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Backstage Pass - August

Whoa, August? Really?

Damn.

Well, here's more maps, including the much sought-after redraw of the Caves of Chaos. The combined Caves of Chaos map is being released on the 30th, so this is your advance access to something a lot of people have been clamouring for.

Release the Kraken on Leeb's Fortress

Before we start posting maps for August, we still have the last of the maps voted on last month by the amazing supporters of the site through our Patreon campaign for re-release under our free commercial license. So welcome back to Leeb’s Fortress, originally released on the blog back in 2014.

The Leeb family has long maintained their hereditary holdings on a small spire east of town. Although not a rich family, the fact that the holdings include a small fortress that overlooks the fields do...

Crypts of the Immortal Fortress

Beneath the Immortal Fortress are a number of small dungeons, tombs, crypts, and oubliettes. As the fortress itself is still inhabited and the residents know better than to explore these lower areas, they remain generally unmolested, with the entrances of the more dangerous areas under guard in case anything should creep out.

These particular crypts were considered inconsequential until a planes-hopping sage showed up with a map indicating something important within – so if you can get into ...

Release the Kraken upon the Fortress at Hawksford!

As the month rolls into the dog days of summer, it is time to tally up your votes and release some of our older maps under the commercial use license. This month we start off with a town drawn five years ago – the Fortress at Hawksford.

While this was once a fortress of the Ukho Confederacy, the citadel fell forty years ago to mercenaries of the Udruviel Dynasty. With the collapse of both those politie...

The Cockatrice Pit

A number of townfolk head out to the Old Grant Farm about once or twice a month in a semi-secretive manner. They are a motley crew, a mix of the well-to-do and grubby farmers and the woodswoman ranger.

It turns out this town has a very draconian “legal system” where punishment for not fitting in or disturbing the way things are involves the cockatrice pit.

Behind the barn at Old Grant’s farm is a deep square hole dug into the ground. At the bottom of the hole is a small cave, home ...

Orcs in Tarodun's Tomb!

A Fifth Edition adventure for first and second level characters.

• A sepulchral tomb.
• Magical tricks and traps.
• Brutish orcs guarding a vast underground treasure.

If that doesn't sound like a first-time fantasy adventure, I don't know what does.

Orcs in Tarodun’s Tomb is an adventure for first time players looking for a quintessential first-time D&D experience: orcs fill the role of the classic fantasy monster, and it takes place i...

The Hag's Swamp

“Yes now, the Hag’s Swamp you say? It is to the southeast of the keep – mostly swampy wetlands with a few hills and a copse of fir trees. Some say there are lizard folk what live in them swamp, but I figure you stick the the higher ground and the fir trees and you can keep safe from ’em.”

The Hag’s Swamp is best known for the lizard folk lair in the middle of it, and less well known for the giant poisonous spiders that live in the fir trees. But there are a few other points of inte...

Ssa-Tun's Lake of Milk

When activated through specific rituals “when the stars are right”, the three pillars of Ssa-Tun act as portals to anchor points in the Alabaster Hells. One of the three pillar-gates leads here, to a small cavern containing a lake of milky-white fluid. As with most things in the Alabaster Hells, everything here is not-quite-white in colour – from the pale grey walls to the heavy quartz pillars that seem to hold up the ceiling of the cave, to the milky-white liquid that seems to be slowly f...

Ruins at the Three Pillars of Ssa-Tun

Along the blighted coast, beyond the lands of snow and ice and the adventurers’ boom-town of Gravelthorpe there is an old white stone pier on a quiet lonely shore. In the right seasons you can sometimes find the ruined road that leads into the hills from there and eventually to the valley of the Three Pillars of Ssa-Tun.

The three pillars of Ssa-Tun are massive spires of marbled white and purple stone that reach up over a hundred feet from the ground and descend to unknown depths. Leading to...

Delren Street Sewers

While much of the city is served by “surface sewers” to move waste and water, in parts of the old town there exist proper underground sewers that date back to the previous empire’s attempts to clean up the city as a whole. Basements in these neighbourhoods occasionally incorporate parts of the sewer construction, or vice versa. And of course, in the trope of D&D sewers, they have become home to wererats and other foul creatures that represent the decay and seedy side of civilization. 2018-07-14 20:51:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Heart of Darkling - DiTullio Islands

Several rivers run into the Darkling Lake - the vast underground "sea" at the end of the Darkling River. The Ditullio Islands are a small fishing community of mad derro tucked against the shore of the Darkling Lake where two smaller rivers enter it.

