Exactly. Tokens are used on a map during play, they aren't normally part of it (except as the odd decoration). Downloading a png map image from the atlas with tokens pre-placed in the image would make it useless as a battle map.
I guess if all the tokens are placed on their own sheet that can be hidden, and I am notified of it during submission, I can set up one of my toggles in the nav menu. That way the map can be displayed without tokens by default, but users of the .fcw can hit the link to show them.
@Monsen So I think I've settled for a something beneath the Iron Mounds (Alarius), possibly accessible from Iron Forge. Claiming the mountains as a whole seem a bit over the top for just the one dungeon. Please advise!
Can you give me a hint where on the Atlas the map of an abandoned, kinda sinister "Winter Temple" with human sacrifice would fit in?
Best would be in a mountain area with volcanic activity (since lava will slowly destroy the temple), but besides that, it would fit in nearly anywhere I think.
So I need advice where to place it, since this is my first contribution. ?
Would the northern Scar area, a caveentry east of the Temple of the Unholy be okay as location for my map?
It seems kinda fitting at first glance.
Am I allowed to post the picture in the CC3+ Facebook group?
My first real battlemap! Somehow it became a bit more simslike, because I enjoyed adding furniture that much. ?
Only the allowed community resources were used in this, and one of the allowed fonts.
Same picture, just with higher resolution, can be found in my gallery. ?
Story behind the map:
The "Temple of Winter" once was an important place of worship.
Bright and joyful chant filled the air, and the remains of the former highpriests in their sarcophagi were honoured.
But something changed, the atmosphere grew thick with fear and something sinister lurked between the shadows of the
icecold flames. The sarcophagi started to glow, and rumours about weird whispers coming from them grew.
Soon the priests turned to human sacrifice for unknown reasons, some even becoming mad. Maybe an evil force corrupted their cult.
Few and fewer priests gathered there, deep below the surface of the mountains. Their sacred songs are no longer heard, and the might of fire and heat is closing in, with a stream of lava soon breaching through the wall oft he inner sanctum. In their last effort to save the temple, the remaining priests sacrificed their last prisoners, one being a mighty entity and avatar of winter.
But it didn't save the temple, and nearly all living beings fled. An evil shadow claimed the inner sanctum.
Will a group of mighty heroes be able to stop the lava from flowing into the temple, destroying its former glory?
Will the sinister presence there be purged and make it a bright place of holy worship again?
In answer to your 2 questions - the location is fine, and yes, you can post your map anywhere. Though this is my opinion, I am pretty sure I am right. Remy will correct me if I'm not though.
And yes, Quenten is right. It is your map, you can do with it as you please. Submitting it to the Atlas/Contest only means giving us the right to use it in those contexts, we're not imposing any usage limitations for your own maps.
Great. We'll always find a spot to put an ice cave.
If you want, you could make it part of the mega dungeon project (it would require exactly one entrance from above and one entrance going further down into the complex), or just make it as a stand-alone cave to put somewhere if that is what you prefer.
I've had time to take a look at the community project and, if possible I'd like to place the dungeon in Northern Alarius, in the mountains east of Elkton.
Map specifications: 250 x 250 ft encounter map for VTT (set 5-ft. squares at 50 pixels), using the Annual Jon Roberts (metric) style. No fonts were harmed in the making of the map.
Background
The scholars of Iron Forge have always been intrigued by the Tears of The Dragon; a range of caves below the Iron Mounds mountains, so called for how they seem to run from the southern edges of the mountains to its north like a string of pearls or, indeed, tears in the fabric of the earth. Whether it extends beyond the mountains, in either direction, is currently not known.
The caves, regardless of size, all share two traits. Firstly, streams of molten rock escape the deep into and through them. While lava in itself is neither unique to these caves nor by any means a geological phenomenon unknown to the dwarves, some of the caves along the Tears lie unusually close to the surface above and there is no notable volcanic or seismic activity in the region.
