Dragon Inn (May/June '21 Lite Challenge entry)

[rdanhenry]

The challenge was to "map a movie". There was a further specification that it had to be one without an existing map.

I mapped the titular structure from the 1992 film Dragon Inn (aka New Dragon Gate Inn). The map used traditional paper and ink due to these being what I had available to me while away from my computer on a brief vacation (I had already done a lot of notetaking and sketching while reviewing the film).

The inn is the last stop before the crossing out of China through the Dragon Gate Pass. It is situated in a desert borderland of harsh conditions. Sometimes, the innkeeper kills a guest, who ends up in the spicy meat buns. The innkeeper and her butcher/cook aren't the villains of the film, by the way. That would be an ambitious court eunuch and his army.

Unfortunately, exterior shots other than of the front side of the inn were almost non-existent, while the interior shots did not provide a good overall sense of the layout. In fact, I'm fairly certain that there are some inconsistencies. But that's fine. I can draw a map of the inn suitable for use as a game setting (the whole situation of mutually hostile forces sharing shelter in a storm and maneuvering for advantage, making the occasional secretive strike, would translate very well to an RPG session, I think). The exact layout is not so much to the point as including plenty of tables, chairs, posts, and crossbeams for acrobatic combat, as well as the crumbling sections of wall outside, the skylights allowing assassins to drop into rooms, and the millstones into which someone must surely be pushed to be crushed to death.