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The Old Aqueduct

When I was approached by Eric Hoffman to draw the maps for an adventure in the next issue of Brave the Labyrinth my immediate reaction was "why on earth are there no other aqueduct & viaduct maps already?!"

A two-level construction, the main portion of which was the viaduct which connected a now-collapsed tunnel to a road to town over a now-dry riverbed. It was a distinct sign of civilization as you approached town that travelers would come through this well-maintained tunnel and across th...

Release the Kraken - Ruins of the Gorgon

The first of the two maps to be re-released under the commercial license this month (thanks to your votes in the monthly RELEASE THE KRAKEN poll) is a true oldy of mine - Ruins of the Gorgon!

These ruins of an ancient elven workstation have had a small watch structure built above them to keep an eye on them over the time since the collapse of the elven empire. But since nothing has come out of them in years, the watch has been dropped and the small structure, like the ruins down the hill, sits...

The Tower Faced Demon

There are a number of dead gods, demons and other creatures long forgotten who's planes of existence have ceased to exist and who now float around the astral, petrified with old age and lack of followers.

While most are just ignored, or used as the occasional stopping place or landmark in the infinite phlogiston, the Githyanki are famous for using them as bases of operations, cities, fortresses and so on.

At some point this structure was the head of something large and unpleasant. And at...

The Octagonal Temple

(Please note that there are two maps today - the one shown above, and a second map of the dungeons underneath the temple on the blog page)

The eight-pointed star has been the symbol of chaos for so long… that in some ironic way it has become the law. And yet chaos champions and sorcerers still build with that symbology in mind, sometimes crafting massive arcane structures that tell all who see them that they are massive, immutable structure dedicated to change and mutability.

...

Clayfield Village

Named for the heavy clay found in the mudflats where the town was established, Clayfield Village is a small outpost of humans and halflings built around a bridge across the outlet of the sluggish Laglach river.

While the local halflings still use the old name for the original halfling farm along this area, Laglin, when talking about the village, almost everyone else calls it Clayfield (unless they are trying to get in with the more conservative halflings). The yellowish grey clay deposite...

The Demon-Faced Tower

The old stone fortress and tower along one of the tributaries of the Greendraught river almost certainly had a name at one point. Something dark, ominous and with much gravitas like Orothon's Spire or The Dark Hold. But these days there's not much reason to try to fortify something along the Greendraught - it isn't a border region for any major kingdom, nor a tactically important river crossing or any such.

So the old fortress has fallen into disuse, and is known for its obvious architect...

The River Gallery

In the mountains of Kuln, the Ironflow river's tributaries form a number of ravines, clefts, and canyons of various sizes. This particular cleft cuts through some sedimentary rock where the river has washed out sections of the softer rocks forming a series of natural galleries that were in time expanded upon by a small clan of miners as their base of operations while mining and panning in the area.

Every member of the clan picked up arms in defense of Kuln when the ogres came. While there...

The Garden Palace

There are borderlands where fortified structures are the norm for those with riches and influence. Where civilization isn't strong, and the law can't be trusted to keep you safe. In these places instead of manor houses and mansions, those who have the means instead build fortifications and bunkers.

The Garden Palace is such a structure - a squat chunk of black stone with a pair of windowed domes on the roof. The domes let in enough light to maintain a small garden within the structure - p...

Release the OTHER Kraken?

So... we've reached the $500 funding target to release the second Kraken. 

Now, the way things usually work with my Patreon is a number of pledges "bounce" at the beginning of the month, bringing down the total pledge by up to $25. So, being all excited as I am, and thankful for your support, I'm going to run this month's Release The Kraken poll BEFORE the first of the month - thus while we are over the $500 funding target...

Thus meaning we will be releasing TWO KRAKENS!

I've...

Backstage Pass - Season 3, Number 11

Happy Halloween! 

We're rolling into another month (I'll post about the big news for November shortly in a post to all patrons), and I've just finished uploading a whole pile of maps to the blog. 

A few of these I just noted don't have the "Patreon Supported" graphics at the bottom yet which I need to go back and add, but I'm happy to have them up and figured it was time to share them now instead of dragging it out since I'll probably end up taking a week before I get them all ...

