D&D General Maps, Maps, Maps! Dungeons, Ruins, Caverns, Temples, and more... aka Where Dyson Dumps His Maps.

Here’s a low-resolution compilation of the eight existing maps of the Scavengers’ Deep set. If printed at miniature play scale (where 1 inch equals 5 feet), each of the individual maps making up the Deep would be 8 feet by 8 feet in size (so once we have the next map in July to complete the column the Deep will be 24 feet wide by 24 feet long). Expect more maps of the Scavengers’ Deep over the coming months, probably at a rate of one map per month.

Iseldec’s Drop – Levels 17-19

Deep into the lowest levels of Iseldec’s drop, we come across this inhabited and defended section. A small fortress in the upper levels of the underdark is situated here and is actively guarded because of the surface access it provides to fliers and those capable of levitation (like drow and mind flayers).

The only connection between level 16 and level 17 is the central shaft that reached every level in the drop. A rope hangs down from where it’s been tied to a massive iron ring in the wall on level 16 and reaches through these levels and on to those below. The falling water from level 8 is still present here, but the stream is really broken up by this point and much of the water doesn’t make it this far as it sprays against walls and particulates into mist. A massive metal “scoop” is set into the path of the stream on level 18 and collects the water for the fortress. This scoop is on chains and can be raised so it doesn’t collect water for those times where the cistern on level 19 is full and/or a massive torrent of water is overwhelming the system.

These levels are specifically uninviting to those coming down the shaft. Level 17 is the upper watch of the fortress with secured doors and arrow slits looking into the cave where the shaft descends. Level 18 is where the shaft comes through the centre of the fortress and it is very well set up for defence with a circle of arrow slits facing the shaft and a secured heavy portcullis where the water runs through to the cistern below. This level has one of the two small barracks for the fortress.

Level 19 stands out compared to the other levels of Iseldec’s Drop. This level is twice as long as the others, and the fortress here is not directly linked to the shaft. This is the main level of the fortress where it opens up on the east side into a major byway of the upper underdark and to the west where it opens to a stretch of the Darkling, an underground river of some fame.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10‘ squares that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,240 pixels or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.

Saint Sephaton’s Wine Garden

Back to the shops along the intersection of Market & Random. Based on a Patreon request from Mark Clover, I’m drawing up individual floor plans for a number of shops, stores, vendors, and businesses along a single market block. As I draw these, I also have the overhead views drawn out on a map of the city block as I go, so when the series is complete you can use them on their own, or as a fully mapped out block of shops.

This is our sixth shop on the street, the northernmost of the shops along Market Street for this series of maps. Saint Sephaton’s Wine Garden is named after the church that once stood here and whose catacombs the building still conceals.

The wine garden itself is a small open-air seating area (that gets tarped over in the colder, wetter season) with an attached building where the wine is kept and above which the manager of the establishment lives. The sign out front is a painting of the titular Saint in the act of pouring a large vase of wine into a pyramid of six cups.

The majority of the wines served here are from local stocks, with a few of the more popular imports in the mix. However, there are a few specialties served here:

Dragon’s Red – a bold and spicy wine claimed to be made using grapes grown on hills that had been scorched by dragon’s breath.

Moonshadow Merlot – a very expensive red wine imported from the distant west, well-to-do people converge at the wine garden on evenings under the full moon to partake of it while claiming it offers them visions of possible futures when consumed on said evenings.

Mohrwood Mead – made from the honey of bees that pollinate the crawling and choking graveyard flowers, this rich mead is claimed to help grant peaceful rest and healing (in fact it does accelerate natural healing by 25% when consumed regularly).

The masonry in the cellar under the wine garden is of exceptional quality and significant age. This was once the cellar of the church of St Sephaton and the fine stonework is a reminder of the history of the place. The secret door to the catacombs beneath isn’t particularly well hidden (the stonework is much more recent), but requires tripping a catch set into the bottom of the “door” (using a bent piece of thin metal typically) to open it. Beneath, the catacombs are quiet and musty, with a pile of heavy furniture and stones blocking the door to deeper catacombs that sprawl under the city.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 6,600 x 9,300 pixels (22 x 31 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) – so resizing the image to 1,540 x 2,170 pixels.

Hey @Dyson Logos I just discovered that Heroic Maps makes a bunch of printable and VTT maps based on your designs. That is very cool.

How did that deal come about? Do you have any particular favorites regarding how they adapted your work to their full color, highly detailed style?

They approached me about it and we came to a beneficial agreement.

I'll be honest, I haven't really looked closely at them - I don't particularly like full colour maps.

Random & Market Tavern

This is our seventh shop along Market street, sitting on the southeast corner of the intersection of Market & Random Streets. With such perfect placement, it of course goes by the fairly anonymous name of “The Random & Market Tavern” but the and is usually dropped making it the “Random Market Tavern” for most guests. And of course, so many adventures seem to start here, at some random market tavern.

The tavern itself sits on the ground floor and is a traditional design without bar or stage or anything more than a kitchen and taproom, and a seating area with a small patio area out front and another (without street access) on the north side. When busy, the main room is packed, with merchants, labourers, and shoppers standing elbow-to-elbow for a drink and perhaps a bowl of whatever’s been cooking. Beneath the tavern are a set of indoor privies which are emptied by the nightsoilfolk in the early hours of the morning. There is no truth to the gossip that liquids here are recycled into the ale.

The upstairs of the building is accessed by a set of exterior stairs near the front door (so the owners don’t have to walk through the tavern on their way in and out). The upstairs is a nice set of apartments and the turret contains a study and a ladder up to a second bedroom.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,800 x 9,300 pixels (36 x 31 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) – so resizing the image to 2,520 x 2,170 pixels.

Brezchyn’s Halls

A grim reminder of the folly of trying to stand up to the demands of one of the great underdark cities, Brezchyn’s Halls is a small ruined complex in the uppermost portions of the underdark. The ruins are being searched by a small party of exiled drow looking for any treasures but also seeking a place where they can settle down for a while.

Unfortunately, the complex is also home to a number of rock-eating grub-like creatures that seemed harmless initially, but that have become very territorial as the dark elves have remained in the complex. They are engaged in a series of guerrilla attacks against the elves currently, and will do the same against any other humanoids entering their halls now.

The Halls were once a fortification of the DiTullio clan of extremely xenophobic derro. Here they kept an artifact they had named the Heart of Dusk, which was the glue that held the clan together. The ruling house of the nearest underdark city discovered the existence of the artifact from their sages and researchers, and demanded it from the derro. When the derro refused, the structure was nearly destroyed by the drow in retaliation, and they left with the Heart. The remaining DiTullio derro, no longer united by their magical artifact, left for deeper lands and now inhabit a series of small islands on shores of the Darkling Sea.

The right-hand exit from Brezchyn’s Halls leads into a passage in the upper underdark, barely 500 feet below the lands above. The left-hand exit leads into one of the ruined levels (Level 12) of Iseldec’s Drop (damaged during the drow incursion to capture the Heart). It is through Iseldec’s Drop that the derro descended to the Darkling River and eventually the Darkling Sea where they live now.



The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10‘ squares that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,240 pixels or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.