milbysmaps

The Ruins of Gyan'dis

Gyan'dis is a ruined illithid settlement in the Black Loch. The colony thrived in its corner of the loch for over 800 years, until it was brought down and its inhabitants wiped out by Gyan'dis' own elder brain. Normally, I'd talk a little more about the background of the map, but I'm going to leave that for a day or so, because I'm planning on writing up an overview of the history and lore of the Black Loch, which I...

The Ruins of Gyan'dis - Patrons' Edition

Gyan'dis is a ruined illithid settlement in the Black Loch. The colony thrived in its corner of the loch for over 800 years, until it was brought down and its inhabitants wiped out by Gyan'dis' own elder brain. Normally, I'd talk a little more about the background of the map, but I'm going to leave that for a day or so, because I'm planning on writing up an overview of the history and lore of the Black Loch, which I...

The 40th Cartographic Congress Runoff

I hope everyone had a good New Year's and other holidays, however you happened to spend them. I ended up having a few drinks and watching Twitch streams, so if you did anything more exciting than that-- like actually playing a video game yourself-- you probably did better than me, haha.

Anyway, your candidates in the runoff are:

Senator AN7 proposes a map of the estate of a drow noble family, House Cull'Thaine. This is one of the ruling families of the city of Vlyn'darastyl in the...

The 40th Cartographic Congress Vote

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or a good Saturday, as the case may be. I certainly did and I'm still recovering from it, so I'll just go ahead and get to the proposals. I'll leave the vote open for around 5 days, since a lot of people have stuff going on at the moment:

Senator Rosamund proposes a minotaur's labyrinth.

Senator Fraz-Urb'luu proposes a demonic throne room with a fountain of blood and a fighting pit.

Senator AN7 proposes a map of the estate of a drow nobl...

Annotated Maps Collection and a Foundry Module Update

First, if you missed it at the end of the last post, there's a collection of the annotated versions of all my maps on the Google Drive here.

Second, I've fixed the problem with the Foundry modules not updating properly. Fixing it did require changing the modules' URLs, however, so you'll have to reinstall the new patrons' module, but it can be installed normally t...

Ard Skellig

Of the many Irish isles, one would have stood out to ancient settlers as a particularly good place to live. With its rolling hills, thick forests and an abundance of arable land, it was exactly what many of them were looking for. The island was called "Ireland" and, conveniently, it was the big one in the middle.

But for some people, Ireland was a bit too easy. They were looking for a challenge. These people wanted to make their homes on a smaller island, several miles offshore...

Ard Skellig - Patrons' Edition

Of the many Irish isles, one would have stood out to ancient settlers as a particularly good place to live. With its rolling hills, thick forests and an abundance of arable land, it was exactly what many of them were looking for. The island was called "Ireland" and, conveniently, it was the big one in the middle.

But for some people, Ireland was a bit too easy. They were looking for a challenge. These people wanted to make their homes on a smaller island, several miles offshore...

Mountainous Island Settlement (Almost Finished)

I wanted to show you what's been taking so long. The rest of the island is done as well, I just need to color the interiors of the buildings. That should take one more day, two at most.

By the way, this island is based largely on Skellig Michael in Ireland. My wife convinced me to draw the buildings like the ones they have there, which are very unique. Which is to say, they're 2021-12-19 21:29:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Mountainous Island Settlement (Work-In-Progress)

As sometimes happens with me, I started on this map with relatively humble plans, which ended up becoming a bit more grand. I've spent the last week drawing this island and now I just need to draw some buildings to put on it and we'll have our town. I think I'm going to draw some caves underneath it as well, but I'm not sure yet.

Anyway, this is a real island and I'm curious if any of you would recognize it. At least 50% of you have seen it before, probably more like two thirds. Not in ...

The Grinning Widow: A Ship for the Seas of the Underdark

The Grinning Widow is a ship designed for the Black Loch. In an underground sea, sails aren't going to accomplish much, so the Widow doesn't have any. She's a galley, powered exclusively by rowing, with a crew of 20 oarsmen who all look like they walked out of a "skipped leg day" meme.

For defense, the Widow is armed with a ram on the bow, as well as two ballistas, one of which is a little scarier than the oth...

The Grinning Widow: A Ship for the Seas of the Underdark - Patrons' Edition

The Grinning Widow is a ship designed for the Black Loch. In an underground sea, sails aren't going to accomplish much, so the Widow doesn't have any. She's a galley, powered exclusively by rowing, with a crew of 20 oarsmen who all look like they walked out of a "skipped leg day" meme.

For defense, the Widow is armed with a ram on the bow, as well as two ballistas, one of which is a little scarier than the oth...

The 39th Cartographic Congress Runoff

The last vote was almost close enough to call, but not quite. So we're having a runoff between the top three. Your contenders are: 

Senator Shawn proposes a fortified trading town built on a wide bridge spanning a canyon, with a raging river below. The town has expanded out onto and into the cliffside as well.

Senator Jon proposes the Infected Citadel, a dwarven fortress whose lower reaches have been tainted by the Far Realm. The upper level is relatively normal, but...

The 39th Cartographic Congress Vote

We have five proposals for this month's vote, but before I get to them, I just want to show you a picture of a ballista I found. I don't know about you, but I think that's ridiculously awesome and I've drawn one into the Black Loch ship map I'm working on now. Okay, back to the matter at hand. Here are your proposals:

Senator Shawn proposes a fortified trading town built on a wide bridge spanning a c...

The result of a hard day's work in the token mines.

You can download these tokens here.

With the exception of one random elf, all 17 of these tokens fall into one of two categories:

1. The forces of evil
2. Camels

Let's talk about one of the camels. A year or so ago, I mentioned something I'd discovered called a "zamburak." This is a camel w...

The Smoldering Abyss

The Smoldering Abyss is a part of the Black Loch almost no one even knows exists. It's a deep, underwater trench at the bottom of a larger underwater trench at the bottom of the loch. And, in a place where no one even wants to think about what might be under the surface of the sea, places like this tend to go unnoticed.

There are three things of note here. The first is an ancient, 2021-11-27 05:31:43 +0000 UTC View Post

The Smoldering Abyss - Patrons' Edition

The Smoldering Abyss is a part of the Black Loch almost no one even knows exists. It's a deep, underwater trench at the bottom of a larger underwater trench at the bottom of the loch. And, in a place where no one even wants to think about what might be under the surface of the sea, places like this tend to go unnoticed.

There are three things of note here. The first is an ancient, 2021-11-27 05:31:31 +0000 UTC View Post

New Modules for Foundry & EncounterPlus

The Foundry module has been getting a little big and I thought it was time to start a new one. And since the EncounterPlus module is exported from the Foundry module, E+ is getting a new one as well. This should cut down on the time it takes to download or update. There's specific news for both, so let's do this one camp at a time.

FoundryVTT

Due to a glitch that I explained in this post, t...

Altar of the Black Lamb

This map was the demonologist's tower chosen by the Cartographic Congress. One of the stipulations was that it would have a portal to hell and I decided to go a little... non-traditional with that. "Traditional," in this case, would be your standard-issue Door of Fire. And the problem I have with that is that it's boring. It's been done and it's not scary. It doesn't give players the sense of fear they should feel when they're about to travel to a place where literally everybody&...