns of rebirth so everyone in the city will know that the intellect of the dead has been freed from death.

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.

Temple of the Worm, Upper Levels

Temple Of The Worm – Upper Levels (300 dpi, no commercial license) We return to the Temple Of The Worm from earlier this week with these two upper levels of the temple structure. This level i…

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[Dyson Logos]

Graxworm Map 13 – Industrial Facilities

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, several 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. Today we are deep within the corpse of the graxworm, not quite at the lungs but at some of the major manufacturing and refining capacity of this necromantic-industrial complex.

This whole region is a mix of “foundries” (actually processing stations where the acid bile, fire spittle, and other elements of the dragon are used to work the bones, scales, and skin of the beast to produce finished material for the manufacture of horrific and bizarre weapons of war), storage space for the unrefined and finished materials, workshops for the use and assembly of these materials, and storage “garages” for the massive war machines that are assembled from these materials. This whole region is hot, steamy, acrid with acid and spittle, and a practical labyrinth of brass vats, massive pipes, steam vents, and workshops.

The grey lines are a massive ventilation system powered by the massive bellows in the lungs further down the corpse from this area and another zone much like this one is found on the other side, past the lungs. The ventilation is used to fan the flames of the foundries, to disperse the acidic and poisonous clouds over the vats, and to make the area at least somewhat liveable among the heat and manufacturing.

Our next map in the series will focus in on a smaller portion of this map, presenting a detailed layout of one set of facilities within.

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 13 – Industrial Facilities

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

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Dyson Logos]

Graxworm Map 14 – “Foundries” Detail

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, several 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. Today we are deep within the corpse of the graxworm, not quite at the lungs but at some of the major manufacturing and refining capacity of this necromantic-industrial complex.

A detailed look at one of the sections of Map 13 – this shows a fairly typical “foundry” cluster – many vats where the acid bile, fire spittle, and other elements of the dragon are used to work the bones, scales, and skin of the beast to produce finished material. The vats produce a foul miasma of acidic fumes, poisons, and general nastiness, and the ventilation from the lungs barely does enough to make these areas borderline habitable for workers. The entire area is hot and steamy and carries a strongly acrid taste to the air.

To those who don’t work here (and even for many who do), each foundry cluster like this is a practical labyrinth of brass vats, massive pipes, steam vents, and workshops. They are broken up into these clusters so accidents don’t threaten other foundry clusters, allow various foundries to specialize in one material or one type of war machine, and frankly to reduce the maze-like nature of the whole necromantic-industrial complex.

The ventilation pipes here are about 3 feet in diameter and take the pressurized air from the great bellows in the dragon’s lungs and distributes it at the various vats in an attempt to disperse the foul miasma and give workers access to some fresh air. In many foundries the air flow is used to fan the flames under the massive brass vats to bring the acids to a boil in order to temper the raw materials of the Graxworm.

Every one of these foundry clusters maintains a “garage” where the massive war machines they are building are stored. While a portion of the worked material goes to make personal armor and armaments, as well as to build other structures within the great corpse, the majority is now being put to use assembling these war machines and siege engines – a massive military build-up, and a definite cause for concern to any who discover what’s going on deep within the Graxworm.

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 14 – “Foundries” Detail

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

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Dyson Logos]

Halls of the Violet Sorcerer

The Halls of the Violet Sorcerer extend deep into Montauppes Mountain – with the main entrance along Stonerich Pass right before Gravel Bend (and the secret entrance being much further along Stonerich Pass). The paired entry doors have long been reduced to one sealed stone portal, the other buried under rubble and the weight of the mountain above it. Inside, the chambers are arranged in small clusters with extensive halls between them.

I’ve left the exact length of the passages up to the end user wherever the passages are “broken” with a letter (A, B, or C). Each of these letters can be a different distance of the DM’s choice – A determines how far the east and west sides are from each other, B determines the depth to the Great Hall and associated structures (including the secret entrance), and C determines how much further beyond the Great Hall one must travel to reach the furthest chambers of the Halls, and the Violet Sorcerer’s domain.

