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

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Index Card Dungeon II – Map 3 – The Ghost Tower

This is the third index card-sized map that connect together to form Index Card Dungeon II. Each is designed to fit on a traditional 3 x 5 index card (at six squares per inch), and you can write up any notes about the level on the reverse of the card. I’ll be posting three maps per month in the set, aiming for a total of 18-24 maps or so.

While this map sits above Map 1 (The Tower Base), it isn’t the version of the tower that characters will first encounter. Map 4 will present the tower in the ruined shape that it is in when they first arrive and deal with the Cult of the Fractured Eye. However, at some point while inside the dungeons, the tower shifts and we find this ghost of the original tower standing where the ruins were. The ghost of the tower is not home to the Cult of the Fractured Eye, but instead is home to the spirit of Vaelis Lioren, the warlock who originally built the structure.

Vaelis is a warlock dedicated to one of the “Seventy-Seven Trapped Between” – a group of deities who were trapped between the worlds when they came to aid in the great war. Vaelis takes the rare opportunity when the ghost tower manifests to attempt to establish contact with their patron through strange rituals. Because their patron is trapped between realms, Vaelis’s magic manifests in fragmented ways – most often weaker, but echoing multiple times (each spell is about 50% potency, but manifests 1d4 times in immediate succession in almost the same place).

Other strange manifestations join the warlock on these nights…

Spectral Men-at-Arms: The spirits of their old mercenaries linger, sometimes aiding the Warlock in battle with ethereal swords or offering wise (if outdated) tactical advice.

Unfinished Rituals: The tower’s remnants still hold fading magical glyphs, and incomplete prayers that could strengthen the patron’s voice—or tear open a gateway to unknown realms.

The Curse of Reappearance: Why does the tower return on certain nights? Is it tied to celestial alignments? Forgotten vows? A fragment of the god’s will pushing through? Vaelis both seeks answers – and dreads them.

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 3 – The Ghost Tower

Index Card Dungeon II – Map 3 – The Ghost Tower (300 dpi promo – no commercial license) This is the third index card-sized map that connect together to form Index Card Dungeon II.…

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Echoes of a Forgotten King – The Halls of Musquadobet

Sage Marvus Durnwell’s research into the minor noble houses of the Anchor Dwarf clans has probably pinpointed the location of the Halls of Musquadobet hidden from the prying eyes of the world above. These halls, if actually there, would be a relic of a forgotten age, and hopefully a source of ancient dwarven lore. Once a small underground citadel, it was home to the Musquadobet – a secretive and fiercely independent clan that prided itself on its self-sufficiency and mastery of subterranean survival. Their halls, expertly carved from the surrounding rock, were both practical and majestic, reflecting the meticulous craftsmanship and ingenuity of their people.

Ancient scrolls hint at a noble dwarven house that, in exile, retreated from the roots of the world, determined to carve out their own kingdom away from the conflicts of their kin. The subterranean river was their lifeblood, providing not only fresh water and many fish, but a means for transport and trade as the river cuts through the hills where the citadel is and can be used to ship products in and out to the surface lands.

There are two entrances to the Halls – the north entrance is the main entry and is well guarded with arrow slits watching the passage. The east entry is the citadel’s “postern gate” and leads to a secret door on the lower side of the hills where the hall was built. The Whispering Run is the small river that was the lifeline of the citadel – its waters shimmering in the dim glow of bioluminescent moss that clings to the walls of the river cave. The deeper chambers house remnants of a long-lost culture—ancient murals depicting ceremonies, faded banners hanging in the still air, and doors of exquisite craftmanship sealing off long forgotten chambers.

At the deepest point is the great hall – a two-tiered structure that was the heart of the social life of this small clan.

Sage Marvus Durnwell is an aged scholar who has devoted his life to unravelling the mysteries of the Musquadobet civilization, Marvus is a font of knowledge, always doled out in a slow and painstaking manner. His work, collected in crumbling tomes, suggest that the last generation to live here were under the leadership of an ancient Musquadobet elder who refused to abandon their throne, even in death – which lead the rest of the clan to abandon the citadel – leaving many of their ancient treasures behind. Strange occurrences haunt the Great Hall, whispers echoing where no one stands. Has the noble’s spirit truly lingered, or is there something darker manipulating the souls trapped within?

