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

[Dyson Logos]

I decided to use this map for my D&D 2024 sandbox campaign. During session 0 last night, me and my players were scrolling around examining every nook and cranny. it is a great map, full of wonder and inspiration.

Thanks @Dyson Logos

AWESOME!

I know a teacher who has been using the Midsummer Lands for a few years for his campaigns with his students, and is incredibly excited at how much the setting has grown with these new maps.

Did they find the Sekret Kitty on the map?

 

[Reynard]

AWESOME!
I know a teacher who has been using the Midsummer Lands for a few years for his campaigns with his students, and is incredibly excited at how much the setting has grown with these new maps.

Is the map available commercially? (not commercial license, just in a form that I can buy it)

 

[Dyson Logos]

The Stone Giant Lair

The giants destroyed the dwarven citadel of Kuln nearly three hundred years ago. Few dwarves remain that remember the fall of the great city on the Ironflow river, but almost all know of it. The giants destroyed much of Kuln during the attack on the citadel, and much more damage has been done in the intervening years. While few dare approach the ruins of Kuln itself, the remnants of the great dwarven citadel scatter the lands for at least a hundred leagues around. This stone giant lair uses an old water outlet from the city’s forges, destroyed by the dwarves themselves in the last days of the fighting.

With the forges long silenced, the water outflow is now clean and pure, drawn directly from the Ironflow river, through the cold forges, and then to this and a few other outlets. The caves here are large and echoing, with a fairly narrow entrance (at least in giant terms). A small clan group of stone giants have set up in the caves, using the water for washing themselves, their food, and their few clothes.

Each giant’s cave is connected through the central chamber where the waters flow. The smaller caves that connect the various caves are generally too small for a giant to use, although they are handy when asking each other what’s for dinner or warning of the approach of tiny humanoid pests like adventurers. At the back of the cave three massive 6 foot wide pipes jut out of the masonry-covered stone wall – this entire portion of the cave has been worked by the dwarves of Kuln and a stone platform extends out into the main cavern. This platform is at an excellent height for the stone giants to use as a bench when making dinner or washing up.

There are also access tunnels here that were used for maintenance crews to travel the length of the pipes as needed. These tunnels were seen as a weak point for the city, and were thus mined so they could be collapsed in times of emergency. The entrance to this particular tunnel has been collapsed, leaving only the archway at the end and a fifteen foot thick wall of rocky debris between the main tunnel and the outside. The tunnel has been collapsed again where it leads deeper into the mountain. The remaining access to this passage is the secret door by the pool and a small section of collapsed wall behind one of the giant’s beds.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 8,400 x 10,800 pixels (28 x 36 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 will allow the giants to move around) – so resizing the image to 1,960 x 2,520 pixels or 3,920 x 5,040 pixels, respectively.

The Stone Giant Lair

Illo by Mikołaj Ratajczak The giants destroyed the dwarven citadel of Kuln nearly three hundred years ago. Few dwarves remain that remember the fall of the great city on the Ironflow river, but alm…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Dyson Logos]

Is the map available commercially? (not commercial license, just in a form that I can buy it)

Just electronically right now on my blog.
I will be putting together poster map versions soon.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 15

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 fifteenth map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – sitting south of Map 9, east of Map 14 (and west of the upcoming Map 16). Deep in the heart of the complex, the massive twenty foot-wide corridors continue through this section, acting as highways through these parts of the mesa connecting the various sections of the complex. This map is centred around a very large cave that is connected to the other major caves to the north by a series of winding tunnels. Like the other large caverns, this was used by the elves as living space for their arcane genetic experiments – forcing them into close environments where they can be overseen by the elves to determine which mutations were worth pursuing.

The cavern has a very high ceiling about 90 feet above the main floor of the cave, with a four-story “tower” built into the west side for observers & overseers. The water flows down into this cavern from the north, and continues downhill to the east. Along the southeast side of the massive grotto is a raised area that acts as a wide ramp up to a series of caves used as living space by the thralls and now by their remaining descendants – giving them easy access to the fungus field below. The roof of the cave is pierced in several places, allowing a small amount of sunlight and rainfall into the western side of the cave, which has also resulted in the partial collapse of the upper levels of the observation tower.

I've also included a low-resolution compilation of the fifteen existing maps of the Scavengers’ Deep set. 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 making the current set 32 feet x 32 feet in size (once map 16 is released to finish this row). 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 15

Illo by Mikołaj Ratajczak 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…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Baron Opal II]

A part of Map 15 is to the "outside"? Or does the tower reach up out of the mountain?

 

[Dyson Logos]

A part of Map 15 is to the "outside"? Or does the tower reach up out of the mountain?

The "tower" remains in the massive cave, with a few openings in the cave ceiling above. It was built to monitor and supervise the thralls in the cave.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Nightingale Theatre
An Unusual Thieves' Guild

Nestled into the area between the arts and university districts, the Nightingale Theatre was a small theatre that was upgraded and popularized by the Shadow Saints – a secret organization of a few dozen members dedicated to the Veiled One, god of shadows, secrets, and subterfuge.

