Nentir Inn Second Floor

Lonely Tower Redux

I've made some additional notes to the popular Lonely Tower map. Thanks and a tip o' the tam o' shanter to loyal reader Dave L!

Nentir Insides

The first floor of Nentir Inn along with the kitchen.

Nentir Inn Curb Appeal

A by-request sketch of the Nentir Inn. I'll polish it up when I get a little more free time.

Doodle Family Fails Save vs. the Crud

First Daddy Doodle and Baby Doodle were sick and now Missus Doodle has a cold too! Bleh. 

Dwarftown?

I've been wrestling with Dwarftown looking too "above-ground", the details feeling to Greco-Roman and not other-worldly enough. But I'm liking this more rough-hewn style. The final version should look something like this.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

... it's going rather slow! Dwarftown, that is. But rest assured, the surly contractors of fantasyland are making progress.

Headin' Down South

I've found three little bits of copy regarding the larger world and the Nentir Vale's place in it:

• "A broad borderland region."
  
• "The Nentir Vale is a northern land..." and
  
• "(Harken Forest) separates the Nentir Vale from the more populous coastal towns of the south."
  

Sticking the Vale up along the northern border of the kingdom takes care of the first two points. Making the rest of this Nerath Empire remnant into a bastardization of southern England satisfies the third point as well a my current preoccupation with Bernard Cornwell's King Arthur books.

But please let me know if you've any better published sources for expanding the map, won't you? I'm working entirely from the DMG and H1.

Update: Misspelled "capital". D'oh!

Latest update: I got to thinking about Colmarr's comment that the Hammerfast trade route needed somewhere to go. It occurred to me if the Vale were on one side of a hellaciously vast mountain range, it would explain why people on the other side would refer to the mountains as something else beside "Dawnforge". Plus, a safe route through such rugged terrain really would be an asset worth guarding with a fortress. Thanks Colmarr! =)

Welcome!

This blog got some crazy number of visitors yesterday, so I just wanted to say -- Welcome to my blog of unnecessary maps, comics, and dried-out marker doodles! More goodies coming soon!

Fallcrest Revised

I've revised the original Fallcrest map into a players' version.

http://dandddoodles.blogspot.com/2009/07/fallcrest-rough-iii.html

Down, Down, Down

Just for fun times, here is Dwarftown in progress. It may take a while to finish this, but you can see where I'm going; namely, underground.

Hey Dwarftown!

The old map was looking slightly flat so I threw in some good ol' 3-point perspective. Not to be confused with Hammerfast though, nuh-uh. This is a map of Dwarftown; a largish, dwarven city which also lies along the Dawnforge Mountains' trade route. Coincidence? Yes.

Hammerfast Rough

I know these colors are getting pretty pukey, but it's a fair representation of what's left in my marker box =(

Too Many Toldamores

Long, long ago I promised our DM a portrait of his alter-ego, Toldamore of the Terrific Tongue. Here's a brief description from the Tongue himself:

I envision (Toldamore) as a charismatic young male human with long wavy black hair. He has a lute, but his main musical power comes from his magnificent singing voice. He primarily uses his bardic powers to boost and inspire his adventuring party... he uses a sling that throws jingle bells in tune to his song. He wears slightly showy fabrics and colors, perhaps including a flamboyant hat with a feather.

A fairly awesome character, and one who saved our True Dungeon party two or three times at GenCon. 

I Am Insulted

You dare suggest I do nothing but draw pictures of elves and fairylands all day? Preposterous! Some days I do nothing but drawings of eldritch horrors and academics tormented by eldritch horrors and then post them here.

Have You Seen Me?

A friend of mine had a whole army -- well, perhaps more of a squadron -- of orc minis when we were in second grade. I can't seem to find hide nor hair of them on the internets. Does anyone have a clue where they came from? I say they were orcs (because my friend painted white hand and lidless eye badges on their shields) but they may have officially been 'goblins', 'kobolds', or even miniatures not specifically for D&D. 

     The most memorable detail was their faces weren't pig-shaped but instead were more tiki-like (as I've tried to recall above). They were cool. Any ideas?

Mermahuataur?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preshaa/3847027500/sizes/l/

Hammerfast Roughs

So here's me trying to figure out how best to map Hammerfast. I have this vision of a great big ol' dwarven front porch I can't shake, so I'm going with it.

I'm focusing on two descriptions from the DM's guide; "A dwarven hold cut from the rock of a deep vale in the Dawnforge Mountains" and "The Trade Road runs through the citadel gates and continues eastward." If you know of any supplementary Hammerfast material out there, clue me in, won't you?

Gen-Con doodles

Didn't do many doodles in Indy .... I was having too much fun!

The Patron Saint of Gen-Con, wearing the Helm of Shame

Mutants and Masterminds attack the GM!

2009 Dune Tournament Champion!

Patrick Rothfuss autographed by Patrick Rothfuss; coincidence?

Rothfuss' opening act.

Bartholomew the Bald.

The Demon of Overpriced Games followed me wherever I went...

See y'all next year!

Fallcrest Map

Herewith two versions of Fallcrest; one for players, one for dm's.

More Otus Gems

This time, four from The World of Greyhawk Gazetteer and one from The Rogues Gallery.

As I've said elsewhere, Otus' work is so appealing because his characters actually look vulnerable, as if they're seconds away from being skewered or digested (if they're not already). Check out that poor schmuck with an arrow through his visor in the second image!

Of course, his line work -- always first rate -- is on parade in these pieces. The firestorm in particular is a festival of chevrons, crosshatching, and contours... how does he do it?

10th Level Shaman

What is your business in these lands, stranger?

Fallcrest Composite Rough

Not that anyone's clamoring for this, but since it'll take me a while to clean up this drawing I thought I'd post it just in case someone wanted to run a party through in the meantime.

As I pull together the various elements of this Fallcrest drawing, a few thoughts occur:

• Who the hell is going to climb up and down a flight of stairs 15 stories high just to get their groceries? In the rain? No one, that's who. So I put in an elevator for the Porter's Guild to run.

• The original map has an awful lot of rubble and tumble-down walls. Now it's true that humans are lazy alcoholics, but it's been 110 years since the Bloodspears rumbled through! Don't you think someone might've organized a clean-up in the intervening decades? I do, so I patched the walls and cannibalized the rubble for more buildings.

• Marklehay having a personal forest within the confines of the city walls seems a bit odd. I've rerouted the approach to the Keep; the woods are smaller now and may end up just being ornamental.

Fallcrest -- the Lower City

Swimmin' pools, movie stars.

Fallcrest Rough

Here's a rough sketch of the Northeast neighborhood of Fallcrest. Big houses, lovely waterfall, mysterious caverns.

My Appendix N

A meme is going around the Grognards like the flu: Appendix N. The original Appendix N was Gary Gygax's list of inspirational books -- Conan, Lovecraft, etc. (here's a fun link:  robertsongames fantasy booklist).

Instead of books, my Appendix N is a list of albums we were listening to while spending countless hours playing games in the basement.

Postcard from Harkenwold

A map of the half-dozen villages that make up Harkenwold. It's about, oh, 7 miles from Devil's Bridge to Stockmer Keep along the the road. Beware goblins down 'round Pea Ridge!

Fallcrest Rough

It's map time! The northwest quad of Fallcrest, in rough form.

Doodly Doodles

Sometimes refining a doodle just kills the personality. Here are the raw doodles of the last two Roosters; a paranoid thief and a hillbilly serial killer.

And for good measure, a new Makrun look.