milbysmaps posts
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The Ruins of Gyan'dis
Gyan'dis is a ruined illithid settlement in the Black Loch. The colony thrived in its corner of the loch for over 800 years, until it was brought down and its inhabitants wiped out by Gyan'dis' own elder brain. Normally, I'd talk a little more about the background of the map, but I'm going to leave that for a day or so, because I'm planning on writing up an overview of the history and lore of the Black Loch, which I can pr...
The Ruins of Gyan'dis - Patrons' Edition
Gyan'dis is a ruined illithid settlement in the Black Loch. The colony thrived in its corner of the loch for over 800 years, until it was brought down and its inhabitants wiped out by Gyan'dis' own elder brain. Normally, I'd talk a little more about the background of the map, but I'm going to leave that for a day or so, because I'm planning on writing up an overview of the history and lore of the Black Loch, which I can pr...
The 40th Cartographic Congress Runoff
I hope everyone had a good New Year's and other holidays, however you happened to spend them. I ended up having a few drinks and watching Twitch streams, so if you did anything more exciting than that-- like actually playing a video game yourself-- you probably did better than me, haha.Anyway, your candidates in the runoff are:Senator AN7 proposes a map of the estate of a drow noble family, House Cull'Thaine. This is one of the ruling fam...
The 40th Cartographic Congress Vote
I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or a good Saturday, as the case may be. I certainly did and I'm still recovering from it, so I'll just go ahead and get to the proposals. I'll leave the vote open for around 5 days, since a lot of people have stuff going on at the moment:Senator Rosamund proposes a minotaur's labyrinth.Senator Fraz-Urb'luu proposes a demonic throne room with a fountain of blood and a fighting pit.Senator A...
Annotated Maps Collection and a Foundry Module Update
First, if you missed it at the end of the last post, there's a collection of the annotated versions of all my maps on the Google Drive here.Second, I've fixed the problem with the Foundry modules not updating properly. Fixing it did require changing the modules' URLs, however, so you'll have to reinstall the new patrons' module, but it can be installed normally through Foundry and doesn't require a manual install. Since th...
Ard Skellig
Of the many Irish isles, one would have stood out to ancient settlers as a particularly good place to live. With its rolling hills, thick forests and an abundance of arable land, it was exactly what many of them were looking for. The island was called "Ireland" and, conveniently, it was the big one in the middle.But for some people, Ireland was a bit too easy. They were looking for a challenge. These people wanted to make their homes on a...
Ard Skellig - Patrons' Edition
Of the many Irish isles, one would have stood out to ancient settlers as a particularly good place to live. With its rolling hills, thick forests and an abundance of arable land, it was exactly what many of them were looking for. The island was called "Ireland" and, conveniently, it was the big one in the middle.But for some people, Ireland was a bit too easy. They were looking for a challenge. These people wanted to make their homes on a...
Mountainous Island Settlement (Almost Finished)
I wanted to show you what's been taking so long. The rest of the island is done as well, I just need to color the interiors of the buildings. That should take one more day, two at most.By the way, this island is based largely on Skellig Michael in Ireland. My wife convinced me to draw the buildings like the ones they have there, which are very unique. Which is to say, they're big, stone beehives.Anyway, I'm going to try hard to finish...
Mountainous Island Settlement (Work-In-Progress)
As sometimes happens with me, I started on this map with relatively humble plans, which ended up becoming a bit more grand. I've spent the last week drawing this island and now I just need to draw some buildings to put on it and we'll have our town. I think I'm going to draw some caves underneath it as well, but I'm not sure yet.Anyway, this is a real island and I'm curious if any of you would recognize it. At least 50% of you...
The Grinning Widow: A Ship for the Seas of the Underdark
The Grinning Widow is a ship designed for the Black Loch. In an underground sea, sails aren't going to accomplish much, so the Widow doesn't have any. She's a galley, powered exclusively by rowing, with a crew of 20 oarsmen who all look like they walked out of a "skipped leg day" meme.For defense, the Widow is armed with a ram on the bow, as well as two ballistas, one of which is a little scarier than the other. You see, I'...
