I've added a mausoleum area (a proper dungeon for crawling in) and a set of ice caves at the end of it. I've written a five-page document on the different areas in the mausoleum, and am working to do the same for the caves. Given that there are only 3 days left, this will likely be the extent of the dungeon. Looking at everyone else's beautiful work, it occurs to me that I might have missed the point of the contest, as I haven't done much in the way of making it look icy for most of the dungeon. I did learn how to do a lot of things in CC3 with this contest, however, including how to work more efficiently with the program.

I watched Monsen's video about how to make ice caves and played with it a little here. I think I was able to make something that looks like snow here, but I'm curious how others feel about it. Then of course I had to come up with a rationale for the snow, so I'm imagining that this "dungeon" area is the result of a fissure in the top of hit, so it's more like an extremely narrow canyon (like 5 feet in some places). So the snow could fall in, semi-freeze, and form a kind of snow-crust that us Canadians are used to dealing with :).

I made these areas in a separate part of the same map and will in the end move them to join the first part. I did this because I was hoping to do more stuff in the middle.

Hi Quenten. I've just read through some of Wyvern's comments and I wanted to add a few things, particularly around his insight that the land form is similar to Pangaea's. Pangaea was around for a long time and its climate changed due to several factors, but in general it was a much warmer place than the world we live in. It's also believed that in some eras it was prone to extremes - hot desert separated from tundra by narrow strips of milder weather, particularly in the south.

The following site might provide some guidance: http://www.buildyourownearth.com/byoe.html?e1=39&c1=4&v=pm . It allows you to view a number of climatic elements at different periods in the earth's history. I'd suggest for the planet you've presented either the Jurassic, Triassic, or Permian periods, based solely on the shape of the land mass. Myself, I'd look at the Permian.

I actually used maps I downloaded from this tool to develop the climate for a Pangaea like world I developed. I simply took the January and July maps and imported them as an overlay in fractal terrains, and then used it as a guide to develop bars of temperature and precipitation for my planet, smoothing out the results. Then I developed maps to chart the currents and wind directions, and had them modify the precipitation and temperature appropriately. I was pretty happy with the results.

Looking at the map you provided, I'd guess that the inland sea that your desert is on is large enough to develop its own current systems much like an ocean. I'm inclined to think that the current would move into your desert from the south, and that the result might be fertile coasts. It seems to me that given the size of the land mass to the west of this sea, there would be a high pressure zone over the land somewhere in the middle, as there is over Asia (I believe it's only in winter), which is a major contributing factor to monsoons. For that reason I'd suspect a more wet and dry situation over that coast, and it would likely also affect the area where your desert is.

Well, this is all random hypothesizing in the English manner, as Nietzsche put it. If I had the height map I'd be tempted to give it a go. Hope you're well.

It occurs to me I haven't left an update here in a few weeks or more, so I thought I'd provide a .jpg of the most recent version. Right now I have four general areas: the entrance, which is also where the Cold Coroner has his library set up, a barracks area for the cult, an entertainment area (comprising of a stage for plays and a gladiatorial pit), and the caverns of the snow-women (strange cold rituals are performed here, which include the creation of magical snowballs for throwing at men, as in the original tale). Maybe at some point I'll post the different sections, so its easier to see the details. Let me know what you think!

I thought I'd just drop a mine I made here, to show you what is theoretically possible. I designed it using symbols from Munson's Mines and the template is from the Isometric Dungeon Annual (Wielink). It was designed with reference to an actual medieval mine, I believe in England, where there was one shaft with tunnels going off from it. I think you can see that there are good mining symbols here, which can be added to any of the dungeon styles, or even to the base program if you don't have DD3.

The way I did it did result in some blockiness, but that can be easily rectified by just drawing shapes through the front of the perspective, much as I did for the water, in the same colour as the background. I was in a hurry to finish it as I had a game coming up.

Anyway, not sure if its helpful, but here it is.

Hi folks,

I've been unable to sit at my desk for a few weeks due to an issue with my feet, so I'm a bit late to start this challenge. I managed to do a little work on it over two days now, and I'm happy with it so far.

So the idea is to meld a few different ideas together. The first idea was to have a dungeon which would culminate in an encounter with a Lovecraftian creature who will, of course, be cold-themed. I've already designed the creature. The second idea was to have some of the ideas of the dungeon reflect an affectionate but weird take on Fritz Leiber's Swords against Deviltry, which introduced the heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd hails from the frozen north, in a place called Cold Corner, hence the Cold Coroner of the title. The final element is that I have always wanted to do a very large dungeon, old school style. I'm thinking of something like Keep on the Borderlands, where there are several factions.

I won't bore everyone with the details of the story I've dreamed up, but I'm thinking I'd like to put this on Ezrute somewhere, and that there would be a small community of Inuit/Laplander folk who are at risk from the activities of the creature nearby.

I realize its maybe too ambitious, but I figure I could just work away at it until we're closer to the deadline, and then maybe mid-February go with what I have, adding the final part where the encounter would take place.

Constructive criticism always welcome!