Winten Ford was built up around a small mill built by the eponymous ford on a small river. Between the mill and the increased traffic, the old ford became a muddied mess and eventually was replaced by a wood and stone bridge at the same time as the two small towers were built here (the larger on the hilltop overlooking the br...
2022-06-13 23:25:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The minds of the things that reach out from the far realms are impossible to understand. Thus it is with Yivh’Kthaloth who reaches out to those that seek guidance and order in the face of chaos and madness. This eternal being craves order in disorder – it impresses those it touches to build structures of contained chaos. ...
2022-06-11 23:28:01 +0000 UTC View Post
A twisting descent under “Dohrlegond’s Rock”, a massive stone spire, leads to a small set of caverns and tombs. The descent spirals around a very tall cave with a couple of points where you can see into the central cave. Under the current “management” of the ogre warlord Thar Gorecrusher, a small group of lowly half...
2022-06-09 23:13:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Overrun by a gang of black flightless humanoid birds (dire corbies), this structure was cut from the rock by a slave group of norkers under the orders of the Hun’mtor mining consortium (a drow-owned business specializing in the mining and acquisition of specific rare ores). The sigil of the Hun’mtor (in cast iron) are emb...
2022-06-08 00:24:07 +0000 UTC View Post
This is an oldie dating back to its initial release eight years ago that we're bringing back today.
Crafted as the lair and fortress of Vrunek, and earthbound Ur-Goblin who could be mistaken for a massive gargoyle, the outside of the structure is clearly marked by the worked mass of stone between the two cave entrances....
2022-06-03 20:07:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the releases that will be coming to the Dodecahedron during the month of June. Well, once the two Kraken releases from May go up on Thursday and Saturday (if you haven't voted for those yet, get on it!)
This backstage pa...
2022-06-02 04:03:18 +0000 UTC View Post
The walls, ceilings, and floors of this underground structure are covered in pale green ceramic tiles – age has not been kind to the mortar involved and the tiles achieve about 70% coverage overall now, although most of the fallen tiles were swept up and discarded instead of littering the floors. Under the tiles and mortar ...
2022-06-01 03:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month I put up a list of 8-12 maps to vote on for this month's "Release the Kraken" where we re-release maps from the archives under the free commercial use license.
As May is almost over, I guess I had better get this fo...
2022-05-29 19:04:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Lead by Druthik Greybreaker, a team of dwarves built, worked, and eventually abandoned the Greybreaker Mine in the hills of Khalefteg to extract a small vein of silver and mithril. The high value of the mithril and the annoyance of the prince of Khalefteg required a certain amount of fortification to keep raiders, bandits, an...
2022-05-29 17:11:45 +0000 UTC View Post
The “Gavren Mesa” is a small stone mesa about 50-60 feet above the surrounding badlands. There’s one narrow trail that leads up to it, but the more popular way up is the Twins’ Stair – a twisting cave where both entrances are bracketed by a pair of statues of some forgotten elven twins. The twin on the left has a st...
2022-05-27 03:55:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Built 60 years ago by five moneylenders in the City of Copper Bowls, the Guild of Five was an informal “guild” to work against the puritanical governance of the city and legitimize their usurious ways. Officially a shrine to Belpheromas, a demon of gold and contracts, the structure helped legitimize their business and pro...
2022-05-23 22:56:10 +0000 UTC View Post
This small three-tier step pyramid is the resting place of the naga Zangro Spell-Eater and their scions, servants, and “disciples”. The base tier of the structure contains crypts and halls, the central tier is solid except for the staircase leading down from the top tier which is a block with cross-cut corridors through i...
2022-05-19 23:40:35 +0000 UTC View Post
These interlinked caves along the rocky shores of the Great Legate Lake produce a strange atonal howl when the winds are blowing in from the waters. The caves themselves twist and intertwine, and further structures have been dug out beneath them that have since partially flooded.
The caves have been used by smugglers on...
2022-05-17 00:05:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Gaerborin Keep was struck down in the great war by mighty elemental magics and rock-shattering bombardment in an effort to destroy the three Dwarven EarthShips that were stationed there. It was targetted for such heavy assault because it was built and maintained by the Gaerborin half-elf family – an extended family believed...
