I've designed the lower level, but first: an explanation.

What was once an important temple was abandoned several hundreds of years ago, beset by the encroaching desert sands...and worse. Many of those who sought to plunder the ruined temple never returned, and rumors about that it is haunted, or guarded by fearsome creatures.

The temple grounds are indeed protected by an ancient mummy with a retinue of skeletons -- the remains of an ancient king and his loyal knights who were cursed. The real "big bad" keeps them around as useful sentinels who make enough of a ruckus to warn the BBEG when intruders are about. And just who is that BBEG? An adult blue dragon just trying to hatch her eggs and raise her wyrmlings in peace.

This is the lower level of her lair. This level is primarily accessed through the massive tunnel in the lower right that winds up to the level adjacent to the temple, but there are other ways to access her lair as well.

The one part of her lair that was properly excavated and built out is the portion beneath the old temple's ruins. The two circular stairwells come from just inside the once-enclosed part of the temple above. The northern stairwell is mostly filled with sand and is unpassable. The southern stairwell is still accessible for humanoid-sized intruders but not reachable as someone as massive as the dragon. The dragon (back when she was younger and smaller, and could still pass through the 10-foot-wide doorway) built up a wall of sand and used her electricity breath weapon to turn it into a solid wall of glass, keeping more sand from coming through the northern stairwell and overrunning that part of her lair.

The part of the human-constructed portion that she can still access has been turned into a museum of her favorite treasures: six statues; four tapestries; the sword, shield, and dagger of an ancient king; four suits of armor; and a valuable spellbook on a bookstand.

Her personal quarters include three chambers. She primarily sleeps in the outermost, on a pile of coins. Another chamber is for brooding on her eggs. These, too, are on a pile of coins, primarily copper. (I think dragons horde treasures, especially coins, because they can infuse precious metals and gemstones with their energy, which, among other things, can warm up enough to keep the eggs heated even when the mother dragon is away.) The third chamber is her personal treasure chamber. The 10-pointed star on the floor is constructed of blue sapphires.

Her wyrmling has its own chamber on this level as well. Older young dragons used to live in the chambers above, but they have grown old enough to seek their own homes. There aren't enough vulnerable caravans nearby to sustain a growing draconic family.

In the northern section of the lair, there are two other areas protected by ten-foot thick walls of glass. One is a room completely filled with sand. It is, in fact, directly below the sandy cave-like semicircular area in the northeastern side of the rocky outcrop above. Here, the dragon can use her draconic magic (a "lair action" in DND 5e terms) to pass through the glass barrier, where she naps beneath the sand until intruders camp out above. This is her primary entryway/exit from her lair to the outside. The other glass is a dam for the lake above, making it into a gigantic fishbowl or aquarium. She can pass through this glass as well to swim in the lake or as a backdoor escape route.

Not entirely thrilled with how the glass turned out. It's serviceable, but I will continue to fiddle with the bevel settings. Open to recommendations for sheet effect settings or other approaches if anyone has any. (I just used a solid light blue color. Do any of the annuals have a glass fill that would work, or some other fill (like water?) that might work with the right effects?

P.S. I know that Remy will think these dragons are woefully tiny! I just used Mike Schley's default size, which appear to be about the DND 5e's 20x20 size. Most of the lair's passageways are about 30-feet wide to accommodate her.

And here are some of the Mike Schley style:

If the ProFantasy Gods are listening: a future annual that I think could really complement the Marine Dungeons would be a "Jungle Adventures" dungeon. It would provide an opportunity to bring in palm trees and coconuts that could also enhance Marine Dungeons. Maybe some swamp building tools, including tree trunks with the ripples used in Marine Dungeons? Lots of colorful jungle foliage. Maybe some giant mosquitos or other bugs? Alligators or crocodiles? Think of the Indiana Jones-inspired adventures! Golden idols! Whips and fedora hats! Aztec-inspired ruins. Maybe a perfectly round boulder for traps. (The opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action/adventure opening scene of all time.) Just planting an idea....

May I adopt this little unnamed elven village marked in the red box on Virinress'Arl? (Quenten, since you did the parent map, please let me know if this is encroaching on your future plans.)

Here's an area map of the Eknapata Desert region on the northeast corner of the Gold Coast map. I decided to do it in the Scorching Sun annual. The mapping guide for the annual recommended Mike Schley Overland as a complementary style for additional symbols, so I used that for the pyramid at the city of Nekhmatunis, the ziggurat at the city of Khemtufu, and the half-buried statue and obelisk at the Sakherma Ruins. I also threw in a few of his camel-with-guide symbols to represent nomadic tribes, and a sandworm just for fun. There are a few more villages, too, and another monastery that I figured were too small to be on the parent map for the entire Gold Coast region. I also added a volcano, but figured that would be on the parent map. Since the parent map hasn't been submitted to the Atlas yet, I went back and added it to the parent map, too.

