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

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The Cinereous Basilica

The church in the heart of town has gone through many worshippers and worshippees over the ages, and still has a dark reputation (thus the name). Originally the structure was built as a temple to the Zoriszian god of mercy, of whom the priesthood allows no representations. With the fall of Zorisz, several heretical offshoots of the church appeared in the outlying regions and this unassuming basilica was home to one of the darker sects that delivered this mercy to the unwashed and the refugees of old Zorisz at the end of a blade.

Most dark faiths and the old gods of Zorisz were left behind after the fall, during the ascension of the many principalities of the region. But this small heretical cult was harder to quell, unwilling to relinquish the blade or whatever other means they chose to deliver “mercy” upon people. The faith grew again during the four plagues as mercy was sought by the suffering, and directed by those willing to go to any lengths to keep themselves from joining them.

Finally, the source of the resurgent third plague was found by the Order of Crimson, and they infiltrated the temple crypts late one night to hunt and slay the undead monstrosity that had once been a priest of the god of mercy and who was now spreading the infections through hordes of rats.

In modern days, the Basilica is maintained by a small group of worshipers of the old gods of Zorisz, with the head of the pantheon depicted in their glory in red stone at the end of the nave, and the walls decorated with images of the rest of the pantheon. The structure has angled roofing over the aisles leading to the majestic arched ceiling of the central basilica proper. Windows (between the buttresses) are placed near the top of the aisle walls, and again in the arched roof allowing light into the full structure.

Documents from the church are kept in the musty basement, and the crypts are home to the first nine high priests who worshipped the reformed pantheon from this site. (They quietly removed the original occupants of the crypts and buried them in consecrated ground beyond the town's borders). However, two secret crypts remain, and if investigated tell the story of the Order of Crimson and their desperate battle against the plague-bearer.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 12,000 x 9,600 pixels (40 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for the recommended 5′ squares that make sense with the design) or 140 pixels (for 10‘ squares) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,800 pixels or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.

The Cinereous Basilica

The Cinereous Basilica (300 dpi promo, no commercial license) The church in the heart of town has gone through many worshippers and worshippees over the ages, and still has a dark reputation (thus …

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Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Basements Level 1)

Last month we explored the main structure of the Temple of the Worm. This month we are going to head underneath it – where much of the work of this temple is done. As a temple to the god of death and the effort to keep the intellect alive after the “soul” has departed, a lot of the structure is underground where undead are unlikely to come into contact with the regular populace.

The west side of this level is accessed via the stairs from the libraries in the northeastern wing of the structure above. Here we have further elements of the library from above, along with a dais where the head of the archivist-priests deals with requests and guests. Beyond the archives is an older fane like the one above, but converted now as a mostly empty extension of the libraries. Beyond the fane are two storage chambers with stairs down to the lower basements.

The east side of the basements are dominated on the north side by a large storage room accessed by the ramp from above, then descending further to the east. The storage space holds a number of sarcophagi and many funerary urns within which are still trapped the intellects of those interred within. South of the storage chamber are workrooms and again shelves of scrolls and librams – and a further passage beyond that was once crypts but are now storing the details of important family bloodlines and where their dead are kept.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 6,000 pixels (32 x 20 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 1,400 pixels or 4,480 x 2,800 pixels, respectively.

Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Basements Level 1)

Temple Basements (Level 1) (300 dpi promo) Last month we explored the main structure of the Temple of the Worm. This month we are going to head underneath it – where much of the work of this …

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Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Basements Level 2)

Today we descend deeper under the Temple of the Worm. The small temple in the city is less than half of the total space of the temple. When the cult of the temple was ascendant in the city, the old temple was much larger and more ornate, and these levels were built up over the ruins of the old temple, connecting it with the catacombs below.

As the city grew buildings were torn down and built up time and again, until everything was built on a foundation of structures that came before them. This is apparent on this level, as there are two connections to other ruins of the undercity from the temple - one (to the northwest) constantly guarded and the other (to the southeast) a secret escape route only known to a few senior administrative priests.

The northeastern portion of the basements is a continuation of the larger storage halls on the first level, and is connected to them by similar ramps to those that connect them to the surface.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 8,100 pixels (32 x 27 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 1,890 pixels or 4,480 x 3,780 pixels, respectively.

Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Basements Level 2)

Temple Basements (Level 2) (300 dpi promo) Today we descend deeper under the Temple of the Worm. The small temple in the city is less than half of the total space of the temple. When the cult of th…

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Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Catacombs Level 1)

Beneath the basements of the Temple of the Worm are the catacombs that significantly predate the temple proper. This level of the catacombs is interspersed with small tunnels that were probably home to pipes for moving air or water when they were originally built. The pipes are long gone, but the narrow 2-foot-wide passages remain and are secured with fine grates in an attempt to keep the rodents and other pests from crawling out of them.

