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Ephara's Alithinero – Temple of the High Spring

The Water Pass in the mountains of Akros does not lead out of the mountains – a circuitous route instead returns those who wander this false pass back to the Phoberos badlands. Near the highest point in the pass is an archway cut into the stone with massive stoneware water vessels on each side – through the archway are stairs descending into a quieter and gentler place that echoes with the sound of running water. This is the Alithinero – a temple sacred to the guardian of cities, Ephara...

Stepping Lake Cave

Near the ruins of the lost drow city of Ched Nasad is a foul bubbling cauldron commonly known as the Stepping Lake. This was once a small side access to Ched Nasad that most reasonable people avoided because of the foul bubbling fluids, but with the destruction of the city, it is currently one of the few ways for treasure hunters to get there without running afoul of patrols and guards.

The small lake in this high-vaulted cave is both poisonous and acidic covered in a yellow frothy scum...

Retreat of the Vagabond Watch

The Vagabond Watch isa small underdark Slaadi mercenary force that works for a few Drow houses. Two red, a blue, and a green slaad form the nucleus of the Vagabond Watch, along with a few affiliated underdark residents who provide intelligence and serve as go-betweens (since a squad of Slaad does stick out walking through town just about anywhere outside of Limbo).

When situations go pear-shaped, or the watch needs to keep a low profile (or they are protecting something or someone), thi...

The Yellow Fane in Ruins

The underworld of Béy Su contains many old temples and other structures that are no longer connected to the world above. The Yellow Fane once sat beneath the shrine of Qón in Béy Su – a garden temple reminiscent of the Garden of Artékh in Thráya. But that shrine is ancient memory now, and government buildings now loom over the space that was once used to watch the movements of the celestial bodies. The “new” shrine of Qón in the city is mostly a small library attached to the impre...

The Undercrofts of Githaleon

The almost serene ruins of the House of Githaleon give way to damp and crumbling darkness beneath. The walls of the main undercrofts of the church have given way – the masonry fallen in often taking down parts of the ceiling and collapsing entire areas and choking the stairs with rubble and debris. The old crypts (the left side of the map) are crumbling, damp, and choked with roots from the aspen above. The secret passage in the crypts leads slightly downhill to a small doorway in the found...

The Fallen House of Githaleon

The old church sits on a low mound hidden among the white aspen trees that have grown around it and in some cases through the outer stonework of the structure. The House of Githaleon was a place of respite and quiet away from the city, and that feeling is still strong here in the daylight, although the slightest breeze makes the leaves of the aspen clatter and shake, sounding almost like running water from a distance.

When the master of the temple passed on, the church was maintained by...

Heart of Darkling – The Cold Caves

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is part of the thirteenth mapped location (and 16th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.

There is a sealed door in the ghoulish village at The Drop which leads to a series of unpleasantly cold caverns before continuing deeper into the underdark. At the centre of the cold caverns is a massive chamber about 140 feet across that descends in a series of three ti...

Backstage Pass - July

And here we are, the backstage pass for July. 

If I can manage to get further ahead by say 3-4 days this month, I'll be back on track with each month's releases ready before the first release of the month goes out!

So here's the 10 maps being released this month!

Heart of Darkling - The Drop

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is the thirteenth mapped location (and 15th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.

Here the Darkling River picks up speed and heads down a gradual slope (but nothing feels all that gradual when you are in a boat riding down even a mild descent in the darkness). A set of caves exists here where the river once ran higher. These caves have been converted into a s...

July Kraken Poll

The first new release of the month comes out tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, let's get ahead of the Kraken Poll this month and get it out NOW.

I've got 8 maps finalized for July releases, so not QUITE a full backstage pass ready yet - I'll hold off releasing the Backstage Pass until Wednesday - I might even have the extra two maps to finish it off in time for that release.

But yeah...

Release the Kraken on Red Talon’s Lair

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 dungeon I drew while playing Four Against Darkness a couple of years ago.