The second feature which sets them apart from the regular stock is the invariable presence of defensive structures – including still-active magical runes of tremendous potency. It is widely recognized that these fortifications were erected by one of the dwarf ancestral houses known as the Brimfolk – now long since lost – whom tradition attributes the gift to master the far deeps manifested in how they could “breathe the very fumes of the fiery below”. That is to say; their constitution was such that they could tolerate what to others would be unbreathable air.
To this day, the ability can be found among descendants of the Brimfolk – although it is so rarely the case that some scholars doubt it was ever a common trait of the members of the house to begin with. Those who can trace their lineage in such fashion often become esteemed explorers and are predominant among the ranks of those who devote their studies to the Tears.
What little is known about the battlements along the Tears of the Dragon stem from murals which can be found throughout them. Some of these have been depicted for posterity in the volumes of The Origins, which by many is considered the crown jewel among the encyclopaedias in the care of The Great Hall of Learning in Iron Forge.
The common theme of the murals is that of war, but against whom or what is one of the great mysteries of the Tears. The Brimfolk themselves offer no written records of this war in the deeps – typical for their habit of keeping few records of just about anything. Of the ancestral houses, the Brimfolk appear to have been using – by far – the fewest number of clan runes, and their scarce use of the earliest common runes has made deciphering what little documentation they did leave behind in their own language a veritable guesswork.
There are no mentions of such a conflict in other, contemporary sources either – such as the Annals of Stenagh – which has satisfied most that both the war and construction of the defences occurred well before the recorded history of the Iron Mounds. From the paintings it is clear, however, that the Others were similar to the Brimfolk; walking on two legs and using tools of war similar to theirs. While offering tales of both victory and defeat, the general condition of the defensive structures suggest that the outcome of the war would have been in favour of the Brimfolk. This theory is only furthered by the runes.
Another great mystery, the Bulwark – or Seals as the magic runes are also commonly referred to – has bothered scholars of the magical arts for centuries. All that has been successfully established over time is that they are very powerful. In that they almost always form patterns akin to lines or borders, after a fashion, it has been theorized that they are protective wards – but their ultimate purpose of course remains a secret of the Brimfolk.
With discretion being the better part of valour, the runes have not been disturbed to date: Yndherine the Sage, who was first to happen upon both the structures and runes in the capacity of researcher – and a scholar of the magical arts herself – was swift to act in regards to ensuring that it should remain so. The charters of exploration specifically forbid any tampering with them, and the order of Custodians see to that entry to the known access-ways leading to the caves is granted only to those with proper authorization.
The lack of faith in the prudence of outsiders has encouraged keeping the Tears of The Dragon mainly a concern for the dwarf academia. Carefully kept in the corner, only just within view like some half-discarded folklore curiosity, it still attracts the attention of the occasional scholar from the other peoples. It is not unknown for such visitors to be granted a clearance for making an expedition, and on such occasions only the runes of the Bulwark are strictly off-limits. Custodians always accompany such expeditions in larger-than-usual numbers, and it is not unheard of for careless students of dwarf history to end up lost in the deeps.
Unlike most early dwarf settlements (any dwarf settlements, really) the Tears of The Dragon are completely void of anything one might consider valuables – and always have been since the time of discovery. Presumed to be battlegrounds, it is believed that fallen Brimfolk warriors – and Others alike – for practical reasons would have been offered to the molten rock. If true, this practice would also have included the particularly brave and skilled warriors whose relics and personal belongings, such as weapons, are otherwise so commonly on display in dwarven buildings of martial significance – even among the Brimfolk. “The boredom of it”, Custodian recruits are often told, “will kill you long before you run out of air to breathe.”
The general discomfort of the underground and it being impossible to breathe down there without aid (such as spells or through other magical means) are also likely candidates as to why outsider scholars who have visited the Tears rarely come back for seconds and – presumably – keep the general interest of the phenomenon at comfortable levels.
