The Shrouded Isle

I recently asked for ideas for decorating my ocean area of Kelleemah and one of the great ideas was a mist covered ships-graveyard or a "Bermuda Triangle" like island or set of islands.
Posted By: LadieStormHow about a 'misty, mysterious area' perhaps covered with fog that might hide an uncharted island? Or even an area like the Bermuda Triangle where ships and things disappear? Or perhaps a ships 'graveyard'?

Sorry, just throwing things out, here.

Here is a quick and fun concept design: Click on this link for the high res version of The Shrouded Isle

Tell me what you think please. :-)

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The Shrouded Isle!

The Shrouded Isle is situated in the middle of the Sea of Sheol.

Sheol is the name given to this area by the Grigori when these lands were sunk beneath the waves by Mephistopheles as the Shedim fled at the end of the last demonic war.
His legions still guard the Hellgate on Kelleemah's most southern Isle.
Tens of thousands lost their lives that day as the crippled Asmodai led his armies back to the infernal realms.
This is what created the Shattered Isles that run along the rim of the Sea of Sheol and decimated the Fey of Kelleemah.

Although there are many dangerous and magical places within Kelleemah, the Shrouded Isle has become legendary.
It is far from any other land and has a reputation for oddity.
Many have gone there looking for treasure, fame, or just to satisfy their curiosity.
Few have returned.

What they report is strange indeed.
The isle is covered by a perpetual mist that burns and irritates the lungs.
Ships often find themselves assailed by strong storms that whip up without warning, waterspouts with clear skies, sudden whirlpools, and more.

The famous explorer, Captain Shantay, once led a fleet of six ships to the isle.
As he came within site of the isle he turned back to his second in command to give him orders, but was speachless.
Even though it was a clear day, none of his five ships, which were there but moments before, where within site.
They had simply disappeared and were never heard from again.
His crew refused to go any further and he was forced to turn back.

Some have been to the island and made it back to civilization.
These few have given us some idea of what is upon the island.
One talked of a great volcano on its northern side.
Another talked of dangerous sandbars, coral reefs, and rocks that make it dangerous to approach the coast.
A glowing ghostly green ship has often been spotted, but all have fled in dread.
Sea serpents have been seen along its coasts and a swamp on one side has been reported to be full of decaying corpses.
Along the western side there is said to be the ruins of an ancient city, but all who have been there have aged soon after leaving the ruins, becoming old men in mere hours.
The jungles are dense and full of life.
The noise from the creatures there often become deafening.
Nobody has ever came back, that has tried to spend a night on those shores.

The Shrouded Isle is covered by more than just a mist, it is covered in mystery!
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Comments

  • DkarrDkarr Traveler
    I like it a lot. Reminds me of the Isle of Dread adventure module.
  • Yeah, this is very cool! Good to see you did something awesome with the suggestions you were given.
  • edited March 2016
    Thanks tonichiwa for both the ideas and your comments! :-)
  • Really beautiful map and a great way to run with the suggestions. Also, a real PC-magnet. :)

    On the fist close-up, I noticed the lines between the fill symbols were easy to spot, giving it a grid look. Being a neophyte, I'm not sure how something like that gets fixed, however.
  • edited March 2016
    Thanks Barliman!

    I noticed the same thing about the fill, but I am not sure how to fix it.
    It makes me worry about my jungles and tropical islands that I will be doing later.
    The only other way I can think to do it, is to use the individual tree fill, but that creates a WHOLE lot of symbols for my poor computer to handle.
    I don't think it will work well for the grand scale that I have in mind.
  • Posted By: CharlesWayneRobinson
    I noticed the same thing about the fill, but I am not sure how to fix it.
    It makes me worry about my jungles and tropical islands that I will be doing later.
    The only other way I can think to do it, is to use the individual tree fill, but that creates a WHOLE lot of symbols for my poor computer to handle.
    I don't think it will work well for the grand scale that I have in mind.
    I've tried placing individual symbols to blur the fill lines, but, yeah, it gets messy.
  • LoL!

    Thanks OldGuy!

    Feel free to download it from the link above if you would like to use it for a mini-campaign. :-)
  • Wow! You took those ideas and ran like...well...terrific job! This is amazing!
  • Thanks for the inspiration LadieStorm!

    I am still trying to figure out how to make lighting storms - LoL!
  • lol... well, you are quite welcome!
  • edited March 2016
    Well, honestly, the answer, even though we don't like it, is what Barliman talked about. In order to get rid of the lines you will have to actually place individual trees right after each bitmap fill. It is tedious, but no more so than if you were drawing the symbols by hand. It is the only way I have found to get rid of them that actually works.

    What I end up having to do is place one bitmap fill, then throw a bunch of trees around it, and then place another bitmap fill, then throw trees around it, then place another bitmap fill.....

    you can see examples of it in both my Mincanti map and my Blackwing map. I had to do that on both of those. It takes longer but I think the results are worth it.

