D&D General Maps, Maps, Maps! Dungeons, Ruins, Caverns, Temples, and more... aka Where Dyson Dumps His Maps.

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Graxworm – Map 3 – West Eye Temple

The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its valuable materials – leather, scales, ichor, tendons, and more. Practically every bit has some value to someone, and in the long term the expectation is that nothing will remain, not even the massive bones. We’ve started our explorations of the Graxworm at the top – the head of the deceased creature – today we climb to the western eye socket.

Climbing above Graxworm Town via the stairs cut into the rearmost teeth of the great dead wyrm, one eventually reaches the eye sockets. From here the paths diverge – leading further up to the watch towers on the horns, or back down into the skull towards the council chambers. There is also a small passage in the walls (an old tear duct) that leads forward and down to the sinuses of the great beast. This is the western eye socket, we’ll explore the oddities of the eastern one next month.

The western eye socket has been converted into a massive open-air temple where priests lead foul rites to the fell gods that sponsor the various factions present here. Along the inside orbit of the eye, chambers have been cut into the bone and viscera to allow for chambers for the priests and acolytes, and for the various paperwork & liturgies that come with any decent-sized church.

The Graxworm Megadungeon was proposed to me by Gallant Knight Games – a dungeon set within the corpse of a dragon some seven miles in length. If I were to map out the whole thing we’d be looking at a good 100+ maps, so instead we’ll be focusing on points of interest as a sort of “point crawl” megadungeon setting. We’ll be posting a few maps in the set every month for… well… quite some time!

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,500 x 9,600 pixels in size (25 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,750 x 2,240 or 3,500 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.


 

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Iseldec's Drop - Levels 5-8

Here we descend further beneath the stony ruins of Iseldec's tower. We are reminded that the dungeons beneath reach at least as deep underground as Iseldec's tower once reached above the lands - a vertical shaft connects untold small dungeon levels that seem to cling tightly around it. The shaft itself is open to the levels above, and pierces all the way to the ruins as it once continued into the tower proper.

These four levels of "Iseldec's Drop" again repeat the tightness of the design of the upper levels - each level fitting into a 160 x 160 foot area. The levels are connected to each other by stairs and of course the central shaft. The rope hanging down from level one doesn't quite reach level five, but brave souls might figure out their own way to use the shaft (or just tie more rope on). To anyone on level 8, there's obviously more levels beneath (as the trickle of water falls down into the depths), but there are no stairs down to that level - just the central shaft and a pair of smaller shafts in the lower left room of the level.

Points of interest include the wooden plank bridge across the hole in level 6 that appears to be very new wood of a kind not found in the dungeon (as well as multiple arrow slits watching over that hallway), the curved walkway above the cave on level 7, and a small pool and stream on level 8 that trickles down into the depths.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10' squares that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,240 x 2,240 pixels or 4,480 x 4,480 pixels, respectively.


 


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Dungeon of the Bad Egg

At one point, someone really cared about ventilating this small complex – a series of large clay pipes work their way through the complex at ceiling level to distribute fresh air throughout. Ancient bronze grates are mounted to the pipes where they access the various rooms, and are tarnished enough that they easily blend into the stonework unless one is specifically looking up or looking for them.

However, the structure is very old and collapsing. The pipes are broken in one location, and whatever was used as an air exchanger is long gone. The chamber where the air system was based is no longer connected to the rest of the complex except by the air pipes – the entrance torn down by a mighty dragon after laying an egg where the machinery used to be.

The mighty wyrm was slain shortly after hiding their egg here (partly in response to the damage they dealt to the structures). Without a connection to the great dragon nor someone to keep it warm, the egg began to wither and warp… twisted by the tombs themselves into something necrotic and foul. The necroegg, warped by the death around it, now spreads it’s necromantic energies back into the tombs via the air pipes, animating the many entombed here as servants and protectors.

Entry to the tombs is via the stairs in the square room to the right of the large tomb chamber. The chambers to the south were preparatory spaces where the bodies were embalmed before being entombed. The main (central) tomb was obviously built for a great king or similar – with a massive sarcophagus on a raised platform flanked by four smaller ones and ten tombs containing 2 to 4 more sarcophagi in each.

The northern chamber is collapsed on the west end, and the entire north wall is niches with more entombed dead, now under the influence of the necroegg…

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,000 x 9,000 pixels (30 x 30 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10‘ squares that make sense with the design) – so resizing the image to 2,100 x 2,100 pixels or 4,200 x 4,200 pixels, respectively.

 






I would love to see your take on a big Metamorphosis Alpha style generation ship dungeon.
I've roughed out a few ideas for "The Logos", my personal version of the Warden (after all, it was named after the author and he honestly expected DMs to make their own versions), but never put it to pen since it would be a project involving months and months if not years of mapping.
 

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