I was 11 years old when I watched Raiders on the Lost Ark on the big screen. So many things from that movie are burned on the inside of my brain--the boulder trap, the globe-trotting adventures, the map room, and Indie's diary.
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, we get several glimpses of Indie's diary--a dog-eared, leather-bound tome full or notes, sketches, fragments, and ideas. I decided that a book like that was what a real adventurer carried. As change would have it, I grew up to be the kind of person who always has a notebook at hand.
Which brings me to the Salamander Mines new. The poster map is done! Here are a few snippets:
Back in June I made the decision to fill out the poster with hand-drawn notes, sketches, and adventurer annotations. It added to my work, but I am so happy with the decision.
The annotations are written in a few different hands with different points of view. There are notes taken with boots-on-the-ground, academic musings, mysterious speculations, and eldritch rumors. I hope you enjoy it!
As a consequence of putting in extra drawing work, the books are now somewhat behind schedule. I'm making good progress, but I'm afraid I can't expect to have the layout done before the end of the month. This pushes shipping out into the fall for certain.
In other good news, however, the editing of How to Host a Dungeon is done. As part of reformatting HtHaD for print-on-demand, a friend of mine volunteered to do a complete re-edit. It was much needed. Again, a bit of delay, but I think it will be worth it.
So please enjoy this zipped copy of the poster map. It's as big as Backerkit will let me post in an update. There's some small updates and color balancing still to be done, but I won't make you wait for that to give you a preview.
Just a quick update to let you know that the Salamander Mines digital remaster is complete!
I've assembled all those old hand-drawn maps and vectorized them in Procreate. Several levels were updated or re-drawn. The map now includes the underground "city" of the Earth Devils, which was only implied in the original. I was also able to clean up a lot of the level connections.
Next step is to detail the map and start laying out the book pages.
I'm a little torn on what to put on the map. At first, I thought I'd put a lot of random tables and encounters, but now I think those belong in the book. That will make it useful to GMs at the table. I'm thinking the poster map might include more lore and sketches. What do you think?
And yeah, it's more work than I anticipated. I still feel pretty good about September fulfillment, but there's still a lot to do!
Summer is a busy time. My daughter's coming home for the summer, it's the busy season for my work, and an ongoing series of overdue house repairs is seeping into the summer. And on top of that, I'm moving a significant part of my studio stuff into a new space.
Nevertheless, I've been able to keep plugging away on level maps for the Salamander Mines. Here's a sampling!
The Crossroads stands to one side of the Great Dwarven Staircase that bisects a major portion of the dungeon. It features passages up towards the lost city and down towards the ancient mines. It's also the main path into the dreaded labyrinth. Under the Horrorsmoke Mountains lie two disparate lairs--the Orkish encampment and a hidden enclave of Deep Dwarves.
The flooded level lies far on one end of the dungeon, and may not be visited by the more exploratory parties, which is a pity, for it is here that can be found the fabled Epic Weapon, the Dwarven throne, and the secrets of Dwarven history and their infamous eternal light.
Today, more than half the inks are done. After that there will be some coloring and then text and tables will be added. More images to come!
I hope you're all excited about the Megadungeon goodness you've picked out. It's exciting to see the last-minute pledges trickle in, but I'm also excited for the end so I can start focusing on delivering the map!
I hope you're all excited about the Megadungeon goodness you've got picked out!
And once again, thank you for backing the Salamander Mines!
Every level is different! But how do you make that happen?
The Salamander Mines were created using the How to Host a Dungeon rules. Some levels came in with lots of detail--local monster groups, a history, treasures and specific features. Like the Hobgoblin mines. How to Host told me who livers there, what they were up to, who their neighbors were, and what they were up to.
The Crossroads began is literally that--a place where two major corridors crossed. With a statue.
But due to some aesthetic impulse I cannot name, I decided it needed to be a whole level:
There's not much in the crossroads to stop for. It's a place that's attached to many other regions of the dungeon. It' a place to pass through. Thus, in true pernicious DM mode, I put a portcullis trap right in the middle of it. Denizens who know about the trap can easily route around. But curious adventurers, drawn to a fine tiled chamber full of pillars, are sure to run afoul.
But of course, I could not resist adding something unique. For this level I decided to add some abandoned Dwarven baths to the north, and a band of Gnolls with a temporary camp to the south. I liked these details a lot, so I made few changes for the update. The biggest changes involved moving some hallways around so they fit the big map better.
Here's what it looks like now:
The statue I left undetailed. Maybe it's just a random landmark. Or maybe some clever DM will make the center of a whole plot. I leave the details up to you.
I figure there's a month or two of drawing at my normal page before all the levels are done. I'll keep sharing as I go!