The Shadow Saints used the business as a front for their cult which doubled as one of the more secretive thieves’ guilds in the city. They are lead by a charismatic rogue known as Lysandra who had a vision of the Veiled One during a poison-induced near-death experience. Lysandra acts as the Shadow Priest for this cell of the Veiled One’s worship and maintains their public face as the director of this small art gallery and theatre. The front portion of the Nightingale Theatre is open day and night as an art gallery catering to the scions of the city’s nobles. The rear portion is a small theatre that is used for staged performances and for local groups seeking a larger space for their meetings.

All the members of the Nightingale Theatre troupe are also members of the guild & cult. They loan out the space to other organizations to give them an extra level of cover – if anything points back to the theatre, it is easy to pin it on one of the organizations that holds clandestine meetings in the back.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 5,100 x 8,400 pixels in size (17 x 28 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for the recommended 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for traditional 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,190 x 1,960 or 2,380 x 3,920 pixels, respectively.

Nightingale Theatre

Nightingale Theatre (300 dpi promo) Nestled into the area between the arts and university districts, the Nightingale Theatre was a small theatre that was upgraded and popularized by the Shadow Sain…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Baron Opal II]

The "tower" remains in the massive cave, with a few openings in the cave ceiling above. It was built to monitor and supervise the thralls in the cave.

Okay. That will probably become clearer around Map #19, then.

 

[Dyson Logos]

The Astral TurtleCraft

At first encounter, this appears to be something akin to one of the massive dead gods that lie abandoned in the astral – an incredible dragon turtle of immense scale, petrified and silent. And indeed, that is likely what it once was, before it was hollowed out by the Astral Architects.

The self-titled Astral Architects were an order of wizards from many different planes who had met and operated primarily in the astral plane which linked all their worlds together. They named the craft the Tempus Aeternum – a name that has been long forgotten along with the order that crafted it.

Now it is a massive craft powered by a terrifying eldritch engine deep in the bowels of the turtle (seriously, not a figure of speech). The eldritch engine is powered by the souls of lost travellers in the astral – and can “reel in” a soul if linked to someone’s “silver cord”.

The eldritch engine is tended by the forsaken – the husks of the “Astral Architects” who created this monstrosity. These are the original tenders of the engine, dating back to its creation. Their souls are stretched thin, their minds nearly erased by the horrors of their work. Each of the forsaken wears a stonework mask to conceal their empty eyes and gaunt faces – they “live” in the engine room on the lowest tier of the craft. You can look down upon the chamber from the main level and midships deck through heavy darkened glass or crystal walls – but actual access to the engine room is via the basement level.

The basement level is split into two sections – one for the primary crew (currently nearly empty) and the other for the engine. The engine room looks dark and “off” when viewed through the walls above, but is a place of horrors in person. The air is thick with the stench of iron and death and the whispers of the damned; the only light coming from the engine itself and the strange alien plants growing around it. The walls of the chamber are deep red and are inscribed with macabre murals depicting the suffering of the trapped souls; a grim reminder of the price of power.

Vivisector Calizo is the current master of this craft, but their very small crew are just learning how to use the eldritch engine. The craft is currently adrift and running on minimum power until new souls can be fed to it… and if no new souls can be found soon, the Vivisector and the forsaken will start turning on each other aiming to feed each other to the engine. Unfortunately for the Vivisector and his crew, the forsaken’s souls have been stretched far too thin by hundreds of years in the engine room and cannot feed the craft… But a group of adventurers might do perfectly.

Physically, the entrance to the craft is on the main level (upper left) – a massive set of gates set into the mouth of the turtle. There is one level below the entrance level (the crew quarters and engine room), and several levels above. The highest two levels have no stairs – access is via a straight vertical shaft that leads up between them (perfect for astral use, but a pain in the ass when in proximity to anything that produces a gravity field).

The only inhabitants are Calizo and their skeleton crew, the forsaken, and a small number of malevolent wraiths that lurk about, souls that managed to escape the engine before being completely consumed.

This map was drawn for the Gaxx Worx adventure “Wrath of the Sea Lich” (based on an earlier map by Augustinael for the Gaxx Worx adventure “The Fate of Chentoufi”). The text and descriptions in this post are unrelated to that work, and are based on ideas that struck me while I was drawing it. The text is in part inspired by a D&D campaign I ran a decade or so ago where the adventurers turned the shell of a dragon turtle into their primary means of travel – when they acquired the shell it was being used by a group of raiders as a boat. Still, they soon upgraded it to fly like some magic-powered medieval Gamera.

The 600 dpi version of the map was drawn at a scale of 150 pixels per square and is 9,300 x 11,700 pixels in size (62 x 78 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to 70 pixels (for the recommended 5′ squares) – so resizing it to 4,340 x 5,460.

The Astral TurtleCraft

At first encounter, this appears to be something akin to one of the massive dead gods that lie abandoned in the astral – an incredible dragon turtle of immense scale, petrified and silent. An…

dysonlogos.blog