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

[Dyson Logos]

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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[Dyson Logos]

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

 

[Dyson Logos]

The Hollow Abyss

An oppressive silence hangs over the Hollow Abyss, broken by the faint, almost imperceptible tremor of silk strands vibrating in the stale air. The walls, floor, and ceiling are draped in layers of webbing; some brittle and grey with age, others fresh and glistening, still tacky to the touch. The scent is a mix of damp stone, old dust, and the faintly sweet, cloying odor of spider venom. Every step risks alerting something that has been watching for far longer than you’ve been here.

Webbed Fissure
The entrance to the Abyss is a yawning defile in the stone face of the mountain. The depths of the entry are shrouded in darkness, concealed behind a wall of giant spider webs. A lattice of thick, rope-like spider silk spans the gap, trembling ever so slightly as if something unseen is moving far below. The strands are anchored to jagged rock on either side, their tension humming faintly when touched. A torn scrap of cloth, snagged on a strand of the web, matches the heraldry of House Cavrett, a local noble family.

Egg Chamber
A low, wide cavern, its walls and ceiling thick with layered webs. Pale, bulbous egg sacs cling to every surface, some the size of a fist, others as large as a human head. The air is warm and humid here, carrying a faint, rotten sweetness. Three humanoid shapes hang cocooned in the webs. Two are long dead, their faces frozen in silent screams beneath the silk; the final one is a local farmer who got too close to the Abyss and is still faintly twitching. One of the bodies has a silver amulet with a spider motif, the key to the door of the Alchemist’s Retreat.

The Recluse Den
A webbed-over entrance leads down to this chamber, lit by a faint, phosphorescent glow from lichen-covered walls. At its center rests the Recluse — a massive, ancient spider with mottled grey fur and eyes like pools of black glass. It does not attack immediately; instead, it speaks in a voice like dry leaves scraping stone, offering cryptic warnings and oracular visions. But it attempts to use these to manipulate visitors to working towards its own ends. The Den is eerily quiet, save for the slow, deliberate clicking of the Recluse’s mandibles. The webs here are old and brittle, layered over centuries.

Abandoned Camp
This chamber bears the remnants of a once-orderly campsite: bedrolls, a cold firepit, scattered supplies. The dust here is disturbed only by the faint drag marks of something heavy being pulled towards the Recluse Den. The silence is oppressive, and the smell of decay lingers faintly. A half-written journal lies open, its ink smeared by something wet; the last entry ending mid-sentence. The door to the north is made of iron and is sealed with a silver magical lock that uses the amulet from the Egg Chamber to open.

Alchemist’s Retreat
The final chamber is a stark contrast to the rest of the Abyss. Shelves of dusty glassware, stoppered vials, and stacks of parchment line the walls. A faint chemical tang hangs in the air. Without the amulet to unlock the door, access is via the claustrophobic passage from the Recluse Den. Within are alchemical notes detailing the creation of the spider mutants; experiments gone awry, using waste from failed transmutations. There is also old spider venom antidote, and a map to another of the alchemist’s lairs.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,200 pixels (24 x 34 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 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,380 or 3,360 x 4,760, respectively.

The Hollow Abyss

An oppressive silence hangs over the Hollow Abyss, broken by the faint, almost imperceptible tremor of silk strands vibrating in the stale air. The walls, floor, and ceiling are draped in layers of…

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[Dyson Logos]

The Fractured Prism

Refracting the light of the two suns in a rainbow of colours, both known and not, the Fractured Prism is a breach into this world from another. The colours it refracts are those unknown to the people of this land – jale, ulfire, dolm, garrow, infra-white, octarine, gloxym, smaudre, shatan, and flange, with shadows of fuligin and htun.

The entrances to the Fractured Prism are broken mirrors that look out over the salt flats. Touching the broken mirrors shifts the traveller immediately through to the other side – but a failed saving throw results in strange breaks and fractures in those who travel through. A horrible failure will result in some of the fractured pieces missing entirely – taking fingers, breaking legs, and so on.

Razor Halls
The halls through the crystalline structure are broken along sharp shear lines. It feels like the halls in a funhouse after an earthquake. The edges are all razor sharp, and even just brushing against the walls will draw blood. Fighting in the halls is fraught with danger, and purposefully pushing opponents into the walls deals an additional 1d6 damage.

Reflection Forge
Once a forge that concentrated the refracted light through the prism which was then used to craft magic items, the forge is now damaged and fractured – the light no longer concentrating properly as it once did. However the forge servant is still here, broken and shattered. When the forge is disturbed, the pieces of the servant reform into a mirrored golem to defend the forge from intruders.

Prism Chamber
A massive crystal is suspended by tensioned chains attached to the walls of this chamber. They crystal used to form a gateway to other realms depending on the colors of light directed upon it. But now that the structure is shattered, the crystal and the walls produce distorted reflections of those who enter. Stepping into these reflections can shift the traveller to another world. But most are damaged and broken, leading to shattered and fractured hellscapes.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,800 pixels (24 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 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,520 or 3,360 x 5,040, respectively.