I'm enjoying the opportunity to try out different map styles with this project. I plan to design one city with Mike Schley's Mideastern symbols from SS5, and another with the Desert Oasis annual.

I'm still toying with the idea of making the legend's text look like it's engraved, but I'm not sure if it shows up well enough?

I tried it out with Marine Dungeon's brass inlay that I love so much. Here it is with both the red marble on the right side and the black marble on the left (with the original colored text as a comparison). It looks good on the dark marble but only if you're zoomed in.

And then I tried it again with a goldleaf fill. As much as I love the brass (plus it's native to Marine Dungeons, so it's not added another annual to the mix), the goldleaf may be a little easier to read because it doesn't have the reflected light effect. This one also only really works with the darkest marble.

Brass Inlay

Goldleaf

Thoughts?

Another holiday scene, this one a community of gnomes living near the North Pole working for a "jolly old elf" known as The Toy-Maker.

I have three versions: one daytime and two at night. One of the nighttime ones uses a galaxy background from one of the Cosmographer annuals (the bitmap file calls it "Hubble_Galaxy"), and the other uses a starfield background that comes with Cosmographer.

I may choose one of these to make into holiday cards. Does anyone have a favorite? Also, I put a tower on top of the castle to give it a little more, but does it look goofy there?

Daytime

Nighttime 1

Nighttime 2

I'm ready to submit this intermediate map for the Kingdom of Enía, along the northern edge of the coast for the parent map above. This map will be the parent (or possibly grandparent) for a few villages I will be submitting to the contest.

Primary Style: Mike Schley Overland

Toggles: BORDERS/POLITICAL to show/hide political borders

Here is the FCW along with a PDF of the description:

Should I do a plain text file that strips out the accent marks? Here's the text of the description (with accent marks):

The elven kingdom of Enía is the northernmost coastal kingdom in the Gold Coast region of Dórian. The human Kingdoms of Vacuria and Travi lie to the south and east, respectively. Enía is significantly smaller in both population and geographic size than its neighboring kingdoms. The kingdom’s borders are marked by the Enía River along its southern border, and the Firessí River and edge of the Firessí Woods along its eastern border.

Enía is governed by a hereditary monarch who is advised by two political bodies: the Council of Adept Mages, and the People’s Assembly. The Council of Adepts consists of those archmages and adept mages able to cast the most powerful spells. The People’s Assembly includes a hundred citizens elected throughout the realm.

Major points of interest include:

Arynnor: The capital of Enía, called the “city of glass.” Here, elves pioneered glassblowing techniques both for ornamentation and practical purposes. This includes a technique to make glass nearly as strong as steel, which has allowed the elves to safely cover their towers with brightly colored glass domes.

Sather Academy: To the north of Arynnor, Sather Academy is an institution of higher learning with academic classes of all sorts, from history to astronomy, poetry to accounting, but it is most famous for two things: its Bardic Colleges, and its Arcane Academy for the formalized study of wizardry and arcane lore.

Lynelon: The coastal city on the northern bank of the Enía River, Lynelon is a bit smaller than the Vacurian city of the same name on the southern bank.

Firessí Woods: Much of the realm is covered by a mighty forest, the Firessí Woods. The woods are home to numerous tiny elven hamlets along with a few notable features. Towards the southern edges of the Firessí Forest lies an ancient henge of standing stones, the Firessí Temple, erected to honor the elven gods. It is the holiest place in all of Enía, and the seat of power for the Archdruid of Firessí, the most powerful religious figure in the kingdom. A small village, Yréas Kôltyn, provides a home for the elves who tend to the temple and provides accommodations for the temple’s many pilgrims. To the northwest of the temple lies the Tampuwari Ruins, the haunted ruins of a people so ancient, they disappeared long before the elves moved to the area. The ruins are best to be avoided. Farther to the north, Lathalas Glen is a town built up around a monastery of the same name.

Taenya Island: The small island is home to a few small villages and hamlets of wood elves Just to the north of the island among rocky reefs, Eilân Danaäd is a harbor village of sea elves with homes both above and below the waves.

I changed the two labels to near-white for settlements and near-black for geographical names. (Let me know if you think I should reverse that, with dark names for settlements and light ones for geography.) Playing with text-along-a-curve for some mountain ranges and rivers, and moved some to the side to make them easier to read. (For a few of them, I had to explode the text and ungroup temporarily to adjust the kerning.) Made some effects changes to the political borders but I need to redraw them to reflect the river changes. Oh, and I embiggened the compass and moved it. It also has an inner glow to make it stand out a little.

May not have more time today to work on this -- about to head out to a family function for the day. Hoping to finish it this weekend.

Still working on this. Text is slightly larger, and the glow is as well. Added more names, though I still have a few more rivers and settlements to do. Should I be naming the roads, too?

I am think about putting country names, settlement names, and geographic names each on a separate layer so that end users can toggle them on and off as desired. They're already on separate sheets, though, so maybe that's sufficient for toggling individually, and a single layer for all of them to toggle all names on/off simultaneously?