Community Atlas: Gruvrå's Mine, Serkbergen, Peredur
Wyvern
🖼️ 226 images Mapmaker
This map was another "two-dice-only" design from the Inkwell Ideas "Delver" set, thus similar in size and proportions to the Oracle Temple one previously on Kraken Island in the Forlorn Archipelago. One novel aspect on this occasion was I found a convenient area map in the Serkbergen region of Peredur into which I could place it, which was unusual in this project so far! This was just as well, since Peredur's quite large anyway, and the Serkbergen map covers a substantial chunk of its southwest.
If you peer closely at the orange outline square near the top right on the Serkbergen map image, you'll see where I was aiming towards. A closer view:
That's the area covered by the Ermite Cave map, and as luck had it, there were some interesting unlabelled mountain spire features near the middle of that map I could simply drop my little dungeon map into:
So I did!
I've mentioned before that ideas for what the contents for each of these maps will be come from various places, typically a combination of what the diced map designs look like, any descriptions available from the accompanying Inkwell Ideas books, a range of random tables from various sources, and where the map will be located on Nibirum. Here, it was the influence of the high southerly location (within Nibirum's Antarctic Circle, roughly 71°S latitude), coupled with the name of Vaettir Tower about eight miles south of the Mine. Having picked-up a copy of Free League's "Vaesen" RPG last year, and a copy of the illustrated book by Johan Egerkrans that inspired it, also called "Vaesen", I knew what "Vaettir" meant from Scandinavian folklore, so I thought that source would be a good place to look for further thoughts. A couple of ideas came from the Inkwell book too - including having undead creatures out for revenge in what's marked as "Cells" on the map, and the dangerous state of some of the caves, although the risky look of the caves on the dice designs had already indicated this latter point as of some significance. I flipped through the Egerkrans book, and settled on the Mine Guardian Spirit, or Gruvrå, as the main actor in this place, although unfortunately, this is one of the creatures in that book which didn't make the cut into the Vaesen RPG (or hasn't so far). So I simply elaborated on what was said about her in the folklore tome instead. A couple of random rolls on tables from Monte Cook Games' "The Weird" - creating a gem-studded, tattooed Golem with a horned cat's head - and everything started to fall into place!
What I came up with, detailed in the map notes for the Atlas, as ever, is an old Dwarf Mine that ended up abandoned, and which was then expanded and altered by a group of inventors and alchemists determined to create a "better" Golem, using body parts from captured humanoids, possibly making them a variant kind of magical undead in the process (hence the need for a secret lair). After the Mine was abandoned, the Gruvrå's attention went elsewhere in her realm (which I decided would encompass all those interestingly spire-like mountains arcing away towards the Myconid Realm on the area map), so it was only sometime later she returned to the old Mine. Horrified at what she found there, she destroyed the Laboratory and Workshop, and drove out or killed the perpetrators. It's really easy to anger a Gruvrå if you fail to show one the proper respect. However, she didn't understand the undead creatures, so just left them, and the last Golem as well. Plus of course, she now keeps a closer watch on this old Mine than she used to.
I also felt I needed a CA3 portrait of the Lady in question, now named as Igrid, thus creating a thumbnail that could be added to the map, as the perceptive among you will have realised already! This is the full portrait, which was heavily influenced by the Egerkrans drawing:
The keys and bats came from the old vector CA, since CA3 doesn't include such features. I might have added a lamp too, but neither version of CA has one of those, sadly. The bats I decided are essentially merely small aspects of the Lady, able to flit about quickly, to help keep her better informed of events in her realm. They're not "real" bats beyond that. If she appears in a black dress, that's a sure warning of impending death for someone; grey like this is her normal attire. I decided against providing that change as an option in the Atlas map though. Seemed a bit too grim.
In case anyone's unsure, the Mine map was drawn using the SS4 Mike Schley Dungeons set. I've used this before, though not for a long while, and thought it would work nicely for the somewhat dangerous, partly collapsed layout here, as it has such a fine collection of rubble and rockfall markers, aside from other features. Thanks to the Gruvrå's colouring being very greyscale overall, I did want a more washed-out, aged and worn look to the map as well, so this all just seemed to work ideally for that impression. I also wanted it to be a little off-kilter, so you'll notice the squared areas don't quite fit to the grid lines. That's quite deliberate, and isn't simply a means to annoy those using the map in VTTs - that's just an added bonus 😉!
For the next map in this sort-of Dungeon24 set, I'm being randomly guided back to Alarius, and this time quite close to my "usual" territory there, as it's to go on the adjoining North Central Alarius map...
Comments
Would you mind letting us in on the method you use for the random picks for mapping areas ?
Sure, Jim. I looked around in the Atlas, worked out where there were area maps smaller than continental-size, drew up a list of those, and then rolled some dice to find places to fit the total of 52 maps I had in mind. Duplicates were re-rolled, so no area would get more than one new map. There were more such areas than I needed, so not every place ended up being selected. I also removed a few areas that were quite heavily mapped already (or had reserved sites on them), and there were a couple that were too small to be viable for what I needed.
When it comes time to finding somewhere for the maps to go on the chosen area map, I then just look at the selected area map and pick somewhere that looks suitably interesting in it, maybe in a sub-area map if there's something suitable, or if not, I'll draw something myself, though not more than about 30-40 miles per side at most. In this case, I felt I'd been really lucky to have found a nicely small area map in the Serkbergen region which had some unused interesting features right in its centre; if I'd been drawing the area map myself, I couldn't have aimed it much better!
I really like both the concept and construction of this mine, but I especially love that you also designed a character in CA3 and dropped her in. I hadn't thought about using CA3 that way, but it's a neat idea. I will try experimenting with that.
You can also use asymmetric values to resize the characters to get fat or thin ones, as I have done on several occasions. eg
fat Qesuik, then Aiefa.
You read my mind! I was just wondering if it was possible to design the fat, jolly innkeeper I had in mind.
I also have done short fatties on an Atlas map.
atlas.cdn.monsen.cc/atlas/alarius/hi/ice peak isle.png
Thanks.
Actually, my description of how I organised where the maps were to go wasn't 100% accurate, as in one case, I DID actually use two dice-maps in the same place, Tlok-Pik in Nga-Whenuatoto, where the ruined above-ground temple dice design seemed to have been deliberately drawn to fit the subterranean map I'd already rolled-up. That was too good an opportunity to miss, I felt. Which is ever the way with randomness in such things - it should never get in the way of what you find interesting!
Thanks RS! I've done this quite a few times for my Atlas mapping. It's worth noting that when you're doing thumbnails, if there isn't room for the full figure, or it doesn't look right, you can always simply choose to copy over just the head and shoulders bit of the portrait, although depending on how you've created the CA3 portrait, you may need to hide some of the clothing and torso on your other map. That's what I did with the Lich Queen's Temple Tomb map in Tlok-Pik recently, for instance (link's in my posting today, just above here).
As a short-ish (1.7m, > 100kg) 'fatty' I find this type of body shaming offensive. Those of us too short for our weight can't help our genetics - though our poor dietary choices and lack of exercise are another matter!
BTW: This post is not to be taken seriously, I am kidding around, poking a bit of fun at those folk who take offense far too easily. Feel free to delete if it's unacceptable - I won't be offended.
No, that is OK. I shouldn't have used the word fatties, sorry. Just wanted to let people know that by changing the x and y axis independently, you can get useful distortions - from severely anorexic, to morbidly obese (all medical terms).
Thanks @Wyvern , maps have now been added to the atlas