These catacombs are broken into two sections connected by the narrow shafts and by the level below – the lower left portion is only accessible on foot from the deeper catacombs. This level has been used for storing the remains of the dead and less important paperwork for many long years. The papers are well-chewed by the occasional vermin that gets past the grates, and the dead should be in the nearby necropolis instead of here, but have been “stolen” because they knew something important, or purely to be used as leverage against the clans they are from.

Other rooms down here are long disused, given up to the damp conditions and vermin. The secret passage into the undercity to the east of the main catacombs is unknown to the priesthood – it is a secret back door through which the servants of the other death god in the city (dedicated to the quiet rest of the dead) can reclaim the dead stolen from the necropolis and replace them with less important remains.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 8,100 pixels (32 x 27 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 1,890 pixels or 4,480 x 3,780 pixels, respectively.

Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Basements Level 2)

Temple Basements (Level 2) (300 dpi promo) Today we descend deeper under the Temple of the Worm. The small temple in the city is less than half of the total space of the temple. When the cult of th…

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Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Catacombs Level 2)

Deep beneath the basements of the Temple of the Worm are the lowest tier of catacombs that significantly predate the temple proper. Like the level above, there are numerous tiny shafts / tunnels that interconnect between the chambers and the upper level of the catacombs. These catacombs are definitely from a temple of the same death god as the current temple, but significantly predate the structure – back to a time when that temple had much more political clout and was a much larger and more ornate structure.

The main element of these catacombs is the five pentagonal chambers, each dedicated to a different aspect of the god of death. These were constructed when the temple was under the care of the clan of the Sweet Singers of Nakomé, while the modern temple is under the care of the much less prestigious clan of the Copper Door. These chambers are rich with copper inlays and inscriptions of the catechisms of the five aspects of the Lord of Decay.

Around these five ritual chambers are ancient tombs and crypts, as well as another well-guarded access into the undercity. To the northeast a wide passage leads up towards the necropolis – at one time this was a grand passage, a parade route between the ritual chambers and the necropolis. Now the upper end of this route has been built over, and access is only through a few old crypts in the necropolis that are still connected to this passage.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 12,000 pixels (32 x 40 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 2,800 pixels or 4,480 x 5,600 pixels, respectively.

Beneath the Temple of the Worm (Catacombs Level 2)

Temple Catacombs (Level 2) (300 dpi promo) Deep beneath the basements of the Temple of the Worm are the lowest tier of catacombs that significantly predate the temple proper. Like the level above, …

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Kong Koffee Ruins

On the outskirts of the major ruins of the city, on the border near the now-lost remains of the suburbs, a solitary concrete structure stands in a parking lot slowly being overtaken by trees and grasses. For whatever reason, this cinderblock-constructed coffee shop survived whatever destroyed the other buildings in the area – both the explosions and the wear of time.

Laying in the parking lot, sad and cut off at the knees, is the mascot of this source of refreshments – a great ape holding a massive cup of coffee overhead. The windows and display cases are shattered and destroyed, and the (significant number) of toilets are mostly ruined. But the walls and roof are intact, making this an excellent place to turn into a small base of operations when striking out into the ruins of the city.

But there’s more to this building than meets the eye. The cinderblock was fortified and reinforced for a reason. Beneath the structure is a pre-war surveillance post accessed through a secret trap door in the manager’s office. The post is broken up into three rooms. The ladder descends into the main ops room with tables covered in old blueprints and papers as well as shelves along the north wall that have neatly set rows of ancient paper coffee cups upon them. The south side of the ops room is the surveillance room – where a chair is set up in front of a desk that is still linked to the fake drain pipes on the south side of the building (next to the dumpsters). These pipes contain micro cameras and directional microphones.

Finally, the east side of the basement is an old bunk room. It has a few bunkbeds, some cabinets, another table, and a toilet. The destruction of one of the toilets on the level above has damaged the drain pipe beneath it, and this room stinks of old sewage.

I keep being asked for non-fantasy maps. While most of the requests are for science fiction or modern day material, my style lends itself best to fantasy… and post-apocalyptic. This particular map was drawn for Malix Nystul’s NUKED – a post-apocalyptic RPG of magic, mutants and mayhem. But in the future I’ll try to include a post-apocalyptic map of some kind (generally with a Fallout vibe, as I’ve played a LOT of Fallout over the decades) every few months.

