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Scavengers’ Deep – Map 5

The Scavengers’ Deep is a reminder of the amount of work that went into underground structures during the great war. Generally, the elves only built underground when hiding their breeding and research facilities, whereas the forces of the kingdoms, assisted by the dwarves, were constantly building underground as the elves were unrelenting and would completely raze any surface defences that they defeated.

But the structures now known as the Scavengers’ Deep are atypical, an elven com...

Ierades’s Isle

(this post includes a version of the map that wasn't in the backstage pass - the no grid variant)

The standing stones tended by the centaur Ierades sits on a small island just detached from the shore of Summer Lake. Ierades is small for a centaur, but still an imposing figure with a full set of antlers set with charms and fetishes that hang down around them. While the stones long predate Ierades’s stewardship, the centaur has been their guardian for at least the last three hu...

Goretooth's Grotto

A very small subterranean lair, Goretooth’s Grotto is home to the eponymous Goretooth, a hulking goblinoid warrior to whom the three goblinoid tribes in the region pay tribute and look to for the occasional aid when the going gets tough. The main entrance is a reminder that this was once some sort of temple or worship site, with stairs leading up to a pair of doors bracketed by badly chopped-up caryatid columns that once represented priests of the deity being worshipped here.

The west...

Sister’s Ford

A small ford across the Boasting Run, Sister’s Ford doesn’t see a lot of use as most traffic runs significantly further south along the major roads and not this far into the lands that have been slowly retaken by the wilderness. The Ford is used by rare travellers, rangers, and those who have some other reason to avoid the main roadways and a willingness to risk travelling in the wilderness.

It isn’t that the Boasting Run is very deep, quick, or even wide that makes the ford neces...

Backstage Pass - March 2024

Here's this month's Backstage Pass, containing all ten maps to be released over March. We've got the colour promo, and two (sometimes three) B&W versions.

Thanks again for your support. YOU make these maps possible.

Iseldec’s Drop (Levels 1-4)

Iseldec’s tower is nothing more than a circle of stones scattered around a field now, practically highlighting the wide entrance to the dungeons that sit beneath the ruins. But the dungeons promise to be at least as deep underground as Iseldec’s tower once reached above the lands – a vertical shaft connects untold small dungeon levels that seem to cling tightly around it. The shaft itself is open to the sky above, as it once continued into the tower proper. Through the shaft and the ent...

The Kraken, Released!

Here we go, this month's Kraken Release.

These two maps are being released under the free commercial use license exclusively to patrons. This month we've got The Minotaur's Maze (from 2020) and The Monolith Of The Ghost Dunes (from 2021).

Both are included with and without grid. They also (coincidentally) were both drawn at 5 squares to the inch instead of 4, so they have a grid size of 2...

Cartography Collection - February 2024

Here we go! This month's Cartography Collection has arrived. This patron-exclusive collects all ten maps released this month along with the text supporting the maps into a 16-page booklet for your archives.

It is available in two versions - in spreads for easy landscape screen reading, and individual pages for easy printing.

In about 3 months, this will also appear on OneBookShelf / Drive...

The Cathedral at Andasrael Ford

There was once a cathedral near the small ford a few miles north of where the Sunny Run joins the White Foam River. A small hill between the cathedral and the Sunny Run became home to “support businesses” for pilgrims and clergy and gradually this became the small town of Andasrael Ford. The Andasrael Cathedral burned down in the night in a mighty firestorm thirty years ago, leaving the ford and town with the name and a large field of scorched and blackened stone.

Since the night of...

Kraken Voting - February 2024

Every month I put together a short list of maps that we pick from - the top two voted maps will be packaged up and re-released under the free commercial-use license exclusively for patrons.

This month's list is ready, and voting starts NOW!

https://forms.gle/s3ZCbZXq9i7Z37uh7

Scavengers’ Deep – Map 4

The Scavengers’ Deep is a reminder of the amount of work that went into underground structures during the great war. Generally, the elves only built underground when hiding their breeding and research facilities, whereas the forces of the kingdoms, assisted by the dwarves, were constantly building underground as the elves were unrelenting and would completely raze any surface defences that they defeated.

