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April Krakens... brought May Krakens?

With May almost in the history books already, we need to figure out which maps from the back catalog will be re-released at the end of the month under the free commercial use license.

For new patrons - each month I post a list of 8-12 maps to pick from. Vote for your favourite. The top 2 will be released at the end of the month / beginning of next month under the free license, allowing publishe...

The Ashen Mountain Chambers

The Ashen Mountain appears to be a typical collapsed volcano cone… except there is no volcano. The mountain was half melted and torn down in divine anger for it was once the base of the Archons of Behemoth who dared to capture not one but five divinities and chain them with hideous magics to “milk” them for their divine potency. Now the Archons are long destroyed, their machineries slagged, and their base torn asunder.

Exploring the Ashen Mountain finds a number of small caves and...

River Caves Beneath the Necropolis

Built along the south bank of the Ranánga River is Sokátis, the City of Roofs. The city’s necropolis is on the north side of the river, beyond the steep stony banks. There are a number of small caves along the banks – most of which are well known to the villagers of Tálesh Kü which abuts on the city of the dead. One particular set of caves reaches to the basement of an old mausoleum between ancient Éngsvanyáli pyramids. The pyramids have been left untouched, but a number of mausoleu...

the Violet Chambers atop Kákri Midállu

Looming over the Kanayugára River in the Chaigári Protectorate are the ancient worn mountain range that is home to Kákri Midállu Peak. Near the top on the northeastern side of the peak is a gentle cliff face that is home to these Violet Chambers. Because of the cliff face, the main way to access these ancient works is to climb to the peak itself and then descend via one of a couple of paths to the ledge where the entrance to the chambers sticks out of the soft stone mountains. The chamber...

Ruins of Baug Skyreach

Baug Skyreach, or the Skyreach Ruins, is the shell of an ancient tower that stands out over the forests of Kazhkul. Assembled from a grey-green stone that appears to be the same as the stone in the deeper shafts of the bottomless tombs, the only way to explain the upper reaches of the tower still standing is magic. While there are only two floors that remain, the cracked and worn shell of the tower climbs another hundred feet before petering out in rough spires now covered in bird droppings.<...

Belated Backstage - April 2021

And here is the belated backstage pass from last month - every map that appeared on the blog in April.

Now let's get back to work on May maps!

Belated Backstage - March 2021

I've been completely behind on work throughout 2021 and I just don't seem to be catching up. That means (as has been pointed out) that I haven't been uploading batches of maps to the blog and instead have been working in a just-in-time approach where I upload the map the same week as I draw it. 

And without batch uploads, we don't have backstage passes.

So, finally, here's the March ...

Black Plume Crater

A foul, dark haze rises out of small vents in the rock at the base of Black Plume Crater. Mildly poisonous, noxious smelling, deeply humid, and thoroughly unpleasant. These dark vapours bubble up from toxic muds below the crater floor. In the crater wall there is an ornately carved entrance leading down to the toxic sludge below. It resembles the face of a massive unpleasant imp with an open mouth through which to enter – and when seen from closer, it is in turn made up of carvings of many ...

Tarsakh Manor - Upstairs

Today’s map is the final stage of last month’s Tarsakh Village & Tarsakh Manor. On the left is the second floor of Tarsakh Manor and on the right is the upper floor / attics.

The left side of the second floor is the servants wing while the majority of the floor is bedrooms, a small library with stairs to the attics, and a weird sort of rummage room in the wing full of shelves, boxes, and a ladder to the attic.

The top floor is mostly storage with a small bedroom with a num...

The Bottomless Tombs – Part 4

While a number of the old shaft tombs of the Etturan Dynasty have been found and explored, there is one that remains a well-kept secret amongst sages, masters of dark arts, and the few adventurers who have been there. Possibly the original shaft tomb of the dynasty, or perhaps a strange discovery that became the inspiration for the ones to come – the Bottomless Tombs seem to have earned their name.

Starting about 20 feet below the lowest crypts of level 3 of the shaft tombs, the shaft...

The Lost Reliquary

Ancient temples to dreaming gods that predate Great Zorisz can be found scattered around the hinterlands of the Principalities of Black Sphinx Bay. Forgotten in the jungles and swamps east of Khalefteg is this sturdy structure dedicated to a once-popular local toad-like goddess of leadership, rain, and nature.