The Grinning Widow: A Ship for the Seas of the Underdark - Patrons' Edition
The Grinning Widow is a ship designed for the Black Loch. In an underground sea, sails aren't going to accomplish much, so the Widow doesn't have any. She's a galley, powered exclusively by rowing, with a crew of 20 oarsmen who all look like they walked out of a "skipped leg day" meme.For defense, the Widow is armed with a ram on the bow, as well as two ballistas, one of which is a little scarier than the other. You see, I'...
The 39th Cartographic Congress Runoff
The last vote was almost close enough to call, but not quite. So we're having a runoff between the top three. Your contenders are:Senator Shawn proposes a fortified trading town built on a wide bridge spanning a canyon, with a raging river below. The town has expanded out onto and into the cliffside as well.Senator Jon proposes the Infected Citadel, a dwarven fortress whose lower reaches have been tainted by the Far Realm. The upper level is ...
The 39th Cartographic Congress Vote
We have five proposals for this month's vote, but before I get to them, I just want to show you a picture of a ballista I found. I don't know about you, but I think that's ridiculously awesome and I've drawn one into the Black Loch ship map I'm working on now. Okay, back to the matter at hand. Here are your proposals:Senator Shawn proposes a fortified trading town built on a wide bridge spanning a canyon, with a raging river b...
The result of a hard day's work in the token mines.
You can download these tokens here.With the exception of one random elf, all 17 of these tokens fall into one of two categories: The forces of evil CamelsLet's talk about one of the camels. A year or so ago, I mentioned something I'd discovered called a "zamburak." This is a camel with a swivel-mounted cannon on its back and it is an actual, 100% real thing. And now you have a token for it in case you'd like to light your play...
The Smoldering Abyss
The Smoldering Abyss is a part of the Black Loch almost no one even knows exists. It's a deep, underwater trench at the bottom of a larger underwater trench at the bottom of the loch. And, in a place where no one even wants to think about what might be under the surface of the sea, places like this tend to go unnoticed.There are three things of note here. The first is an ancient, kuo-toan royal catacomb. Built thousands of years ago, before t...
The Smoldering Abyss - Patrons' Edition
The Smoldering Abyss is a part of the Black Loch almost no one even knows exists. It's a deep, underwater trench at the bottom of a larger underwater trench at the bottom of the loch. And, in a place where no one even wants to think about what might be under the surface of the sea, places like this tend to go unnoticed.There are three things of note here. The first is an ancient, kuo-toan royal catacomb. Built thousands of years ago, before t...
New Modules for Foundry & EncounterPlus
The Foundry module has been getting a little big and I thought it was time to start a new one. And since the EncounterPlus module is exported from the Foundry module, E+ is getting a new one as well. This should cut down on the time it takes to download or update. There's specific news for both, so let's do this one camp at a time.FoundryVTTDue to a glitch that I explained in this post, the Foundry module won't update properly and has...
Altar of the Black Lamb
This map was the demonologist's tower chosen by the Cartographic Congress. One of the stipulations was that it would have a portal to hell and I decided to go a little... non-traditional with that. "Traditional," in this case, would be your standard-issue Door of Fire. And the problem I have with that is that it's boring. It's been done and it's not scary. It doesn't give players the sense of fear they should feel when...
Altar of the Black Lamb - Patrons' Edition
NOTE: This isn't in the Foundry module yet. The module has gotten pretty big, so I'm going to create a new one with this map in it. I'll post it here soon.This map was the demonologist's tower chosen by the Cartographic Congress. One of the stipulations was that it would have a portal to hell and I decided to go a little... non-traditional with that. "Traditional," in this case, would be your standard-issue Door of Fire. A...
Fort Bourtange - Roof Level and Dutch Version
Here's the roof level, which is the last part of Fort Bourtange. I also made something else: an annotated version in Dutch, which I'm giving out to everyone.I'm aware that everyone in the Netherlands under the age of 105 speaks perfect English along with 50 other languages, so I know you probably don't need this, but I still thought it'd be nice to do. Plus, the English version comes from a Dutch tour map I translated, so I fi...
