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The Halls of Lost Heroes

This old tomb in the Ghost Hills Range was long ago buried when the main entrance collapsed. In more recent times, the side of the hill has slid away in a series of small landslides that breached one of the tombs. From there, the portal to the tomb was broken open, and the entire complex was opened to invaders and treasure hunters.

The structures on the right were the mausoleum, with grand pillared halls, raised daises for sarcophagi, and a grand dais in the largest room where the body ...

September 2023 Backstage Pass

It may be late (lots of stuff still going on vis-a-vis the family medical emergency - this is looking like it is going to be at a low boil level for the next 2-3 months now with lots of travelling, hosting, and dealing with the whole situation), but it is HERE!

Here is the Backstage Pass zip file containing all ten maps that will be released on the blog this month!

Patron Exclusive: August 2023 Cartography Collection

Attached to this email / post are two PDFs of August's map releases.

While the backstage pass includes all the maps for the month in their raw graphical format (which is where most of us find the best value in them), there's been a call for me to resume the annual Cartographic Review releases that include all the maps and text in PDF format. 

Thus, every month we'll be releasing this...

Our First Patron-Only Kraken Release!

Attached to this post / email is this month's (updated) Release the Kraken zip file. It contains the two maps re-released this month along with the commercial license specific to those two maps.

THIS PARTICULAR KRAKEN POST, but not future ones, will not expire. This will allow new patrons to see how these are distributed. In the future I'll be deleting the post 60-90 days after...

Delays & Updates

Hey Patrons!

I've been hit with a major family medical emergency which is going to impact both this and last month's patronage.

We'll still get all ten maps out as always, but we'll be seeing a few delays along the way as I'm rushing back and forth from the hospital daily to take care of a family member in significant distress. 

- Last month's Release the Kraken had an error where I released a map that had already been released last year. This will be updated ASAP with ...

Our First Patron-Only Kraken Release!

Attached to this post / email is this month's Release the Kraken zip file. It contains the two maps re-released this month along with the commercial license specific to those two maps.

THIS PARTICULAR KRAKEN POST, but not future ones, will not expire. This will allow new patrons to see how these are distributed. In the future I'll be deleting the post 60-90 days after posting i...

Fort Yaramuil

This compact keep is essentially a small collection of towers, a small square keep, and a gatehouse linked by a few walls. The fully flagstoned yards and lack of stables indicate that horses are either kept outside the structure, or are not a major consideration in the region where the fort stands. The courtyards are tiered (as is the entrance through the postern door) with stairs, further giving advantage to defenders… as long as the enemies cannot fly or burrow…

The fort is three ...

Weeping Dwarf Crag

Green copper bars prevent entry to the two ground-level entrances to this mountain temple except for those who can squeeze through a 16-inch by 16-inch space. Before the final portcullises, the streams run in masonry-built channels, but then run “free” and meander away from the structure for a few hundred yards before they rejoin and flow further down the mountains. The actual entrance to the structure is via a winding set of steps cut into the mountainside that leads up to the door on th...

The Tower Between Worlds – Island Tower

There is a strange tower that exists in many worlds, many places, many times. The Tower Between Worlds is a six-level spire in every version, but the interior (and often parts of the exterior also) can be quite different from each other. One element that each version of the tower has is the fifth level of the tower where the “tower shifting” mechanism is. On the fifth level (the upper left level on the map), there are four magical “tables” built into the wall, each with a small orb on...

The Tower Between Worlds – City Tower

There is a strange tower that exists in many worlds, many places, many times. The Tower Between Worlds is a six-level spire in every version, but the interior (and often parts of the exterior also) can be quite different from each other. One element that each version of the tower has is the fifth level of the tower where the “tower shifting” mechanism is. On the fifth level (the upper left level on the map), there are four magical “tables” built into the wall, each with a small orb on...

