Tomb of Shaddad

This is a reproduction of a map for the Al-Qadim adventure/encounter “The Genie’s Terror” from the City of Bones sourcebook.  The basic story is that the PCs are walking along a wadi (dry desert river basin) when a storm comes (sudden storms in the desert often lead to flash floods which temporarily fill the wadis).  The storm has washed away some mud in a nearby cliff face to expose a set of steps descending into the earth.  They will soon discover that this is the tomb of a powerful Shi’ar and a dozen shadows.

The map is made with CC3 and utilizes textures from CGtextures.com and several objects from the Dunjinni forums.

 

and…due to popular demand from the Profantasy forum…here’s the version with a Scimitar (modified from version found on the Dunjinni forums) incorporated into the title.  The “Cyclone of the Four Quarters” is the name of the magical scimitar utilized by an ancient Sha’ir buried within the tomb.  Obtaining it is the real prize of this encounter.

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.

 

 

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.

 

Village of Taffarel

The “Village of Taffarel” was my entry into the Cartographer’s Guild September/October 2012 Lite Challenge.  The challenge was to create a village map which depicted a secret of some kind.

This village is situated on a series of small plateaus in a mountainous region of my Al-Qadim campaign.  Its sort of a frontier outpost that sits near the mountainous boundary between semi-arid planes of the north and brutal desert to the south (Al-Qadim proper).  It is therefore largely autonomous and informally ruled by a large extended family whose elders are the head priests of the local temple.  The villagers themselves are primarily former nomads who have settled in this area for protection from other nomadic bands and tend livestock.

This map contains two secrets (although they were not depicted explicitly). Unbeknownst to outsiders or the average villager is that this ruling family is actually a clan of Lycan (Were-Hyenas) who have been terrorizing many of the nomadic tribes and small villages in the surrounding area.  Furthermore, the local temple is a shrine to “Inalla” who is commonly known as a goddess of nature, survival and instinct, but lesser known as the patron saint of Lycans.  The high priest in this temple is the Progenitor of this Were-Hyena bloodline and the family compound to the east is the home of his clan.

The second secret is that this clan of Lycan have also entered into an alliance with a Drow community.  The details of this community and the nature of their relationship to the Lycan still needs to be developed, but it largely revolves around inciting broader unease/rebellion in the Elvish communities of Al-Qadim.  The Lycans protect a secret entrance to the Underdark that lies beneath the temple (more specially, beneath the State of Inalla in the main hall of the temple.)

The temple was made with CC3 and utilizes textures modified from CGtextures.com.  It also relies upon symbols that can be found in the CSUAC and Dunjinni forums (Special thanks to Bogie for providing the Statue of Inalla.)  The rest of the map was created in Photoshop.

“The Treasure Pit”

This map is derived from “The Treasure Pit” adventure provided in the “Cities of Bone” 2nd edition source book (by Steve Kurtz).  As with my other adaptations of Al-Qadim material, I tried to remain true to the original design but made several structural modifications along with vastly expanding the dungeon dressing.  The map was made with CC3 and utilized objects derived from the CSUAC and Dunjinni forums.

The basic story is that our adventurers have stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient fortress.  Unbeknownst to them, their guide is a were-hyena who is in the business of luring unsuspecting adventurers into the dungeon so as to make the kill that much easier.

More of the story to come as I finish working on the other maps needed for this adventure.

*Here is a small map that can be used to run the last encounter in this adventure.  It shows an 80 foot perimeter around the entrance to the dungeon.