I should probably figure out another name for this map. This is where Lost River (which travelled through the three Lost River Caves) re-emerges into the dungeon, a bit downriver from Lost River Cave.
In the missing span between Lost River Cave South and here, the Lost River has run rapidly through rough caves, often fully submerged – a deadly journey for most who fall in and are sucked downriver. But should a character make their saving throws and not die during the descent, this is where th...
2015-01-30 14:18:54 +0000 UTC
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To the north of the Thunder Mines and down the long twisting stairs from the Hall of Bronze are the flooded mines. These were the first set of mines worked by the local dwarves and were mostly worked out when the dwarves partially sealed them off in favour of the hematite mines.
Originally built around the river that creates the falls in the thunder mines, the water flow in said river continued to increase while the dwarves were working these mines. Eventually it overflowed into the lower areas...
2015-01-27 14:45:23 +0000 UTC
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Also known as the West Mines, the Thunder Mines are named after the sound of the waterfall that crashes down into the chasm these mines were built up around. Invisible from up here, the bottom of the chasm is where the dwarves who built this city first arrived and had left their Earthships during the war against the elven empire.
Like the Hematite Mine posted on Tuesday, Thunder Mine is mapped at a scale of 1 square = 20 feet or 1 inch = 100 feet.
This section of mines is currently home to the...
2015-01-23 14:29:08 +0000 UTC
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Beneath the Venomous Hall lie the Hematite Mines – source iron ore for the dwarves who helped to equip armies to fight in the war against the elves. Also known as the East Mines, these passages link to Venomous Hall via the stairs at the lower left, to the West Mines on the left and to both the Giant Citadel and the secret dwarven camp to the right. Finally, a small 6 to 8 foot wide natural chimney descends from the lowest point in the Mushroom Cavern to the sump room in the lower right side o...
2015-01-20 14:46:42 +0000 UTC
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Once home to 10 mithril statues of the elders of the clans who founded this city, the Mithril hall now appears barren and empty, showing the damage from the destruction of the city gates and cisterns.
At two places along the 35 foot tall mithril hall stone bridges cross over at a height of 20 feet. The first of these collapsed during a battle here between scavenging groups shortly after the demolition of the gates, but the second remains intact. More importantly one of the great cisterns of the...
2015-01-16 15:20:25 +0000 UTC
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When the dwarves left this world in their Earthships, they sealed this city by bringing down the front gates and burying the cisterns that provided water to the multiple levels of the city. Other access points remain (for they had built the city with more than one way in and out), but without the water, it could never again thrive.
Directly above the Hall of Bronze, and connected to it via the Descent (the large cylindrical chamber that links the Gates, the Hall of Bronze and the Iron Hall), Th...
2015-01-13 16:24:14 +0000 UTC
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On the same level as the Venomous Hall (or the Hall of Song to the dwarves who lived here) and sitting below the Hall of Bronze, the Iron Halls served as the forge and foundry for the dwarves here until they climbed back into their great Earthships and left our world to attempt to return to their own.
While the forges have not been relit yet, it is likely only a matter of time before the brotherhood who have started working the mines again bring fire and life back to these halls. The brotherhoo...
2015-01-09 15:33:15 +0000 UTC
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Once the Hall of Song where the local dwarves celebrated their family ties and recorded their lineage, this hall is now home to monstrous spiders of foul intellect and ancient hunger.
The Venomous Hall is the first map of level 3 of the still nameless dwarven city that is the centrepoint of the Mega Delve. This map sits directly below the Marble Hall map and can be reached either using the stairs down into the ravine from the Marble Hall, through the hallway from the Hall of Iron (on the right ...
2015-01-06 16:56:12 +0000 UTC
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On Tuesday we'll be back to the MegaDelve, but for today we have a map and an update from my 5e D&D game - it's a player's map for Cragmaw Castle which I tried to make in the style of the player's map from Tegel Manor which I played in all those many years ago.
Versions with and without grid are available at the blog, as well as an action shot of the map in use and partially filled in.
2015-01-02 14:47:16 +0000 UTC
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Generally speaking, I assume you (the awesome patrons who make this all possible) follow my releases on my blog instead of just following the Patreon feed where I only post my maps.
But, since this has to do with the Mega Delve maps (which I'll be getting back to next week), I thought it would be worth posting here.
This is the wandering monster dice drop table for the Mushroom Cavern - the first map from the Mega Delve.
Find out more (including how it is used) and download a PDF version at ...