The Fractured Prism

Refracting the light of the two suns in a rainbow of colours, both known and not, the Fractured Prism is a breach into this world from another. The colours it refracts are those unknown to the peop…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

View attachment 417396

The Fractured Prism

Refracting the light of the two suns in a rainbow of colours, both known and not, the Fractured Prism is a breach into this world from another. The colours it refracts are those unknown to the people of this land – jale, ulfire, dolm, garrow, infra-white, octarine, gloxym, smaudre, shatan, and flange, with shadows of fuligin and htun.

The entrances to the Fractured Prism are broken mirrors that look out over the salt flats. Touching the broken mirrors shifts the traveller immediately through to the other side – but a failed saving throw results in strange breaks and fractures in those who travel through. A horrible failure will result in some of the fractured pieces missing entirely – taking fingers, breaking legs, and so on.

Razor Halls
The halls through the crystalline structure are broken along sharp shear lines. It feels like the halls in a funhouse after an earthquake. The edges are all razor sharp, and even just brushing against the walls will draw blood. Fighting in the halls is fraught with danger, and purposefully pushing opponents into the walls deals an additional 1d6 damage.

Reflection Forge
Once a forge that concentrated the refracted light through the prism which was then used to craft magic items, the forge is now damaged and fractured – the light no longer concentrating properly as it once did. However the forge servant is still here, broken and shattered. When the forge is disturbed, the pieces of the servant reform into a mirrored golem to defend the forge from intruders.

Prism Chamber
A massive crystal is suspended by tensioned chains attached to the walls of this chamber. They crystal used to form a gateway to other realms depending on the colors of light directed upon it. But now that the structure is shattered, the crystal and the walls produce distorted reflections of those who enter. Stepping into these reflections can shift the traveller to another world. But most are damaged and broken, leading to shattered and fractured hellscapes.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,800 pixels (24 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 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,520 or 3,360 x 5,040, respectively.

The Fractured Prism

Refracting the light of the two suns in a rainbow of colours, both known and not, the Fractured Prism is a breach into this world from another. The colours it refracts are those unknown to the peop…

dysonlogos.blog

This is really interesting. Normally, I just take your maps and run off in my own direction, but a mirror-based adventure sounds great.

 

[Dyson Logos]

The Ember Reliquary

The Ember Reliquary is a ruin of devotion, a shrine to a god whose name has been scorched from every surface and memory. Ages ago, pilgrims descended into its chambers to bask in the warmth of divine flame and to offer sacrifices of oil, incense, and blood. Now the reliquary is a place of ruin and danger, its sacred fires guttering but never extinguished. The air is thick with soot, the walls cracked by heat. The place is never silent, the hiss of embers and the faint groan of stone that has been scorched for centuries echoes through the structure.

The reliquary was abandoned after the god’s fall from grace. The faithful were scattered, their rituals outlawed, and their relics seized or destroyed. Yet the reliquary itself resisted destruction. The fires within refused to die, and the relic at its heart still burns with a soul that flickers between life and death. Those who enter now do so not to worship but to plunder, to seek forbidden knowledge, or to test their courage against the lingering wrath of a forgotten divinity.

The Scorched Foyer
Past the locked and sealed bronze doors, the antechamber of the reliquary is charred and blackened stone. Once it was a place of welcome, where murals depicted the fire god in triumph, surrounded by supplicants who offered their lives to the flame. Now those murals are charred and broken. The god’s name has been melted and scorched out wherever it appeared, leaving only scars in the stone. The air smells of ash and old smoke. The floor is littered with fragments of burnt offerings, fused into the flagstones. There is a faint warmth here, as though the murals themselves still radiate heat. Some will hear whispers in the crackling of unseen embers, voices that urge them to remember the god’s name. Doors here lead to the Sanctum and Pit, and small openings in the wall look into the idol chamber at the centre of the complex.

The Cinder Pit
This chamber is dominated by a wide pit filled with blackened embers. The pit hisses and smoulders, though no fuel feeds it. The air is dry and acrid, and every breath tastes of ash. The pit reacts to falsehood. Whenever a lie is spoken within the chamber, flames erupt from the embers in a sudden burst, scorching those nearby. The flames vanish as quickly as they appear, leaving only the smell of burnt hair.

The Smothering Sanctum
Filled with cursed incense that never ceases to burn, the air in this chamber is thick and sluggish, and every breath feels like drowning in smoke. The incense siphons oxygen from the room, leaving intruders gasping for air. The walls are painted with faded images of supplicants kneeling in suffocation, their faces serene as they offered their last breath to the god.

The Molten Idol
The central chamber houses a massive cracked statue of the fire god, carved from basalt. The statue leaks lava from its wounds, which pools in a massive bowl it holds, and then flows to the floor where the edges hardened into jagged black glass. The idol demands appeasement. If offerings of blood or flame are not made, the lava flow increases, flooding the chamber with unbearable heat. If appeased, the keys to the final chamber float to the top of the lava. And of course, the idol has gemstone eyes, because this is D&D, right?

