The lair of Xerthi

[Avengeil]

Hello guys,
this is going to be a wip for Neyjour design a dungeon contest. The layout seemed intriguing so I decided to give it a shot.
I'm still at the planning phase so here is a rough key of pretty much what I'm thinking of doing. Do you see any logical errors or something that is missing.

1 main entrance
2 waiting room (chairs, a bell, a carpet)
3 ballroom (big table, chairs lovely carpet, animals hanging on the walls)
4 kitchen
5 guest rooms.
6 (stairs lead up to six) room of illusions, supposedly filled with clouds so the guests would never dare walk into it and uncover the dark secrets of our wizard.
7 Pile of Bones, a statue in the center and around it piles of bone. Obviously the statue is a trap and when the pcs step on specific squares it is triggered.
8 the room of the four harry potter thingy you can see in with water. blue one showing the water of 13.teh last one purple - 19
9 teleportation hall (teleporting with the back side of the secret door, stairs leading down from 7)
10 room of sacrifices a rather empty room, a red curtain hides the top part were is a blood-stained table littered with knives.
12 storage
13 the abandoned laboratory (half-filled with water, equipment floating around and a few human parts.
14-15-16-17 jails.
18 weaponry, armory
19 secret room filled with webs dust and debris.
20 secret exit

Lair of Xerthi phase 1.jpg

[Avengeil]

The basic textures and shadows are in place but I'm beginning to wonder how functional would a grid be on the stone texture.

(uploaded at 85% quality)

Lair of Xerthi phase 3.jpg

[madcowchef]

I'd experiment with whether white or black had better contrast for you, but in my experience as long as the texture itself isn't perfect grid like squares you can grid it without too much difficulty.

[Avengeil]

The white actually works quite well. I've been thinking of changing the stone texture for something that already has tiles on it, will see.

Here's the next update. Any tips on the kitchen. I doubt that it is historically accurate. Plus how exactly would they cook indoors in medieval times?

Lair of Xerthi phase 5.jpg

Edit: btw the beautiful pre-made table is attributed(I don't think this is the correct word) to bogie as I imagine many other stuff from CSUAC are.

Edit: And another mini question. Medieval board games. I want the tenants living in room five to be able to do something. I don't imagine they played D&D inside a D&D map (sounds a bit like sophie's world) but chess?

[Avengeil]

I feel like a house decorater

Lair of Xerthi phase 6.jpg

Note: this is not the grid I intend on keeping, just using it for sizing purposes

[madcowchef]

Medieval cooking centers around the fire, which depending on the current local tradition, may be on the wall or in the center of the room. There were hooks for hanging your pot (closed pots also acted a bit like what we think of as a oven). The wall like fire places were much wider and taller than the cute little ones we use nowadays. Check out some historical re-enactment pictures and you'll get more than enough inspiration. Cooking implements were much more limited as well: tables, spoons, knives, a couple of pots, maybe a spit, and fire tending implements. People owned less things in general. If you are extra fancy you might also have your own bread oven (those small often domed pieces with a fire box below them).

[Avengeil]

Thanks for your suggestions. I sadly couldn't make my fireplace any larger although ten feet might actually be quite big. For sure though the main cooking and roasting took place outside the castle.

Each of the colored water bins shall show the players a top-down view of one of the areas of the dungeon which conforms to a similar color theme. Something of a similar theme shall be written on the scroll.

Lair of Xerthi phase 7.jpg