Abandoned stronghold

[SJS]

I'm working on a new D&D adventure for my kids, and the general outline is that a long-dead wizard's stronghold has been discovered, but it is impenetrable due to a magical door that requires 3 keys for entry. So it will be a 4-part adventure with the fourth part being the wizard's stronghold (looking for whatever treasures may have been left behind) pending success on the first 3 adventures to track down the 3 keys. These are rumored to be in the stronghold of the old wizard's 3 apprentices, also thought to be long-dead.

The climax of each of the three preliminary key quests will be the key room itself, which will require a puzzle to be solved to earn the key in question. Since we don't usually get a lot of time to play I was trying to make the 4 adventures all bite-sized, though in this first stronghold I made a few more rooms than I'd wanted to. Can't help myself. Here's the WIP of the first stronghold:



As I'll make clearer when I work more, the "front" of the building is up on a high hillside, reachable only by steep switch-back trails. Much of the structure is embedded in the hillside, though the front areas are set outside. The semicircular area in the front (bottom) is a patio overlooking the valley. Most of the front rooms are kitchen, meeting areas, servant quarters. The area back left will be behind a locked door and are the apprentice's workrooms. The area behind the secret door is a burial chamber and the key room (the puzzle involves the murky water there). To the right side is the bedroom suite of the apprentice, which will be elevated over the garden area which is exposed to the sky (and thus may have some wild creatures at this stage). The garden area had been used to grow herbs for potions, etc.

I'm making this map in Photoshop, unhiding lower layers by painting black on a layer mask. I'm not sure the combination of the semi-realistic garden makes sense with the schematic style of the rest of the map, but I don't care, I'm having fun with it. Obviously I still will be adding doors and other interior symbols along with a clearer representation of the area outside.