Little remains of old Wilton Keep, razed in the early years of the great war by the elves. A few crumbling remains of walls and fortifications atop the hill conceal the secret exit from the war room beneath the keep.
All other access ways to the underkeep were destroyed in the fighting, and much of the subcomplex has collapsed. The secret entrance comes in behind the throne in the old war...
2021-03-07 01:35:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hidden away in the Kraá Hills, two days from the city of Sárku and from any of the Sákbe roads is the quiet maze-temple of Ákhmer, the Visage in the Mist. Ákhmer is one of the 108 greater aspects of Sárku the Five-Headed Lord of Worms, dedicated to lonely places and whisperer to those contemplating suicide. The maze-temple is purposefully silent and lonely – the priests and warrior atte...
2021-03-04 22:18:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Here it is, the belated Backstage Pass of all 9 maps released in February including the promotional paper versions. Please enjoy!
2021-03-03 20:01:22 +0000 UTC View Post
It is time for the Release the Kraken Poll!
For new patrons, this poll determines which two maps from the back-catalogue get re-released under the free commercial use license. Sometimes this means going through and upgrading the map to higher resolution and fixing things up a bit. I've selected t...
2021-03-03 19:56:34 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been a rough start to the year chez Dyson. A very unexpected breakup started the new year and I've been having some... issues... keeping up with commissions, communications, and quite frankly with everything as I've been re-arranging my life and trying to get my head on straight again.
Once again this month there won't be a backstage pass to start the month off as I only have half of...
2021-03-03 19:53:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Surely the old fort had a name when it was build and garrisoned. The various bandits that have inhabited it in recent years have tried to attach their names to it, but it is just “the fort” to those who remember the old garrison on the hill, now surrounded by enough scrub that you can only occasionally make out the structures through the bare branches of the trees in winter.
The curre...
2021-02-27 23:44:16 +0000 UTC View Post
The caves lead deep under the hillside, and the hills on each side of the caves were once mounds of stone dug out of the caves and left here, slowly gathering dirt and grass over the ages.
Somewhere back in the dark recesses is a temple to the Coalbone Clan dwarves’ dark lord of caves and grief. Within that temple is a pool of black liquid said to be the god’s tears. For generations, ...
2021-02-24 20:03:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Atop the steep stony embankments of the Red River about a day’s travel from Letath is the Loreweaver Monastery where a group of cloistered servants of Hecate, goddess of magic & the moon. Most spend their days duplicating texts either to enlarge the cloister library or to trade to others for books they do not have. A smaller number work with handicrafts – crafting orbs, wands and other ...
2021-02-20 04:21:29 +0000 UTC View Post
We don’t know where it came from… we can’t imagine where it goes.
There were no stairs here yesterday, but today the stairs seem ancient – descending into a dungeon old enough that the masonry crumbles when investigated too closely. We tried to ignore the stairs, ignore the hole into the underworld that just appeared in town, ignore the stale smell of old rot that comes u...
2021-02-16 21:10:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The convocation of the Celestial Order, magi of the Azyr, are not numerous nor influential in the city. The local convocation does, however, have fairly deep coffers and a well-maintained chapterhouse where visiting magi are welcomed and a moderate library of texts and scrolls has been accumulated for study.
Their chapterhouse, Spellreach Tower, is built of heavy blue stone imported (or m...
2021-02-14 01:49:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Under many of the half-ruined structures of the Forbidden City are small dungeons, understructures, and of course the interconnected sewers and underhalls that are the warzone of the ghouls and wererats who hide below the Yuan-ti and mongrelfolk controlled surface. The Forbidden Halls sit under a half-collapsed temple, the stairs to which were blocked by a fallen wall of the temple u...
2021-02-11 23:31:15 +0000 UTC View Post
On the edge of Corvusuun, just before the city gives way to the scrub, are a number of fairly large walled estates. As with most of the structures away from the centre of the city, these are primarily sprawling single-story flat-roofed affairs and the largest of said have continued to sprawl until they take up most of the walled area of their compounds. This is the case for Alturiak Manor which...
2021-02-09 21:01:05 +0000 UTC View Post
There are indeed many tiers of dungeons, ruins, and deep ritual spaces beneath the Abbey of the Iron Star. Now that infernal forces control the abbey, the understructures are infested with the Fallen – minor demons who have formed into tribes and staked out claims to various portions of the dungeons.
This particular region of the abbey understructures is the domain of the Red Smith – ...
2021-02-06 18:58:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The Borderlands Caves are a complex of natural and creature-“built” caverns and associated dungeons where more “civilized” folk added their own living, working, and worshiping spaces to the caves. This particular section of the Borderlands Caves sits under the east side of level 1 and is accessed from above via areas 5 & 9 on that map (linking to areas 41 and 70, respectively) – a...
2021-02-04 20:37:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps andyou vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are returning to Quellport, a regional map from a few years ago.
A small settlement in the Thendrake Archipelago, Quellport sits on an unusual lagoon in a cluster of islands. Except for the Isle of Seven Bees (the elongated forested isl...