Kong Koffee Ruins

Kong Koffee Ruins (300 dpi promo) On the outskirts of the major ruins of the city, on the border near the now-lost remains of the suburbs, a solitary concrete structure stands in a parking lot slow…

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Scavengers’ Deep – Map 11

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 eleventh map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – sitting east of Map 8 and south of Map 10. The complexes on this map connect those to the north (Map 10) and those to the west (Map 8), as well as continuing further to the east.

The complexes in this section have multiple levels, with the major upper level (shown at lower right on the map), having a series of arrow slits overlooking the large 30 foot wide passage that leads here from map 10 to the north. The other attached levels include the two descending levels on the upper right (with a grate at the bottom to deal with overflows from the river cave that runs beside it); and the room on the upper right with broken stairs that connect the higher level on the left to the lower levels on the right.

From the south we have a pair of pipes that used to run water through the complex (which will connect to the pipes from Map 9).

This map is connected to Map 10 via the 30 foot wide gallery passage (and a couple of twisting caves that interconnect with the maps on each side of this map), with more passages of the complex extending in all four directions (the southern passage being a maintenance passage that is difficult to navigate because of the pipe running down the middle of it).

View attachment Scavengers-Deep-Compiled-11.jpg

Here are all 11 maps combined into one. If printed at miniature play scale (where 1 inch equals 5 feet), each of the individual maps making up the Deep would be 8 feet by 8 feet in size (so once this fourth column is done with next month’s release, it will be 32 feet x 24 feet in size). Expect more maps of the Scavengers’ Deep over the coming months, probably at a rate of one map per month.

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 11

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 11 (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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The Autumn Lands - Hex Map C

The Autumn Lands lie to the south of the Midsummer Lands. This is the map that connects the two together – sitting just north of Map A of the Autumn Lands and connecting to the Midsummer lands along the north edge. There’s no set scale for these maps, and the items on the maps are not to scale with each other so we can see points of interest like towers, cities, and caves. If you really need a scale for this and don’t want to pick one yourself, go with six miles to the hex.

For this series, I’ve been working with the style I started putting together a couple of years ago where the rivers run along the hex borders – this allows for river travel to be great for exploration as you can see the hexes on each side of the river as you go.

This region is centred around a lake that was home to three cities, each constructed in a very different style. Two of these cities remain, the third reduced to ruins a few generations ago. Along the coast is a much smaller walled settlement with a magical lighthouse similar to the one seven hexes to the north along the shores of the Midsummer Lands – these structures are ridiculously tall so the magical “bubbling” lights (similar to a lava lamp in style, minus the lamp) can be seen across the waters for many hexes around.

Other points of interest around this map include a partially forested plateau to the south with massive monoliths surrounding some old ruins; the majority of the mushroom forest hinted at in map A; strange growths that seem to be a mix of fungus and hot air balloons in the swamps to the north (that appear to be at least somewhat related to the massive hive-like structures at the heart of the Midsummer Lands); and a pair of massive statues that point at each other from many miles apart – one in the mushroom forest, the other across the bay from the lighthouse.

The Autumn Lands – Hex Map C

The Autumn Lands – Map C (300dpi promo, no commercial license) The Autumn Lands lie to the south of the Midsummer Lands. This is the map that connects the two together – sitting just no…

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Here are the three existing Autumn Lands (in the south) attached to the Midsummer Lands to the north.

 

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Crypts & Worms

Beneath the ruins of the temple are the catacombs of the honoured dead. Or in this case, the somewhat desecrated dead. The crypts were partially looted by brave thieves before they were chased off by the suddenly restless dead. But something has really stirred the dead again, and some are even found lurking in the ruins of the temple above now.

A purple worm has travelled through the area seeking a nesting space, and has smashed right through portions of the crypts…

The crypts are a multi-tiered affair, with the north end at a significantly higher elevation than the depths to the south. And the trail of purple worm carnage similarly works its way down from where the worm first breached the crypts in the northeast to its nesting cave in the south. It begins in the upper right corner where the worm tunnel climbs up from the depths to breach one corridor (and two crypts) of the main crypts before diving down again and breaking through the lower right stairs (leaving a twelve foot drop from the last stair down to the worm tunnel), and then looping past the other stairs before going to a cave that the venomous beast used as an egg chamber after smashing it out of the lower sepulchre.

There’s a pile of purple worm eggs down there. And a lot of very pissed off dead people.

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 (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 the image to 2,380 x 3,080 pixels or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Crypts and Worms

Crypts and Worms (300 dpi promo, no commercial license) Beneath the ruins of the temple are the catacombs of the honoured dead. Or in this case, the somewhat desecrated dead. The crypts were partia…

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