Castle sitting atop a cave-system

[ElGrandioso]

As i declared in an earlier post,
I dug out some maps:

lev0
Attachment 43718
lev1
Attachment 43719
lev2
Attachment 43720
lev3
Attachment 43721
cellar
Attachment 43722
insanity
Attachment 43723
the caves on 3 separate pages (as originally drawn; maybe better for printing):
Attachment 43724

A few expl.:
Descriptions are in german, shouldn't be a big problem though.
The castle-roof has a basin with a drain (and a through too), to collect rainwater/snow and funnel it to the bath
on lev0.
Arrows show either the direction to open doors or point to the lower end of an ascending stairway.
A "arrow" with an X-head depicts the upper end of stairs.
Dotted lines show chimney-openings or water-pipes.
Obviously it's a fantasy castle - real knights wouldn't have bothered with a heatable water basin
(from the cellar).
Btw. the roof-catapult is missing on the perspective drawing.

Explaining the caves in any detail would be quite a feat.
Suffice to say there are giant mushrooms, an derelict gnome city, a temple with a evil manifestation, secret passages, nasty critters and some serious crystals. I had a altered version were traps etc. were marked,
this one was originally meant to be used with a sceen that cut-out, to show the players sometimes
small portions of that thing.
You might think that no sane GM would send his entrusted players into this abyss. But the labyrinth was meant
to be practically imprenetable until the players would find the secret riddle-markings, info and a device
to decipher them (after some mysterious happings first take place) .
E.G. the staircase-chimney in the middle was equipped with a simple alchimistical trap, that would
spout some strong smelling gas, fooling uninformed travelers into thinking that the lower
parts are flooded with deadly cave-vapours.

It was designed after the plans within an early Adventure of the German RPG "DSA", called "Die Seelen der Magier".
The original plans weren't any good - they only showed one level (+ a cellar) in a much more squarish and simple fashion - so i spiced them up a bit.

[Mark Oliva]

Unfortunately, you didn't add your attachments correctly, so we can't see your work.

[ElGrandioso]

Sorry, don't know what happened here.
This is may be only my second post with attachments, but it worked fine
the first time. Perhaps blaming someone else, is the solution?

Here it is:
ErdgeschossB.jpg1terStock.jpg2terStock.jpg3terStock.jpgUNtergeschoss.jpgMizoramMonsAr.jpgMonsArg0.zip

Btw. Mark it's quite a coincidence, that we seem to be writing less than 7km apart
(i'm currently sitting in HAS).


And could please someone of the Admins change the "Question" icon into "MAP".
I don't seem to be able to. Guess previewing one's own post is the key.

[Larb]

That is very nice. It definitely has the feel of a real castle and the accompanying illustration helps bring it to life.

[Veldehar]

That is pretty danged cool.

[ElGrandioso]

I want to point out that a secret passage to the caves from the cellar, is not visible on the cellar map
(It was meant to be behind a lockable grandfathers clock on the northern wall of the upper-left room, above the pentagram).
That's because i used an annotated version with non-filled wall parts for myself (rather ugly, with many scriblings),
while i showed the above plans to the players.

[thebax2k]

Very nice maps ElGrandioso, I hope you post more of your maps up. If you have a dm/gamemaster version of this map, that would be nice to post. Similar to Larb's comment, the castle has a very realistic/plausable feel to it. The whole complex reminds me of Predjamski Grad in Slovenia, although that castle is more in the mouth of the entrance to the cave while yours is over it.

[Lukc]

A wonderful set of maps, very good feel to them!

[ElGrandioso]

You are all welcome.
I would be kind of hardpressed finding the GM plans (3years has passed since then). And even if, i would first have to
do some photoshopping, before daring to present these messed up (with coffee and beer stains, and maybe 'Schnaps' as well -
well, we often have a merry good time) pages.
If you like to use them, the more important points that are hidden on the "public" plans are:
- the secret passage (mentioned above)
- a spy hole to the council chamber from the first level room to the east (in an alcove)
the rest of the info consisted mainly of who's sleeping where, and what special artifacts are there.
I'm sure you'll be better of, making up your own backround.

[Waynan7]

Wonderful! These have an authentic feel. They look like architectural renderings of an actual castle, except for some of the dungeon dressing, of course. Great job!