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Raelan
Acolyte
USA
49 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 05:06:24
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EDIT: Greg, Tony, Chris, Derek, and Jason, if you're on these forums, STOP READING NOW. 
Hello everyone.
It's been a while since I've posted here at Candlekeep. Something about stepping away from the Realms and D&D in general for a number of years after 4th Edition and the Spell Plague...
Regardless, I'm running a campaign set in the (old school) Realms again and, as such, have things to share with all of you.
Here's a (rather large) map of a ruined dwarfhold that I worked up in Dungeon Designer 3 (one of the add-ons for Campaign Cartographer 3). It's intended to look very similar in style to the maps from the Ruins of Undermountain boxed set. It's also almost entirely unlabeled at the moment, which leaves room for DMs to use it as they see fit.
You'll need to hover your mouse over the image and then select the magnifying glass in the upper right to see the full size version. Be aware that the file is 2MB, so it may take a moment or two to load.
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t417/Korvukaal/RuinedDwarfholdPNG2_zps54fcc421.png~original
Enjoy!
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"I am convinced that one of these days I will be able to run a regular game that doesn't fall apart due to scheduling conflicts. I am also convinced that, on this day, hell will freeze over." |
Edited by - Raelan on 22 Sep 2014 07:02:04
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 06:03:48
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Nice work, thanks for sharing! And welcome back to the Realms.  |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 06:56:51
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| That's pretty cool. The colors remind me a little of Undermountain. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2066 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 14:31:35
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Really nice!
(Any chance you feel like making a very small map for another dungeon, if I give you an FCW map already done in the style?)
--Eric |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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Raelan
Acolyte
USA
49 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 16:41:08
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I'll be happy to give it a shot. Fair warning, though: I literally just got Campaign Cartographer 3 days ago, so I'm still working out how things function. 
Send me a PM with the details. |
"I am convinced that one of these days I will be able to run a regular game that doesn't fall apart due to scheduling conflicts. I am also convinced that, on this day, hell will freeze over." |
Edited by - Raelan on 21 Sep 2014 16:53:07 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2014 : 18:29:39
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Nice job!
Photobucket shrinks large files - do you have a higher-res version you could share? |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2014 : 01:13:56
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| Very nice and very large. I'd be interested in a high res version, and also interested if you have a copy that you labeled with a key. Just because I'm curious what you put in all those spaces! It's a big dungeon to fill up. I'm alway curious about other DM's and how they do dungeon ecology. |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6646 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2014 : 06:26:33
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Really nice!
(Any chance you feel like making a very small map for another dungeon, if I give you an FCW map already done in the style?)
--Eric
I was just thinking you might want to put something like this to use ...
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Raelan
Acolyte
USA
49 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2014 : 07:00:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Photobucket shrinks large files - do you have a higher-res version you could share?
quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
Very nice and very large. I'd be interested in a high res version,
Actually, you can get one from Photobucket, but you have to cheat a bit. This worked for me: click on the link, put your mouse over the image, then click on the magnifying glass icon when it appears in the upper right. Following that, navigate back to the Candlekeep website and click the link again. That should take you to the original which you can click on to see the full resolution version.
If that doesn't work, let me know; I'll see about finding another image hosting site that doesn't have the same issue. Failing all else, I can also email it to you.
quote:
and also interested if you have a copy that you labeled with a key. Just because I'm curious what you put in all those spaces! It's a big dungeon to fill up. I'm alway curious about other DM's and how they do dungeon ecology.
I actually don't...yet.
I can tell you a good deal about the reasons for the layout, however. I actually spent at least half of the time that I was working on the map thinking about what should go where, and why.
Chris, Derek, Greg, Tony, and Jason, if you're on these forums, STOP READING NOW. (Hmm...come to think of it, maybe I should add that disclaimer to the first post.)
Anyway, this dwarfhold is situated in the mountainous portion of The Crags, right where they intersect with the Neverwinter Wood. It was inhabited by a clan of Shield Dwarves, though with some Gold Dwarven influence. I haven't hashed out the exact how and the why of that yet given that the Gold Dwarves live many, many leagues away and are largely content with their holdings in the Great Rift and the Deep Realm, but I'd decided that I wanted there to be some noble houses in addition to the royal house of the clan leader.
