As the first adventure of the new campaign, we have chosen to rally behind the cleric in their search for artifacts and relics of Saint Sadon the Orange – a champion of Irmos the Victor. The small village of Iyesgarten provides little direct information (it is said that their church once held Sadon’s pauldrons – but that church burned down so long ago that none in Iyesgarten even remember where it used to be).

However, a helpful merchant told us of an ancient sage in the hills south of town that had been providing help and prophecies to those who knew where to find her since at least as far back as his grandfather’s days.

Following his directions, we found the cave he referenced – almost appearing to be “tucked under” one of the hills – and the entrance to which is obviously maintained, cleaned of fallen mud and debris from the seasons. The lower sections of the cave are infested with small humanoid plant-goblins (veggie-mites*) and their pale herds of alabaster snails. They are lead from the deepest chamber by a wheezing corpulent potato-monarch who’s orders are incomprehensible, even to their subjects. The monarch’s chamber is quiet aside from their wheezing, dimly illuminated by seeming constellations of bio-luminescent snails that cover the walls and ceiling.

Near the entrance to the cave is a long twisting passage leading up into the hillside. Part way up this passage are a pair of chambers each containing statues that can only be explained as adventurers (and a companion panther) petrified in action. At the top of the passage is another chamber looked over by the statue of a hunched half-ogre. From behind the curtain stepped a goat-bodied lamia, clearly ancient and blind. Having heard our fighting with the veggie-mites below, the lamia seemed resigned to die at our blades and was surprised when we instead asked for their help and knowledge…

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Thanks to Skerples for the Veggie-Mites, drawn from the sci-fi chapter of the upcoming Monster Overhaul project.

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In the autumn of last year, things started falling apart. I found myself driving a few hours out and then back to take care of my aging parents a few times a week, and at the same time I was working on my heaviest cartography workload of my life (I drew 182 maps last year – one every second day) and was fumbling deadlines in a big way because of the sudden burden of both time and emotions.

I was verging on burning out.

I cleared my desk of major work just before Christmas. I still have a few commissions to work on, but they are all single map jobs instead of 15+ map gigs.

For NYE2020 I pulled out an old RPG that has been one of my faves for ages. Cyberpunk 2020. We played a quick fun game from 10pm to 1am – bridging 2019 to 2020.

That game was invigorating. But it didn’t help me when it came to looking at maps again. What did? Trying different things.

So for the next while, expect a chunk more experimenting in my work style. I’m going to try to play with styles a lot more in an effort to reinvigorate myself and my love of drawing maps.

This map is made available to you under a free license for personal or commercial use thanks to the awesome supporters of my Patreon Campaign. Over 500 amazingly generous people have come together to fund the site and these maps, making them free for your use.

Because of the incredible generosity of my patrons, I’m able to make these maps 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 this commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”).