The statue of the toad-goddess was torn out of the structure by explorers from Holy Zorisz during the heyday of the empire. The rest of the sturdy structure was left alone for the...

Dungeon of the Goblin Lotus

The goblin lotus is a vile mutation of the black lotus – like the “typical” black lotus flowers which grant strange dreams under the spell of sleep, the corpse-white goblin lotus brings nightmares and paralysis to those who breathe the sickly scent… and then tendrils reach out to consume the victim as they lay there unable to save themselves. The castellan of Basamy Keep keeps a small cavern of these horrid plants in the lowest dungeons of the keep where they are cultivated by a famil...

April Krakens bring May Carnage

Late as always, here's this month's Release the Kraken poll for which maps we'll be re-releasing under the commercial use license for the month of April. The two releases for this month will go out on May 1st and May 3rd. Which is astonishingly soon. April just sputtered past me and I completely lost track of it.

So, which of these ten maps do you want to see in future commercial releases?

Tomb of Namotos the Flawless

Someone has found the location of the ancient tomb of one of the early emperors of Zorisz – Namotos the Flawless. This tomb predates the massive tomb structures of ancient Zorisz and is not built into one of the immense landmark pyramidal tomb structures of the late empire. The tomb was cut into the side of a valley, expanding on an existing cave that had been used by prehistoric Zorites for the quiet burial of their priests. These ancient crypts remain at the very back of Namotos’ tomb, ...

The Serpent's Lands

The Serpent’s Lands / Serpent’s Landing is a small settlement where the Serpentine Tributaries join the larger Serpentine River. The whole region is one of slow rolling hills with marshy lowlands between them which are home to meandering streams and rivers that work their way south eventually spilling out into Black Sphinx Bay.

Serpent’s Landing takes advantage of the stonework left behind by the elves in the region – most of the structures incorporate elven stonework and on the...

Escheresque – A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs

“If you’ve done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with a fetchquest at Escherways, the Dungeon at the End of the Universe?”

This is what happens when the lich lord fails to follow the Ikea directions for the flat-packed dungeon assembly. There are multiple places in this dungeon where you can climb up three flights of stairs only to finish off in the same room you started in. Or turn the corner and find yourself in a room 10 feet lowe...

Gamma Terra: The Ency Glowlands (Map 2)

Sprawling out in all directions from the Six Cities of Ency are the Ency Glowlands – areas that support only the strangest of life, monitored by the bright red inquisitor crocodiles and their ilk. As indicated by the name, large parts of the glowlands still glow at night, doubly so for those who can see beyond the limits of the traditional human genestock.

This stretch of the Ency Glowlands is west of the Six Cities of Ency and the Ency Glowlands Map 1, and continues to map the areas ...

Tarsakh Manor

Sitting on the hill overlooking Tarsakh Village, Tarsakh Manor is home to Molero Furium who tithes well to the temple in town and maintains a small number of men at arms to help rally the townfolk in times of crisis. Generally this means guards on the bridge and posted at the manor looking down over the town when there’s been unrest or unwelcome guests – or the full retreat of all townfolk into the manor compound when more dangerous situations arise.

This map covers the grounds of T...

Tarsakh Village

Tarsakh sits along a quiet stretch the Flatbrong Beck, well enough south of the Azurewood Hills so as to not be bothered by the various dangers of that region. It is a small farming community watched over by the hillside Tarsakh manor.

This area was “reclaimed” from the Azurewood a few generations ago, and there are a few reminders nearby of that provenance. There are old elven ruins and a set of caves that were once home to elven slave beasts in the woods near the manor, and occasi...

Release the Kraken on Durahn's Tomb

Let’s set the wayback machine for 2009. The One Page Dungeon Contest is taking submissions, and I figured I would give it a shot. I tried and tried to draw a decent isometric map for the tomb idea I had, but I just couldn’t get it to work. So instead I finally surrendered to my lack of cartographic skills and drew a simple overhead map.

I topped it off by using a horribly derivative name for the dwarf entombed therein (I hadn’t read the Hobbit since I was ten or twelve or so, and ...

