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Release-The-Kraken

Every month we go through our back catalogue of maps and the many amazing supporters of the blog over on Patreon vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Our first release this month is a maddening take on an isometric dungeon map

A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (300 dpi promotional)
A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (300 dpi promotional)

“If you’ve done 6 impossible things this morning,
why not round it off with a fetchquest at Escherways,
the Dungeon at the End of the Universe?”

This is what happens when the lich lord fails to follow the Ikea directions for the flat-packed dungeon assembly. There are multiple places in this dungeon where you can climb up three flights of stairs only to finish off in the same room you started in. Or turn the corner and find yourself in a room 10 feet lower than the one you started in.

A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (1200 dpi)
A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (1200 dpi)

I can’t stress this enough – I say it about my dungeon maps in general, but seriously – DO NOT SHOW THIS MAP TO THE PLAYERS. Do not draw it for them, do not present it through a VTT with fog of war, etc. Describe it and if the players want a map they draw it themselves. Then they can look bewildered as they discover that two parallel corridors 20 feet apart finish 10 feet apart in the next room over. Or that they can choose to get from room A to room B by either going upstairs or downstairs (hint: it is less work to use the downstairs when given this choice).

A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (1200 dpi - no grid)
A Dungeon of Impossible Stairs (1200 dpi – no grid)

Obviously this is the kind of place where you go looking for the Mc(Escher)Guffin that exists outside of time and space as we know it – that can open doors to other realms, or seal them. And don’t forget the lich who can’t follow Ikea directions, but does still know a bunch of high-level spells.

Now imagine that the lich cast Guards and Wards in here…

kraken-patreon-supported-banner

This map is made available to you under a free license for personal or commercial use under the “RELEASE THE KRAKEN” initiative thanks to the awesome supporters of my Patreon Campaign. Over 900 awesome patrons 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 this map free for commercial use also. Each month while funding is over the $400 mark, we choose a map from the blog’s extensive back catalogue to retroactively release 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”).

Please note that the promotional version of this map (the one with the brown paper background) is not included in this commercial use license and the text and name of the map are NOT released under this license, and cannot be used in conjunction with this map in a commercial project.