dysonlogos

Release the Kraken on the Prince of Clubs!

Over half the votes for this month's Kraken were for the combined Prince of Clubs maps, so here we are!

Surrounded by the cyclopean ruins of the Temple of the Abyss, the Prince of Clubs retreats to his green and black granite bastion to while away the ages between the godwars he is forced to fight. A champion of the forces of change & chaos, his own existence seems stolid and phlegmatic – a weapon to be drawn in battle and then carefully returned to the Bastion.

The Bastion...

Shrine of Grismal, Guardian of the Underworld

The forgotten god Grismal was the guardian of the underworld, the door guard of death. This shrine is built up around a gateway to the underworld that he was believed to guard personally in the form of a small underground river that drops down precariously into the depths shortly after leaving the shrine.

The shrine itself is at the end of a box canyon in the badlands. The canyon has significantly more plantlife than the surrounding area because of the small spring that then feeds the u...

The November Kraken and the Prince of Clubs

It is time to pick what map(s) we are re-releasing under the free commercial use license!

In the past I've put up the maps of the Bastion and Dungeons of the Prince of Clubs and had some commentary that they should be combined into a single release - so this month I've included all three maps together as one choice. If this choice wins, they will be released together and will count as both maps...

Six Sickly Sewermorphs!

Twelve years ago I started posting Geomorphs to this blog. Twelve years. I posted the first geomorph to the blog at the end of October, 2009. Here we are in 2021 and I’m still posting new ones to add to the mix.

This time there’s a change to the design. The standard design is a 10 x 10 grid with entrances at squares 3 & 8 on each face. For these sewermorphs though, between 1 and 4 additional entrances have been added, in the central point of the face (straddling the line between...

Odrek’s Orchard

Sages and mystics have many tales of the Sapphire Apples and their miraculous properties. They succor legendary toxins, counter the corrupting touch of chaos, and even return memories stripped away by the river Lethe. Of course, the Imperial Tree was destroyed during the fall of Great Zorisz and only a single Sapphire Apple was saved… but there are tales that one of the caretakers of the Imperial Tree escaped with a small bag of seeds.

This caretaker, a gnarled little dwarf by the nam...

Crypts of Yllas

Yllas the Huntress was ever within the orbit of Duke van Pelt – many (including Yllas) believed that one day they would be wed and she would lead the Brown Rangers from the van Pelt estates. But of course there are no van Pelt estates today as Duke van Pelt’s demonology summoned forth a great evil that the rangers were forced to slay – losing most of their numbers (including Yllas) in the process.

Yllas’ brother had these crypts built / repurposed under the burned out shell of t...

Deep Vault of the Lost Queens

The lower tier of the Vault of the Lost Queens betrays that this space was once something different than a home for the undead queens of ancient Zorisz. Here we find that the caves again haven’t been completely converted into finished halls and chambers. The majority of the 11 queens hold primarily to this level, coming up only when a princeling has made a claim for the throne of Kazhkul in order to judge them. Some of the queens wander the level with their attendants, acting much as they d...

Vault of the Lost Queens

When a new ruler steps forward to take the throne of the Principality of Kazhkul they must request the blessing of the 11 Queens of Lost Zorisz. For most this involves entering the Vault of the Lost Queens (which dates back to the great Empire of Zorisz) to seek out one or more of these ancient entities and return with a token of their favour. This usually happens in the large 3/4 circular chamber that is the heart of the vault… but sometimes no queen arrives for the meeting, or none of the...

Kamrorth’s Cairn

This level of the dungeon is where the hero Kamrorth was slain by the Vampire Prince Sebastian Enoch – his soul consumed by the undead prince’s bastard sword Heartstriker. A cairn of stones and fallen masonry from the dungeon was built up over Kamrorth’s body in the large central hall a cairn where he fell fighting lord Enoch. But this was decades ago – Lord Enoch now resides in his castle at White Crag, and Kamrorth’s company has long disbanded. And in the dungeon things are ever i...

