[WIP] Community Atlas competition entry: Ice Cave
MattyEH
🖼️ 20 images Traveler
Attached is an image for the current Community Atlas competition. I have never made an ice cave before, so there's a lot of learning going on here. The intent will be to have a "drop in point" on the lower left portion of the map. The natural caverns are full of tight passageways, with a few surprises.
On the eastern passage there will be the lair of the dragon Frostbite and his Kobolds. Eventually I will be adding a portion with hot springs, which will hint at something warm below.
Comments
On the left here, the entrance will be marked. On the floor are the remains of some other lost traveler who dropped down the hole. Connecting the two hallways that split off of the two chambers if the hidden den of a remorhaz, who uses the heat from its body to melt thin sheets of ice over the opening to its den. The area to the north of its den is a crevice that opens to a hidden area above, where the creature can leave the cave to hunt.
Like I said, for me this is really a learning project. I can't tell what is going to look decent in a rendered image, and if this stuff actually looks like ice. I am having a great time with the project though!
The next imagine depicts an area where the floor has dropped away. To traverse it explorers may be forced to jump from one icy portion of the remaining floor to another. There is still a lot of work to do on this area... depending on the render the floor below is either too well lit or totally dark.
Here we have a pit in the ice, just off of the dens occupied by our dragon worshiping kobolds. They dump whatever they like down there: refuse or anything else they may not like. Who knows what else lurks below.
Having a great time with this project so far. Looking forward to sharing more progress and learning from what everyone else is doing.
@MattyEH wrote:
depending on the render the floor below is either too well lit or totally dark.
Have you configured the glow/shadow effect to be in percent of view width perhaps? That really messes things up when you view from different zooms, or make different sizes exports.
Yup. That was it. Thank you very much for that.
A quick update on map progress. Here is what the layout will more or less look like in the end. I intend on take images of each area with explanations of each in the near future. It is a fairly simple, straight forward dungeon, but I still got some learning under my belt.
Alrighty, this is all the time I have to devout to this right now because... well, life and stuff.
Depicted here is the entrance to the ice cavern on the left, including the remains of whomever had come this way in the past. In the upper right of the picture is a fissure that opens to another entrance above that is used by the remorhaz that makes its den in the center middle of this photo. The remorhaz uses the heat of its body to melt ice from above to conceal the opening to its den, which then freezes into a thin wall.
The north tunnel from the entrance leads to an area where the floor has dropped away, leaving broken sections and ice ledges behind. (I am not certain why on this render some hard lines have appeared). The corridor on the left leads to a den occupied by a mad hermit-druid.
Through the corridor west of the cavern with the dropped floor (and also through the passage south-east of the entrance cavern) the tunnels lead to a lair of kobolds that worship the dragon Frostbite. The pit in the left of the frame leads to whatever lies below, and is subjected to whatever detritus the kobolds toss below.
To the east of the kobolds lies the lair of the dragon, Frostbite. In the south-east is a tunnel leading upwards to whatever secret entrance is used by he dragon.
North of the cavern with the dropped floor is an unexpected hot spring. East of there the tunnel opens to an area that has been fashioned by some people or other.
Beyond the hot spring are abandoned rooms, and old supply room, mess and kitchen of whomever mined here in the past.
West of the mess and supply room lies the remains of the mine itself and a storage room. The north portion of the mine is long collapsed.
West of the mine remains is the beginning of the molten river that goes deeper underground.
This is going to be the final version. Had a fun time making the map, and did a fair amount of learning along the way. I'll submit the file in the main threat and put put a link to this one.