Day 2 and 3 of Maptober 2019

Today's fare is day 2 and 3 of Maptober. It features the prompts mountains + mindless and desert + bait.

The Mindless Mountains have long confused travelers trying to pass through them with twisty canyons, dead ends, deep snow and terrifying monsters. It was a tremendous natural barrier between the coast and the empire deep within the continent. The discovery of gold and precious metals deep within the mountains only further increased interest in finding a navigable route through them. Eventually, a particularly hardy band of dwarves, led by Barim Tallspike found a route by avoiding the majority of the mountains and passing through the desert they enclosed to the south.

The desert was truly empty of both life and water, save for one large oasis in the center. Here, at the limits of endurance one could feast off raging torrents of water that passed through innumerable caves below the sand. Soon after it's discovery the oasis spawned a sprawling tent city, several farms and a significant population, all living off the lucrative trade between the mines, the coast and the empire. 

This city, in turn, attracted bandits and robbers of every kind. They hid among the desert sands and cliffs, striking at caravans, taking gold, weapons and water. The tent city was a magnet - unending bait for the incessant merchant attacks along the route. The desert became known as the Desert of Sorrows for the numerous bleached bones of humans and humanoids found along the route - an ever-present reminder of the price of prosperity. 

So, I thought this map was interesting in that it linked two words that I never considered linking - desert and bait. But I thought of the watering holes from all those nature documentaries, all the predators who congregate around it and thought - yes! this is EXACTLY how I want my desert setting to be. Once that was clear, the rest of the map fell into place.

Kingmaker Map - just the geography

I wanted to toss up a quick version of the Kingmaker AP map that only had the geography. No cities, roads, names, borders, et cetera. Apparently the most frequent request I've gotten is to have a 'clean slate' where a GM can build up everything from scratch. So here it is! Enjoy :)

This is almost the same map as from this post. The only difference is that this map covers slightly more ground to the north and west. This should provide adequate real estate to even have a limited civil war with Brevoy.

Golarion's Astronomy - Cynosure

I  have always been fascinated by the night sky, in real life. Because of this, I've always considered Golarion's night sky to be one of the great, untapped resources in the Pathfinder campaign setting. So much of our collective mythology has been formed and is recorded in the heavens. And not just constellations, but asterisms, stars and planets. Golarion deserves an equally rich lore. Which is what I intend to lay the framework for.

Specifically, and after many months of searching, I've found a real stellar system somewhere in our galaxy which I think would make a decent proxy for Golarion. Obviously, not everything will match up, but enough will that this will  become a useful tool in both Pathfinder and Starfinder (because I'll be able to give distances to other stellar systems).

It's a path that will require many months to complete. I'm just getting started. But I wanted to give everyone a tiny taste of the night sky. If you are in the northern hemisphere and look up, one of the most obvious constellations is the Stair of Stars leading up to Cynosure - the pole star. Cynosure is where Desna reigns. And this is what it would look like:

The stair of stars on a nice, wintry night.

Let me annotate this for you:

the stair of stars, annotated.

Cynosure isn't exactly on the stairs - Desna watches the stairs from her throne just off to the right. Cynosure is a Magnitude 0 white - slightly blue star (which is on par with the some of the brightest stars in our night sky). In fact, if you take a simple, low powered telescope to the star, it will become apparent that it is, in fact, two stars! Indeed, the two stars slowly orbit around one another from Golarion's perspective, sometimes appearing as one or the other. When only one is present, Desna is out wandering the multiverse.

One last little thing - Cynosure isn't exactly due north. Maybe ten thousand years ago it was (because Golarion, like earth, wobbles) and maybe Earthfall permanently knocked Golarion's axis ever so slightly askew. But the true north pole is a few degrees north of Cynosure - about halfway between the star and the top of the photo.

That's all I have for now. I'll be back soon with some more of Golarion's astronomical wonders!

Improving on the Pathfinder Thornkeep map

After many years I returned to Thornkeep in my pursuit of answers about the False God. I had traveled through this land once before, in my youth, as I journeyed eastward to my home in the Stolen Lands. This time, I marvelled at its many caves, ravines and hidden corners. And, of course, I mapped...

--Zi Mishkal. 