Cut from the stones of the Weirding Mountains by the drowned priests to craft a gateway for their mad god, this small complex has been “abandoned” for a few hundred years since the collapse of their order.

All the masonry of the co...

Release the Kraken on the Granite Shore

Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and the many amazing supporters of the blog over on Patreon vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back a moderately large dungeon drawn back in 2014.

This map was originally inspired by a pair of the entries in the Dungeon of Lost Coppers competition (specifically the entries by Jürgen Mayer and Luka Rejec). But once the initial central area and connecting halls was done, t...

Oi! Time to get Kraken, eh?

What? June is almost over ALREADY and I haven't asked you for your Kraken choices yet! Yoinks! 

Well, let's do this!

For new patrons - every month at our current funding level we re-release two older maps from the archives under the free commercial-use license. I go through my files, grab 8-12 maps to pick from, and put together this poll... usually at the last minute. You vote on wh...

Backstage Pass - June - Part 2

Sorry about the delay in getting this one out - as it contained some commissioned work, I was checking back and forth to make sure everything was good before I released it. :)

On the upside, over half the maps for July are drawn. We'll probably be looking at a two-part backstage pass again for July, but I'm getting further and further ahead / on track.

Brewery & Entertainment Complex, Second Floor

Welcome to the second floor of this massive restaurant / tavern / inn / brewery / entertainment complex! Here we have the upper common room which overlooks the bar below. There is a private meeting room that can be rented out up here as well as the staff area including a common sleeping area and some offices. Stairs behind a curtain in the upper common room lead up to the inn rooms above.

The upper section of the brewery is also a mezzanine looking down over the main floor of the brewer...

Brewery & Entertainment Complex, Ground Floor

This is a massive tavern / brewery / entertainment area in a wonderfully anachronistic modern style – a mix of restaurant, bar, tavern, and on-site brewery with a large yard out back with two stages, a fountain, and many tables to watch the festivities from. There are tables everywhere, large covered outdoor patios, fireplaces for cold winters and chilly evenings, and the “tower” on the upper right side of the complex is full of vats and brewing equipment to keep the venue stocked with ...

The Six Spires

Ancient temples to dreaming gods that predate Great Zorisz can be found scattered around the hinterlands of the Principalities of Black Sphinx Bay. The rotten jungles and swamps east of Khalefteg are home to many such ancient structures. On a dry hill in the depths of the jungle is this massive stone monument cut from the very heart of the hill.

There are six entrances into the base of the structure, five of which lead into the lower chamber – the eastern entrance however leads to sta...

The Agate Gate

A small temple of Avánthe along the Rananga River stands almost solitary about a tsán (1.33 km) away from the nearby Sakbe road. Run by The Girdle of Purity Society, mostly members of the Standing Pinnacle clan, this small temple is dedicated to Kshésa, Avánthe’s aspect as “the knower of cycles” and is a heavy stone-block affair around a pair of shrines to Avánthe and Kshésa that are thick with incense and the smell of fresh fruit sacrifices. A secret door in the shrine opens to a...

Something in the Walls

It is a lovely two-story house in a nice part of town… except for the noises. There’s the sound of something scratching in the walls. Always just at the edge of hearing, only loud when you sleep when it becomes an all-consuming cacophony until you spring awake, ears ringing in the silence. Something is in the walls, always seeming to be just out of reach and below. Below.

Into the basement the sounds bring us, where they cannot be any further below, right? The scratching, like a sna...

Arlington Grange / Tudor Mansion

The old mansion has gone by many names over the years – originally Tudor Mansion, it has also gone by Tudor Close, Tudor Hall, Arlington Grange, Boddy Manor, & Boddy Mansion depending on the owners and era. But regardless of the name, the owner is dead and laying at the bottom of the stairs… and one of the guests at the party is the murderer!

