Dyson's Mapvember 2016

[Dyson Logos]

I cleaned up and posted the first of these maps to my blog yesterday:



"The Lodestar of Amaranthine Regrets" (with backstory)

Over the next 3-4 months they will each get a bit of touching up, then get scanned, written up with a few paragraphs of background or story, and then posted to the blog.

[Dyson Logos]

Thank you for the praise and comments Mouse, Diamond, Damonjunx, thomrey, Matthew VE, and srt!

Does anyone know if there is a Photoshop pattern available for this type of hatching? and if so, to coin on old advertising campaign here in Oz, "where do you get it?". I'd really like to use it in my own dungeons but my drawing skills leave a fair bit to be desired.

I believe there is one for sale through RPNow, but as I don't really use digital tools beyond the very basics of scanning and contrast-enhancing, I'm not 100% certain if it is still there nor how it works.

[Mouse]

What is meant by 'Photoshop fill'. Is it a special type of bitmap, or is it just a tiling jpeg/png?

I only ask, because I could make you one if you like - if it's not some kind of fancy do-da file type that I've never even heard of before

Samples please? Need to know what I'm trying to emulate.

[Abu Lafia]

Congrats Dyson for actually accomplishing this enormous mapvember task! A bunch of really awesome and diverse maps. Great idea to garnish them with a bit of backstory (The Marblesong Choir is really cool ).

[Ilanthar]

Yup, I'm adding my congratulations for doing this challenge entirely! And with well-thought and well done maps!

[Dyson Logos]

Cleaned up and finalized version of the second map is now up on the blog:



LEO Workstation J3N-CAD

In a slowly decaying orbit surrounded by debris is Low Earth Orbit Workstation Juliet 3 November CAD. One of the workstation’s four work environments has been blown open to vacuum and failures of various safety systems resulted in extensive damage to the interior of the other compartments and the deaths of many of those stationed on site.

The survivors were loaded aboard two Extra-Station Repair Vehicles that slowly jetted themselves to a nearby workstat consortium. The survivors described a fire tearing through the station and security and safety doors failing to close (or in one survivor’s description, reopening once closed). Two of the five survivors were completely catatonic and within the week two had committed suicide (including one of the catatonic survivors who accessed a scalpel while attention was on the others). Research in Pod 3 was a classified project by the R&D department of the U-Gth GmbH and the same day that the pod erupted the R&D building in Rostock was one of four buildings pulled down into a massive sinkhole that still hasn’t been stabilized and is threatening several major hotels in the resort portion of that city.

A number of organizations including both the ESA and NASA as well as assets from various intelligence organizations definitely want to find out what was going on up there. Which is where the characters come in.

Because really, what kind of horrors could a company that mostly deals in high-end mushroom cultivation out of Germany be up to?

LEO Workstation J3N-CAD was drawn during my run through 30 maps in 30 days as part of Mapvember 2016. The presented theme for the day was “Derelict”. I had also had some requests from a few patrons for an abandoned space station, so the combo seemed perfect.

You can download the map (with and without grid) for personal and commercial use from the blog post at http://wp.me/psUVp-2pK

[Dyson Logos]

The Hall of Daniau the Defender



Old and decrepit stone stairs lead down into this massive hole in land – down to the Hall of Daniau the Defender, last of the knights of the Order of the Ivory Sentinel.

The first side chamber on the descent is barred by a stone door magically closed awaiting the next member of the Order of the Ivory Sentinel to enter. Within is a small bathing chamber on the left followed by a chamber where knights were expected to change into white robes and anoint themselves with sacred oils before washing their feet again at the bathing chamber before continuing the descent.

The next chamber would normally be avoided by most coming down this way, but with the collapse of the stairs, the Cavern of 36 Blessings must be traveled through to get further down.

The Cavern of 36 Blessings contains a number of floor to ceiling pillars as well as near-pillars carved into the wall. Each of these 36 “pillars” is carved with inscriptions describing horrible scenes of carnage, excess, murder and bloodshed committed by the Order of the Ivory Sentinel in their zeal to protect their kingdom. Each ends with a prayer that subsequent knights of the order maintain the zeal to perform their duties as well as the knights in these stories.

Below the Cavern of 36 Blessings is the chamber of the idols of the shields and then at the bottom of the descent we finally arrive at the Hall of Daniau the Defender – originally known as the Hall of the Ivory Sentinel but remembered for the name of the last of those knights now. This whole level has a very low ceiling now because of mud buildup over the years as rains have dragged dirt and soil into the hall from the bottom of the hole. At one time this was a feasting hall and the banners of the order hung from the walls. Now the banners are eaten and rotted nearly completely away and a few of the rotten tabletops seem to rest on the upper layer of the muddy floor.

This map was drawn during my run through 30 maps in 30 days as part of Mapvember 2016. The presented theme for the day was “The Descent”. I was also inspired by both my earlier Wygralak’s Hole map as well as the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure “People of the Pit”.

You can download this map for free personal or commercial use from the blog post at http://wp.me/psUVp-2pP

[Dyson Logos]

And here's another cleaned up and posted:



In the valley of the eight spires there was once a massive sandstone labyrinth that separated the various structures here and was part of what made it such a holy site. But in the wars that followed the sundering of the faith, one group of heretics gleefully destroyed as much of the labyrinth as they could - both the natural portions and those worked by centuries of divinely inspired stonemasons.

All that is left of the labyrinth are the piles of rubble slowly disappearing into the desert valley and a few traces of it around the last of the eight spires at one end of the valley and at the entrance to Hegruth's Shrine at the other.

