Behind the Scenes: Approaching Drakkenheim!

Hi Patrons!

We've had a few requests for the Drakkenheim Map and my DM notes from the Drakkenheim campaign.

One of the ways I practice giving description is writing prose. I don't typically use this as "read-aloud" text like you would from a module: it's a personal exercise to help me map out the words I might use in my description.

Enjoy!

Monty

APPROACHING DRAKKENHEIM

Drakkenheim was built around a rising rocky hill overlooking the wide Drann River.

THE WEATHER

Billowing clouds of midnight purple and dusky violet mask the sky overhead, casting the city in iridescent daylight. In the rare moments where the clouds part, stray sunbeams scornfully shine upon the city. There hasn’t been a clear day in Drakkenheim in fifteen years.

As night falls, you can see an oscillating corona of octarine light blossoming from the Crater, which reaches up towards the night skies illuminating the clouds above. The light doesn’t illuminate the streets, but it shines brightly enough to tell you where you are in the city.

On some nights, the clouds disperse. During these times the pale moon and stars appear, their glimmering lights standing like a celestial vigil over the city’s corpse. Come morning, and the clouds of midnight purple return to choke the skies in gloom.

Storms and rains are common in the city, with flashes of purple-green lightning and sheets of pulsing energy dancing in the clouds overhead. The best you can hope for on these days is normal rain, for the contaminated storms carry wild magics.

THE CASTLE

A great castle perches atop the cliff at the heart of the city. The castle’s imposing stained-black towers are topped by high steeples sharp like spearpoints. The massive central spire is decorated with intricate stone gargoyles carved in the shapes of dragons. Serpentine necks leer down from the battlements, regarding the city below with watchful eyes. Though no one has ever seen them move, you’ve never seen the gargoyles resting in the same position twice.

THE STREETS

Twisting cobblestone streets weave around crumbling stone buildings with slate-shingled rooftops. The city walls, weeping with ash and soot, follow the Drann River’s western bank and then clamber up the cliff face to meet the castle. The city spills forth outside the walls into a ruined urban sprawl: myriad buildings cling to the cliffs approaching the castle like a horde of supplicants seeking a sovereign blessing. 

Here and there, the buildings clear to form large plazas, marketplaces, and city parks. The broad avenues of the main streets, the city walls, and the Drann River separate the city districts.

The streets reek of smoke and embers, the ruins of rotted wood and grave dirt. Occasionally, the smell of ozone lingers in the air, at these times you can feel a thrumming energy that makes your hair stand on end.

The dead city is never quiet. In the distance you hear a howling dog, then the incessant cawing of ravens. Other times you hear echoing voices reverberating from broken buildings. Whispers can be softly heard down dank alleys, and occasionally a dying scream is carried on the bitter winds that whip through deserted city streets. The chill breeze leaves goosebumps which shiver up your arms and neck.

LANDMARKS

Many tall buildings, highrise estates, smokestacks, and chimneys lurch above the ruins.

The arched belltowers of the Grand Cathedral rise prominently southeast of the castle. None have dared enter its hallowed halls in a decade, yet the church bells still chime at midnight. To the north is the dour-faced Clock Tower of Market Square, and in the east side is the arcane Mage Tower. It is broken in half at the middle, but the top still hovers in place as if in defiance of the ground below.

Two bridges reaches across the Drann River like desperate limbs; one covered in massive stone statues of the heroes of old, one bubbling up with buildings and homes.