The Ghost Tower of Inverness
Dak
🖼 37 images Surveyor
Hi Everybody,
I've gone back and done the maps for another classic AD+D Dungeon. The Ghost Tower of Inverness.
I have run this module in a campaign, and I think it is the perfect representation of early modules.
Upper ruins
Dungeon ruins
Air Level
Earth level
Fire Level
Water Level
Jewel Room
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Comments
You mean you're not doing the cross-section drawing as well?! 😉
Might be worth thinking of having breaks in the wall lines of the upper ruins map, as I think these were meant as gaps in the original, rather than more rubble. You could keep the current rubble markers, but set them below the walls, so it would look like they're collapsed areas once there are breaks in the wall-lines.
Thanks Wyvern,
I was going to do the cross-section at some time when I can figure out how best to present it, and thanks for the tip regarding the rubble, I think I'll probably change it.
The breaks in the wall though are for display, the holes are actually breeches in the walls at various heights. The top of the curtain wall is still intact, but your idea seems a better way of showing this.
As an aside, did you know the upper level covers an area of 10 acres, and has four towers, 4 doors, a curtain wall with portcullis, and a pile of rubble. Nothing else in this immense area, no workers camp, no stables, no barracks, no gate, nothing. Just a huge empty space to house a rock the size of your hand. Gotta love AD&D.
Finding that rock though... I used this dungeon as a one shot at a convention. I covered the rock with dirt. :-)
I ran it as part of a campaign and I'm thinking of running that campaign again, in part because I'm going to tackle the illogical idea of why older dungeons are filled with random creatures that seemingly have no relevance to each other.
In the tradition of modern comic book writers; don't ditch the idea (however bizarre), give a reason for it and make it epic.
Yes, that enormous size for the upper level is quite something! I wonder if the original designers didn't just add a scale as an afterthought at times. There were often issues with those early maps and scenarios, though that was true of the original D&D rules too; we just made up stuff to cover what wasn't there or didn't work!
Even the dungeon level has loads of empty space - think of having to excavate all that rock and cart it away down all those long corridors, and then up spiral stairs, if it were real!
Random dungeon design came out of helping get folks started with something that had never been done before; thinking about why things were like that only came gradually to most of us at that stage, because it was all so new and innovative. I soon became a fan of coming up with ideas for why things were as they were after that though. If there are 40 kobolds in that broom closet, someone must have put them there, after all 😉
I've come across that problem in the hear and now. I'm running Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and in that adventure dwarves have started to mine nearby, and if you read the notice board they have some jobs that players can get involved in. With the description of those jobs though you get the impression that the mine is huge and very extensive.
Now I'm thinking, what the hell did the dwarves do with all the material from the mine? Somewhere nearby logic tells me there is half a hillside lying around, probably dumped in the sea.
Perhaps I should ask Mr. Schley if he would do us a slag heap terrain or symbol.
Awesome job, very attractive! :)
The ruins are empty NOW, but there were once wooden structures to house the few guards, cook, and other servants the mage needed. The wooden buildings long since crumbled to dust, and the residual magic kept plants from living. After all, these weren't persons, they were just SERVANTS, to paraphrase D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers!
I actually been looking at this and The Lost Island of Castanamir to ie together for something.. Any chance you have this images without the grid :-) It would save me a lot of map creation
Sure thing Frosty
The 4 elemental levels and the jewel level are 240 x 240 ft. or 48 x 48 squares in Roll20 (or any other system that uses a 5 ft grid).
The Ghost tower upper level and dungeon are 730 x 620 ft. or 146 x 124 squares in Roll20.
Are these maps OK for your game?
Dak
Dak,
thanks this works amazing. Not sure exactly how but going to spin a semi knew plot using this and the lost island of Castanamir, I may end up keeping them separate but these maps are a great help jump starting the stuff I am working on for the "Inverness Thread". I may keep the island of Casanamir separate and use it as something that I can pop in anywhere in an extra dimensional space that I can use anywhere location wise.
Right now the group is trying to figure out multiple angles of how do we rescue our party member that was sent somewhere by the Dungeon card in the Deck of Many Things. I am spinning angles of finding it's location and going there to find an artifact that will possible bring back the party member. At this point I am seeing this more as a Saga with multiple steps regardless of which route they take.
Any additions etc I do with the maps I will send across so you can see how I utilized them etc.
It sounds Awesome Frosty, can you write my plots for me?
Dak
Always glad to share what I did or collaborate on plots. My biggest challenge is sometimes I provide too many choices.
Tell me about it!!! I've just had 2 people quit my game and I think the underlying problem was there was no railroading and they didn't know what to do with all the info' they had amassed.
A great starting point would have been to talk to some of the people in the town the game's set in. The map isn't there just to look pretty!
I feel that way a lot...have I given them too much info.. do they just want me to tell them go to X.. I place hints of things in their personal rumors and all of them to not point to their main story line. Right now they are at a crossroads that has been brewing for a while.. abandoning the main quest line they were on. That has consequences to the world but I believe in free will, I literally would love if they told me what they found more interesting so I could write those elements into the story as it makes sense. They pulled on many threads the last session but eventually "stumbled" upon a Wild Space Captain who needed hep getting his ship back. Now they are on the way to the docks to the last place it was scene to investigate. They know the captain saw a symbol carved into the dock that several of them recognized as the Xanathar Syndicate's calling card. So off they go only to get ambushed by some wererats and a purple half dragon that has a bone to pick with them, since they killed her clutch mate aka brother a while back.The fight is where we pick up and then the docks doing the investigation.
You might find it helpful to have a discussion with your players as to exactly what kinds of things they are interested in doing in advance of setting up the game/next storyline. That doesn't prevent you from springing surprises on them, or twisting some of what they've suggested in a different direction (and you might want to at least hint at this possibility!). It will though give the whole group a much clearer idea of what keeps them playing and interested, and maybe prevent future drop-outs.
Wyvern it is a great idea with this group I ask and I get oh we like what your doing or I ask is the current campaign and plotline holding your interest and what I get is would I would call telling me what I want to hear..which if course not what I want to here. Now that was a heroic run on sentence. So far knock on wood no drop outs in this campaign. What I have learned is they seem to live in the moment like RP and combat and love odd surprises. Some of them also like connecting the dots and figuring out a mystery. Right now we are just at a turning point and trying to get them to tell me in and out of game which way is more appealing to them.