But the structures now known as the Scavengers’ Deep are atypical, an elven com...

Graxworm – Map 1 – Graxworm Gate

The main entrance into the Graxworm megadungeon is not at the base of the mountain, but the top. The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its valuable materials – leather, scales, ichor, tendons, and more. Practically every bit has some value to someone, and in the long term the expectation is that nothing will remain, not even the massive bones. 2024-02-23 16:16:53 +0000 UTC View Post

The Scorched Vault

The worship of Kelnak Kur is rarely allowed in civilized areas, and even the places where it is more widespread are restrictive about where the temples are built. The demon of incandescent fires, patron of fires, purity, and destruction is not a welcomed guest but is worshiped nonetheless. The Scorched Vault is a shrine to Kelnak Kur found outside of Let Gaullu – dug into a stony hill where purifying flames will do little damage to the town or its farms.

The priests of incandescent fi...

Rathenau’s Lakeside Tower

Today we have a small tower on a lakeside hill, with an attached wooden structure used as a small barracks.

A thaumaturge of some renown, Rathenau maintains this quiet retreat near enough to Winterspire to be able to run errands there and to be in the safe zone around the major urban centre, but far enough away that they don’t deal with frequent visitors.

The structure looks off-balance – with a single-storey wooden add-on to the west, and a turret starting on the second level...

Grey Waters Cave

A stream bearing grey silt enters Deep Lake about a day from Dreamer’s Reach. Following the stream to its source in the Goblin Hills, one finds that the stream emerges from one of the hills before winding its way to the lake and uphill from the cave is a set of somewhat impractical stairs leading to a tall stone door inset into the hill, watched over by a cupola with arrow slits cut into the stone beside it. The structures under the hill were built by creatures roughly the size of ogres, so...

The Tower of Mourning

The Tower of Mourning tapers up to its peak about 70 feet over the ground, but is nowhere near tall enough to pierce through the canopy of the forest that has grown up around it. Built specifically for the funeral rights of a great queen, the tower was also used as a watch tower but was never home to much of a garrison. Over the years since it was forgotten, the land has changed hands between kingdoms and smaller fiefs

The tower is the current bastion of a small order of paladins of ven...

The Temple of Love (2024 Remix)

This temple complex is dedicated to the local deity of love and war who is the patron of the city; giving the temple a prominent position just down the hill from the lord’s citadel. The temple complex combines the roles of temple, administrative centre, library, and also provides housing for clergy and paladins of the order.

On the left we have the primary temple service area with lines of widely staggered pews and rose-tinted windows to bring in the afternoon and evening sun on the s...

The Sleeping Goat Inn

A lovely two story inn with a significant tavern on the ground floor (complete with bar, kitchen, and a decent menu), the Sleeping Goat Inn is a lovely escape on the outskirts of the nearby hive of scum and villainy. The place bustles with activity and has contracts with a nearby stable for client’s horses (at no additional fee). The second floor has the rooms for rent, as well as a small “common room” (on the left) for those seeking a no-frills place to sleep away from the elements. 2024-02-07 23:34:32 +0000 UTC View Post

The Temple of Lost Ormus

Something is wrong at the Temple of Lost Ormus. The front doors are not just closed, but no one comes to open them when the gong is rung. The side entrances show signs of violence, and the wind blows between the 12 Pillars of Discovery with a decidedly desolate sound.

Oddly staggered columns frame the entrance to the Temple of Lost Ormus. The whole semi-circular entrance is cut into a hillside, through the topsoil and into the rock below where the temple has been cut from the stone by m...

February Backstage Pass

A new month, a new backstage pass, thanks to your support!

Attached is a zip file with all ten maps being released on the blog this month (32 files in total, each map has 3 variations - the 300dpi promo jpg, and the 1200dpi PNGs with and without grids, plus we have an isometric sketch to go with one, and a tagged & untagged versions of another).

Enjoy!...

The Edge of the Desert

This hex map was drawn for David Flor’s “The Mosidian Temple” based on an old hex map he sent me to work from. But while we wait for the adventure to be released, let’s extrapolate a whole mini setting just based on the map.