However, when the sage’s directions are followed, the Halls of Musquadobet have become a battleground. A faction of dwarven treasure hunters (who claim nobler reasons) seeks to reclaim the halls (and the treasures within), while monstrous invaders – a brood of half-breed troglodyte mutants – have begun their advance from the river. Do the players choose a side or forge their own path in the conflict?

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 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing the image to 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

Echoes of a Forgotten King – The Halls of Musquadobet

The Halls of Musquadobet (300 dpi) Sage Marvus Durnwell’s research into the minor noble houses of the Anchor Dwarf clans has probably pinpointed the location of the Halls of Musquadobet hidde…

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Tomb of Akhatep the Unyielding

Once a revered and formidable ruler, Akhatep the Unyielding led his people with an iron will and unwavering devotion to the gods of Amonkhet. He presided over a golden age of conquest, expanding his domain and constructing towering monuments in honour of the divine. However, his rigid adherence to tradition and law led to unrest among his subjects. Some whispered that his soul had grown as unyielding as the stone walls of his palace, leaving no room for mercy.

Upon his death, his priests – fearful of his wrath even in the afterlife – bound his spirit within a smaller pyramid tomb deep in the shifting sands. His burial chamber is said to be filled with deadly traps and restless guardians, ensuring no thief or desecrator disturbs his slumber.

There are two entrances to the pyramid tomb and they are probably both sealed (pick a method, maybe just a big ol’ block of stone). One leads to a trap (a 20 degree slope down to a fake door that triggers a massive slab of stone to close off the hall). The other one leads up first, and then down to the fake tomb of Akhatep (protected by five mummies of his loyal priests and soldiers – the head priest wearing imperial finery to imitate Akhatep himself), and through a series of twists and slopes to the treasure chamber. The final passage down to the treasure chamber is a 45 degree angle, and the floor of the chamber is 30 feet below the door into it. The first things any would-be tomb robber will note is that the chamber contains both a full wooden boat with metal accents, and a chariot.

But beyond monetary treasures and vehicles to transport Akhatep in the afterlife, finding the real treasures (Akhatep’s magic scepter and a few other magical items) requires finding the secret tomb along the way to the treasure chamber. This chamber again is like the treasure chamber – the entry platform is twenty feet above the floor, and the platform containing the sarcophagi of Akhatep, General Sethramun the Crimson Fang (a vampire who has been sealed here for ages), and Queen Neferia the Silent Veil (a skilled assassin who worked to keep Akhatep safe from her kin).

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 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for 10′ squares) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,240 or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.

Tomb of Akhatep the Unyielding

Tomb of Akhatep the Unyielding (300 dpi) Once a revered and formidable ruler, Akhatep the Unyielding led his people with an iron will and unwavering devotion to the gods of Amonkhet. He presided ov…

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Longboat Mountain – The Longboat Caves

We return to Longboat Valley (near the top of Longboat Mountain) with this small map of location D. Many of the marked locations in the valley itself lend themselves better to a quick description than a full map – but we should have maps for locations I and J (and maybe H) to finish off the set.

The caves up here are the top of the “Silver Stair” – a wide set of stairs cut into the mountain that climb from the depths of the Silver Caves to this location at the top. The Silver Stair connects to the Drop Caves via the chain from the Drop Falls map, and also to the Red Eagle tower (via a secret passage that has been long forgotten). Taking the stairs allows one to bypass most of the mountain itself, in a long dark climb that spirals up and around through the heart of the mountain itself.

The caves are home to a mutated and insular clan of goblins descended from a small expedition that discovered the secret door at Red Eagle Tower before the current inhabitants took over the site. Some fierce beast that devoured half their number chased them up the stairs. The remainder settled into these caves and the area directly outside of them, surviving on a diet of berries and roots and the occasional poached herd animal (the herders of the valley believe that the poaching is done by the goblins of goblin hill, not a group local to the valley).