Klodevig’s Gauntlet
Located in one of the smaller caves along the Tears of the Dragon, the significance of Klodevig’s Gauntlet lies in that it is the closest to Iron Forge and, more importantly, that it is one of few outposts which was not named after the researcher who spent the most time and effort on the premises (one Gremund). Rather, from the Brimfolk clan runes found on site, it could be made out that a warrior of the name Klodevig had played some part in the events surrounding the outpost. Any particulars as to the nature of the event, or Klodevig’s part therein, remain excruciatingly uncertain. By Brimfolk standards, however, the place is practically riddled with clan runes and the site remains an absolute icon in the field of Brimfolk language studies. Which typically is rather narrow.
Plot hook
“Of that which Yndherine never spoke again” – there are whispers of a theory that when Yndherine returned to Iron Forge with the warning to the throne that the Bulwark runes must be left alone, she was merely a messenger. That the runes were not the making of Brimfolk dwarves. That a truce was won, and that great perils would beset the dwarves should they ever violate the terms and step out of bounds again.
Comments
Exactly. Tokens are used on a map during play, they aren't normally part of it (except as the odd decoration). Downloading a png map image from the atlas with tokens pre-placed in the image would make it useless as a battle map.
I guess if all the tokens are placed on their own sheet that can be hidden, and I am notified of it during submission, I can set up one of my toggles in the nav menu. That way the map can be displayed without tokens by default, but users of the .fcw can hit the link to show them.
With my main rig lost to machine malfunction, this will be an excellent excuse to cherry pick Annual assets for the glorious laptop.
I'm in! Probably some fire thing because light effects are fun to bang one's head against.
Is there a quick way to establish which fonts belong to the qualified list? My understanding is that CC grabs whatever's installed.
You'll find a FAQ entry with a font list on this page. It's missing some of the recent annuals, but it contains most of it.
I think I will give it a go as well.
Are there actually any Glaciers on Nibirum? I thougght about doing something volcanic underneath a glacier.
Don't think any have been added outside the polar regions, but you'll find those both north and south on Nibirum.
Plenty of Glaciers in Ezrute and Peredur, and even some on the Bleakness in the Forsaken Isles
@Monsen So I think I've settled for a something beneath the Iron Mounds (Alarius), possibly accessible from Iron Forge. Claiming the mountains as a whole seem a bit over the top for just the one dungeon. Please advise!
Well, if the dungeon is accessible from the iron forge, then it's probably best to use that as the map marker/access point for the dungeon.
Final Map
Nice work there. Great to see the first contribution of this contest.
Any idea as to where it will go in the Atlas?
Can you give me a hint where on the Atlas the map of an abandoned, kinda sinister "Winter Temple" with human sacrifice would fit in?
Best would be in a mountain area with volcanic activity (since lava will slowly destroy the temple), but besides that, it would fit in nearly anywhere I think.
So I need advice where to place it, since this is my first contribution. ?
Would the northern Scar area, a caveentry east of the Temple of the Unholy be okay as location for my map?
It seems kinda fitting at first glance.
Am I allowed to post the picture in the CC3+ Facebook group?
The Lost Temple of Winter
My first real battlemap! Somehow it became a bit more simslike, because I enjoyed adding furniture that much. ?
Only the allowed community resources were used in this, and one of the allowed fonts.
Same picture, just with higher resolution, can be found in my gallery. ?
Story behind the map:
The "Temple of Winter" once was an important place of worship.
Bright and joyful chant filled the air, and the remains of the former highpriests in their sarcophagi were honoured.
But something changed, the atmosphere grew thick with fear and something sinister lurked between the shadows of the
icecold flames. The sarcophagi started to glow, and rumours about weird whispers coming from them grew.
Soon the priests turned to human sacrifice for unknown reasons, some even becoming mad. Maybe an evil force corrupted their cult.
