I made a few tweaks per Jim's suggestion. I added some misty cloud coverage above the castle, and also added some cloud wisps above the mountains and on the right side. I also added a few more smaller birds meant to look like they were flying lower.

I also discovered that Mike Schley's Overland style already has cloud symbols, but I wasn't sure how they'd work semi-transparent. I added them as a base to the castle but most of the clouds are still from Forest Trails.

Also made a few other tweaks, like adding hills to separate the grasslands from the default terrain, and a few more trees below the castle peeking through the clouds.

I looked through my symbols to see if there were any other flying creatures, but couldn't find anything. Mike Schley's lovely dragons were sleeping, not flying. I even checked WikiMedia Commons to see if there was a flying pegasus or dragon in public domain that would be suitable, but didn't find anything. If anyone has any other recommendations for other flying symbols, please let me know.

Another revelation that will be obvious to more experienced cartographers here: the TEXTURIZE effect!

I have been wanting to use heraldic symbols stitched onto fabric to make carpets, table runners, banners...and I kept looking in vain for fabric fills. The Modern set includes different colors of carpeting, but it was a little too photorealistic to work with things like Dungeons of Schley.

Through trial and lots of error, I stumbled across the Texture effect and was able to apply it to both a color polygon and the heraldic symbol on top of it to create the effect of fabric with the symbol stitched on. I experimented with a lot of textures, but the one that seemed most "fabric-like" to me was the DD3 Hay_Dry fill. (If anyone knows of a fill that looks more like linen or other woven fabric, please let me know. Maybe there's a good one in an Annual that I have not yet purchased.) And of course, different fills can create the effect of looking like your sigil was painted on wood, or the cobblestone floor (though with more trial and error, I learned that some fills don't really translate well when used with the Texturize effect).

Anyway, here are some heraldic banners or carpets or table runners or whatever:

Not really sure why the botanical garden didn't post properly. Trying again.

Thrilled to be included in the January 2024 Maps of the Month post, but I just noticed that although I posted the corrected map in the Facebook group, the final map here still has some upside down trees! Posting the corrected one now since the blog post links here.

The third version uses Marine Dungeons as the basis, with stumps (and snakes) coming in from Creepy Crypts and trees coming in from Forest Trail. This has the best waves and ripples, naturally. I tried to darken the water a bit by using patches of the Water Deep and Water Deepest drawing tools, and then applying some effects to that sheet (specifically, using the RGB Matrix to make the deeper waters sepia toned, and then the Adjust Hue/Saturation effect to change the lightness by -15%. I should probably add more algae floating on top.

Anyway, these more mostly just for fun. I don't currently have a specific plan for them, but I wanted to see if I could create a swamp with current assets/techniques. Still hoping for a Jungle/Swamp annual some day. 😉

Added a few final touches (a friend was confused about the seaweed washed up on the beach, so I added a little more floating in the sea, and a few other minor tweaks here and there. Not really sure what that line cutting off the light in the nighttime version is from.

Here's the "final" (is anything ever really final?) version of the daytime and nighttime full maps. More details maps in my galleries.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the feedback, it was very helpful. I put the legend back to the original size and location, and it actually looks pretty good. There's room for some lines to wrap if I make it slightly larger, but it seems legible enough as is. Also, I made the roads stand out a little more by changing the transparency effect from 50% opaque to 75% opaque.

Also, are the numbers on the map okay? Should I make them bigger? (I just noticed that some seem to be different sizes, so I will at least have to standardize that.) Are there effects that would make them pop more, like a stronger white glow? Is there anything else unlabeled that should be labeled? I just provided a few sample businesses (inns, blacksmiths, etc.) figuring that a DM could make up something on the fly if players were looking for a specific type of business, but I can add others that folks think are necessary.

Neighborhood maps are a good idea if anyone wants to do a full campaign here (rather than an adventure limited to an inn or a temple, where the rest of the map just provides a general context). I have a whole laundry list of maps I want to do first, but once this is published in the Atlas (after the contest is done), I would welcome anyone to take a neighborhood and expand on it.

Turret is done, and with it the entire above-ground portion of the tower. There are several basement areas (cold storage and wine cellar, sewers, dungeon!) that still need to be mapped. My hope is to finish it all off before the end of the month.

Eighth Floor

The 8th Floor of the tower is the first floor of the turret, plus the roof area (protected by crenellations) of the main tower. The turret has arrow slits that can be closed off inside with metal shutters. (In looking at the arrow slits, I see they are not quite like the ones on lower floors, so I may adjust them.) The spiral staircase extends up one more level.