Ever since the Thornkeep module came out as a backer reward for the Pathfinder MMO, I've wanted to improve on the included overland map. Now that I'll be running at least one adventure within that setting, I thought it would be a perfect time to indulge that feeling.

The original Thornkeep map was a nicely done if somewhat boring map. It had several points of interest, some forests, a couple of towns and a few lakes. It was perfectly suited as a background setting for some low-mid level dungeon crawls. However, the descriptions spoke of ravines, caves, streams, et cetera and the map, by comparison, looked so plain. Of course, this was likely by design as the map was for the MMO which had not been completed. Much like the novelization of Star Wars has differences from the initial theatrical release, there were bound to be changes.

Paizo's Echo Wood map, on which my Thornkeep map is based - copyright Paizo. 

Paizo's Thornkeep is set in the River Kingdoms - a portion of Golarion which is low-lying, boggy and wet. To my geology-based mind, the River Kingdoms remind me of low lying land which has been recently de-glaciated. Which reminds me.. I do need to do a blog post on that topic as well. Paizo also points out that the Thornkeep area is unusual in the River Kingdoms in that it is hillier than the surrounding area. The hills rising out of the flats remind me of the change in topography along I-90 going through Wisconsin. You're driving along for hours in flat lands and then suddenly you start seeing hills and then a few miles later, at Castle Rock outside of Camp Douglas, you see actual rock for the first time in forever. So I wanted my map to have that feel of isolated ridges popping up from the surrounding terrain.

My revised Thornkeep map - ink on grid paper. 

The parallel dashed brown lines represent a contour interval of 50 feet and are meant as a general guideline. There are, undoubtedly, more little cuts and divots in the hillside than what I drew but I wanted to maintain that feeling of the unknown in the Echo Woods. You may note that many of the ridges are parallel and looked chopped up - this is intentional to convey the sense of old, dissected terrain.

Most of the bedrock underlying the Echo Woods are limestones containing caves of various lengths. I have only included the ones mentioned in the source material - there are many more. I have also added in the major surface drainage for the area. Most of the area is drained by the Echo Stream which has its source in Toad Hollow. It flows northward into the ridge containing the Emerald Spire before sinking in its bed. Once underground, it flows past the Woodbristle homestead before rising at their spring and winding its way to Thornkeep. At Thornkeep it hits some sandstones and meanders in the small valley containing the town before heading north again through the Echo Cleft. A short (10 foot) waterfall is the highlight of the cleft as the stream continues north past Dismal Caverns (where the stream widens in flood to a swamp) and into Silvershade Lake. From Silverhsade Lake the stream turns west to pass through an unnamed pond and into the West Sellen.

The southern part of the map is drained by the Southwood Stream which rises as the edge of the forest in a spring and passes through Fort Inevitable. From the fort it continues westward to empty into the West Sellen.

The center part of the map is drained by an extensive series of mostly undiscovered caverns. The Skull Basher's Den is one entrance to these caverns and its description in the Thornkeep book hints at the larger system. All of the water appears as a series of springs which feed Glowwater Lake and then the Sellen.

Many of the ruins are located on hilltops - again by design. There are additional hilltops for additional ruins or other features not already mentioned. Bald Knob, just north of Thornkeep is one of my additions and I haven't decided what should go there.

The map also shows the extent of the patrolled area of the two Crusader towns - Riverwatch and Inevitable. The paladins and hellknights don't have many resources, so they keep their patrols pretty close to the town itself. Within these areas it's a lot harder for bandits to operate. The occasional patrol may venture past the edge of the standard patrol area, but there will likely be an exceptional reason for it.





One last item I wanted to mention in parting is the scale - one box equalling a quarter mile. A quarter mile is 1320 feet. A fireball's range is 400' + 40'/level. An enlarged fireball's range (which adds one to the level of the spell) is 800' + 80' level. A 7th level wizard can cast a 4th level enlarged fireball and hit something 1360' away. In other words, a 7th level wizard can cross an entire square with a spell. The point is that this map is at a weird scale - it's almost small enough for outdoor tactical combat. Towns and keeps are more than just dots, they are at least the size of the circle that represents them. It's just something to keep in mind.

That's all I have. If I can, I think I'll put up a few of the encounter areas I've fleshed out next - Echo Cleft and Dismal swamp are mostly done. Until then, enjoy and if you have questions, feel free to ask!