Pirate Booty Island

I’m sure this island has a better name, a local name, something the nearby natives call it… but on the map, it is marked as Pirate Booty Island, and thus that is what we call it.

Actually a collection of four small rocky islands in the shallows, the main point of interest is the rocky peak on the main island. Rough caves pierce these rough stones. At the heart of these caves is a sunken chamber with a pool of brackish seawater and, of course, a significant collection of pirate treas...

Heart of Darkling – Darklingtown South

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. Darklingtown is a trading community built into a series of claustrophobically low-ceilinged caverns on the banks of the Darkling and a number of its tributaries. Darklingtown (which in turn will be made of 9+ maps) is the seventeenth mapped location (and this the 21st map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Sea beyond.

Darklingtown South is essentially the same neighbou...

Heart of Darkling – Darklingtown North

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. Darklingtown is a trading community built into a series of claustrophobically low-ceilinged caverns on the banks of the Darkling and a number of its tributaries. Darklingtown (which in turn will be made of 9+ maps) is the seventeenth mapped location (and this the 20th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Sea beyond.

Darklingtown North is the first part of Darklingtown that mo...

November 2021 Backstage Pass

It is that time again! 

Thank you once again for supporting my work via this Patreon campaign. It is your generosity that keeps these maps coming. 

Here's this month's Backstage Pass package with all ten maps that will be going up on the blog this month. 

Thank you and enjoy!

Release the Kraken on Imp Tower

Today we are bringing back a map I drew over 7 years ago on the flyleaf of my first book of maps (Dyson’s Delves) – now a bit cleaned up and in higher resolution.

Some places are unplundered by previous adventurers because they are difficult or even impossible to reach without planning and the right equipment (or magic). In the case of “Imp Tower”, a decrepit stone tower sits over a hole that leads down to a cave, definitely home to something nasty with wings that the locals don...

Release the Kraken on The Creeping Sands

Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back a map I drew for Chris Mennell’s “Beyond the Weird” blog – ruins being encroached upon by desert sands.

Windswept desert ruins give way to the remnants of a multilevel subterranean complex that is slowly being taken back by the sand as the weight of ages lays upon it.

Sections...

The Ochrenvault Complete

And it is done... the Ochrenvault megamap is complete and available for download at multiple resolutions. If you were to blow this up to miniature scale it would be almost 11 feet wide by 27 feet tall.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2021/10/30/the-ochrenvault-complete/

The Ochrenvault – Map 6

The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as the Ochre Isles, as knowledge of the Ochren fades from this world) and delves deep into the tropical i...

SOOPER DOOPER LATE Release the Kraken Poll!

Wow! I got REALLY caught up with work and stuff this month and COMPLETELY forgot to send out the Release the Kraken poll at the beginning of the month. So here we are less than a week from the end of the month and I haven't got a clue what we are re-releasing from the back catalog.

So here we are, the SOOPER-DOOPER-LATE Release the Kraken Poll for October! I'll try to get on top of this again next month... which is like next week. Oi.

Click the link, check out the maps, pick one y...

Beneath the Brewery

Here we are in the final sections of the massive Brewery, Tavern, Inn, and Entertainment complex that is Clark Peterson’s “Blackthorne Brewery”. This level is broken up into three sections – the main two mirror the main structures above, with the basement of the Inn & Tavern (mostly comprised of a very large wine cellar and a cold room maintained by a trapped ice elemental) on the left connected by a passageway to the basement of the Brewery on the right.

Most of what’s do...

The Spore Vents Isometric

Deadly mushrooms are slowly taking over the Bosc Verde Forest, killing off the trees and other undergrowth. The spores seem to be coming from the nearby sulfurous geothermal vents that were used as a sacred healing site by the Bosc tribes before the settlement of the region by the Empire. Acknowledged as ne of the braver foresters of the Bosc, Gregor the Scarred went down the ancient stairs into the vents and returned with a story of mutlicoloured mushrooms taking over below before he expired...