2015-01-01 22:08:30 +0000 UTC
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For Christmas my lovely girlfriend picked up some pads of isometric drawing paper from Lee Valley Tools (three letter-sized pads and one ledger-sized). So I started poking around with it this weekend and thus we are taking a one-day break from the Mega Delve so I can show off this somewhat awkward tower map...
I’m not really happy with this finished product, but am excited by a lot of the stuff that went into it (including just drawing on a commercial iso paper pad… I have such a ridiculous...
2014-12-30 14:55:39 +0000 UTC
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The Dwarven Crypts are the last map of level of the Dwarven City in the Mega Delve. This map is linked to the Marble Hall map and is found on the far side of the collapsed bridge. Once a small mithril mine, these tunnels were later converted into crypts for several dwarven clan and families from the city.
There are three types of crypts in here – in decreasing order of importance they are Tombs (with sarcophagi and typically with doors), Vaults (with doors), and Crypts (open-air niches where ...
2014-12-26 16:15:45 +0000 UTC
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The various sections of the Dwarven City in the MegaDelve are named after the large halls that they are centred about. While the last map was the Marble Hall which is the main entrance into the abandoned city, today’s is its neighbour – the Hall of Bronze – named after the massive bronze statues of dwarven champions that decorate the great hall.
This is the most dense and honestly the least interesting map so far in the MegaDelve – focused primarily around dwarven living quarters, the H...
2014-12-23 16:32:24 +0000 UTC
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As I feared, the Dwarven City is going to be more than 3 maps. Probably a LOT more than three maps. At least three maps just for level 2. But that just means more Mega Delve for everyone!
I’m enjoying the fact that the MegaDelve has had a lot of large spaces so far, and felt that it would be awesome for the PCs to first encounter the Dwarven City in a way that would be immediately visually striking. The typical entry to the city would be via the Mushroom Cave, through the Ogre Base, and then ...
2014-12-19 14:13:45 +0000 UTC
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A new node in the MegaDelve! And unlike the last few, this node is only a single map!
While labeled as the Ogre Base, this is also the primary entrance to the Dwarven City since the collapse of the upper access to the city (which will be detailed when I draw up the map for Level 1 of the Dwarven City). As is evident by the name, this area has been taken over by a tribe of Ogres – base and crude creatures, but ones clever enough to avoid the city and it’s hazards. Instead the ogres farm the ...
2014-12-16 16:11:42 +0000 UTC
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North of the Lost River Cave (West) are a pair of tunnels that were once river beds lead into the tunnels and constructions of a war party of morlocks.
And then, just as I was writing this, I realized that I don’t remember morlocks in the classic B/X rules, but use them all the time since I got Labyrinth Lord as my standard reference document. Sure enough, Morlocks don’t turn up in the B/X rules, and seem closest in concept to the Grimlocks from the Fiend Folio (but statistically are very d...
2014-12-12 16:14:42 +0000 UTC
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Last Tuesday’s map of the Lost River Cave (East) included a temple run by a religious order of ghouls and ghasts. Today’s map is of the region underneath their temple, where they don’t permit interlopers, adventurers or anyone not of their faith and race.
The immediately noticeable point is that the two stairwells down from the temple above lead into separate sections down here that are not linked.
Secret passages lead to a chamber set directly below the everburning funeral pyre. Enterin...
2014-12-10 02:00:50 +0000 UTC
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While the Lost River continues on much deeper into the Mega Delve, this is the last small scale map in the Lost River Cave complex. There are still two standard scale maps to go (linked to Tuesday’s western map of the Lost River Cave) for this node of the MegaDelve, but this will be the last small scale (20′ / square) map until I get around to the Necropolis node.
Linking the north with the Lost River Cave (West) map posted on Tuesday, this smaller cave shows the various paths the Lost Rive...
2014-12-05 14:01:01 +0000 UTC
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We return to the MegaDelve and the “Vietnamese Cavern” node from the original node map for the Delve with the second of three small-scale maps of the Lost River Cave.
Unlike the eastern map of the Lost River Cave, this map shows distinct signs of sentient, social life.
The most obvious sign is the stepped temple , the six pillars out front, and the eternal obsidian pyre that burns quietly through the sunless days down here. There are also smoothed out slopes that have been built up from st...
2014-12-02 14:01:24 +0000 UTC
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And we come to the big item, and probably the last major set of caves in the megadungeon – beyond this node most of the other nodes will be primarily “constructed” regions instead of natural caves. But today I begin tackling the “Vietnamese Cavern”, now renamed “Lost River Cave”.
Like the Mushroom Cavern / Fungus Cave (whatever I ended up calling that node), this one is a small-scale map, with each square representing 20 feet instead of the usual 10. This makes this cavern enormou...