2021-02-03 19:25:32 +0000 UTC View Post
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. I honestly didn’t think about the trailers for the new Dune release coming soon, so I was surprised to see the Sietch of Morning map as the most-voted-for map this month. For this release, I remastered the map and the ...
2021-01-30 22:08:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Once a contested pirate landing a few miles down the coast from the City of Brass Bowls, Ashripper earned its name when the nearby reefs destroyed the White Ash, one of the fiercest pirate vessels to operate in these waters. But no pirate dares enter the cove now, as these same reefs have become home to an infestation of Mashers (AD&D1e Monster Manual, page 65) – massive venomous spined s...
2021-01-29 17:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post
You know what would be really embarrassing? Getting to the end of January and going to do the first Kraken release of the month... and realizing you didn't post the Kraken Poll at the beginning of the month.
Good thing that didn't happen this time, right?
Right?
So, for those of you t...
2021-01-26 22:30:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Long ago this cave was expanded upon to serve as the home to a massive bark-skinned beastman, kept here by the priesthood of Nylea, god of the hunt, who they believed to be his mother. The beastman stayed in the long lower chamber, and food and offerings were thrown down by acolytes from the stone bridge thirty feet overhead.
A single renegade priest remains – last survivor of that Nyle...
2021-01-26 20:10:53 +0000 UTC View Post
There is the echoing sound of metal on metal under the hills of Mirnel Kuzek on the darkest nights of the year and some claim that on these same nights you can see a reddish glow emanating from a set of small rocky caves that now bear the name of the Gloomforge Caverns.
The reality is the Gloomforge Caverns were once a secret goblinoid base, a foothold for the forces of the ogre warlord K...
2021-01-23 22:08:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Somewhere in the Black Mire, servants of Ishtar built a grand tower to “shine a light in the darkness” and to serve as a focal point for those seeking to push out the troglodytes and other creatures that make the mire so dangerous. And while the tower didn’t burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp; it did get cut off from outside support and was eventually overrun by troglodytes and...
2021-01-21 20:26:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the last three maps for January to complete the Backstage Pass that was released at the beginning of the month!
Hope you enjoy, and once again thank you for your support.
2021-01-21 17:53:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Bloody claw marks lead from the smashed door of the charcoaler’s house into the Big Sumac Woods. In the undergrowth where the trees refuse to grow tall are ancient stoneworks – a well, a few low remnants of walls and a pair of massive cornerstones… and the mossy punky remains of a door set into the stonework leading to the fetid depths below.
Down here is the den of the mutant monst...
2021-01-19 19:44:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Somewhere over the horizon on the Persimmon Sea is Sanctum Cay – a small island that was once home to a hateful druid who would turn the sea against any vessels that dared approach. With the death of the druid a decade ago, it almost feels like his magics “wore out” the local weather, and the island now never sees extreme weather. Fishermen and merchants now mark the site as a place to he...
2021-01-16 22:55:43 +0000 UTC View Post
The fortified Abbey of the Iron Star fell from within to infernal forces and has gone from being a beacon of hope and a place of refuge to the source of many of the region’s troubles. Carrion birds (many undead, and others that appear to be half-dead) circle above the four towers of the abbey and foul beasts climb over the garden walls in the darkest hours of the night… Those approaching th...
2021-01-14 21:14:04 +0000 UTC View Post
There are supposedly many tiers of dungeons, ruins, and deep ritual spaces beneath the Abbey of the Iron Star. With the fall of the Abbey to infernal forces, the understructures have become infested with the Fallen – minor demons who have formed into tribes and staked out claims to various portions of the dungeons.
While individual fallen are no more of a threat than an orc or a human b...
2021-01-11 21:39:19 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a redraw from memory of an adventure I ran for AD&D in the early 80s. This dungeon is home to an illusionist who operated pretense of being a potent necromancer (using phantasmal force and other illusions imitating the living dead).
The complex itself is entered via the cave entry at the south. The back entrance in the octagonal chambers opens into a small moutain valley where...
2021-01-08 21:03:27 +0000 UTC View Post
(first of all, I REALLY need to change that graphic someday... Patreon hasn't used that logo in YEARS...)
Happy Gnu Ears folks (remind me to draw that, somebody). Here's the first backstage pass for 2021, and as usual I don't have the full run of maps for the month ready yet (the holiday season i...
2021-01-06 03:04:19 +0000 UTC View Post
The Nephilim Madrual arrived in these lands with an army of creatures from its home plane and was immediately besieged by the elves who had no interest in sharing their lands (or slaves) with the planar interloper. Madrual invested significantly in building up defenses against the elven strike forces and established a small line of defensive fortresses. The smaller fortresses are all gone, noth...
2021-01-06 00:28:56 +0000 UTC View Post
The dreams have one thing in common – a communion in a fallen temple. Ruins in the swamp with a single tower standing over the fallen stones. And something beneath, something calling, a remnant forgotten there for untold years; a final weapon or tool to be raised against the heretics who spread corruption and mutation in their wakes.
Beneath the old temple is a sunken sanctuary and the ...
2020-12-31 19:24:32 +0000 UTC View Post