Ninth Floor

This floor provides arrow slits elevated above the roof of the main tower. The spiral staircase ends here, but rungs mounted on the wall allow for ascending to the "bell tower" above.

Tenth Floor

It's more of a light house than a bell tower. Luminescent crystals radiate light that can easily be seen for miles around. On holidays and special occasions, the wizard can use simple illusions to change the color of the light to match the holiday's traditional décor.

You may have noticed that these images now use the title "Tyr Alomere" instead of "Wizard's Tower." I have decided where I'd like to home it in the Atlas, a wizard's tower that I had placed in the Gold Coast area of Doriant that I mapped for the Atlas (circled in yellow in the two images below).

I will need to design the small village the tower is in first. Do you think I need to do a more regional map, or will the village with the tower suffice?

Here it is on the Gold Coast:

It also makes an appearance on the edges of the regional map of Gongodûr -- it's in the Kingdom of Vacuria, but on the edges of Gongodûr:

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

After a bit of wrestling (and an evening of downloading massive files), I was able to install the Dundjinni symbols that Wyvern recommended. I added a griffon and a dragon with a rider. I also swapped out the giant hawks in the lower right side for a pair of eagles from the Mike Schley Overland that I missed. My flying creatures are a bit oversized compared to the castle, but I figure it's a bit of forced perspective, with the flying creatures coming in from above and closer to the viewer.

(I also trimmed back some of the farmland on the right side so that it's now mostly around the towns and cities.)

I belatedly discovered that Mike Schley's clouds also have a vericolor version, so I could add in some light gray ones to add a little texture, but I haven't done that. I will get the 2014 Annual with the Alyssa Faden clouds in a few weeks and try them on a whole new map from scratch.

Ricko, I am enjoying your tutorials. Thank you.

Over a year ago, I posted the exterior map of a lighthouse on a rocky hill on a small island overlooking sunken ruins. I was experimenting with using the CA209 Stairs and Steps annual (2024), but it was also an opportunity to use the CA175/180 Marine Dungeons annuals (2021) properly, as I had taken advantage of the marine features in previous uses of it.

I decided to revisit it to design the interiors.

In revisiting a map I did in my early months of mapping, I can see so many areas where I have learned so much since then. For example, I wasn't using snaps very effectively, and that meant that when I used a circular array to place crenellations (also a new technique for me), they were a little off. It's kind of gratifying to see these early mistakes to help me gauge my progress.

The lighthouse tower itself is pretty simple: just three stories, each a single room. But of course, I couldn't resist doing a little excavation to create some dungeon spaces as well.

Here's the overview map again, slightly tweaked (for example, I removed the bits of land on the right side of the map because I wanted the lighthouse island to be a little more removed from the mainland).

Tower

Floor 1 (Ground Floor)

This floor is meant to be at the same level as the courtyard, and therefore there are no exterior doors here, as the entrance is one flight up. I used the spiral staircase from Creepy Crypts rather than Marine Dungeons, because CC has one that spirals up and down. I could stack the Marine Dungeons one, but with my snap points being off, that was trickier -- plus it never looks quite as good as a symbol designed for the purpose.

This is the sleeping area for the lighthouse attendants. As each floor is a single room, they've used curtains to partition private spaces.

Floor 2 (Entryway)

The exterior stairs lead to the entrance here. This is the common area, including a kitchen area with a stove vented outside.

Floor 3 (Parapet)

The interior space on this floor is minimal: most of the level is a crenellated parapet. The spiral staircase continues up a bit (unshown) to the lighthouse fire that the workers must regularly refuel. (Woodburning? Oil? What would have been standard? Magical luminescent crystals would be nice, but wouldn't need much of a lighthouse staff for that.)

Basement 1

The spiral staircase also descends to a basement, where it ends. Much of this chamber is used to store provisions brought in from the mainland. A pair of double doors leads to a hallway that connects to three rooms. One is the wine cellar, amply stocked with wine, ale, rum, and probably barrels of water, as the island likely doesn't have its own source of fresh water. A second room has a latrine and bath, with saltwater for invigorating bathing (code for cold bathing) brought up from a well. A third room is used as barracks when the lighthouse needs to be garrisoned in times of strife, as the small island would be a strategic location for an invading naval force.

There's also a secret door off of the hallway that leads to a narrow series of stairs leading deeper inside the cliffs.

Basement 2

The secret stairs continue to wind down, where the end up at a long forgotten shrine to a forgotten sea god. Another secret door leads to a roughly hewn passageway with stairs that lead eventually to underwater tunnels that lead directly into the sea. Perhaps this was a secret emergency exit built when the lighthouse was created. Or perhaps some sort of amphibious humanoids built a shrine here long ago that the lighthouse constructors knew nothing about.