2022-05-15 00:15:35 +0000 UTC View Post
As the world grows dark, Heretic Nezek has moved his banished congregation from the great cathedral city to this cave that looks out over the great bridges on the edge of the dark forest. The main complex of the cave and the first sublevel are illuminated by enchanted torches that illuminate without burning – making the cav...
2022-05-12 01:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post
This small black fortress sits off the rocky eastern shore of Shu-Qune. A narrow walkway leads down from the cliffs and then back up to the rocky peninsula where the bastion sits. The main tower / keep of the bastion is 5 stories tall, with most of the towers only having two stories with crenellated battlements atop them that...
2022-05-08 02:12:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Old crumbling stoneworks indicate that this was once part of an extensive set of structures built up around a bridge over a small tributary of the Alaric. The bridge, some stairs, and a small tower are the only parts of the old structures that remain in decent enough shape to be used – and a small section of the top of the ...
2022-05-05 23:11:11 +0000 UTC View PostYeah, so I failed to include the high rez versions of "Not Yours" (hint: It's "Mine") in the Backstage Pass.
This little zip file fixes has all three versions of that map.
Thanks again for your support!
The May Backstage Pass is here! 10 more maps this month -
* A small fortress
* Another stepped pyramid, because of course...
* Small pentagonal building
* Two more sets of ruins
* Mines, Dungeons, and Caves, oh my!<...
Every month we go through our back catalogue of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. This particular map was never released as a “Patron supported” map at all, as it was part of a session report from a solo game of Four Against D...
2022-05-03 22:25:47 +0000 UTC View Post
The first "Release the Kraken" release of the month is this three-story house I drew up in 2020 based on classic Summerian home construction techniques and floorplans. This would be a higher-class home, probably owned by a merchant who sells low-grade copper.
If you’ve been following my non-map posts recently, you’ll know that I’m running a classic styled Wraith: the Oblivion chronicle set in Atlanta in 1994 (the era and place that the game was written in and where they set a lot of their initial material which confronts the horrors of the South’s past in the form of immor...
2022-04-28 22:55:08 +0000 UTC View Post
In one of the D&D campaigns I’m playing in, we started by building the city that the game would be set in together. The result was The City of Shells (or just “Shells”) – a desert city of religious importance to the Empire but that is controlled by a puppet government installed a few generations ago, and just rece...
2022-04-27 00:38:31 +0000 UTC View Post
The old caves in this cliffside were slowly expanded into a number of chambers and shrines and eventually, a tower was built around the raised entrance to the cave by Tormond Calbreck. The first two levels of the tower are built into or connected to the cliff, with the top level being about 10 feet above the top of the cliff....
2022-04-24 01:20:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Somewhere down in these halls they say that Geryon himself, arch-devil of the fifth plane of hell, hunts for victims. While in reality Geryon does not manifest within these halls, a mortal version of his hellish hunt does. On occasion teams of minotaurs and other worshippers of the Wild Beast sound their battle horns and hunt...
2022-04-22 02:12:27 +0000 UTC View Post
The Pyramid of the Prince in Silver (posted at the end of February) has been essentially abandoned for several hundred years except for a small group of undead heretical priests who worked to immanentize the Silver Lord...
2022-04-18 18:28:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Zzarchov Kowolski writes some of my favourite adventures for “old school” adventuring. He releases a ‘zine every month through his Patreon and one of the ones late last year was Havenvale – a small “campaign starter” location that is centred around a small community that is so aggressively dull that you are pushed...
2022-04-17 01:37:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey hey, patrons! It is that time again when I ask what map you would like to see re-released under the commercial use license. Twelve candidates have been selected for your perusal.
Here's the Google Form where the voting happ...
2022-04-14 20:37:03 +0000 UTC View Post
A fairly well-off inn & tavern in Vestfold, the Frogsmead’s name hints at the older cults of the region – namely the Temple of the Frog that remains hidden in the swamps somewhere in the area of the city. Despite the name (which combined with the location will probably throw old school players into paranoid conspiracy...
2022-04-14 19:16:04 +0000 UTC View Post
While I was drawing the various ruins maps that were posted last month, occasionally I would get an idea of a piece that was… small. I collected these three smaller pieces together and stuck them onto a single page for release today. Kind of a final clean up on March’s production maps.
We have a small dome-type stru...
2022-04-12 19:38:03 +0000 UTC View Post