Ember’s End
Sealed away in the back chamber of the reliquary is Ember’s End, where the relic of the fire god still burns. The relic is a shard of divine essence, a flame that flickers with a soul caught between life and death. It rests on a raised pedestal of black stone, surrounded by a circle of scorched runes. The flame is small, no larger than a candle, yet it radiates immense heat and power. Approaching the relic, one’s soul becomes drawn towards it – as if the flame hungers for company. Touching it can sear flesh, ignite the spirit, burn away curses, or burn away the supplicant’s eyes. Some hear the voice of the forgotten god, others are consumed entirely, leaving only ash.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,200 pixels (24 x 34 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 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,380 or 3,360 x 4,760, respectively.

The Ember Reliquary

The Ember Reliquary is a ruin of devotion, a shrine to a god whose name has been scorched from every surface and memory. Ages ago, pilgrims descended into its chambers to bask in the warmth of divi…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Dyson Logos]

Vault of the All-Seer

A subterranean reliquary of vision, the Vault of the All-Seer was built where the veil of time was thinnest. The builders believed that truth was not a gift, but a burden, and that only those willing to risk madness could glimpse it. The walls of the structure are etched with spirals, concentric circles, and motifs of open eyes.

The Scrying Hub
At the heart of the vault lies the Scrying Hub, a circular chamber whose floor is inscribed with a ring of glyphs that shimmer faintly and flare with light when stepped upon and impress cryptic fragmented visions upon the person who stepped on them. The visions are cryptic and fragmented: a sword dripping with blood, a crown sinking beneath waves, a familiar face weeping in shadow. The visions are never inaccurate, but they never tell the whole truth and are often of things so far removed in time and space as to be irrelevant to the viewer. Spending too long in these visions risks overwhelming the mind with contradictory futures, leaving the viewer shaken or catatonic.

The Gallery of Eyes
Encircling the hub is a semi-circular passage twenty feet wide, its walls lined with paintings and statues. Each depicts figures with exaggerated eyes, some human, some monstrous, all watching – their eyes following intruders. The statues shift subtly when unobserved, and the paintings’ gazes grow more intense. If disturbed, the artworks animate, merging into a towering eye golem whose body is a shifting mosaic of faces.

The Lens Chamber
This chamber is lined with tall windows that overlook the surrounding landscape. Between the windows a massive crystal lens, ten feet across, is suspended between pillars of silver. Gazing through the lens reveals not the world outside but the hidden motives of those nearby. Lies are stripped away, and unspoken intentions are laid bare.

The Repository of Truths
Another semi-circular gallery houses a library of ancient tomes bound in cracked leather and brittle parchment, their titles written in forgotten tongues. Reading them is dangerous, for each volume reveals a dark secret about one of the intruders. The secret may be true, or it may be a fabrication, but the vault offers no way to tell.

The Viewing Throne
The final chamber is a hexagonal hall with a throne upon a raised dais. The throne is carved from obsidian and inlaid with veins of crystal that pulse faintly. Sitting upon it forces the viewer to witness a vision of a world-ending cataclysm – vivid and inescapable: seas boiling, skies torn apart, cities crumbling. Whether the vision is a prophecy, a possibility, or a lie is never revealed. Viewers are forever changed, their eyes haunted – some leave determined to prevent the doom, others convinced it is inevitable.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,200 pixels (24 x 34 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 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,380 or 3,360 x 4,760, respectively.

Vault of the All-Seer

A subterranean reliquary of vision, the Vault of the All-Seer was built where the veil of time was thinnest. The builders believed that truth was not a gift, but a burden, and that only those willi…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I really like the notes being on the maps. It's a nice upgrade.

 

[Dyson Logos]

I really like the notes being on the maps. It's a nice upgrade.

Thanks. I was doing a big series of five room dungeons in this format. I think I have another five or so left to post.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 23

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 twenty-third map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – this map sits directly east of last month’s Map 22, and south of Map 15.

The larger passages on this map connect to Map 22 to the west, Map 15 to the north, and Map 24 to the east. Smaller connections also lead back to these same maps, as well as three smaller accessways to the south.

Unlike most of the other maps in the Deep, there are no “cutaway” areas that sit above or below the main areas of this section – although there are a number of passages that pass above and beneath each other.

Points of interest along the west side of the map include three deep (and now very dry) cisterns on the northeast side along with a manifold of pipes that lead to what was once a deep natural reservoir of water that is now stagnant and mostly dried up. This in turn connects to some larger caves so the southeast that continue on into the other parts of the Deep – in fact connecting in time all the way to the first caves drawn in this series of maps, back in map 1.

On the southwest side of the map we have a set of octagonal chambers where access is via mezzanines above the main floor of the chambers. Each of these chambers has a number of alchemical vats within them. Many of these vats are breached and leaking, but the nature of their contents means they have not evaporated away yet. These were vats used in the production of the thrall races, and the goo within is still partially alive, much akin to green slime now – quickly able to convert other organic matter into more of the same strange undifferentiated goo.

The east side of the map is home to a very large audience chamber of some kind, with stone benches along the walls and a raised area on the far east side that was used to make announcements or to hold court or some similar type of activity. North of this are a series of apartments along the main passage – some empty, some filled with rubble and debris (and a secret passage that connects many of them).

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 23

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…

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