I'd hoped to publish this one a few days ago, but I was struck quite hard by a mystery illness over the weekend, and wound up sleeping for 36 hours over two days. It was an unpleasant time.
But yes - the map! There's no map for Mary's house in Barovia in the adventure, but I thought it might be a nice location to map out for any DMs who like to use maps for exploration, or for anyone who might find a use for a house that might have once been quite fine but finds itself in a ramshackle state.
I tried to make it seem like Gertruda's room was in the best maintained and furnished in the house, and I included a discarded lock and chain by her bedroom door, just as a small clue to her escape. I imagine that Mary would let her out of her room during the day, but lock her in the room at night, and Gertruda slipped away one night because Mary forgot to lock the door or didn't lock it properly. I also hinted (subtly, like a hammer) towards Gertruda's love of fairytales by including a great many books scattered around the house, with two book cases and a desk in her room. If I ever do release the Barovian Folk Tales collection that's been sitting on my desktop for the best part of a year, this would be a good place to let the party find it!
The lighting from the windows is very subtle, since the windows are all shuttered and boarded up, and I didn't include lighting from lamps or fires, as Mary is supposed to be discovered, distraught, in Gertruda's room, so I always imagined her as sitting in darkness. If there's interest in a variant with lanterns and fireplaces lit, however, I'm happy to make it happen!
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My maps are made with assets from Forgotten Adventures and AoA (bolstered with assets of my own making here and there), and they come with grid/gridless, day/night, edited/unedited, and light/lightless variants, plus JPEGs, WebPs with transparent backgrounds, and UVTT (DD2VTT) files for Foundry VTT.
Gaston
2022-07-29 20:58:13 +0000 UTC