2014-11-28 14:04:15 +0000 UTC
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Still in the “small caves” node of the Dyson Mega Delve, this map links up to last Friday’s map via the two staircases leading down to the Tunnels of the Rat Folk. The northern exit leads to an upper mezzanine in the Vietnamese Cavern (which is going to need a different name soon, since it is coming up quickly on the list of things to map and detail).
The large cavern is home to a foul beast that devolved from the halfling rat folk who live in the small complex and the caves below as well...
2014-11-25 17:13:05 +0000 UTC
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On the original node map of the MegaDelve, this map is part of the “Small Caves” node (same as the Goblin caves earlier this week, and the Cannibal Cave coming up next week).
This area of the MegaDelve is inhabited by the “rat folk” who are actually messed up halflings who worship a rodent god-type-thing. They are cannibalistic, get most of their food from the “Vietnamese cavern” to the north of their lairs, and are on the constant watch for Ogres coming in from the east (which is a...
2014-11-21 14:20:15 +0000 UTC
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Another exploration of the Dyson MegaDelve today! This time we are travelling north from the Fungal Cavern to the area marked as “Small Caves” on the node map.
I definitely recommend coming straight over to the blog post where I posted three work-in-progress shots as well as two versions of the final map - with and without grid.
2014-11-18 16:31:05 +0000 UTC
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If you look at the Mushroom Cavern map posted on Tuesday, you’ll note a secret trap door in one of the chambers near the entrance to the cave complex. During a multi-year dry spell, a team of mildly insane cultist dwarves converted the lower caves into a small temple and living area. When the nearby river started to flood again, they sealed the entrance to this area with a metal trap door that they would dog to keep the waters out.
Over the years, the door has partially rusted out, and now wa...
2014-11-16 02:18:21 +0000 UTC
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If you liked yesterday's map and want some more background on the drawing process, the mushrooms, the whole mega dungeon concept that backs it up or just alternate versions of the map in question (one without a grid, and one with blue mushrooms), then check out today's blog post.
Since this is just an expansion on yesterday's map, I'm putting this up as "free content" on Patreon - I'm still only listing a max of two maps a week as "paid content".
2014-11-12 17:39:54 +0000 UTC
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Earlier this week I had the idea of trying to put together a megadungeon again. This was initially triggered by the creation of my “Multi Page Dungeon” page that collects most of the maps that span more than one page on the blog. I came across both the Darkling Depths (which has all the structure I would want from a Megadungeon without the mega) and the abortive Delve of Dread which I never went anywhere with.
So I grabbed a post-it and drew out the baseline of what I’d want in my megadun...
2014-11-11 16:44:14 +0000 UTC
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The old stone structure at the end of the lake by Devil’s Creek has been quiet but not abandoned for a few years now and the town folk know to keep their distance. Once the lakehouse of Viscount Tramur, it is now home to strange and somewhat disturbing demonic Kabuki infestation. The white-faced demons maintain the grounds immediately around the lakehouse and are said to grab anyone coming too close and forcing them to watch their endless plays… and then something even more foul perhaps, as ...
2014-11-07 14:21:33 +0000 UTC
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Along the rough eastern coast of the land is the bridged town of New Cresthill. Built up around a small fortress overlooking two river access points to the Grey Sea, New Cresthill is known for the multiple bridges that connect the various sections and elevations of the town.
New Cresthill is “ruled” by a council of the five “established houses” of the town – each household having one vote in urban affairs. However, no matter how much they like to think otherwise, the reality is that t...
2014-11-04 15:51:46 +0000 UTC
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The forest of the Beastmen is well known as a place where those who serve fell gods travel to prove themselves against one another for the attention of their dark lords. One constant in the forest is of course the Beastmen, and the westernmost part of the forest is the stomping grounds of Tallhorn’s Herd, a savage group of centaurs, minotaurs and beastmen lead by the Tallhorn – the mightiest of their kin.
What makes this herd more permanent than the other herds and tribes in the forest is T...
2014-10-31 16:55:34 +0000 UTC
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Town names are not easy to make up and avoid having them be silly, or just too “medieval fantasy” feeling (Javelin Hill, Hawskford, Granite Pass). So welcome to Cliffstable on Kerstal – a small city that has gradually grown up where the Brown Goblin River meets the Kerstal.
The original name of the settlement goes back to when a single horse breeder maintained a stable on the raised cliff area in the south-eastern shore. Travellers and traders would come by the Cliff Stables to acquire ex...
2014-10-28 14:19:03 +0000 UTC
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