Al-Qadim - Abandoned Way Station (Random Desert Encounter)
anomiecoalition
Traveler
Hey all...Since my PCs are frequently roaming about the desert, I thought it would be cool some have some more complex random encounters for them while their making their way from city to city. I stumbled upon side-quest type encounter in Dungeon Magazine ("Palace of the Twisted King") that seemed to suit this purpose.
The plan is that they would seek shelter from a vicious sand storm in this ruined way station. However, the real terror for them begins that night as a group of "Meenlocks" torment them from their secret basement tunnels (I'll start working on that map next).
Comments, Criticisms, and Suggestions are welcomed. I'm still not 100% on the ruined walls. I used Joachim's method as described in another post and I think it worked well for the wall shape, but I was having trouble trying to convey the crumbling of the walls. Either way, enjoy.
The plan is that they would seek shelter from a vicious sand storm in this ruined way station. However, the real terror for them begins that night as a group of "Meenlocks" torment them from their secret basement tunnels (I'll start working on that map next).
Comments, Criticisms, and Suggestions are welcomed. I'm still not 100% on the ruined walls. I used Joachim's method as described in another post and I think it worked well for the wall shape, but I was having trouble trying to convey the crumbling of the walls. Either way, enjoy.
Comments
One great looking ruin.
I wonder if the walls might look a bit scruffier if you took the bevel effect off? And maybe used a concrete texturise on them to give a pitted look? I know it could well look horrible, but it might be worth a try.
I think it looks fantastic. I especially like the rubble around the wall breaches and the darkened ends near the breaks. How'd you do those? Also, the wall shadows and the breaks in the shadows that coincide with the breaks in the wall really help to sell it, I think.
Cheers,
~Dogtag
The rubble is very pertinent, though. Perhaps with a RGB matrix effect you could match its color closer to the walls...
@Dogtag - I learned alot doing this map and would probably incorporate what I learned to do it very differently the next time around - this is especially true in doing the darkened parts around the breaks. To do it, I took the rubble.png (can be found in the CSUAC) dropped it into photoshop and cropped it to a square image. (attached to this post) I then loaded it as my fill and drew little shapes around the edges. I then gave it a very small edge fade (with transparency). Because I thought of doing this last, this sheet had to go above the wall sheet. (thus precluding any hope of having the wall shadow go on top of it - which is what I would really have wanted). To fix this, I could have (1) copied my wall sheet to a new sheet, use the rubble fill and placed it under my regular wall sheet and (2) exploded my regular wall sheet and trimmed it a bit to make the rubble parts visible and reformed it....but I just didn't have the energy to do that yet (and given the rather positive response I've received so far, I'll probably keep it as is and do that the next time I make a "ruined structure").
I haven't begun to experiment with the RGB matrix effect, so i'm not really sure how it works or what it can do....another reason why I should really get the Tome one of these days.
@anomiecoalition - Thank you for explaining!
~Dogtag
I've also included an image that combines the two. If you want to see a full sized version - I'll be posting it at my little online storage/blog site (http://drunkennerdery.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/palace-of-the-twisted-king/)
~Nils
I especially love the caves and the shading that you put to their walls. Great job!