The Great Sphinx – Lower Level (“Telar in Norbia)

I’ve started mapping out this really great adventure from Dungeon Magazine (Issue 31).  Its called “Telar in Norbia” (by Willie Walsh).

This map depicts the lower level of The Great Sphinx which sits in the middle of a recently unearthed abandoned city of Telar.

 

 

Buried Temple of Ifar (Desert Nomads Series)

This map depicts my attempt at the “Buried Temple” encounter in the old school D&D “Master of Desert Nomads” adventure series (X4).

“The Buried Temple of Ifar” (Profantasy Blog Entry)

Mapping has become one of my favorite escapes from the drudgery that is graduate school.  Whether it’s developing a mystical environment from scratch or recreating a classic adventure, I look forward to spending a few hours playing around with CC3.  Lately it’s been the latter, and I’ve found quite a few gems mining my mini-library of TSR adventures.

This particular map is a reproduction of a “Buried Temple” encounter in the “Master of the Desert Nomads” module (X4).  Our adventures leave the comforts of a desert oasis to investigate a recently unearthed buried temple – Once inside they’ll discover all manner of nefarious creatures, but should they survive, the rewards will be well worth the effort.

The most challenging aspect was trying to find a way to depict areas that are both above and below ground on the same map.  I spent a great deal of time (and got lots of great suggestions from others on the Profantasy Forums) messing with my underground section.  After creating my underground walls, I multipoly’d the area outside the walls and placed that shape on my Background sheet (which sat below my wall sheet on the list).  From there I applied a subtle edge fade inner effect so that the sand was slightly covering the wall.  I then multipoly’d the area inside my underground wall, applied my sand fill to that shape, and then added a transparency effect to that sheet.  My hope was that these two techniques would give the view the impression that this area was underground.

After that, it was just a matter of dressing my dungeon utilizing various symbols from the CSUAC and textures from CGTextures.com.  I also created a bunch of sand dune sheets (edge fade inner and glow effects) to muddy up the background.   I’d be lying if I said that I was completely satisfied with the final product, but I think its human nature to demand more of yourself.   I made a lot of mistakes with this map, but I learned even more. ..And I can’t wait for my next opportunity to start the cycle all over again.