Today’s map is another experiment after the sharpie dungeon posted earlier this week. This time I’m trying out a heavy black outline and “splatter” effect around it. I also went with a black half-tone pattern for the shadows instead of the usual grey smooth tone.

The shadow crypts are perpetually swathed in darkness – light sources brought within only provide 1/4 of the normal light and especially for flickering sources like torches it appears as if the shadows are constantly reaching out to try to extinguish the source entirely.

Worse, this darkness is especially effective against creatures relying on darkvision / infravision / etc, where it seems like a black fog that brings down visibility to 5 feet at best.

Of course, there are reasons to enter the darkness. There is supposedly a portal down here that leads to a dark twin of the elemental plane of earth and through this portal have come all sorts of shadow-touched horrors. And of course wizards of all stripes are curious about the existence of these alternate elemental planes and how to tap them for other magics (if they exist at all). And the crypts have also attracted the attention of a cult who seek to release their “god” from where it has been buried in a “world of blackest stone, sooty dirt, and darkest irons” – they hope that the portal leads to this world, and that with the right aid and the right rituals they will be able to release their god.

And who is more foolish – wizards & cultists attempting to mess around with shadowy magics beyond their ken… or those who would accept paltry prizes of gold and magic to do the bidding of these same?

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,000 pixels (30 squares) wide. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,100 pixels wide or 4,200 pixels wide, respectively.

The maps on Dyson’s Dodecahedron are released for free personal use thanks to the support of awesome patrons like you over on Patreon. Every month over 600 patrons come together to make these releases possible. You can help too in order to keep the flow of maps coming and to improve their quality – and even get a map of your own!