My Private Jakalla - Map 1D

Continuing on the series of maps of a massive undercity project I am taking on. The goal is to produce a large set of maps that interconnect to produce something akin to, but very much different in style from, the original Jakallan Underworld map that M.A.R. Barker used in his Empire of the Petal Throne games.

This portion of the undercity resembles in many ways the first section I did – containing a lot more temple & crypt areas and no sewer connections. It connects to section 1C v...

Release the Kraken upon Wolf Tower!

The votes have been collected and the top response was to release Wolf Tower from two years ago.

 The Wolves are a secretive warrior-cult typically pictured fighting with “long knives” (short swords) in both hands. They operate within military forces, tribal warrior bands, city guards and wherever career warriors are to be found. Membership numbers rise and fall, and many members are unaware of religious implications of their “band of brothers” until they are initiated ...

The Voiceless Chambers

When the Sorceress Queen Nemorlienne finally died, some efforts were made to keep her that way. While her rule was generally good for the state of the nation, those closest to the halls of power found her ways destructive and maniacal and her magically-augmented temper shortened many an advisor’s lifespan.

Like the other deceased queens, she was first burned to ashes and then those ashes converted into a gem using dark alchemies. However, unlike those before her, her tomb was sealed com...

The Spiral Crypts

“They” say that the restless dead get confused by corners and curves. Thus they make their crypts into convoluted spirals and in some cases interlocking circles to confuse the restless dead and force them to remain underground, away from the living.

These Spiral Crypts are a medium-sized crypt from a culture that espoused these beliefs before our modern awakened era. The crypts, and many like them, can be found near local villages and mixed in with the necropolis just to the east of t...

Release The Kraken - Place Bets Now!

Err, votes, not bets. That's right, place votes now for the next map to be moved from the personal-use-only archives into the commercial-licensed collection!

https://goo.gl/forms/O55zRu30Lfs9d9XA2

The Krisdithas Estate

The Krisdithas Estate is one of the best-pedigreed upper-class homes in the city. While it has changed hands a few times in its long history, it has always been to rich families with the bluest of bloodlines and long stories of money, corruption, influence and dark secrets. Even a clan of exiled noble dark elves have used the structure for a time. Exactly what is expected of the upper class.

But what’s important about the Krisdithas Estate this week is the grand ballroom where the annua...

The Ruined Canal City

The Lesser Velarb Jungle conceals many things, but most only know of the troglodytes and plethora of giant slugs and snails. The northern reaches of the jungle mix into the extensive swamps of the Black Mire, but as the land becomes drier to the south remains and ruins of networks of old Elsilian Empire canals can be found. While most of the Elsilian ruins have long ago sunk into the swamps and been absorbed by the jungle, two of the cities are still sought by adventurers. The ivory capital of L...

Vardisstvy - A Motte & Bailey Castle and Village

Vardisstvy is a small village and great house built up in what used to be the northern gnoll wastes. With the rapid decline of the winter gnoll tribes, the region has become a place where those seeking land and freedoms unavailable in the Satrapy have started setting up homes and villages.

Vardisstvy was one of the first such places and shows its roots as a frontier castle built when gnoll raiders were much more common and came in larger groups. In the original configuration of the town, ...

Tarodun's Tomb

The Knight of Clubs is dead and his eternal soul trapped within Kingslayer, the sword of Silver. His body, minus his left hand, was secreted away by his henchmen and never seen again. Some sages have records from the henchmen’s deathbed confessions decades later that the tomb of Tarodun the Preserver was broken into and the body of the Knight of Clubs now resides there. While his hammer Direlock is not with the corpse, it turns out the black-stoned ring he wore on his right hand was the key to...

The Statue Gallery

There is a cave with far too many statues within it that some locals whisper about when drunk enough. The local kids will dare each other to climb down into the cavern and touch a statue, with the bravest actually moving past the first few and reaching one in the darker confines of the gallery cavern. The statues are a strange mix - mostly human-sized depictions of heroic-looking sorts in action poses with the occasional animal and peasant in the crowd.