The DiTullio derro are paranoid and hostile to everyone, and often to each other. But they truly fear the aboleth lords who lurk in the darkest depths of the Darkling Lake. They have erected a number of small stone houses on their islands, and laid...

Wharton Mine

Old Wharton Mine was a small local source of onyx in its prime, but its location deep in the jungle made it nigh impossible to maintain supply lines or defenses. In the end the mine was abandoned because of prowling beasts and the difficulty in maintaining a workforce out here.

But onyx is a troubling stone. It is the standard material component for animating the dead, and it seems some dark magic is present in the old mine as well as many chips and bits of black and white banded onyx. Now the...

Release the Kraken - July Edition!

Yeah yeah, no puns, no cute wordplay or rhymes. Just time to pick what maps we'll re-release under the free commercial license.

This month's list involved some serious digging into the old days of the blog. I think the most recent offering in the set is from 2014.

As always, the poll is over on Google Forms - so follow the link and vote!

https://goo.gl/forms/Myiqh4UDBEdYA1953

The Savage Caves

The ruins of Saurguard Haunt are but burned stones and bits of rain-cleaned charcoal. But it is a harder task to burn down the small dungeon that sat beneath it.

Used as a traditional dungeon to hold prisoners under Saurguard – the dungeon was being expanded to include a temple to the proscribed lords of damnation when construction breached into a a cave slightly beneath the level of the temple and proceeded down through the limestone to the hillside beneath the Haunt.

Of course, you c...

Guimond's Tower and Lair of the Druid Lich

(Please note that the above image is the "low resolution" 300dpi version of the map. For the high resolution version you'll have to come over to the blog - I occasionally run into the pixel limit here on Patreon, and this one seems to be just over it.)

Nestled into the Shadow Woods is Guimond’s Tower – a crumbling multi-story stone and wood structure that looks ready to slide down into the woods at a moments notice. Up on the top of the aged stone is a wooden house-like constructi...

Backstage Pass - July 2018

Ten more maps are getting uploaded to the blog tonight! I would have had this out sooner, but we had no power at home from 3pm to 11:30pm. In the middle of a heatwave.

But I'm back, my day's sweat evaporating in front of the air conditioner as I put this zip file together for you!

Release the Kraken on Warcton's Hold

Happy Canada Day everyone! To celebrate the birth of our wonderful nation, and to avoid the 47 degree weather, it is time to release the Kraken on yet another unsuspecting waterside village!

Two hundred years ago the foul giant Auruxvor terrorized the lands along the western shore of the Krumpt Basin from his fortified lakeside “manor”. Padreth Warcton and a group of mercenaries and adventurers put a...

Release the Kraken on Melad Crossings

The heat of summer is upon me – and just when I was hoping it was safe to get in the water, a kraken was released! The first of the two maps being re-released under a commercial license is Melad Crossings, a small village map I drew in the summer of 2014.

Foul things are afoot in the town of Melad Crossings. One of the two mills has stopped, the smell of death creeps by in the wind from many buildings, the streets are barren, and those who live are not likely to be out of doors except as is ...

Lair of the Golden Wolf

Pushing out of the cliff face like a partially exposed egg, this small dungeon complex was evidently not built here but transported in some manner. Either that, or the craftsmen were purposefully annoying in the design as the whole interior structure is at an uncomfortable 7 degree angle with the right edge of the map being slightly more than 36 feet above the height of the entrance doors.

In addition to the awkward angle, the interior of the structure bears a strong scent like a mix of musk a...

Vault of the Cave Morphs!

(Due to image size restrictions, the 1200 dpi version of this post is on the blog, linked below. I could only upload the 300 dpi version here on Patreon)

Based on the cave work I did for the Descent into the Depths of the Earth tunnels and passages, here are five cave geomorphs that can be used to link up to any existing tunnels. They are all 2 squares wide at the entrances just like the existing encounter area maps for that adventure, so they mesh best with the secondary tunnels but ...

