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The Black Loch: A Map Full of Maps - Everyone's Edition
🕑 Added 2021-03-30 09:58:02 +0000 UTCI'm giving out the patron versions of this map to everybody. There isn't as much stuff as there would normally be since this isn't a battlemap, but I want everybody to have it. You can download it here or at the bottom of the post.
For those of you who haven't heard of the Black Loch yet, there are only two important things to know:
- The Black Loch is a small sea in the underdark.
- I'm going to draw a map of every dot on the map above, at a 5' grid scale.
Now that everyone's caught up, let's talk about what we're getting into. There are 23 dots on the map, 3 of which have been drawn already. I'm also going to draw two more things that aren't marked on the map, which means there are 22 maps to draw before this is finished. Unless I decide to add something else, which I may.
By the way, you might have noticed that most of the place names are pretty generic. They'll get proper names when I draw them, but, for now, they'll just be descriptors.
I reserve the right to move things around to accommodate the lore as I come up with it, but the general idea is that the west is sort of the civilized half of the map. Things get a little wilder out in the east and then, in the Deep Reaches, you get the crazy stuff. Let's talk about the specific locations, as well as the other two things that aren't on the map:
ALREADY FINISHED
- The Deep Spire is done.
- Vlyn'darastyl and the Great Breach are done. These two are the only locations that won't get a 5'-grid battlemap of the whole thing.
TO BE DRAWN
- Inn - A solitary inn for visitors who don't care to stay with the kuo-toa or the drow. How do they survive out here? By paying something really big and scary for security.
- Drow Settlement - This will be a small drow town.
- Secluded Manse - Vlyndarastyl used to send their driders to live on a small island. Someone killed them all and built a house there. I'm not sure who that person is yet.
- Grimlocks - A grimlock settlement of some kind.
- Duergar Outpost - This will probably be half fort, half trade outpost. It's also a place where the duergar can keep an eye on what's going on around the loch.
- Kuo-Toa Village and Stronghold - This is the tail end of a kuo-toa kingdom that stretches down the Bluescale River.
- Submerged Temple - A kuo-toa temple. One of three maps that will be completely underwater.
- Submerged Ruins - I'm not sure what I'm doing with this. Maybe a sunken town of some kind?
- Ancient Crypt - I don't know what I'm doing with this. Maybe it'll be ancient catacombs from a city that used to exist on the island.
- Travelers' Ruin - This is a ruined building that passing travelers stay in sometimes.
- Dragon's Lair - This will be the home of an ancient dragon, high up in the column of rock.
- Fortress Ruins - A charred, burnt-out ruin of a fortress. WELL GOLLY I WONDER WHO DID THAT.
- Deep Gnomes - I'm not sure exactly what this will be, but it'll have deep gnomes living in it. I think it might be a settlement built around a vertical shaft that goes through the whole place.
- Abyssal Caverns - Several systems of underwater caverns in the walls of a deep crevasse at the bottom of the sea. There may or may not be a kraken lair.
- Surface Entrance - This is the end of a river or stream leading down from the surface. Lots of waterfalls along the way. A good way to get your players into the loch.
- Myconids - Myconids love darkness and dampness, so you'd have to imagine they're living somewhere in the Black Loch.
- The Blind Colossus - A giant, faceless statue standing in the creepy end of the loch. No one knows who it is or who built it. There will be an interior of some kind.
- Illithid Ruins - An abandoned, crumbling mind flayer city.
- Aboleth Lair - Aboleths are like mind flayers, except they're better across the board. Mind flayers have psychic powers, aboleths have better psychic powers. Mind flayers are geniuses, aboleths just flat out know everything. Mind flayers look kind of like a cuttlefish, aboleths are actual, giant fish. Anyway, the point is, an aboleth and its flunkies live here.
NOT ON THE MAP
- A Ship - Your players will probably need a ship. There are plenty of ship maps out there, but you need a particular kind of ship for the underdark. Sails won't do much work, so it'll have to be a galley. A long time ago, I drew a ship for the underdark called the Grey Huntress, but it's kind of old and I want to draw you a better one.
- Vlyn'darastyl Streets and Buildings - This will be a battlemap for Vlyn'darastyl with a small bit of the city depicted. Someplace you can use as a backdrop if your players get into a fight, which they probably will, because drow are not nice people.
Anyway, there's the plan. While I'm working on the Black Loch, I'm going to draw some other maps as well, but I'll keep things progressing. Some of the maps above will be bigger than others, so it's hard to calculate how long it'll take, but I'd say a year or so sounds about right. So, now that you've got a better idea of what this project is going to look like, what do you think?
Comments
alaskawinter923
Okay, so the entrance is surface level, like a sink hole. Was thinking you meant it was under water, at bottom of ocean.
Milby's Maps
The Great Breach is a very wide gap, around 300 feet across. It's big enough that the water falls down the sides, leaving a gap in the middle that a very careful pilot can descend an airship through. Near the bottom of the breach, there's a ledge that creates a gap in the falling water, leaving room for an airship to get out from under the falls. Hopefully that clears it up! If not, let me know and I'll see if I can find a better way to explain it.
alaskawinter923
I had a question about the Great Breach. You say that it reaches up to the surface sea, but is accessible by Air Ships. How do the air ships go through the sea to get to the breach?