That said, starting on the left, you have the tunnels of the dwarven miners. They lead past two sets of reinforced metal doors and several portcullises to a guard room. Southeast of that, in the room with the four pillars are the smelters where the miners turned their delvings into ingots, which were then transported either to the storage rooms by the main gates or into the clanhold itself to be turned into finished goods by the dwarven craftsfolk.
From the smelting room, a trip northeast takes you to storage areas and temporary living quarters, and thence to the great gates of the city. The cavern outside is where trade caravans and the rare visitors from the surface gathered, and the tunnel leads up to the surface.
Travelling northeast from the gates, you have a series of fortifications and fallback positions, eventually leading to a barracks area. The barracks is connected to the first strongpoint by a fortified, trap-ridden secret tunnel that the defenders could use to flank an attacking enemy who had already gotten past the first fortification beyond the gates.
North-northeast from there, stairs lead down to a bridge over a swift-flowing underground river. Across the bridge, there's another fortification, and then a hallway leads up into the dwarven city itself.
On the far right edge of the map, there are a connected series of three large, pillared rooms. These were the forges where the dwarven smiths plied their trade, turning the ingots from the mines into fine dwarven weapons, tools, and ornamentation.
Heading southwest from the forge rooms, a hallway and a flight of stairs lead down into the partially-flooded heart of the hold. The water here comes to about mid-thigh on an average human, the result of an earthquake in ages past rupturing the rock between the river and the city and allowing the water to rush in.
Ignoring the junction of hallways and pushing ahead leads to the great room of the hold. Here, the dwarves gathered for business and socialization. During times of celebration, this cavernous chamber resounded with the sounds of dwarven revelry, and the ale flowed freely. Normally, however, it served as a market for the dwarves to trade with one another, and goods were laid out upon stone tables in the stalls that lined the northern edge of the room.
On the southeast edge of this massive hall was the throne room. It was from here that the dwarven king ruled, and it was also here that rushing waters of the river broke into the hold. A guard room adjoins the throne room, and stairs lead up to the chambers of the king, his immediate family, and a handful of servants. These rooms also contains the royal library and the king's personal forge. A secret door from the forge room leads to a series of hidden chambers where the king's family can hide in safety during times of danger, and also offers escape routes either to the nearby temple of the Mordinsamman or the hallway leading towards both the forge rooms and the surface.
On the southwestern side of the great hall, a passageway leads to the chambers of the noble families who nominally supported the king in his rule. Most of them are flooded, but a series of stairs leads up to the dwellings of the three most powerful groups and their private forge.
The northwestern edge of the main vault contains a passage leading to the clan's main warehouses, where goods meant for use within the hold were stored. Beyond that were the homes of the common folk of the city, forming a partial ring around the flooded heart.
Beyond these homes were the two gigantic caverns in which the dwarves farmed various mushrooms and fungi in beds of nightsoil from the hold's inhabitants, and also cultivated cave lichens for the table (their diet also consisted of a significant amount of blind cave fish from the adjacent underground river). Of note is the secret entrance leading from the chambers of the most powerful (and corrupt) noble family and into these caverns. It was used both for clandestine dealings and discreet liasons between members of the house and various commoners.
Finally, no good dwarfhold would be complete without an alternate route of escape for its inhabitants, should the main gates fall. Two secret passages--one from the largest of the forge rooms, and the other from a common room amongst the dwellings of the skilled dwarven craftsmen--lead to a series of secret chambers and storage rooms in which some of the dwarves can hole up if the clanhold falls.
Moreover, there is an escape tunnel leading from this final redoubt, eventually ending on the surface some miles away. In case the tunnel's surface exit is ever discovered, the final chamber leading into the clanhold itself is dressed out as a temple of Dumathoin, Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain. While it has, in fact, been consecrated as such, its primary purpose is to disguise the fact that it's a method of egress from the dwarfhold.
So that's basically the idea behind the layout. I've yet to decide why the hold is abandoned, but I'm toying with the idea of using some sort of great calamity even worse than the flooding (which occurred after the city was abandoned by the survivors). If I do that, the main holding will be full of dwarven ghosts who can only be released by the righting of some wrong related to the death of most of the clan.
There will also be at least two other groups inhabiting the ruins: aquatic trolls and other monstrous creatures (mostly meant to be an inconvenience and hindrance to the party), and a cell of the Eldreth Veluuthra (basing out of the hidden rooms leading to the surface escape route). The latter will be the PCs' real reason for coming here.
You see, a group of adventurers (not the PCs) stumbled upon an elven ruin of extreme age, yet remarkably good condition. Said adventurers brought back a host of elven artifacts, amongst them a series of books from a case that had been warded against the ravages of time. An Eldreth Veluuthra agent overheard their prideful boasts as they celebrated at a festhall, and notified his superiors.
Said superiors then dispatched agents to waylay the adventurers before they could reach Waterdeep, where they intended to sell their haul. The agents weren't quick enough, and the books were sold to a local bookseller, Tralynth Arralyr, a bard and former traveling minstrel who also happened to be a sun elf (and rather atypical of his race, having discovered a fondness for living amongst humans). He didn't have the arcane background to know what the books truly contained, but he understood enough to realize the knowledge they contained was dangerous. He intended to secret away his purchase until such time as he could find responsible elven parties to deliver it to. However, he never got the chance.
Shortly after Tralynth acquired the books, a gang of street thugs, acting as cutouts for disguised Eldreth Veluuthra agents, broke into his shop and murdered him, taking the elven books and anything else they could get their hands on. The thugs, in turn, were murdered by the Eldreth Veluuthra and their ill-gotten gains taken.
After disposing of their distasteful hirelings, the Eldreth Veluuthra delivered the books and artifacts to their superiors, who were at first stunned by what they'd received, then gleeful. After all, who wouldn't be when they discovered that the contents of the Aryvandaaran ruin were none other than the research notes for the Mormhaor Sykerylor (Killing Storm in the modern elven dialect) ritual? If they could just decipher the notes and follow them to their ultimate conclusion, they could wipe the human realms from the face of Faerūn and usher in a rebirth of elven civilization! Or so their deluded theory goes.
Now if they could just find some place quiet that nobody would think to look for them, such as an abandoned dwarfhold, while they try to discover how to make the ritual work...
Now, the PCs are investigating Tralynth's murder at the behest of his Moon Elven widow and half-elven daughter (who get along about as well as you might expect). They've discovered one of the books that got left behind by mistake in the scuffle when the Eldreth Veluuthra eliminated their cut-outs, and, after proper consultation, have discovered that it's Bad News.
There's more to it, of course, such as a Settite artifact in the Eldreth Veluuthra's possession that can be used to start plagues, which is currently being sought by the clergies of no less than three gods: Set (for obvious reasons), Talona (who want to use its power to convert people to the worship of their vile mistress), and Horus-Re (from whose safekeeping the artifact was stolen). One of the PCs may or may not be an exiled Mulhorandi who may or may not be trying to clear his name with the priesthood of Horus-Re.
But I digress...
This will, eventually, after many twists, turns, side-quests, and derailings, lead to this:
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7827
In any case, that's about it for tonight. Sleep calls. |
"I am convinced that one of these days I will be able to run a regular game that doesn't fall apart due to scheduling conflicts. I am also convinced that, on this day, hell will freeze over." |
Edited by - Raelan on 22 Sep 2014 07:15:48 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2014 : 14:52:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Raelan
Actually, you can get one from Photobucket, but you have to cheat a bit. This worked for me: click on the link, put your mouse over the image, then click on the magnifying glass icon when it appears in the upper right. Following that, navigate back to the Candlekeep website and click the link again. That should take you to the original which you can click on to see the full resolution version.
Uh-DOH!
Never noticed those - I rarely use Photobucket anymore. I didn't need to navigate back to CK - it blew-up just fine when I clicked on the link. Thanks for pointing that out, and once-again, GREAT MAP.
P.S. - Krash and Erik: I have a feeling I know what you'd use that for.
EDIT: LMAO - I think I am getting too old for this crap. It blew-up even bigger when I tried what you said - it ginormous! Thanks again. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 22 Sep 2014 14:55:39 |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2014 : 01:35:27
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Nice write up. I enjoyed that. I think scrags would be a good monster, or even duergar if you place it deeper underground. There could be an ongoing conflict or uneasy alliance between them.
You could also just put a Deepspawn in there and let it do the work. |
Edited by - Cards77 on 25 Sep 2014 01:52:04 |
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Ruined Dwarfhold Map