Few and fewer priests gathered there, deep below the surface of the mountains. Their sacred songs are no longer heard, and the might of fire and heat is closing in, with a stream of lava soon breaching through the wall oft he inner sanctum. In their last effort to save the temple, the remaining priests sacrificed their last prisoners, one being a mighty entity and avatar of winter.
But it didn't save the temple, and nearly all living beings fled. An evil shadow claimed the inner sanctum.
Will a group of mighty heroes be able to stop the lava from flowing into the temple, destroying its former glory?
Will the sinister presence there be purged and make it a bright place of holy worship again?
In answer to your 2 questions - the location is fine, and yes, you can post your map anywhere. Though this is my opinion, I am pretty sure I am right. Remy will correct me if I'm not though.
Thank you very much ?
I'd choose this cave entry then:
Our second submission. Great work.
And yes, Quenten is right. It is your map, you can do with it as you please. Submitting it to the Atlas/Contest only means giving us the right to use it in those contexts, we're not imposing any usage limitations for your own maps.
OMG, Remy just said - IN WRITING - that Quenten is right. I will treasure this day forever.
Is that Santa Claus being sacrificed?
Yes, I just couldn't resist when I found him.
The mighty Avatar of Winter ?
Mt Vadulim in Kal Karadol ,Artemisia :)
I'm new to the community but would love to participate.
I haven't looked at the community atlas, but would love to do an ice cavern of some sort.
Great. We'll always find a spot to put an ice cave.
If you want, you could make it part of the mega dungeon project (it would require exactly one entrance from above and one entrance going further down into the complex), or just make it as a stand-alone cave to put somewhere if that is what you prefer.
Would the entrance from above have to be stairs, or could be be, say, a large ice hole one may have to repel down?
Whatever is fine, as long as your map makes it clear it is an entrance from above.
Yes, both sound good.
I've had time to take a look at the community project and, if possible I'd like to place the dungeon in Northern Alarius, in the mountains east of Elkton.
Great.
Klodevig's Gauntlet
Location: Iron Mounds mountains (somewhere beneath Iron Forge) in Alarius
WIP-thread
Map specifications: 250 x 250 ft encounter map for VTT (set 5-ft. squares at 50 pixels), using the Annual Jon Roberts (metric) style. No fonts were harmed in the making of the map.
Background
The scholars of Iron Forge have always been intrigued by the Tears of The Dragon; a range of caves below the Iron Mounds mountains, so called for how they seem to run from the southern edges of the mountains to its north like a string of pearls or, indeed, tears in the fabric of the earth. Whether it extends beyond the mountains, in either direction, is currently not known.
The caves, regardless of size, all share two traits. Firstly, streams of molten rock escape the deep into and through them. While lava in itself is neither unique to these caves nor by any means a geological phenomenon unknown to the dwarves, some of the caves along the Tears lie unusually close to the surface above and there is no notable volcanic or seismic activity in the region.
The second feature which sets them apart from the regular stock is the invariable presence of defensive structures – including still-active magical runes of tremendous potency. It is widely recognized that these fortifications were erected by one of the dwarf ancestral houses known as the Brimfolk – now long since lost – whom tradition attributes the gift to master the far deeps manifested in how they could “breathe the very fumes of the fiery below”. That is to say; their constitution was such that they could tolerate what to others would be unbreathable air.
To this day, the ability can be found among descendants of the Brimfolk – although it is so rarely the case that some scholars doubt it was ever a common trait of the members of the house to begin with. Those who can trace their lineage in such fashion often become esteemed explorers and are predominant among the ranks of those who devote their studies to the Tears.
What little is known about the battlements along the Tears of the Dragon stem from murals which can be found throughout them. Some of these have been depicted for posterity in the volumes of The Origins, which by many is considered the crown jewel among the encyclopaedias in the care of The Great Hall of Learning in Iron Forge.
The common theme of the murals is that of war, but against whom or what is one of the great mysteries of the Tears. The Brimfolk themselves offer no written records of this war in the deeps – typical for their habit of keeping few records of just about anything. Of the ancestral houses, the Brimfolk appear to have been using – by far – the fewest number of clan runes, and their scarce use of the earliest common runes has made deciphering what little documentation they did leave behind in their own language a veritable guesswork.
