Near the ruins of the ancient wizarding school is a cliff that is home to a clever and hostile clan of hippogriffs. At the base of the cliff, now well concealed by the trees that grew from what were once decorative hedges along the path here, is the entrance to the Tomb of Eight.
The Tomb of Eight was constructed in the last decades of the school, after the great battle that presaged its eventual collapse. In that battle eight of the students died fighting against the besieging forces – the eight most promising students of the school who had taken it upon themselves to defend it when their teachers proved to be insufficient.
Even after defeating the besieging host, the deaths of the top tier of the student body spelled the end for the school. Thus they were entombed here and the school abandoned except for a token caretaker over the next 20 years. Within the next ten years, someone killed the caretaker and systematically tore down the towers of the school, leaving the ruins out in the rocky moors that can be found today – a quiet stone skeleton of what was probably the greatest school of wizardry.
This is yet another isometric map inspired by a simple octagonal tomb design – it’s pretty amazing how much you can spice up the simpler maps by drawing them with more detail and in an isometric format.
I’m a little disappointed in my own design with this one, however, as I only noted when I was three-quarters of the way done the map that the entrance stairs don’t come out in the middle of the octagonal chamber but rather slightly to one side. That said, it is just as easy to say that it was designed that way, and certain tombs have certain “prestige” based on where they are around the stairs. The tomb on the far left of the page is the least accessible and is thus probably home to the red-headed step-child from a poor family who nonetheless became an important part of the group, etc.
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Because of the incredible generosity of my patrons, I’m able to make this map free for commercial use also. Each month while funding is over the $300 mark, each map that achieves the $300+ funding level will be released under this free commercial license. You can use, reuse, remix and/or modify the maps that are being published under the commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”). For those that want/need a Creative Commons license, it would look something like this:
Cartography by Dyson Logos is licensed
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“the deaths of the top tier of the student body spelled the end for the school. Thus they were entombed here and the school abandoned”
That’d really suck to be all of the other students… “You’re fine, I guess, but the guys at the top of the class are all dead so we really don’t see the point in trying to teach you anymore. School’s closed; go home.”
I picture that a large number of them never came back semester after semester due to the crash in morale and loss of star power of the school.
This is definitely one of my favorite recent maps.
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
A colored version, felt like doing shades of gray:https://i.imgur.com/HqzmPUh.jpg
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This map is far better than any of the bunch-of-square-rooms maps used elsewhere.