This map begs to be a classic D&D “puzzle / funhouse dungeon” with the various chambers each having their own minor mysteries to ponder, weird effects (what’s in the mist? what are the chambers beyond the cistern for? what’s with the repeating octagonal rooms?), or bizarre denizens that survive here via magic instead of feeding themselves.

Finally we have the domain of the Violet Sorcerer. This final chamber (in the middle of the top of the map) defies gravity and common sense, except where it doesn’t. The magics of the Violet Sorcerer have trapped them beyond the reach of common physics, and the gravity-defying stairs and the massive open pit that extends to unknown depths are here to remind those who visit that physics has taken at least a temporary vacation.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 12,900 x 16,500 pixels in size (43 x 55 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 3,010 x 3,850 or 6,020 x 7,700 pixels, respectively.

Halls of the Violet Sorcerer

Halls of the Violet Sorcerer (300 dpi promo) The Halls of the Violet Sorcerer extend deep into Montauppes Mountain – with the main entrance along Stonerich Pass right before Gravel Bend (and …

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[Dyson Logos]

Longboat Mountain – Reflecting Lake

Continuing up Longboat Mountain from the Drop Falls, the climb takes another reversal in direction (and an increase in grade of the ascent) at the reflecting lake (location D on the Longboat Mountain overview map). The stream running down to the Drop Falls and then over the edge to Silver Lake pools into a pair of large ponds here (honestly not big enough to earn the name “lake”).

The area around the lake is a small bowl with significant tree and brush coverage.

But climbing over the edge of the bowl, one cannot but notice the obelisk. Sitting on the island as part of a shrine made up of four small polished obelisks around this tall and rough cut chunk of stone that emits a silver radiance that shines off the lake like bright moonlight. Sharing the island with the shrine is an apple tree – while the majority of the tree seems normal, the parts of the tree that don’t see much sunlight appear to have turned to silver and a single silver apple hangs not more than ten feet from the shrine.

The goblins who have established themselves above Red Eagle Tower have tried repeatedly to acquire this apple, whereas everyone else on the mountain has learned to give it a wide berth. A number of shattered goblin skeletons sit just below the waterline around the island. A row of five rough-cut stones that look like more recent attempts to copy the design of the obelisk sit atop the small rise between the two parts of the lake. These were crafted by goblins attempting to “steal” the magic of the obelisk.

Anyone approaching within 30 feet of the tree feels a strong repelling force pressing against them. Continuing further towards the tree the force envelops the intruder (but is strongest from the side of the tree) and begins to crush them. Every five feet advanced deals 1d10 cumulative damage (1d10 at 25 feet, 2d10 at 20 feet, 3d10 at 15 feet, 4d10 at 10 feet, 5d10 at 5 feet, and a crushing 6d10 when at the apple proper). The force by the last five feet is easily as strong as a storm giant, and attempting to acquire the apple from further back with tools requires dealing with that powerful repelling force. The same force holds the apple in place until a living hand grasps it (preventing telekinesis and many other tricks), at which point the force ends. Probably the best chance to get the apple would be some sort of teleportation to arrive right at the apple, deal with the 6d10 damage, and grasp it.

The apple itself is a single-use magic item that can be used to either cast Resurrection or thrown as a grenade up to 30 feet +5 feet per point of Strength bonus whereupon it emits a brilliant flash of moonlight that deals damage identically to the damage dealt for approaching it in the first place, as well as turning all shape-shifting creatures back to their original form and dispelling all forms of illusions within the area.

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.

Longboat Mountain – Reflecting Lake

Longboat Mountain – Overview Continuing up Longboat Mountain from the Drop Falls, the climb takes another reversal in direction (and an increase in grade of the ascent) at the reflecting lake…

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