Tags
Dungeon Entrance, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, Maps, Old School Essentials, OSE, OSR, RPG, Ruins, Tower
Baug Skyreach, or the Skyreach Ruins, is the shell of an ancient tower that stands out over the forests of Kazhkul. Assembled from a grey-green stone that appears to be the same as the stone in the deeper shafts of the bottomless tombs, the only way to explain the upper reaches of the tower still standing is magic. While there are only two floors that remain, the cracked and worn shell of the tower climbs another hundred feet before petering out in rough spires now covered in bird droppings.
The residents of Baug Skyreach are a strange colony of crones – ancient-seeming “humans” that keep coming down stairs from the upper floor the longer you remain here. And yet going upstairs only finds an empty chamber the size of the full tower. And some of these crones bear a striking resemblance to hags, harpies, and medusae (including their abilities). Those who come here to explore the dungeons beneath the ruins and who don’t insult or attack the strange tower residents can find themselves offered a variety of broths and soups, perhaps some old cheese, definitely a fortune telling or three, and once on good terms with the elders they will become willing to trade treasure collected below for potions that they produce mysteriously from their robes, rags, and feathers.
Which of course brings us to the main reason to visit Baug Skyreach – as the stairs just outside the tower lead down into who knows what strange dungeons. (Seriously, no dungeon supplied, please choose from the many maps that have a full dungeon drawn up with no real notes on what is above it).
The 1200 dpi version of the map was drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and is 9,600 pixels (32 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 2,240 pixels wide or 4,480 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!
I love the idea of the crones continually coming down the stairs out of nowhere. Brilliantly disconcerting. Especially once the players check the upper floor, return to the ground, and then some more crones come down the stairs …
Exactly the scene I’m imagining. Pushing past all the crones to see what’s upstairs… looking around at a few harpy feathers and some debris as the rain comes down the hollow tower shell… then return downstairs, try to ignore the offers of stale cheese, and then FOUR MORE crones (not wet from the rain) come downstairs to offer you a spot of tea and a quick palm reading.
Them being dry is an excellent touch! Inspired, as usual.
This is brilliant. I plan to use this in my weekly fantasy game as soon as possible.
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Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
I have just found your site and I run a sandbox game these are a treasure
Your maps are really fantastic, good job!
I’m a GM and I need a ancient city in ruins (without hills, rivers or mountains) do you have this kind of maps?