X8 – Drums on Fire Mountain

Real life has kept me busy for quite a while.  Finally got a little bit of a break and decided to redo a map from an old-school D&D adventure.  “Drums on Fire Mountain” (X8) seems like a really cool adventure that i’d like to run at some point, so I figured i’d start there.  The broader plan is to map the whole adventure…but there are a lot of maps in this one, so we’ll see how far I get.  But for now, here’s a small map of the entrance to an underground temple complex.

Made with CC3 and some symbols from the Dunjinni Forums.  Text and post-effects done in Photoshop.

Here’s an encounter map for the adventure (T2)….the unsuspecting PCs come across a stump in the middle of a clearing…and it happens to be occupied by a Tarantella.

U1 – Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Al-Qadim Revision)

The PCs want to incorporate a pirate-type element into our existing game.  I thought that a nice little introduction might be the old-school classic D&D adventures U1 – “The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh”.  The first part of the adventure has them exploring a “Haunted House” only to discover that it is really a secret smuggler’s den.  The second part has them assaulting the smuggler’s ship.  Because our game is in 3.5 and in the Al-Qadim world, I will have to make some serious revisions.  In terms of mapping, I decided to completely overhaul the original floor plan of the Haunted House in favor of one that was heavily inspired by a Mansion blue print provided in the Al-Qadim source books.  In the end, it will have everything required to run this part of the adventure and more – though things will be moved around quite a bit.

So without further ado – This is the first of three maps for the Haunted House (still have to do the second floor and basement).  It was created in CC3 with all objects and textures found on the Duninni Forums and/or CGTextures.com.

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.

 

Village of Pramayama

I’m going to be updating/adapting this old D&D expert set adventure module (“Master of the Desert Nomads” and “Temple of Death”) to 3.5 for my Al-Qadim game. A lot of the story and encounters are going to be changed to fit my needs, but the nuts and bolts will remain. So, I’ll be doing a series of maps for the adventure. This is the first. I’ve loosely based it off the map provided, but changed almost everything about it. This will be the village where the PCs will begin. Its a small village that focuses on fishing, farming, and a little ranching. Its situated in the scrublands bordering the desert environment.

*Here is a new version that incorporates many of the suggestions provided by folks at the Cartographers Guild and Profantasy Forums.  As you can see, I’ve increased the number of houses and decreased their size (along with changing the overall scale).  I’ve fixed some typos in the text and added a few more labels.

 

Palace of the Twisted King

Since my PCs are frequently roaming about the desert, I thought it would be cool to have some more complex random encounters for them while their making their way from city to city. I stumbled upon side-quest type encounter in Dungeon Magazine (#116) “Palace of the Twisted King” that seemed to suit this purpose. Although I remained pretty faithful to the original layout, I made some modifications to the original design to suit my own aesthetic.

The plan is that they would seek shelter from a vicious sand storm in this ruined way station. However, the real terror for them begins that night as a group of “Meenlocks” torment them from their secret basement tunnels.

Here is the tunnel system that runs below the ruins. Its a very tight tunnel (only a couple feet wide and tall) and at the end is a cave where the Meenlocks dwell when they aren’t torturing unsuspecting passersby.  The * mark the spot where a secret entrance can be found in the ruin map (beneath the sand).

Both of these maps were made with CC3 and utilize objects which can be found in the CSUAC and Dunjinni Forums.  I also quickly combined the two in Photoshop.