    What I haven't been able to figure out, is how to do it with repeating patterns in oceans. My mincanti map is a very bad example of what a repeating pattern will do to a map. I absolutely love the Herwin Weilink style...except for the oceans. The bitmaps there have obvious lines that show where the pattern repeats its self. So far, the only solution I have found is to not really use a lot of ocean space with those maps. I will probably have to end up filling in most of the space on the map with land and simply use the ocean as a sort of outline. I will have to make the land cover any areas of the ocean before the pattern can repeat.
  • DkarrDkarr Traveler
    Another thing that you can do with a repeating fill is to make it occupy a larger area (increase width and height of the bitmap fill), so that the "line" repetition is less common. That would work for ocean fills but I doubt it would have a satisfying effect on forests, as the trees would grow too much.
  • edited March 2016
    Does this look better?

    I used the Jungle Fill 1 to try and break up the lines as opposed to trying to completely cover them.
    This resulted in using far fewer symbols.

    I can still see some of them though.
  • edited March 2016
    Hi Charles,

    It helped a little but when you zoom out you can still see the repeating pattern. Honestly, I think it would be too much work to go back to all of these maps you have made and try to fix the repeating pattern so maybe doing what you have done here is the best answer.

    I also have a question for you. Did you plan to do any underwater maps? something like a Sahuagin city or even a Sahuagin country? I think that would just be awesome in the world you have created here.
  • edited March 2016
    Posted By: tonnichiwaHi Charles,
    I also have a question for you. Did you plan to do any underwater maps? something like a Sahuagin city or even a Sahuagin country? I think that would just be awesome in the world you have created here.
    Matter of fact, yes.

    They have played a major part in many of my modules and one campaign that takes place in the warm southern waters.
    The campaign centers around the Tasman, a collection of islander tribes that live in the Shattered Isles (Think Maori).
  • Awesome, can't wait to see how you are going to go about doing that. BTW, I started a poll on the other site to see if anyone wanted to map an underwater town or kingdom. Thought you might want to know in case they decide to run that as one of the challenges
  • I like how everything is shrouded in mist except for the top of volcano and taller peaks. Nice detail!
  • edited March 2016
    Cool!

    I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up on that one.
    I was afraid that it was too subtle.
    Creating depth effects is always hard.

    Thanks 14cross for noticing! :-)
  • Posted By: CharlesWayneRobinsonDoes this look better?

    I used the Jungle Fill 1 to try and break up the lines as opposed to trying to completely cover them.
    This resulted is used far fewer symbols.

    I can still see some of them though.
      I can still discern them, but it's nevertheless an improvement. I'll have to keep your technique in mind for my next map.
    • edited March 2016
      Thanks Barliman - I always appreciate you opinions and support! :-)
    • edited March 2016
      LadieStorm, on the Cartographers Guild site, asked about the green ship (she did not see it) and possibly doing a ships graveyard.

      I did not highlight the Green Ship on the close ups, but it is on the high res version.

      Below is a close up showing both the "Ghostly Glowing Green Ship" and the "Sinking Ship."

      LadieStorm had suggested: "Speaking of which... have you thought about trying to manipulate the symbols to create half sunken ships? Maybe do a partial layering effect?" This is what I had done for this ship, but I could not pull off the ships graveyard because there were not enough compatible ship symbols to choose from that I could have used to pull it off (In effect, a ships graveyard using multiples of two ships).

      I also have a close up of the sinking ship to show how I had tilted the ship up on the left side (where the rocks are) and used another sheet layer to cover some of the right side to try and give it the feeling of slowly filling with water.

      Thanks :-)
    • Question:

      Do you all think that the mist is good or should it be a little thicker?

      Thanks!
    • DkarrDkarr Traveler
      I think the mist is good because it does not detract from the map. A thicker mist might obscure too much.
    • Hey Charles... I'm assuming you have the CSUAC? I noticed there are a few different ships in there.... and one is a shipwreck. Also, I'm pretty sure you're following Shessar's thread on making streams? You did something similar with the ship that's slowly sinking? Why not turn a ship upside down, and cover most of it with water? Or one that's half out of the wather with a jagged edge to the water and maybe a black glow? or add the dark glow to the symbol... can that be done? You would have to create a sheet for ship halves, then add the glow to the sheet?

      I've also noticed something else while working through Shessar's stream tutorial. You can stack one symbol on top of another... I've actually done that with one of my 'river surface rocks'. You'll see it. You could set one of the ships, then stack one or two of the ocean rocks on top of it... to show it broken on the rocks. Add to that the 'flow through' white water... and that just might work.

      It's a lot of extra work to go through... but it might get you that ships graveyard! You'd only have to do a couple to get the impression you want.

      Of course, I don't know if you can do that with this style... but it's an intriguing theory, don't you think?
    • ooh! I just thought of something. There are wood ruins in the csuac! floating flotsom? what do you think?
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