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Royal Scribe

Royal Scribe

About

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Royal Scribe
Joined
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4,474
Last Active
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Member
Points
1,739
Birthday
February 5, 1968
Location
San Francisco, California
Real Name
Kevin
Rank
Mapmaker
Badges
12

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  • Invasion of the Pod People

    Coincidentally, I happened to watch one of the remakes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the 2007 Nicole Kidman film Invasion) the night before Mike Schley's latest monthly symbols were released. Just for fun, I decided to do a quick-and-dirty map with the new Hive Civilization symbols. I hadn't gotten a chance to play with the Mesoamerican symbols (busy making villages when those symbols came out!), it gave me an excuse to try them out, too.

    If there's a Hive expansion next month (they tend to come in pairs), maybe I will revise this same map to show the Kheek'zit invaders' expansion onto the mainland.


    LoopysueRicko HascheQuentenGlitchShessarCalibre
  • [WIP] Haunted Mansion

    Reversed my plan for the Mansion -- originally, the main entrance was going to be on the southern side, but things seemed to fit better with the main entrance on the other side. For the servant's areas are mostly a level below, with a small area here where they can serve the dining room. I couldn't find wooden stairs suitable for this style that went both up and down, or that could be stacked (Mike Schley's style didn't fit and the other wooden ones couldn't be stacked because they had landings drawn in), so I went with stone stairs for the servants. Used some of Shessar's lovely fireplaces, and some ghosts waltzing in the ballroom from Dundjinni Archives. (They might be a little big -- the ballroom is 30 feet wide.) Shadows didn't make sense for the ghosts, but I wasn't sure if it conveyed that they were floating, so I added some glows from DD3. Still need to add more furnishings, and then on to the upper and lower floors.


    LoopysueMonsenRicko HascheShessar
  • [WIP] Haunted Mansion

    I'll be starting on the actual Haunted Mansion part of this Haunted Mansion Map today. But first, here's the rest (almost) of what's going on in the church and graveyard.

    Here's the first level of the church's basement.

    It may seem odd that a basement has so many windows. This basement is only about 75% below ground. The top 25% is above ground, and that's where windows to let light in are located -- close to the ceiling from the inside, but at foot level from the outside. There's a set of double doors connecting to a interior ramp that leads out to the graveyard. The mortician has two rooms here, one for preparing the deceased for funerals, and another that connects to a lower storage room in Basement 2. This level also has a few offices for the priests and clergy staff, a few storage rooms, and lavatories. Other than the doors from the graveyard, it is primarily accessed from the four stone spiral staircases (the two southern ones going all the way up to the bell towers, and the two northern ones going to balconies for the choir in the main chapel.

    Continuing down into Basement 2, we find the mortician's storage rooms (including a stack of unused coffins) and the church's crypts for VIP decedents. I kept the shafts for the wells here so that I wouldn't accidentally create passageways through them. The two shafts that aren't connected to the crypts come from the lavatories in Basement 1 as well as the drain in the mortician's room. They connect to the not-yet-mapped sewers one more level below. (Sinister Sewers will come in handy again!)

    But wait! Not all is as it seems here. There are two secret passageways off of the mortician's storage rooms. (I love that the cut-away polygons used to carve out tunnels can be moved to the "Secret" layer so that they can be hidden or revealed so easily.) The passageway heading west connects to a secret spiral stairway entrance to the Rectory. Who knows how many generations ago it was put in -- the church's current head priest, who lives in the rectory, doesn't even know it's there! The second passageway heading north connects below the Brambleheath Tombs, created by the Brambleheath family who also built the now-haunted mansion.

    But wait again! One more secret here. If you remove the lids to the sarcophagi and coffins, you'll notice that a few have moldering remains but most are actually empty. They all have proper plaques naming the supposed occupants. It's unclear if the bodies were remove after burial, or if they never made it into their coffins. One on the northern side is filled with rocks, suggesting for that one, at least, it was interred without a body.

    The sewers will come later, after I've done the Mansion. For now, let's head over to the Brambleheath Tomb. When you enter the tomb, a Glyph of Warding protects it from graverobbers. For a family tomb, it's surprisingly small: one large sarcophagus on the floor, two smaller ones on ledges to either side of it, and two urns with the cremains of other ancestors.

    Visitors who make it past the Glyph of Warding can trace their finger along a sigil on the sarcophagus lid that activates a temporary levitation spell, raising the lid to reveal a staircase heading down. (I love this symbol set!)

    The lower level of the tomb reveals a "small"" family crypt.

    But wait, more secrets! A passageway heading south on the eastern side (this is the passage that connects to the mortician's storage room beneath the church, and another passageway that heads down stairs and then turns to head beneath the graveyard towards the mansion. If we open the coffins and sarcophagi here, we see that most do have bodies. It's hard to tell because they're in shadows, but the northeastern-most one was buried with a sword, and the one next to it was buried with a staff. Plot hooks!

    That's it for now. Haunted Mansion and sewers still to come...

    LoopysueMonsenQuentenGlitchJuanpi
  • A small carpenter store

    It's really great. I particularly like how you did the fence posts and railing. I can't think of anything I'd change or add.

    Cristian MustiataRicko Hasche
  • Community Atlas 1000th Map Competition - The Winners

    I want to thank @Monsen for all of the work that goes in to managing this contest and also the herculean effort with the Atlas. What a great resource it is for Game Masters everywhere.

    Loopysue