Baraloba: Forest Paths

Southwest of Baraloba, the Eagle Hills continue into heavy forests. The closest thing here to Baraloba itself is yet another of the old giant’s watchtowers – although this one is not as decrepit as most of the other ruined towers in the region. A druid and their apprentice maintain the tower and keep a small herd of goats that keep the grass in the hills and vales of the area nicely clipped. A trail leads fro...

Baraloba: The Eagle Hills River

To the south of Baraloba are the Eagle Hills and the imaginatively named Eagle Hills River that runs through it from south to north before joining the Hewbank. The Eagle Hills have a mix of chalk and coal deposits that were attractive to miners. Most of the deposits have now been worked, leaving a collection of open mines and shaft mines in the area. The central point of interest in this hex is the old open chalk mine that takes up 11 of the subhexes right in the middle of the map. The hills her...

Barrow Mounds of the Lich and Famous

Burial mounds are a staple of fantasy games and stories. Today’s offering is a collection of nine different burial mounds for those occasions when you really need to loot a a small tomb right now.

The four lower tombs have Greek “Dromos” entrances – an “avenue” cut into the barrow hill leading to the door to the tomb itself. These avenues would be built up in stone to hold back the earth of the mound and to provide a clear route to the door. Often the end of the dromos furthest fro...

Uogralas, City of the Frogs

Some cities just stink. Built over drained swampland and mostly relying on surface sewers, Uogralas is unfortunately one of the smellier urban centres of the land.

Uogralas is known as the City of the Frogs because of its swampy origins and the city's patron god, Ugrale, a great toad-like deity dedicated to brickwork, construction, and the hearth. The city is ostensibly run by Duke Sooryakan, who in turn basically runs everything past Prefect Sahint of the church of Ugrale because no edict of ...

Oratory of the Eleventh Blessing

Up in the Fox Hills is a small monastic order. They make mead and honey, study liturgical texts, and commune with their god of the harvest. The monastery grounds include a number of stout stone structures of which the Oratory of the Eleventh Blessing is usually the first seen (and typically the only structure visited by outsiders).

The oratory’s main purpose is to provide a worship and study space for the residents as well as a greeting and meeting area for guests. Tucked between these are a...

The Drow Spire, FIXED!

Thanks to Forest Zachman's sharp eye, we've fixed the layout problem in the original version of this map. A new version has been uploaded to the blog where the top level of the spire actually matches up with the two lower levels.

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2018/06/11/drow-stalagmite-spire/

Drow Stalagmite Spire

In grand underdark caverns the dark elves build their cities. The oldest families establish themselves in the more defensible positions and as close to the centre of the cavern for defensive advantage against invaders.

Today’s map is a fairly small stalagmite spire fortress. The spire is surrounded on three sides by a small fortress with a spiral ramp leading up from the fortress into and around the stalagmite. The arrows on the ramp lead upwards with a fairly aggressive angle.

One cha...

A Midsummer Night's Kraken!

It is time, once again, to determine where we are releasing the kraken! I mean, we understand that krakens must be released somewhere, otherwise they gum up the works and that prevents progress, and you can't stand in the way of progress, can you?

Last month we released the kraken on a map I ended up being embarrassed to release as-is (the Circle of Doom) - so I ended up redrawing the map. So I tried not to include any maps I think I'd be embarrassed by this month. :)

So head over to the...

Dosetlar Cliffs

Tarnos Venn had a team of dwarves cut defensive structures into the Dosetlar Cliffs during the great war. The guard tower cut into the jutting edge of the cliff still looks nearly new, but the main entrance shows the damage of war and years - there are no longer any signs of where the great door once stood, instead there is just a rough and shattered-looking entryway into the stone face itself.

Tarnos of course had the dwarves build a secret exit to get out in case the front door was held or t...

Shadows of Forgotten Kings

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/243857/Shadows-of-Forgotten-Kings

A Fifth Edition adventure for level 3 characters.

The villages on the edge of the jungle used to be wealthy: they gathered fruits and exotic hardwoods from within the jungle and sold them as wines and furniture to regular merchant caravans in exchange for grains and other staples.

But caravans do not...