Converted Windmill - Waterdeep Dragon Heist - Encounter 10 (All Tiers)

Converted Windmill. A crumbling two-store stone building that was a windmill long before the city rose up around it. Now it has been converted to a residence (autumn), a suspicious butchers shop (winter), cultists hideout (summer), or is home to squatters (spring).

This is the first map in the encounter chains of Chapter 4: Dragon Season.  I held a poll for my Patrons to determine the order I would release these maps and the Winter season encounter order was selected - so here we are, starting with Encounter #10, the Converted Windmill.  

Map Notes. First off, lets talk location as this windmill moves around depending on the season - Southern Ward (spring and summer), Field Ward (winter), and Sea Ward (autumn). All very nonspecific so nothing to reference for how to situate it on site, but we can likely assume that nearby buildings would be of a similar disrepair - this is not a nice neighborhood no matter where you put it.

The source describes that the city "rose up around it", so we can assume that it is no longer freestanding in a place of prominence to capture any wind. Its general shape makes it a little awkward to place on the site so I've loosely fit it into a narrow street that lends itself to the idea of the city organically growing around it (think of older European cities with snaking streets and alleyways, not the grids of modern cities).

The rubble piles and debris as players approach might give caution that this is a rundown place and could find any manner of occupants inside. A lone streetlamp remains lit at night, the others broken and dark. The sourcebook mentions that no lighting is present inside - I did however add a small glow to one of the firepits of the squatters meant to simulate coals glowing - otherwise it is as noted: dark. Upstairs the two rooms to the NE and SW are open to the elements which I tried to convey in some of the seasons further (fog/snow inside those rooms).

The summer version of this map had the only modification upstairs - that room W8 has been cleared of rubble and is now marked with a pentagram by the cult fanatics occupying the apartment (W7) beside.  

In autumn the converted windmill is home to a mad artist. The sourcebook is somewhat vague on some of the details of how the space is being used, so I decided to create a living area in the downstairs northernmost room, a kitchen and pantry to the south, and then a rarely used second bedroom that is largely filled with broken furniture now. The west room is well kept by the old man who rents it out although the rats present in the rest of the property are present here too. Paintings are present in every room to facilitate the art imitates life ability Kalain has.

With winter comes the most gruesome of our variants, with Thrakkus the butcher having taken over the windmill to serve as both his butcher shop and home. The source book wasn't entirely clear on how the rest of the home had been converted, so I kept the upstairs (W7) as the secure apartment and Thrakkus' bedroom. For additional living space, I converted the northernmost room (one of the W2 locations) to be another living space with some chairs and a the middle room (also W2) to be a makeshift kitchen with a small cooking fire venting out one of the windows. This leaves 2 locations for the squatters to occupy when they are trying to stay out of Thrakkus way, lest they annoy him and end up on his chopping block. Given the (forced) employment of servants/squatters, his living areas are now moderately clean, although the squatters quarters are still very much filled with dirt and debris. I did add some additional lighting to winter given the occupancy of the building.

Files.  The zip files below are organized in 4 seasons and 3x folders per season: Roll20Free for smaller 70px images; Roll20Paid for larger 140px images; FoundryVTT for 100px dd2vtt files compatible with multiple VTTs. There is an additional folder for the Printable maps which are 140px gridded images in color and black and white.  

There is an additional .png file for the winter variant - the body cart to use as a token.

Converted Windmill - Waterdeep Dragon Heist is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC