Nearly a decade ago I spent most of a year drawing and posting geomorphs to this blog. This year’s Kickstarter for a new series of DungeonMorph dice from Inkwell Ideas brought me back to drawing them again… with the slight stylistic improvement of a decade of experience.
Clockwise from top left we’ve got: Shrine / Temple complex with secret reliquary. Forge / Workshops Magic Pool Crypts / Tombs
And of course, while these geomorphs work great with each other (and the thousand or so compatible morphs collected by Dave @ www.davesmapper.com ) but also with the four dungeon levels of the Geomorphic Halls.
Drawn back at the end of 2015, I've upped the resolution on this map and am re-releasing it today.
The Smith’s Reliquary was crafted from heavy blocks of stone banded together with huge bands of steel that wrap around the structure like the hoops on a barrel. These bindings have rusted through the two hundred years this reliquary has stood, discolouring the stone of the building as well as the walkway and the cobbled street that passes along it.
The central chamber within is the reliquary itself, with a massive anvil in the centre of the space, flanked by tools and half-complete weapons and iron hardware of immense size. The back of the chamber is a huge furnace, long cold but for a few coals that are kept burning by the priests, replaced every few hours as they burn out.
Behind the central chamber is the resting place of the Smith. Either a mighty titan of the craft, or possibly an actual godling struck down somehow. But the sarcophagus is a lie, and within it is but the corpse of a stone giant embalmed and secured against grave robbers.
The true tomb of the Smith is hidden deep beneath this structure. In the priests’ chambers on the left side of the map is a small secret door behind which is a secure area containing a key as well as a variety of minor artifacts of the church (the first nail crafted by the Smith, a hammer head that has been shattered from heavy use, leather tongs that held his works, and so on). The key in turn unlocks the secret door hidden beneath the anvil in the main reliquary. But first one has to pull the four massive iron bolts that hold it in place and then slide this hundred-ton piece of steel aside.
Beneath the trap door is a set of stairs leading down to a natural cave with heavy and poisonous sulfuric fumes bubbling up through mud pits. The whole cave is wet and hot and oppressive. At the far side across a small bridge over the mud pits is the actual tomb of the Smith with a shaft of blackest obsidian through his chest – still breathing, but never waking.
Even bullywugs have saints, holy frogs, and sanctified leaders and allies. They aren’t common, and they are revered. This bullywug reliquary dates back to the rule of the Verdant Administrant and The Empire of Gold.
The reliquary itself is collapsing into a much deeper dungeon. It can be entered from the jungle entrance in an old bullywug temple, or by climbing up out of the deeper levels below. But getting into the reliquary proper to acquire the holy relics within requires collecting the Agate, Jade, and Lapis keys that are sealed into tombs around the space.
Just found this thread (new here, hi!). Seriously! Oh man, these maps are absolutely awesome (beautiful). Your artistry is putting some maps i just started putting together to shame! hahaa I'm spinning some adventures back up after a 25year break .. showing my age ;) Great detail that makes it easy to see how to do it yourself in a clear and concise way, totally going to use your map legends for my homebrew. Thanks heaps for sharing, so much inspiration right here.
Portals between worlds are crafted from potent materials in places where the energies of the world intersect with that of other places. Sometimes these ‘ley lines’ are conveniently found where the sky meets the earth and the portals can be built on the surface of the world itself.
But more often they meet in places deep or high. And thus we build “dungeons”.
The Phoenix Diadem is such a place – built beneath the world and linking it to other places. But it is not just a portal; it serves as a prison to those whom it calls forth. There is insufficient space here for the great birds who fly in the liminal worlds between the planes of water and air (referred to as the para-elemental planes by some sages learned in the ways of the many worlds). Within the diadem they find themselves trapped, forced to subservience in order to be able to return to the cold skies of their world.
Even without the spells and rituals to summon forth the great para-elemental birds, the placement and design of the Phoenix Diadem allows things to “leak through” between worlds. Smaller elemental phenomenon occasionally breach into the diadem, and some unfortunates have also been lost here, having “successfully” pushed through from the Prime to the homes of these creatures.
We don’t know why we call it the Old Turnip… it’s just always been the Old Turnip. Well, I guess about 30 years ago it was the Old Turnip Eatery and Inn, but that didn’t last.
You can tell it is old just walking past. The windows are out of square now as the building has settled over the years, and it still has a small outbuilding for horses from when this was the East Gate district, before the new curtain walls were built under Geoffrey the Bold’s rule.
With only two fireplaces, the upstairs gets a little cold in the winter, but the rooms are cheap and the blankets are warm. The current owner, Haknoi, is an unusually thin dwarf who is rumoured to buy liquor and ale stolen from other inns in the city.
The woodwork is old and stained from ages of use and abuse, but a close look will note old sigils against the undead, dark magics, and the evil eye inscribed into many surfaces, including the undersides of all the tables.
The sewers under Rosewood Street are large and open compared to most in the city. Built out of much older structures that were repurposed ages ago, the sewers are a mix of utilitarian and overly ornate.
While most sewers are made of brick, clay, or masonry – a few feet wide and tall enough to walk down (especially if you are shorter than the average human), much of the structures under Rosewood are of old stonework with vaulted 8-12 foot ceilings. Parts were once the basements of a much older temple and palace – now with pipes breaking through the walls to pour waste water and other wastes into them.
There are three points of access into this section of sewers (if you don’t count the many drain and flow pipes that are too small even for the skinniest of halflings to travel). From street level there is a secured and locked trapdoor that leads to the stairs on the lower right side of the map. There is also the basement of the Bill Guisarme Tavern on the lower left side of the map that has locked doors into one of the larger chambers – supposedly one of the smaller guilds of thieves have the keys to those locks. And finally there is a normal sewer access below street level on the left side of the map where the waste from this section runs slowly downhill to other parts of the extended sewers of the city.
Colloquially known as “God Alley”, the Temple Walk is a set of courtyards and walkways winding between 13 different shrines, temples, churches and reliquaries to various deities and godlings of the city. Not all the deities of the city have shrines here, and few of the larger faiths are represented – the area is too tight and confined for the churches with larger congregations, and the temples here gently push away any of louder cults in the area.
Because of the narrowness of some of the alleys and spaces in the Temple Walk, it is a pedestrian-only part of the city (enforced by a few “church police” volunteering for one temple or another and working the entrances to the walk). And it is a pleasant change from the bustle and noise of the nearby markets – a sudden break to quiet spaces of contemplation and prayer.
The two gates into the Temple Walk both lead into the same market area of the city, providing a respite from the haggling, shouting, and constant attempts to sell you things you only vaguely want or need (but you could change that, making it a startling transition point between market and government areas, for instance). Instead this district specializes in quiet monks and priests quietly and sternly attempting to sell you salvation and gifts of the gods that you only vaguely want or need.
I don't update this thread anymore because I wasn't getting any feedback and it just felt like spamming - so if you want to see the full selection of maps I have available, head over to www.dysonlogos.blog
Do you have any favoured programs that you use to sketch the maps up? I have been hand drawing stuff on hex, i like the look and so do my players, but i'm painfully aware of the extra time it takes to pencil then ink it. Wondered if you have ever put together any resources or pointers for moving to digital?
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight dying. That must be or have been a challenge to accept / cope with. Thank you so much for all your maps - I viewed and appreciated this thread many times, though I do not play D&D or prep as much as I wish to / used to.
Do you re-visit many maps? Any favorites you like to come back to and tweak or alter?
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight dying. That must be or have been a challenge to accept / cope with. Thank you so much for all your maps - I viewed and appreciated this thread many times, though I do not play D&D or prep as much as I wish to / used to.
Do you re-visit many maps? Any favorites you like to come back to and tweak or alter?
Do you play D&D as well? Do you DM?
I try not to revisit maps, that way I have a constant stream of new material.
I play D&D and many other RPGs, and I run games too - My goal is to always be playing at least 50% of the time that I game instead of running games all the time like I used to. These days I run 1.5 games a week and play in 2.5 games a week. 2 of those are D&D (but none 5e currently).
Ink straight to Paper! I hope to be to confident! Maybe one day. :) or maybe I should say.. perhaps i just have to quit being timid and draw it on, and forget the shapes I dont like....
Sorry to hear about the eyesight! Damn boi that blows.
These are so good you should sell them not show them for free!
Thanks they will come pretty useful for me making my own maps. Really inspiring. :D
I also draw most of the maps for the recent D&D hardcover releases, and people who want to help keep the flow of maps coming are always welcome to support me through my Patreon which is what pays for all these free releases. :)
These are so good you should sell them not show them for free!
Thanks they will come pretty useful for me making my own maps. Really inspiring. :D
I also draw most of the maps for the recent D&D hardcover releases, and people who want to help keep the flow of maps coming are always welcome to support me through my Patreon which is what pays for all these free releases. :)
These are so good you should sell them not show them for free!
Thanks they will come pretty useful for me making my own maps. Really inspiring. :D
I also draw most of the maps for the recent D&D hardcover releases, and people who want to help keep the flow of maps coming are always welcome to support me through my Patreon which is what pays for all these free releases. :)
Wow, I had no idea you draw most maps for D&D hardcover releases.
I checked out Patreon, pretty nice. : )
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"A Jack Of All Trades is a master of none"
'That's why I hate Bards'
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Nearly a decade ago I spent most of a year drawing and posting geomorphs to this blog. This year’s Kickstarter for a new series of DungeonMorph dice from Inkwell Ideas brought me back to drawing them again… with the slight stylistic improvement of a decade of experience.
Clockwise from top left we’ve got:
Shrine / Temple complex with secret reliquary.
Forge / Workshops
Magic Pool
Crypts / Tombs
And of course, while these geomorphs work great with each other (and the thousand or so compatible morphs collected by Dave @ www.davesmapper.com ) but also with the four dungeon levels of the Geomorphic Halls.
1200 dpi versions of the geomorphs are of course on the blog - https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/07/25/geomorphs4/
Drawn back at the end of 2015, I've upped the resolution on this map and am re-releasing it today.
The Smith’s Reliquary was crafted from heavy blocks of stone banded together with huge bands of steel that wrap around the structure like the hoops on a barrel. These bindings have rusted through the two hundred years this reliquary has stood, discolouring the stone of the building as well as the walkway and the cobbled street that passes along it.
The central chamber within is the reliquary itself, with a massive anvil in the centre of the space, flanked by tools and half-complete weapons and iron hardware of immense size. The back of the chamber is a huge furnace, long cold but for a few coals that are kept burning by the priests, replaced every few hours as they burn out.
Behind the central chamber is the resting place of the Smith. Either a mighty titan of the craft, or possibly an actual godling struck down somehow. But the sarcophagus is a lie, and within it is but the corpse of a stone giant embalmed and secured against grave robbers.
The true tomb of the Smith is hidden deep beneath this structure. In the priests’ chambers on the left side of the map is a small secret door behind which is a secure area containing a key as well as a variety of minor artifacts of the church (the first nail crafted by the Smith, a hammer head that has been shattered from heavy use, leather tongs that held his works, and so on). The key in turn unlocks the secret door hidden beneath the anvil in the main reliquary. But first one has to pull the four massive iron bolts that hold it in place and then slide this hundred-ton piece of steel aside.
Beneath the trap door is a set of stairs leading down to a natural cave with heavy and poisonous sulfuric fumes bubbling up through mud pits. The whole cave is wet and hot and oppressive. At the far side across a small bridge over the mud pits is the actual tomb of the Smith with a shaft of blackest obsidian through his chest – still breathing, but never waking.
1200 dpi versions of this map, with and without grid, can be downloaded at https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/07/28/smith-kraken/
Even bullywugs have saints, holy frogs, and sanctified leaders and allies. They aren’t common, and they are revered. This bullywug reliquary dates back to the rule of the Verdant Administrant and The Empire of Gold.
The reliquary itself is collapsing into a much deeper dungeon. It can be entered from the jungle entrance in an old bullywug temple, or by climbing up out of the deeper levels below. But getting into the reliquary proper to acquire the holy relics within requires collecting the Agate, Jade, and Lapis keys that are sealed into tombs around the space.
High resolution copies with and without the notation are on the blog - https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/07/29/frogs/
Just found this thread (new here, hi!).
Seriously! Oh man, these maps are absolutely awesome (beautiful). Your artistry is putting some maps i just started putting together to shame! hahaa
I'm spinning some adventures back up after a 25year break .. showing my age ;)
Great detail that makes it easy to see how to do it yourself in a clear and concise way, totally going to use your map legends for my homebrew.
Thanks heaps for sharing, so much inspiration right here.
Portals between worlds are crafted from potent materials in places where the energies of the world intersect with that of other places. Sometimes these ‘ley lines’ are conveniently found where the sky meets the earth and the portals can be built on the surface of the world itself.
But more often they meet in places deep or high. And thus we build “dungeons”.
The Phoenix Diadem is such a place – built beneath the world and linking it to other places. But it is not just a portal; it serves as a prison to those whom it calls forth. There is insufficient space here for the great birds who fly in the liminal worlds between the planes of water and air (referred to as the para-elemental planes by some sages learned in the ways of the many worlds). Within the diadem they find themselves trapped, forced to subservience in order to be able to return to the cold skies of their world.
Even without the spells and rituals to summon forth the great para-elemental birds, the placement and design of the Phoenix Diadem allows things to “leak through” between worlds. Smaller elemental phenomenon occasionally breach into the diadem, and some unfortunates have also been lost here, having “successfully” pushed through from the Prime to the homes of these creatures.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/08/03/diadem/
We don’t know why we call it the Old Turnip… it’s just always been the Old Turnip. Well, I guess about 30 years ago it was the Old Turnip Eatery and Inn, but that didn’t last.
You can tell it is old just walking past. The windows are out of square now as the building has settled over the years, and it still has a small outbuilding for horses from when this was the East Gate district, before the new curtain walls were built under Geoffrey the Bold’s rule.
With only two fireplaces, the upstairs gets a little cold in the winter, but the rooms are cheap and the blankets are warm. The current owner, Haknoi, is an unusually thin dwarf who is rumoured to buy liquor and ale stolen from other inns in the city.
The woodwork is old and stained from ages of use and abuse, but a close look will note old sigils against the undead, dark magics, and the evil eye inscribed into many surfaces, including the undersides of all the tables.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/08/05/turnip/
I’ve seen your maps all over the place! You’re amazing!
The sewers under Rosewood Street are large and open compared to most in the city. Built out of much older structures that were repurposed ages ago, the sewers are a mix of utilitarian and overly ornate.
While most sewers are made of brick, clay, or masonry – a few feet wide and tall enough to walk down (especially if you are shorter than the average human), much of the structures under Rosewood are of old stonework with vaulted 8-12 foot ceilings. Parts were once the basements of a much older temple and palace – now with pipes breaking through the walls to pour waste water and other wastes into them.
There are three points of access into this section of sewers (if you don’t count the many drain and flow pipes that are too small even for the skinniest of halflings to travel). From street level there is a secured and locked trapdoor that leads to the stairs on the lower right side of the map. There is also the basement of the Bill Guisarme Tavern on the lower left side of the map that has locked doors into one of the larger chambers – supposedly one of the smaller guilds of thieves have the keys to those locks. And finally there is a normal sewer access below street level on the left side of the map where the waste from this section runs slowly downhill to other parts of the extended sewers of the city.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/08/12/sewers/
Colloquially known as “God Alley”, the Temple Walk is a set of courtyards and walkways winding between 13 different shrines, temples, churches and reliquaries to various deities and godlings of the city. Not all the deities of the city have shrines here, and few of the larger faiths are represented – the area is too tight and confined for the churches with larger congregations, and the temples here gently push away any of louder cults in the area.
Because of the narrowness of some of the alleys and spaces in the Temple Walk, it is a pedestrian-only part of the city (enforced by a few “church police” volunteering for one temple or another and working the entrances to the walk). And it is a pleasant change from the bustle and noise of the nearby markets – a sudden break to quiet spaces of contemplation and prayer.
The two gates into the Temple Walk both lead into the same market area of the city, providing a respite from the haggling, shouting, and constant attempts to sell you things you only vaguely want or need (but you could change that, making it a startling transition point between market and government areas, for instance). Instead this district specializes in quiet monks and priests quietly and sternly attempting to sell you salvation and gifts of the gods that you only vaguely want or need.
1200 dpi versions of the map (with and without grid) are at https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/08/15/templewalk/
Can we use these maps If we don’t publish our adventures?
I mean for our own campaigns
That is indeed the reason I post these!
I don't update this thread anymore because I wasn't getting any feedback and it just felt like spamming - so if you want to see the full selection of maps I have available, head over to www.dysonlogos.blog
Thanks for your work Dyson.
Do you have any favoured programs that you use to sketch the maps up? I have been hand drawing stuff on hex, i like the look and so do my players, but i'm painfully aware of the extra time it takes to pencil then ink it. Wondered if you have ever put together any resources or pointers for moving to digital?
Pen and paper! Pen and paper.
I don't do a rough draft except for commissions, for everything else it is straight to ink, is scanned, and then cleaned up a bit in Photoshop.
In the last two years, as my eyesight has been dying, I've started working direct to digital - but using the software I know, which is Photoshop.
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight dying. That must be or have been a challenge to accept / cope with. Thank you so much for all your maps - I viewed and appreciated this thread many times, though I do not play D&D or prep as much as I wish to / used to.
Do you re-visit many maps? Any favorites you like to come back to and tweak or alter?
Do you play D&D as well? Do you DM?
I try not to revisit maps, that way I have a constant stream of new material.
I play D&D and many other RPGs, and I run games too - My goal is to always be playing at least 50% of the time that I game instead of running games all the time like I used to. These days I run 1.5 games a week and play in 2.5 games a week. 2 of those are D&D (but none 5e currently).
What are you doing?!
These are so good you should sell them not show them for free!
Thanks they will come pretty useful for me making my own maps. Really inspiring. :D
"A Jack Of All Trades is a master of none"
'That's why I hate Bards'
Ink straight to Paper! I hope to be to confident! Maybe one day. :) or maybe I should say.. perhaps i just have to quit being timid and draw it on, and forget the shapes I dont like....
Sorry to hear about the eyesight! Damn boi that blows.
I also draw most of the maps for the recent D&D hardcover releases, and people who want to help keep the flow of maps coming are always welcome to support me through my Patreon which is what pays for all these free releases. :)
Wow, I had no idea you draw most maps for D&D hardcover releases.
I checked out Patreon, pretty nice. : )
"A Jack Of All Trades is a master of none"
'That's why I hate Bards'