Of course, to adventurers this is t...

Backstage Pass - Season 3 Number 10

I've got this under control, honest!Here's 8 more maps (including the one I posted to the blog on Friday... because that failed to make it into the last backstage pass).

My Private Jakalla Map 1C

Last month I posted the first two parts of a massive undercity project I am taking on. The goal is to produce a large set of maps that interconnect to produce something akin to, but very much different in style from, the original Jakallan Underworld map that M.A.R. Barker used in his Empire of the Petal Throne games.

This third map in the set continues some of the sewers from the second map while keeping close to the classic Empire of the Petal Throne feel of having most connections into ...

The Warking's Vault

In the Barrier Peaks is a small pass no longer accessible from either side – at some point the ends of the pass were lifted up above the local landscape by a hundred feet or more, leaving sheer cliffs and difficult climbs. What has been forgotten is that this was done by the dwarves in their time of grief for their fallen warking.

The eastern end of the pass is decorated by pale stone statues of human warriors on each side, leading to a massive stone statue of a dwarf where the pass tur...

RELEASING THE KRAKEN - Wygralak's Hole

The votes from last month were tallied and the map released under the commercial license is Wygralak's Hole - so I posted it today. It was VERY tight voting, so I'll go through the second choices from the last few months and include them all in the next voting round. 

Because it turns out it is already almost the end of September, so I need to get my butt in gear and get the next Kraken vote together ASAP!

Thanks again for the support, making more maps available for everyone. <...

The Mastervale Estate

Bearing obvious similarities to the mansion of the Dervel Merchants in blueridge, the Mastervale Estate is slightly more regular in shape and less alien in material - appearing at first glance to be made of grey stone. The actual material is an unworldly grey crystal that seems utterly smooth to the touch, and yet seems to be easy to grab onto and grip to. Because of this "grippiness" and the whims of the owners the outside of the structure is covered with vines and other green creepers, further...

The Court of Summer Wines

The Court of Summer Wines is a well-to-do establishment that offers a wide selection of wines imported from near and far as well as a fruits, breads and sweets to be paired with such.

The food menu varies daily based on what is available in town, but Haspar (the owner) works hard to maintain a constant supply for his wine and drinks menu. The venue stopped serving harder liquors and brandies after one too many occasions where people would move on from wine to hard drink late in the night ...

Elijah's Tower

Elijah's Tower sticks out from a small rocky promontory in the marhslands demanding people's attention. It stands out in an area days travel from the nearest civilization not just for being the work of man in a swampy wilderness, but also in colour and because of the beacon often lit on the roof of the structure.

The main tower is made of a glittering white stone that seems out of place in the marshy region, and the two-story structure at its base is a pale grey granite that seems to be e...

Two Places, One Map.

Square in the centre of the northern bailey of Helmer's Walls squats the Darnstall Palace. For most of the year it lies empty and barren, silent witness to the drilling of the garrison troops during the spring and fall and to the quiet vicissitudes of winter. In the heart of summer the mostly open-air structure comes to life as Prince Elston spends a month here holding court and dealing with those cases the regional courts felt were above their pay grade.

As the prince's arrival becomes i...

Sanctum of the Prophet

While Sarrheia, goddess of the sunrise, is technically the consort to the Lord of Sun, her worship has come to eclipse his within the cities and towns of the Sandmadra Archipelago. In the city of Sandmadra itself is a massive church dedicated to her via the words of her prophet who swam these waters four hundred years ago. Known as the Temple of the Sunrise or more accurately the Sanctum of the Prophet, the church has become central to faith and government of Sandmadra.

The main service o...

The Strange Mansion of the Dervel Merchants

The strange mansion of the Dervel merchants quite literally popped into existence overnight in the rapidly upscaling neighbourhood of bluebridge. The Dervel family bought up a number of old properties to make way for their home, tore them down over a few weeks and did some basic landscaping and then late one night Durish Dervel planted four triangular crystals and a single red pearl on the grounds and lead the family in a chant from an ancient scroll.

The next morning this crystalline man...