The Tower Between Worlds – Wasteland Tower

There is a strange tower that exists in many worlds, many places, many times. The Tower Between Worlds is a six-level spire in every version, but the interior (and often parts of the exterior also) can be quite different from each other. One element that each version of the tower has is the fifth level of the tower where the “tower shifting” mechanism is. On the fifth level (the upper left level on the map), there are four magical “tables” built into the wall, each with a small orb on...

The Tower Between Worlds - Forest Tower

There is a strange tower that exists in many worlds, many places, many times. The Tower Between Worlds is a six-level spire in every version, but the interior (and often parts of the exterior also) can be quite different from each other. One element that each version of the tower has is the fifth level of the tower where the "tower shifting" mechanism is. On the fifth level (the upper left level on the map), there are four magical "tables" built into the wall, each with a small orb on it. Eac...

Our first Private Krakening!

It is that time!

Time to vote on which maps we'll re-release under the free commercial license - but starting this month instead of posting these to the blog, these two maps will be re-released exclusively to you, the patrons. At the end of the month, I'll collect the two winning maps and a copy of the commercial use license and send them out to all patrons.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to know which maps!

I've selected twelve maps to pick from, the two with...

Bolukbasti Grotto

Sitting on the rocky cliffside shore of Catspaw Lake, Bolukbasti Grotto is a twisting set of caves reached by stairs up the steep shores – stairs that have decayed and fallen to the erosion of the lakeshore. Exploring past the great cat den near the entrance to the caves, the main grotto (the long east-west cavern) has a ceiling height between 30 and 160 feet and a number of side caves and galleries, especially among the twisting smaller caves north of the main grotto.

Approaching the...

The Drurdelm Tombs

The Drurdelm Tombs were once well hidden but with the help of scrying magics they were uncovered about a hundred years ago and thoroughly looted by those unafraid of the Curse of the Drurdelm Sorceries. A curse that proved quite potent, killing the looters of a horrible magical wasting disease and somehow immune to both cure disease and remove curse. The sole survivor was a guide who touched none of the treasures found within, and who proceeded to sell many maps to the tombs over the next dec...

Greyrock Tower

Looking out over the edge of Triumph Mesa, Greyrock Tower is a small remnant of much larger ruins and would appear at first to be an entrance to the extensive “Catacombs Below” – but the dungeons of Greyrock Tower are not linked to those great underworld byways – just three levels of dungeons with an opening to a narrow ledge below the tower.

Greyrock Tower itself is still at its full height, a small two-story tower with damaged crenelations atop it. It is seldom used by anyone ...

The Big 2023 Campaign Update

Do you have any suggestions on ways to improve the visibility and value of the campaign without significantly increasing my workload?

I’m FINALLY rebuilding this campaign after nearly a decade. (I launched the campaign in November of 2013).

We’ve seen a decrease in patronage of about 22% from the peak, and this obviously hits my bottom line (and my ability to pay bills). 

I...

Statues of the Thrall Gods

Based on the architecture and the spiralling hexagonal pit leading down below the structure proper, this would appear to have been an elven structure from the era of the great war. But beyond that, little makes sense here – there are rough-cut crypts and tombs in the lower level that don’t match any elven funerary rites, and of course, there are the massive collections of statues depicting divinities of all sizes, forms, and scales – many adorned with exaggerated elven traits but defini...

Backstage Pass - August 2023

Greetings friends, patrons, and various awesome folk!

Here is the collection of maps we'll be releasing to the blog & Patreon this month. This Patreon-exclusive backstage pass collects them all into one package at the beginning of the month and will soon be joined by a few more Patreon-exclusives - including the revised "Release the Kraken" system where we'll be voting on which two maps to ...

Release the Kraken on The Flooded Catacombs

Every month we go through our back catalogue of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. This map is the final public “Release the Kraken” release. Patronage of the blog has decreased by over 20% in the past few years – but instead of ending the Release the Kraken process, we are going to make the Kraken re-releases a Patreon-exclusive… so only supporters of the Dodecahedron over on Patreon will ...