maps update

[kourkenko]

Hi, after a very long hiatus i'm coming back to ravenloft and it's perhaps time to update the maps of the misty countries. Since my old players are all coming back, i want to surprise them with changes, updates and so on (and i don't want them to spoil newcomers ^^).

I found a good mapping software and i did the cluster where they'll begin to play, The Shining Bay; coming from the Quote of the Raven 2. I did it in less than an hour and i would like feedback and critics about it.

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I put Odiare in the far north, hidden in the middle of a bushy and wild wood and the midnight isle is coming from "the House at the Edge of Midnight", Dungeon magaine 76.
Does anyone have ideas about what other domains i can put in it ? I was thinking about Staunton Bluff...
And i would also like some ideas, because this kind of cluster is somewhat a "superpower" from an economic and military point of view. What can prevent it to simply conquer everything ?
Thanks for your attention

[Cromstar]

The map looks very nice.

I put Odiare in the far north, hidden in the middle of a bushy and wild wood and the midnight isle is coming from "the House at the Edge of Midnight", Dungeon magaine 76.
Does anyone have ideas about what other domains i can put in it ? I was thinking about Staunton Bluff...
And i would also like some ideas, because this kind of cluster is somewhat a "superpower" from an economic and military point of view. What can prevent it to simply conquer everything ?
Thanks for your attention

Taking these two questions together, you could put other island domains (or turn other domains into islands) and set in the seas around these. The reason they don't go out and conquer is two-fold: internal stability issues (there may not be a single government here, and the bigger cities have weak governments that make power projection problematic, such as an inability to supply resources and reinforcements for expeditions that are launched) and that the nearby islands available for conquest are, themselves, reasonably hostile to invaders in some way shape or form.

[tomokaicho]

Great map!

[ewancummins]

Cool.


Are you retaining the aborigines of the Island of Midnight?
This island was fairly big, yes?

Staunton Bluffs would be easy enough to fit into the cluster. If I were to do so, I'd back it onto the Border Mists so that the undead-infested highlands and castle lie between the inhabited region and everything else in the cluster. That preserves the isolation of the little domain. Some little traffic might run along a narrow upland track at the plateau edge. Placing it close to Paridon/Zherisia's northern borders might work. Out of the way, like you've done with Odiare.

[Mischief]

Does anyone have ideas about what other domains i can put in it ? I was thinking about Staunton Bluff...

Souragne might not be a bad choice either as a rural district.

A mistway to Necropolis (not Darkon, directly into Necropolis) may be an interesting play. Death may try to build a satellite town as a launching point to raid your hyper-urban island for more bodies.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

love the old-timey realistic look of the map!

[kourkenko]

The map looks very nice.

Taking these two questions together, you could put other island domains (or turn other domains into islands) and set in the seas around these. The reason they don't go out and conquer is two-fold: internal stability issues (there may not be a single government here, and the bigger cities have weak governments that make power projection problematic, such as an inability to supply resources and reinforcements for expeditions that are launched) and that the nearby islands available for conquest are, themselves, reasonably hostile to invaders in some way shape or form.

Thanks for the advice, i did it.

Great map!

Thank you

Does anyone have ideas about what other domains i can put in it ? I was thinking about Staunton Bluff...

Souragne might not be a bad choice either as a rural district.

A mistway to Necropolis (not Darkon, directly into Necropolis) may be an interesting play. Death may try to build a satellite town as a launching point to raid your hyper-urban island for more bodies.

Dunno about Souragne... The story and theme of the domain would be more used in a cluster about undeath and/or black magic. But it's just my opinion of course ^^.

love the old-timey realistic look of the map!

Thank you.

Cool.


Are you retaining the aborigines of the Island of Midnight?
This island was fairly big, yes?

Staunton Bluffs would be easy enough to fit into the cluster. If I were to do so, I'd back it onto the Border Mists so that the undead-infested highlands and castle lie between the inhabited region and everything else in the cluster. That preserves the isolation of the little domain. Some little traffic might run along a narrow upland track at the plateau edge. Placing it close to Paridon/Zherisia's northern borders might work. Out of the way, like you've done with Odiare.

I just read again the "House at the Edge of Midnight". Their is no aborigen on the isle, only undead, mongrelmen (all failed experiments) and a golem. Nothing alive and "normal" is outside the hospital. But you were right, the isle is waaay biger than i remembered.

Well i think i finished the Shining Bay Cluster.

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So, i'll use several domains to make every possibility of conquest a living hell for the Paridon's royalty.
I put Immerabt (Undead Sea Scroll 2002) next to Nosos. So two darklors, one trying to create new sickness to kill and the other one curing them will fit together very well. Of course, they'll be ubtil and a true shadow war can burst at any ime. And it'll be the main coal producer for the steam engines.