The shrine itself was looted in the fighting and then lost. Rediscovered a century later it was looted once more, then the last artifacts of the cult of Hegruth were returned here and sealed away as the cult faded away without a charismatic leader to guide it with visions of the old saint.

Deadly "violet ague" spores were left scattered among the artifacts to deter (and kill) looters. But someone didn't quite cork the decanter of endless water quite right, and the violet ague spores found a place to live and grow... combined with something living within the root of the saint's toenail encased in the same area, the violet ague has survived and mutated and has picked up some sort of malevolent sentience. And it wants out of this tomb but also needs a way to survive the trip through the desert ahead if it does escape.

So it needs a carrier, if you will. Someone it can hollow out and carry itself within to escape. Unfortunately it keeps growing, and a single wandering camel or adventurer won't be enough to get the whole thing out anymore...

And of course, one of Hegruth's artifacts is needed now (likely the holy symbol dagger that incorporates both of his shin bones as well as one of his teeth in the pommel), and sages have found Hegruth's labyrinth on an old map of the region...

[Dyson Logos]

The next one is up on the blog now - Control!



This tomb on the edge of the desert of the gods is the resting place of four Huecuvas of unusual intelligence for their ilk, as well as a few guardian mites that served them in life and still serve them now.

In life the four Huecuvas were warlocks dedicated to four spirit nagas, all children of the same night hag who rode their father (a paladin of great will) relentlessly through the years. While treated as typical huecuvas in most respects, they retain a typical human intelligence in death and still can cast two level 1 and one level 2 spell per day.

The huecuvas are entombed in their private crypts in the leftmost chamber. They generally remain somnolent unless something disturbs the complex or their tombs, although they occasionally wander the complex when awakened by foul dreams and premonitions.

The chamber on the far right of the complex contains four pools each radiating a different colour of energy with swirling currents within the waters tracing out the shapes outlined on the map to those who inspect them closely. The circular rooms have lowered central areas filled with dirt and excrement from the mites (as well as the buried corpses of those mites that have died from the many diseases carried by the huecuvas). These night soil pits are watered occasionally from the magical pools and grow a number of edible mushrooms as well as a few less savoury fungal creatures.

Unlike most mites, the twenty or so living in the complex do not have their usual tiny complexes of secret tunnels and trap doors and thus operate pretty much in the open as caretakers and defenders of the complex – watching for invaders from the small arrow slits looking down onto the approaching path.

(Mites and Huecuvas are both from the AD&D1e Fiend Folio – if they don’t exist in the game system of your choice, treat Huecuvas pretty much as ghouls that can only be struck by magic & silver and carry disease instead of paralysis, and mites as 2′ tall extra-timid goblins with knives and sharp teeth.)

You can download Control at 300dpi from the blog post at http://wp.me/ssUVp-control

[Dyson Logos]

Another one of the Mapvember maps has been cleaned up and posted!



In the mountains by the holy city of Thurfei are the tombs of those who have died in the quest to succeed to the Holy Imperial Throne. While there are a number of such tombs that house the dead of noble lineage, only one is said to also contain much treasure.

The Tomb of the 14 Imperial Princesses

When the 14 daughters of the Seventeenth Holy Emperor in Viridian rose up to take the throne from hir, it became less a challenge of assassination of the emperor and more of a power struggle within the fourteen daughters for whom would take the throne afterwards.

To the surprise of not only the daughters of the throne, but to most of the court, the Seventeenth Holy Emperor in Viridian both still possessed the energy and will to bear the mighty powers of the throne, and the self-preservation to use it upon hir daughters.

Unlike other pretenders to the throne, the fourteen daughters were entombed in their finery along with many of their favourite gewgaws, toys and decorations; making their combined tomb a potential prize worthy of any great robbery caper.

But the tomb remained unmolested through the next 30 years of the Seventeenth Holy Emperor in Viridian's rule, and inviolate under guard during the next five successions. It is only now while the empire is in turmoil following the poisoning and imminent death of the current reigning Emperor that the tomb is unguarded...

But not untrapped.

There are actually only one major trap once someone has passed the wizard-locked front doors of the tomb. There are two massive stone blocks made of Lotus Stone from the Darkest Crimson Hell that are linked to just about everything in the tomb. These stone blocks slide out to seal the entrance and are magically inert due to their origin (as anyone with any decent arcane education should know, Lotus Stone of the Darkest Crimson Hell is always magically inert). The first pressure plate just past the stone blocks only trigger the blocks. The second pressure plate in the main hall triggers the blocks as well as the portcullis beyond them. Finally, each of the tombs of the Fourteen Imperial Princesses is linked again to this same trap.

Perhaps someone of unearthly strength could reopen the portal, and of course transportation magics could get people out of the tomb... but for most would-be tomb-robbers the remaining option is to find the secret chambers where the controls for the portal's machinery are and to reset the trap from there.

Of course, once the stone portal is closed, the Fourteen Imperial Princesses lurch to consciousness again, trapped in their damaged and dead bodies, angry, hungry, and knowing full well that any robbers nearby were after their treasures.

= = =

This map was originally drawn as part of Mapvember - the theme of the day was "Trapped" and I went with these massive stone blocks that trap any tomb robbers within the structure where one might expect worse traps...

I generally work hard to avoid much symmetry in my maps. Symmetry makes it so players know what to expect around the corner once they've explored half the map. But there are times where symmetry works. With how much I avoid symmetry, it actually stands out as unusual if you generally use my maps in game.

You can download the map at 300dpi for your personal or commercial use from the blog post at http://wp.me/psUVp-2r0