| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| elglanto |
Posted - 14 Sep 2012 : 13:36:45
Hello there.
I would like to involve my PC's in the battle against the forces of dragonspear castle between 1354 DR and 1356 DR. Thus, i would like to know if any of you know a published map of it beside this one :
http://www.ssendam.org/SFRC/Map%20-%20Ruins%20of%20Dragonspear%20Castle.gif
Since i'm not really good at creating maps myself.
Best regards,
elglanto. |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ammag |
Posted - 03 Dec 2012 : 22:14:10
I've gotten pretty obsessed with fleshing out Dragonspear myself. There aren't a whole lot of maps.
I went so far as to buy Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (Prima's Official Strategy Guide), which has several maps of the video game version of the castle: the surface (which is different from the official surface maps), the first level of cellars, the second level of cellars (the crypts), a level of caverns, and a large cavern room at the end of the caverns. I use all these maps except the surface one. In my version, the large end cavern is Halatathlaer's (Daeros' Copper Dragon friend, now a ghost dragon) old lair.
Of course there's also the underground river that leads from the Misty Forest, goes to the labyrinth in Hordes of Dragonspear (which Florfyndin the elf escaped to (& out of) from the devils' dungeons under Dragonspear), circles under one of the castle towers (Forgotten Realms Atlas) before flowing under the High Moor and leading to undermoor caverns which reach Kanaglym (abandoned Dwarven city containing a portal through which souls reach the Fugue Plane). Many tunnels branch off of the river.
Hoards of Dragonspear also mentions Vesarius (the Cornugon) trading Maelstor Rex (the black dragon) some unique magic for his horn centuries ago, and also mentions that the gate under the castle has been there for centuries. The castle is only about 100 years old, so I've taken it to mean that the gate predates the castle, as does the presence of diabolic activity. In other words, levels of dungeons that weren't built by Daeros. Who built them, and why? They are left up to individual DMs to flesh out. |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 17 Sep 2012 : 16:50:34
I more or less took the approach that Dragonspear was open to design. I put a lot of dungeon features that for a 1350s Daggerford-centered campaign (a slightly adapted version of WGR1 - Castle Greyhawk, for instance). The only other maps that I'm aware of are in "Hordes of Dragonspear" (which coveres only a small part of the dungeon) and in Karen Wynn Fonstead's "Forgotten Realms Atlas", in the sections covering the Avatar trilogy. |
| elglanto |
Posted - 14 Sep 2012 : 20:39:05
Thanks a lot. I will take a look at these two suggestions and try to see what i can do. |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 14 Sep 2012 : 19:02:11
I was rereading the Hordes of Dragonspear adventure, mostly for nostalgia as it was one of the first FR adventures I ever owned (though never ran, as I didn't have Battlesystem). At the end, it says that the "dungeons beneath Dragonspear are huge, sprawling affairs. ... Dungeons Masters who wish to allow their players to explore these horrible recesses might consider using the maps in such products as Undermountain or Castle Greyhawk as the basis of the complete catacomb structure."
So I was right about adapting Undermountain. Castle Greyhawk is another idea, one that didn't occur to me as I'm not much of a Greyhawk person. But as those are the "canon" suggestions, I figured I'd pass them along. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 14 Sep 2012 : 17:22:34
quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha
Or you could always try this map:
http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/friday-map-mappers-challenge/
"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike"  |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 14 Sep 2012 : 16:57:05
I don't think Dragonspear Castle was ever really fully developed. I always thought that there was a great deal of potential in the castle and the wars that finally cleansed it, but it wasn't really taken up.
The only module I know that deals with it directly is the 2e adventure Hordes of Dragonspear, but that mostly takes place a fair distance from the castle as you battle its said hordes. You do take a quick side jaunt into the caverns under the castle. From that, we know that there is a large underground river that links those caverns to the eastern Misty Forest, and that there is a labyrinth along with a maze of caverns. But that's about it.
I know the heroes of the Avatar Crisis make at least a quick side-jaunt to the castle in, I think, Waterdeep, but those books were horrible and I haven't read them in years, so I can't help with more info there (and I got rid of them years ago, so I can't research it for you).
From what I've been able to gather, the castle itself wasn't that big of a deal. It's a decent castle, but not exactly impregnable. It's underground, in the caverns that conceal the gate to the Nine Hells, that things really get interesting, and dangerous. Since these are baatezu we're talking about, anything that they excavated and built should be full of straight lines, but be very twisting and devious. The further down you go, the worse it gets, until you get all the way down to the river level, which is natural stone.
For maps, I'd say steal whatever strikes your fancy. Any half-ways decent castle can do for the above ground works. As for below, the bigger and crazier, the better. Undermountain would be a good place to start, and maybe World's Largest Dungeon (not sure, I haven't played that one). Anything that's big, crazy, and stocked with lots of deadly creatures.
Or you could always try this map:
http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/friday-map-mappers-challenge/
Though it would need more levels, so stick a couple of downward staircases hither and yon. |
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