I put Stauton Bluff (Island of Terror, 1992) on the "savage" part of the main island, since life is easy on the island, no danger, no big predators and a mild climat i think using it as a "holiday trip" for the upper middle class and nobility. The castle will be renovated (it will please Lord Bleysmtih and even hide more his weakness) and he will be able to unlash his fury when it please him. Of course, secret reunions or spy gathering will be disturbed by "suicides" and stranges 'accidents". This will just put every kind of agreement on hiatus. It's kind of a pleasure island with a big bad boggeyman.

I'll use Whäl (Book os sorrow, 1998) because it reaaly fit the rest. Whalehunters (of course it's Mobbydick) using big boat full of armor and weapons, used to live in harsh conditions... I'm all for it and it fit the time period very well. And they're real savages !

The eternal agony (The eternal torture, Undead Sea Scroll 2001) is the biggest Whalehunter's ship ever made but it's story is one of betrayal and cannibalism. To imagine it, just watch the "ghost ship" trailer but no demon or captured souls, just a crew of ghouls and ghasts horribly starved. It's a biiig ship with dead engines outside any trade route waiting to capture a curious crew in its dead waters.

Arca is coming from the old Alanik Ray site (i think their is a compilation here but it was online when i stopped playing ^^). We have whalehunters so i decided to put an artic domain because it fit. I reworked the dark lord because it had a weak storyline.

Now what kind of horror i can put underwater ?

[The Lesser Evil]

I just read again the "House at the Edge of Midnight". Their is no aborigen on the isle, only undead, mongrelmen (all failed experiments) and a golem. Nothing alive and "normal" is outside the hospital. But you were right, the isle is waaay biger than i remembered.

Actually, there are natives. Check on the random encounter chart p. 13 of Dungeon Magazine #76.

Well i think i finished the Shining Bay Cluster.

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Great map. I might suggest placing a river leading to Slymouth, so you could have at least one smaller fishing community/port that connects to the sea. There's a lot of empty terrain on the eastern half of Paridon/Zherisia that could be filled in, although leaving it open allows for adding in additional detail too.

Now what kind of horror i can put underwater ?

If you're placing the cluster in the Nocturnal Sea, the fan-made Drowning Deep could simply extend to beneath the Shining Bay Cluster as well. If you wanted to do a more British Isles/France vicinity sort of equivalent to a sunken civilization, there are several legendary/mythological locations you could make expies of several lost lands, such as Ys, with Dahut the princess or her father Gradlon as possible darklords, depending upon which version of the legends you're basing your narrative upon. (In some versions of the myth, Dahut is said to have survived falling into the sea as a nonhuman mercreature of some sort.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahut
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradlon

If you wanted to avoid the lost surface city trope, a potential horror/NPC/darklord/antihero of the sea might be some derivation of Captain Nemo and the Nautilas. Any villainous expy of Nemo retaining his hatred of imperialism and oppression probably should be treated with care, given how colonialism and its evils have been reevaluated in the modern day.

Of course, the horrors of the sea need not be terrestrial in origin but could come from the creatures of the seas. In Hans Christian Anderson's the Little Mermaid, the mermaid in question was originally concerned with getting a human soul such that she would gain an immortal afterlife. The mermaid could gain one by sacrificing her long life life as a mermaid and marrying a human prince such that his soul flowed into her upon marriage. When the human prince marries a princess, the mermaid feels betrayed and is given the option of transforming back into a mermaid by murdering the prince and his bride. However, she doesn't go through with it and becomes an eternal spirit of the air upon death. But what if she had gone through the murder?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid

[kourkenko]

Oh my ! The isle of midnight have native peoples... I never use random encounter tables, in fact i almost never look at them, it's why i never knew that fact...
Several choices can be made, first to keep them as they are or perhaps use the "dwellers under the tombs" written by Howard. In the novel, a man found an old sealed tunnel in a tomb and decide to explore it, he found several levels of them but each time he found a stair to go down, each time the capacity of the dweller tools seems to have downgraded, as if they were more and more going to a bestial stage, after a time all tolls let place to claws and, just after hearing something in a tunnel leading down, he fled and sealed the tomb.

The story imply the dwellers sealed themselves before the man open it. In the Shining Bay cluster, the tunnels can lead to the hive or an underground populated by morlocks or ghouls. Perhaps they eared a call and a thing or someone changed them during the time they diged their way to it.
Just some random ideas but four centuries is a long time.

The nemo idea is really good. Of course the original character was changed for the book. At the beginning he was a polish sailor who lost his family to the Russian empire, it was Verne's editor who asked for the change (it's why in the first appearance of this character, he destroy lot of ships but their flag or nationality is never told) because Russia was a big France's ally. Vernes accpeted to change his backstory in the "mysterious isle". He was an indi noble, bastard son of a IRL person. Nemo was from this time an england ennemi.
This idea is interesting but i don't really know what to do whit him. And he would open the door for underwater exploration...

I always leave open space in my maps, in case of a late idea come ^^. But if you have good ones, i'll take them ^^.