Forlorn Halls of the Mongrelfolk

Cut into the cliffs of the Forbidden City are a number of temples, crypts, ruins, and other structures. Most have been taken over by one faction or another that dwells within the city. This particular structure is cut into the cliff face in the northeastern portion of the city looking over the encroaching swamps and has become a bastion of the mongrelfolk – a place to hide from the bugbears and to keep the bullywugs from coming deeper into the city.

The main chamber of the complex is ...

The Twilight Descent

Ancient stairs wind down into this semi-covered hole where the sun never shines. At one time a descent into old tombs and crypts, it has now become the dwelling of a scavenging tribe of subhuman morlocks – descendants of the peoples who once sealed their dead away in this very hole.

Stairs descend from the surface to the base of the hole. If assumed to be directly representational illustrations of stairs, they descend some 45 feet or so from the surface. The walls of the hole at the b...

Release the Kraken! On a general purpose workshop and store?

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 workshop design meant as a fill-in for various shops in a fantasy city.

Here we have a floorplan for a typical fantasy city storefront – a store to do your shopping in front, a workshop behind it to produce the goods being sold (with a small strong room for storing fini...

Ashlord's Fall

Somewhere near the bottom of this dungeon is the Ashlord’s staff. At least, that’s what the scrolls you recovered from the cave full of ember zombies seem to indicate. The Ashlord himself is obviously long gone from this world – an everburning lich isn’t something that just stops making public appearances.

The dungeon itself is centred around a 40 foot square shaft that descends about 80 feet from the balcony at the top level to the fiery glowing 12 foot hemisphere at the bottom...

Nadsokor, the City of Beggars

Once an important city-state of law, Nadsokor is now a massive open sewer, ruined, collapsed, filthy, and foul. Unfortunately close to the Forest of Troos, the farmers of Nadsokor began harvesting food from that blighted place and the city was beset by plagues… to save themselves from the plagues, the people of Nadoskor turned to the Dukes of Chaos who “purified” the city with the scouring flames of Checkalakh the Burning God. Regretting this choice, they turned back to the gods of Law,...

Mausoleum of the Last Castellan

With the execution of the four princes of Pantesh at the hands of the false emperor of Zorisz, Pantesh became a satrapy of the crumbling empire – rules from afar by the cabal of desert sorceresses that were propping up the ancient imperial line. A series of castellans were appointed to govern the palace of Pantesh. In their own subversive manner, they continued the policies of the princes of old while paying lip service to Zorisz and concealing much smaller tithes claiming bad harvests, poo...

The Circle on the Shore

As crashing thunder competes with the waves against the rocks below, a white flash of lightning illuminates the circle of druids coming out of the cliffside cavern and beginning their rituals among the standing stones that are soaked with water from the churning sky above and sea below.

In the dark of the stormy night the flashes of lightning seem to illuminate inhuman faces – wolves, bears, and horned things less identifiable as the robes drop to the ground – some caught in the sto...

The Mocking Crypts

Believed to be an alternate entrance into the Sentinel’s Depths, the Mocking Crypts received their name because of the massive enchanted marble doors that remain sealed to those who wish to plunder them or to use the entrance to access the Sentinel’s Depths beyond. The doors are carved into the form of a massive demonic bull’s head that seems to be laughing at those who would try to force their way in. Access is exit-only (the doors swing open easily when pushed from within and reclose ...

Tunnels of the Shrouded Emperor

Grey stone tunnels lead from the Dungeon of the Coalbone Dwarves to this small complex and associated cavern and then to the Waystation along the Darkling River. The Shrouded Emperor is the title the Coalbone Dwarves have given to the remnants of their ruined Earthship – they remember tales of a time when the Emperor would direct them as a clan and as a military force, relaying information from other clans and Earthships and making tactical decisions based on the collected knowledge of the ...

Well Gurath

The clifftop citadel of Well Gurath fell to the hobgoblin hegemony a hundred and twenty years ago and was believed abandoned and ruined until Thren Silentflame, the Helltoothed Khan’s favoured sorcerer, established their command here. Now Well Gurath swarms with hobgoblins and their lesser kin – a dark blot on the edge of the wheatlands.

The fortress is a beacon to both the hobgoblins and those who would try to prevent the growth of the Khan’s hegemony. Thren has capped the steep ...