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Basic, Dungeon, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, Maps, New Kingdoms, RPG
Somewhere in the hills north east of Coruvon are various dwarven structures, both subterranean and the occasional one that stands out in the hills and mountains. Most of them were the homes, mines or meeting of various minor dwarven clans and families of the massive dwarven city-mine of Kuln.
It is believed that all are now abandoned by their Dwarven kin – most were lost in the defense of Kuln, while others were abandoned after the fall of Kuln when the flow of commerce down the IronFlow ground to a halt.
Oathbreaker’s Hall was both a minor stronghold and a meeting hall. Officially it was the meeting hall for the heads of a few minor families who held grudges against the rulers of Kuln (and there are rumours that some of these families were instrumental in the fall of the mine-city), but it was also the home to the last members of a small clan that was exiled and nearly destroyed from their ancestral home long before traveling to the outskirts of Kuln. The original clan name of this family was long ago struck from the records, and they were known as the Oathbreakers.
Druhvel Oathbreaker and a few of his kin lived in this subterranean hall in secret, not only hosting the meetings of the hostile minor families, but quietly fomenting revolt. The Alabaster Oracle of Coruvon has dropped hints through the years since that Druhvel saw little actual success from his efforts at undermining the local dwarven clans, and finally may have been the one responsible for the assault on Kuln that lead to it’s destruction.
While none expect that Druhvel still lives, let alone lives in Oathbreaker’s Hall, finding the hall should provide clues as to the fall of Kuln and what families were involved with the Oathbreakers – and perhaps even clues to where the remaining members of the Oathbreakers clan now resides.
Oathbreaker’s Hall was drawn in 0.7mm black gel pen in my moleskine notebook in a single draft.
Can you tell me the difference between the passageway looking things, the shrinking lines, the boxes and the ~ shape? I figure the lines are stairs…
I am not sure what you mean by passageway-looking things. If you mean the hatching around the rooms, those are just background shading.
The shrinking lines are stairs, yes. The boxes between rooms are doors (the big boxes are rooms and hallways). The ~ is a secret door.
Awesome. No for passageway, I just meant when it has no box. There’s two rooms that are connected by a small hallway-looking thing.
Thanks!
These are pretty standard mapping symbols for classic D&D maps –
The ~ shape is actually an “S” – which traditionally marks the location of a secret door.
Boxes traditionally are doors.
The graduated lines are stairs leading downwards – top of stairs is a wide line, bottom is narrow.
It’s been years since I’ve played with a traditional map, so I’m rusty as can be. Thanks so much for taking the time!
Just goes to show that NOTHING can be assumed to be collectively known by all. I mean no insult or disrespect to Lance, but the very basic mapping symbols you use are ones I previously assumed were universally known among gamers. Nonetheless, as he proves, such assumptions are not guaranteed to be accurate. While I’m not advocating you include keys with your moleskin maps, it does raise an interesting thought as to how much we assume “everyone knows”.
As always, I love your maps. Wondering, do you ever take requests? I was going to attempt a map for my blog and future adventure, but not sure I would ever be happy with it…
TB
Being unfamiliar with the arcana of this remarkable new magic, I seek to express my admira–er–dispassionate professional appreciation for Sir Dyson’s cartographic skills, and to announce my own foray into the world of map-making at http://umbramancer.blogspot.com/.
Brilliant map! Clean, crisp, lovely. What lays underneath the mountain in Oathbreaker’s hall? Oathbreaker’s hall is an ominous name, any given reason?
http://screwthefluffwhatsthebuff.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/hello-world/
Pingback: Sketchup Dungeon
I know this is an old post but I have recently decided to take up Google Sketchup and thought I would share my rendition of this map in 3d. I took some liberties with lengths of rooms and halls but I think it came out pretty well.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c3777274d6434d8012d4a7647f59aa2c&prevstart=0
whats the best way to transform these to Virtual Table Top?
For maps like this one that were drawn without graph paper, stick it in your VTT and shrink / enlarge until it meshes somewhat well with your grid, or just ditch the grid 100%.