Beneath the Temple of Sinakad

Two long ramps descend from the ruined temple of Sinakad in the hills above the city. Here the damage from the looting of the temple is less pronounced, but the pressure of time is hard on the old masonry, especially as the ruins no longer protect the ramps from rain and snow. In wet seasons the central area down here can be under as much as four to six feet of water. Fortunately, the ramps do keep the waters from flooding much of the rest of the understructures.

But the forces of Vivis...

The Ruined Temple of Sinakad

The hilltop ruins are a quiet reminder that mercy is a lost tradition. Once dedicated to Sinakad, God of Mercy for the Trapped, the temple fell into disuse and then was partially torn down by raiding minotaurs bearing the black skull of Vivistat, God of Doom Unexplained. The massive statue of Sinakad was torn down and shattered, only his sandaled feet remaining on the great plinth at the top of the stairs before the entrance to the inner fane.

While the statues of Sinakad have all been ...

The Ochrenvault – Map 5

The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as the Ochre Isles, as knowledge of the Ochren fades from this world) and delves deep into the tropical i...

2021 Business Card Geomorphs - Set 2

Five years ago I put out a set of dungeon geomorphs designed to be printed on business cards. And the uptake was fabulous with a number of cool peeps using them as the backs for their business cards.

So here we are a full five years later, and I figured it was about time to expand the set. So here is a second set of five new little geomorphic business card backs to go with the five I released on the weekend.

Each card is the right size for a business card, with about a 1/8″ over...

2021 Business Card Geomorphs - Set 1

Five years ago I put out a set of dungeon geomorphs designed to be printed on business cards. And the uptake was fabulous with a number of cool peeps using them as the backs for their business cards.

So here we are a full five years later, and I figured it was about time to expand the set. So here’s five new little geomorphic business card backs:

Each card is the right size for a business card, with about a 1/8″ over-run at each exit so that you can use them with business card...

The Goblin Vault

“Friendly goblin hosts, interesting food, strong drink, albino owlbears in a secure enclosure, and a fighting arena? Greth, my half-orc friend, this place has EVERYTHING!”

The disciples of the Creed of Zipesm built this structure according to the divine dreams of the 77th high priest of the Creed. Unfortunately as soon as they were done building it, the full extent of the dreams were revealed to the high priest… The structure was to be the final resting p...

Heart of Darkling – The Stairs

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is the sixteenth mapped location (and 19th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.

Here the Darkling is fairly fast, winding, and narrow – which gives little chance to set to the shore at the Stairs. This set of twists is connected to two caves with 10-foot-wide circular sets of stone stairs winding up into the solid rock above. The area was recently home to ...

Backstage Pass - October 2021

Here is this month's backstage pass!

Because of the inclusion of the Ochrenvault maps in this package (labelled as "Teos Door" in the zip file), this is the largest backstage pass in file size that I've released at 139 megs (about as big as the annual commercial map compilations I release on DriveThruRPG). 

We've got business card geomorphs, another big Heart of Darkling map, a lovel...

Release the Kraken on The Coward’s Retreat

Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back one of my older maps – originally drawn for the adventure “Bad Myrmidon” to raise funds for Mandy Morbid’s medical expenses in 2013.

Constructed at the behest of the champion himself, the exterior of the Champion’s Retreat / Coward’s Retreat is the stone facade of a tem...

Brewery & Entertainment Complex, Upper Levels

And now we climb to the heights of the Blackthorne Brewery complex! (First detailed in June with maps of the ground floor and second floor). These three upper levels are all above the main inn & tavern as opposed to the brewery structure on the right. The first two levels are a full-service inn with multiple rooms of many varieties for rent, while the attic level contains a few small rooms that are not rented to guests (as they are under the peaked roof and thus aren’t as friendly to st...