The manor itself is a very strange design, with passages and corridors between each room on the ground floor. The main entrance hall leads...

Black Wyrm Temple

Ancient temples to dreaming gods that predate Great Zorisz can be found scattered around the hinterlands of the Principalities of Black Sphinx Bay. The rotten jungles and swamps east of Khalefteg are home to many such ancient structures. This temple structure has been significantly worn down by the current occupants – leaving no sign of whom or what was worshipped here in antiquity.

The current inhabitants of the temple are a pair of black dragons who hatched nearby. They wind around ...

The Four-Toothed Drunk

I’m sure it wasn’t originally meant to be called the Four-Toothed Drunk, but whoever the sign was meant to represent was disfigured by a clever late night piece of vandalism and the now nearly-toothless man on the sign splashing ale all over himself has become the calling card of this cheap inn.

The Four-Toothed Drunk has been down on its luck long enough that it really is beginning to show (much like the man on the sign). The stables have a few holes in the walls where unruly horse...

Heart of Darkling – Gibberling Lake

As the Darkling River works its way through the underdark, it traverses the twists and turns of the Darkling Galleries, home to massive hordes of gibberlings who live around a nearby underground lake. This map connects directly to the Darkling Galleries map.

Like the Darkling Galleries, this was once home to a pair of medusae, and thus there are a number of “statues” around the lake. However, the hard treatment of the gibberlings means few remain here, and most are in much worse sha...

Heart of Darkling – The Darkling Galleries

The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is the twelfth mapped location along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.

Here the Darkling River twists and turns through a series of galleries – caves cut out by the river when it ran higher, making caverns with multiple columns where harder stone survived the erosion of the rest of the caverns. The galleries were once home to a pair of medusae, and later inhabitants mov...

June Backstage Pass - Part 1

Whoa, what's this? A backstage pass that isn't of stuff already released?

That's right, I'm getting my shit in order again, and the first half of June's maps are done BEFORE I started posting them to the blog!

So here's a preview of the first five releases of June - Hopefully I'll have the other 4-5 done in a week or so to start working on July's pieces!

Release the Kraken on the Lost City of the Naga Queens

Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and YOU, the amazing supporters of the blog here on Patreon vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back a hexmap from 2018.

Occasionally when delving through archaic tomes about the prehuman denizens of the world, one comes across references to the Lost City...

Release the Kraken upon the Crumbling Island Tomb

Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and YOU, the many amazing supporters here on Patreon vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back a crumbling island tomb from 2019.

Near the centre of Bathayg Lake is an island tomb – a tuft of grass, dirt, and stone slowly being reclaimed by the waters. At some point the small island was built up as a barrow mound – a dromos style tomb entrance leading into seve...

Belated Backstage Pass - May 2021

Here's the zipped collection of all ten maps released during the month of May. As has been the case throughout 2021, I'm working on a just-in-time model at this point, so maps are being posted to the Dodecahedron at roughly the same pace as I'm drawing them and therefore the backstage passes are coming out at the end of each month instead of the beginning.

C'est la vie, I guess?

The Oaklans Cove Monoliths

The coast of Zochlostug is notoriously rough and set with cliffs between 40 and 150 feet tall – even the port of the capital is set on cliffs with the docks and piers lashed to the cliffsides and cargo and passengers brought up to the city through a series of caves both natural and constructed. Oaklans Cove is another small beach set into an overhang where the cliff tops are about fifty feet above the Zorisz. At the top of the cliff, set about 300 feet back, are a pair of massive grey stone...

Dragonslayer’s Crown

The barrow hill of Balagant the Dragonslayer is set with a double ring of standing stones set around a massive menhir partially shattered in the battle that gave Balagant their moniker. Balagant the Dragonslayer went on to live to a ripe age, defending the region from the war fleets of Machlug and taking care of a few locally-sourced menaces as well.

By the time of Balagant’s death, the first ring of stones around the crest of the hill had been added by the local folk around the great...