The Edge of the Desert, as the name implies, is a liminal area where mountains provide enough rain shade to allow for dense jungles that rapidly give way to a dry desert wasteland, with a thin strip of grasslands between.

“The D...

January's Kraken is here!

Thank you once again for your support.

You will find attached to this post this month's Release the Kraken maps.

As a patron, you have a commercial license to use these maps (as per the terms of the license as laid out in the package). This license is non-exclusive (others have access to these maps also) and non-transferrable (only patrons of the campaign ...

Cartography Collection - January 2024

Here we go! Here's the monthly collection of all the maps posted to the blog this month in a pair of convenient PDFs for your enjoyment. 

But wait, I hear you saying, the month's not over and there are only nine maps up on the blog so far this month! 

2024-01-30 21:42:30 +0000 UTC View Post

Scavenger’s Deep – Map 3

The Scavengers’ Deep is a reminder of the amount of work that went into underground structures during the great war. Generally, the elves only built underground when hiding their breeding and research facilities, whereas the forces of the kingdoms, assisted by the dwarves, were constantly building underground as the elves were unrelenting and would completely raze any surface defences that they defeated.

But the structures now known as the Scavengers’ Deep are atypical, an elven com...

POLL: January Kraken Release!

It's that time again!

Every month, Patrons (that's you!) vote on which maps from the back catalogue we will re-release under a patron-exclusive commercial use license. The top two maps voted for on this poll will be re-released under that free-use license at the end of the month (for patrons only).

So, what maps would you like to see in a few new products?

The poll, as al...

Beneath the Temple of Qón

The basements beneath the Temple of Qón were repurposed from another structure during the last Ditlana (a tradition of tearing down and rebuilding the city in order to make room for change – especially important for the large temples and clanhouses as they fall in and out of favour). At one time this was the heart of a massive set of smelters & forges before the nearby iron mine was exhausted. This is evidenced by the large ceramic ventilation system that remains down here – at one t...

A Temple of Qón: and Guardian of the Gates of Hell.

Qón protects the soul against the perils of the hereafter and aids those attacked by the powers of the Dark. This small temple dedicated to the Cohort of Belkhánu provides “escorts” for funerals conducted by the associated temple, guarding against those who would disturb the righteous slumber of the dead (yes, they are looking at YOU, servants and necromancers of Sárku).

Entry to the temple is via a columned courtyard, with the main temple chamber having a tall vaulted ceiling an...

Rhovan House

While nothing huge by any stretch, Rhovan House is obviously a well-to-do estate with stone foundations, ground floor, and supports at the corners on the second floor to hold up the slate roof. Off the side of the building is a single-story wooden expansion on a stone floor that now serves as the main access to the building.

Two staircases lead to the basements – one is outside the house on the north side – a door that leads to stairs into the main cellars used for storage of old fu...

The Sanctuary of Lament

PATRONS: Please note that the files for this map are slightly different than the ones in the Backstage Pass. I realized I had missed a bunch of gridlines on the left side of the map and fixed them this afternoon before posting it.

This is one of the few remaining churches of the Lament of the Silver Lord – said to be the creator and protector of the two pale moons and the stars. The Silver Lord laments for the Sun, his true love denied. The church of...

The Lame Barghest is a drinking establishment of significant size – one of the better places to get a drink while in the City of Blue if you get along with the gangs that provide “law enforcement” in the neighbourhood. The bar is tended by Joseph the Elder (rough, scarred, likes to talk but quick to judge) during the days and Joseph the Younger (unrelated) (long-haired, vibrant, wears a lot of simple jewelry) in the evenings – but the business is the property of Pakha Vouk (lean, weathered, has few words

The Lame Barghest is a drinking establishment of significant size – one of the better places to get a drink while in the City of Blue if you get along with the gangs that provide “law enforcement” in the neighbourhood.

The bar is tended by Joseph the Elder (rough, scarred, likes to talk but quick to judge) during the days and Joseph the Younger (unrelated) (long-haired, vibrant, wears a lot of simple jewelry) in the evenings – but the business is the property of Pakha Vouk (lean...