To finish, i think the theme of the cluster is good, their are enough darklords (in fact i almost never use them) but i'm fearing is a too much "superpower" compared to the rest of the core or the seas. I can use the nemo idea for this but i'll put an ennemy of the Paridon royalty on the table. If i use indai, a stable mistway to sri raji would lead to colonisation. If it's russia... Well i've a big idea for it.

[Joël of the FoS]

Great map! What software do you use?

[kourkenko]

Great map! What software do you use?

Thank you. I'm using Wonderdraft. It's cheap, recent and updated regulary but the best it have an intuitive UI.
https://www.wonderdraft.net/

So, here is my final map of the Shining Bay Cluster

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I left free places for Dm's ideas, like the several villages on the coastline, the runis in the north of the main island, the garbage island and the Whaël Lighthouse.

And following is the Amber Waste map.

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The list of everything in it:
Sphren's pyramid (QotR 5)
Tomb of Hotep (Chilling tales 1995)
Deir El Medina (QotR 5)
Al-Kimer oasis (children of the night demon)
Al-Khatos and The Wounded city (Tales of Ravenloft The Judgment of abd-al-Mamat)
Shuraz’tun Kir (Qotr1)
Aljaugasba (Qotr 5)
The Haunted Keep (the forgotten children p46)

I didn't mark any domain limits because the players don't need them. I put Pahmet, the dwarven fortress coming from Pathfinder, i simply like the concept of the egyptian Dwarf's Tomb Guardians. We can see how some parts are very isolated and i'll perhaps expand it on the south, with some african themed island of terror.
And i think i'll relocate the Pahmet's fortress to the noth west of Har'akir, they would be allies of the green hand and watch closely to prevent the awekening of Ankepot, protecting Muhar and so on.

Critics, comments and ideas are all welcome ^^.

[ewancummins]

Oh my ! The isle of midnight have native peoples... I never use random encounter tables, in fact i almost never look at them, it's why i never knew that fact...
Several choices can be made, first to keep them as they are or perhaps use the "dwellers under the tombs" written by Howard.

Dwellers under the Tomb is a Howard story I've never read, or even heard of before now! Cool.
It was published posthumously, it seems.

Whatever you do with the natives, if anything, I'm sure it will be fun.

[The Lesser Evil]

That Amber Wastes Map is also pretty sweet. I like that you put in Al-Kathos as well as the netbook sites. Placing Aljaugasba near (but not too near) Al Kathos makes sense considering how much of a trade power house Aljaugasba is.

Of missing sites, there is:
-the Temple of the God of Dark Vengeance, located in the Valley of Death in Sebua (see Children of the Knight: Vampires p. 27)
-Oasis of Apep deep in the deserts of Har'Akir (see Ravenloft DMG p. 100-101)
-The two southern ends of the river in Pharazia terminate in unnamed lakes/inland bodies of water. The eastern one is surrounded on its west, east, and southern sides by a horizontal crescent shaped body of water
-the Lost Mountains is not labeled. I'm guessing that you intended that to be the mountain range in eastern Al Kathos holding the Wounded City?
-I see you left out the Southern Oasis usually included in the Sebua maps, but I'm guessing that was because you were equating it with Tawiel Akhdar?

Deir el Medina is noted as being a forgotten/abandoned city on the north (as opposed to the south) side of Har'Akir, whereas Shuraz’tun Kir is noted as being in the extreme southern tip of Pharazia. These locations aren't canon though, so I could see why you might wish to reposition them. However, I doubt Deir el Medina would have a road traveling to it if it was forgotten/lost.

As for expanding the cluster with African domains, the one thing I can think of that's already made is Mubuyonte, detailed in one or two of the Midway haven netbooks and on the Mistipedia. It's pretty large (225 east-west, 225 miles north-south), with eight separate cities/settlements (two of which are governed by independent governments). Terrain includes savannah/grasslands and marshes. There was also another thread or two threads on the FoS forum that had some ideas on domains for an Africa-based cluster.

[kourkenko]

So here is my updated map for the amber waste, i reduced the size because it's too big for Imgur.

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I used three things from the "100 shades of dark", the red sands (i'll change the darklord a little, it's a little too much a copy paste of Verbrek), the Ozimandia's collossus and the vampire lord who managed its civilisation until spacefaring and have to do it again.
But it's just a draft, i'll use a source of material for an africain themed cluster way bigger than this one.
The southlands expansion from kobold Press. The main book and the bestiary are simply AWESOME !!!!!! From a living jungle to a full undead empire, their is everything someone need for an africain themed campaign.

I'll also use them for the Wildlands cluster, i'm working on it, making Saragoss a full sea and Arijani a way bigger and important npc, after all, he's a son of a god blessed by a second one...

[Joël of the FoS]

I just bought the software. Fun thing.

But it seems to me it works better with large scale places than smaller places like Ile the la Tempête?

But may be it's just me inexperienced with the software.

Looking forward to the dungeon software coming out soon.