Six generations later, the shallow gene pool of this group of goblins, their pastoral lifestyle, and the magical environment of the valley have changed these creatures. They are less hostile than most goblins, have a much flatter face and long drooping ears, and most of them have six fingers on each hand. They call themselves the Silver Folk in the goblin tongue. They are more likely to run away than confront intruders, but if someone does attack one of their kin, they will gather up and attack en masse to try to drive out their attackers.

There are two entrances to the Longboat Caves – a narrow cave to the west that leads into the deeper chamber, and the eastern cave that leads directly into the massive chambers and which is overlooked by a natural stone bridge shortly after entering the space. Between the two caves is a third much shallower cave that was used at some point to store foodstuffs and supplies – but that was long ago and the boxes are so old and rotten that not even the goblins were able to find anything useful within them.

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 – The Longboat Caves

We return to Longboat Valley (near the top of Longboat Mountain) with this small map of location D. Many of the marked locations in the valley itself lend themselves better to a quick description t…

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Graxworm – Map 20 – The Tail

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’s map is more of an illustration in many ways. The first map is of the Graxworm Town gates in the maw of the great corpse atop the mountain, and today we have the other end of the Graxworm – the tail that is slowly being stripped of scales for now, but will eventually be completely salvaged too.

The last thousand feet of the Graxworm has no passages within it (except for the circulatory system, which is small enough at this end that it is only big enough for the smallest of the giant maggots to crawl through). The last passage towards the tail breaks out into the rough and broken foothills of the mountain just over a thousand feet from the bony tip of the cadaver’s tail (and is shown in the interior cutaway on the left. From here, a footpath leads down along the tail, and a ladder leads up onto the tail for the continued scavenging of parts from the beast. The ladder leads up to a walkway along the back of the wyrm; assembled for the harvest of scales along this area, although very little actual work has been done from that platform – most of the harvest has been from locations accessible to workers who use the path through the shattered foothills. The scales here are smaller and finer than on most of the beast, making them excellent for manufacturing finer items, but are also very well attached to the tail, making the harvesting difficult.

With all of the harvesting and mining taking place outdoors, the mining crews are all humanoids. This could be used as a point of entry for infiltrating the corpse for those who do not have the connections to slip in through the town in the mouth.

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 are finally approaching the end of this megaproject!

Graxworm – Map 20 – The Tail

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…

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Scavengers’ Deep – Map 19

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 nineteenth map in the Scavengers’ Deep series – this sits directly to the south of last month’s Map 18, and to the east of Map 12 – the next map will continue to the south of this one before we start on a new row to the south of the existing set.

This area sits to the south of the defile that cuts into the mesa of Scavengers’ Deep on the northeastern side (in maps 17 & 18 and the map that will go to the east of 17).

The majority of this map is the continuation of the large complexes that fill this region of the Deep – many wide passages with high ceilings that wind through the mesa, as well as some of the large pipes that once pumped water through the complex from map 12. Some of the caves in this area were obviously expanded by some large beast that was able to practically swim through the stone – enlarging caves and breaking into the complex in several locations. The beast was likely a mutation of one of the thrall species that were engineered within this complex – one that escaped control in the final days as the Deep fell from within.

The north side of this portion of the complex has another level above it – shown in the middle right of the map. This upper level is only accessible via secret rooms connecting to stairs that lead to these upper chambers and is used as a safe retreat by a small group of Khalefolk (half-elves who were the proud servants of their elven masters) who still reside in the complex to this day.

At the lower right side of this map we have a passage that leads up to a private area used by a few high ranking genetic wizards of the old elven masters – the passage was heavily trapped but all the traps were triggered long ago – at the top of the sloped passage is a chamber that used to contain a number of 8 foot stone spheres that would be triggered to roll down the slope – and one of the two alcoves along the way was trapped to push people taking refuge there back into the path of the spheres. All that remains of the spheres are shattered rocks in the room at the base of the ramp.

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. This is the fifth column of maps (so when this column is done, it’ll be a 7 x 6 grid of maps) making the current set 40 feet wide by 32 feet tall. Expect more maps of the Scavengers’ Deep over the coming months, probably at a rate of one map per month. I've also attached a compiled low-res collection of the 19 existing maps.

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 19

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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