There are no mentions of such a conflict in other, contemporary sources either – such as the Annals of Stenagh – which has satisfied most that both the war and construction of the defences occurred well before the recorded history of the Iron Mounds. From the paintings it is clear, however, that the Others were similar to the Brimfolk; walking on two legs and using tools of war similar to theirs. While offering tales of both victory and defeat, the general condition of the defensive structures suggest that the outcome of the war would have been in favour of the Brimfolk. This theory is only furthered by the runes.
Another great mystery, the Bulwark – or Seals as the magic runes are also commonly referred to – has bothered scholars of the magical arts for centuries. All that has been successfully established over time is that they are very powerful. In that they almost always form patterns akin to lines or borders, after a fashion, it has been theorized that they are protective wards – but their ultimate purpose of course remains a secret of the Brimfolk.
With discretion being the better part of valour, the runes have not been disturbed to date: Yndherine the Sage, who was first to happen upon both the structures and runes in the capacity of researcher – and a scholar of the magical arts herself – was swift to act in regards to ensuring that it should remain so. The charters of exploration specifically forbid any tampering with them, and the order of Custodians see to that entry to the known access-ways leading to the caves is granted only to those with proper authorization.
The lack of faith in the prudence of outsiders has encouraged keeping the Tears of The Dragon mainly a concern for the dwarf academia. Carefully kept in the corner, only just within view like some half-discarded folklore curiosity, it still attracts the attention of the occasional scholar from the other peoples. It is not unknown for such visitors to be granted a clearance for making an expedition, and on such occasions only the runes of the Bulwark are strictly off-limits. Custodians always accompany such expeditions in larger-than-usual numbers, and it is not unheard of for careless students of dwarf history to end up lost in the deeps.
Unlike most early dwarf settlements (any dwarf settlements, really) the Tears of The Dragon are completely void of anything one might consider valuables – and always have been since the time of discovery. Presumed to be battlegrounds, it is believed that fallen Brimfolk warriors – and Others alike – for practical reasons would have been offered to the molten rock. If true, this practice would also have included the particularly brave and skilled warriors whose relics and personal belongings, such as weapons, are otherwise so commonly on display in dwarven buildings of martial significance – even among the Brimfolk. “The boredom of it”, Custodian recruits are often told, “will kill you long before you run out of air to breathe.”
The general discomfort of the underground and it being impossible to breathe down there without aid (such as spells or through other magical means) are also likely candidates as to why outsider scholars who have visited the Tears rarely come back for seconds and – presumably – keep the general interest of the phenomenon at comfortable levels.
Klodevig’s Gauntlet
Located in one of the smaller caves along the Tears of the Dragon, the significance of Klodevig’s Gauntlet lies in that it is the closest to Iron Forge and, more importantly, that it is one of few outposts which was not named after the researcher who spent the most time and effort on the premises (one Gremund). Rather, from the Brimfolk clan runes found on site, it could be made out that a warrior of the name Klodevig had played some part in the events surrounding the outpost. Any particulars as to the nature of the event, or Klodevig’s part therein, remain excruciatingly uncertain. By Brimfolk standards, however, the place is practically riddled with clan runes and the site remains an absolute icon in the field of Brimfolk language studies. Which typically is rather narrow.
Plot hook
“Of that which Yndherine never spoke again” – there are whispers of a theory that when Yndherine returned to Iron Forge with the warning to the throne that the Bulwark runes must be left alone, she was merely a messenger. That the runes were not the making of Brimfolk dwarves. That a truce was won, and that great perils would beset the dwarves should they ever violate the terms and step out of bounds again.
I'd like to offer something to the atlas/contest. Just need to find a spot. I'd be happy to try anything. :)
There are plenty of spots in Artemisia - just search the regional maps.