Fort Bourtange - Roof Level and Dutch Version - Patrons' Edition
Here's the roof level, which is the last part of Fort Bourtange. I also made something else: an annotated version in Dutch, which I'm giving out to everyone.I'm aware that everyone in the Netherlands under the age of 105 speaks perfect English along with 50 other languages, so I know you probably don't need this, but I still thought it'd be nice to do. Plus, the English version comes from a Dutch tour map I translated, so I fi...
The 38th Cartographic Congress Final Runoff
Whew, this month's vote has been quite a rollercoaster. Here's what we're down to in the end:Senator Jon proposes the Infected Citadel, a dwarven fortress whose lower reaches have been tainted by the Far Realm. The upper level is relatively normal, but things become more bizarre and warped toward the bottom as the Far Realm begins to pervade reality.Senator Andy proposes a settlement on a cluster of small, mountainous islands.
Fort Bourtange
In the 1500s, the Netherlands were ruled by the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs were an astoundingly inbred German noble family with faces that were about 85% chin. For some reason, they were the rulers of the Spanish Empire.The people of the the Low Countries didn't want to be ruled by German people, Spanish people or inbred people, let alone a combination of the three. They wanted self-determination, a republic and the right to worship the protest...
Fort Bourtange - Patrons' Edition
In the 1500s, the Netherlands were ruled by the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs were an astoundingly inbred German noble family with faces that were about 85% chin. For some reason, they were the rulers of the Spanish Empire.The people of the the Low Countries didn't want to be ruled by German people, Spanish people or inbred people, let alone a combination of the three. They wanted self-determination, a republic and the right to worship the protest...
The 38th Cartographic Congress Runoff Vote
We've gone from ten down to four. Fort Bourtange is coming along nicely and I think I might get it done by Saturday or Sunday at the latest. Anyway, your contenders in the runoff are:Senator Todd proposes a map inspired by Philadelphia's notorious prison, Eastern State Penitentiary.Senator Jon proposes the Infected Citadel, a dwarven fortress whose lower reaches have been tainted by the Far Realm. The upper level is relatively normal, but...
Finbarr's Marsh in Minecraft
A Youtuber named Andyisyoda is building all of Finbarr's Marsh in Minecraft at the moment and it's incredibly impressive. If you're interested in seeing it come together, here's a playlist of his build videos so far.Also, I've got good news and bad news about Fort Bourtange. The good news is-- and I say this in the most humble way possible-- it looks really good. The bad news is I'm going to need another week to finish col...
The 38th Cartographic Congress Vote
We have ten proposals on this month's ballot and there's quite a bit to read, so I'll keep this short and let you get to it!Senator Todd proposes a map inspired by Philadelphia's notorious prison, Eastern State Penitentiary.Senator Bryan proposes a sanitarium for the sane, run by insane Derro therapists.Senator Ted proposes a map of the collapsed warforged colossus in the ruins of Metrol.Senator Pope proposes the Athenian Acropoli...
Fort Bourtange – Second Update
This is the linework for Fort Bourtange finished and ready for coloring. I'm planning to crop this map to a few different sizes, since I don't think most people will need this much space around the fort. This will be the largest size, however, and is intended for people who want to do something crazy with it, like have a full-on battle between two armies. I'm not gonna lie, the grid size on it is absurd.I also wanted to mention that I...
Fort Bourtange - An Update
Here's where things are at with Fort Bourtange. This is all of the fort's structures, including about 40 buildings, 6 bridges, a few wells, some watch posts and a windmill. The next step is to scan all this, arrange everything and draw in the rest.While I normally draw almost everything on paper, I'm going to be drawing the rest of this map on my pen tablet. That means the landscape, moats, trees, plants and so on. I don't think y...
The Flying Rook
The Flying Rook is the sort of place wizards build to show off. Anyone with the power to keep this architectural Frankenstein standing is no joke, but-- just in case anyone wasn't fully convinced-- they made it fly as well.I didn't have any particular purpose in mind when I added the windmill, but, the more I think about it, the more I'm wondering-- and hear me out here-- what if it was a propeller? Like, what if this whole thing was ...
