Okay, I'm in. All words to be used in the design.
I'm planning one of those maps with the little inset drawings for import sites. I've never tried that before. This may be a stupid way of doing it, but I'll be doing the inset drawings in ink, then scanning them, refining and probably doing the color in GIMP, then inserting them into the main map file. The underlying map may end up being stunningly simple, as it will be pretty much the last thing I work to finish.
I am thinking of a note showing how most of the heroes would be involved in this quest:
"It was foretold that the Child of the Stars would recover the Legendary Gem of Victory from the Hidden Temple of Dark Knowledge. The Child has had a vision. His quest is to recover the Gen. Yours is to guard the Child on this dangerous journey. The future of the Empire depends on you. (signed) Lydinal, Master of the Armored Port"
I hope to incorporate the Legendary Gem of Victory into the compass.
The detail drawings in circles will be:
The Child of the Stars
The Hidden Temple of Dark Knowledge
The Dragon Cave
The dragon's treasure: gold, silver, and the Freezing Sword
The Axis Gun, Wonder Weapon from Another World
The House of the Piercing Eye (go alone at midnight and the Mistress of the Eye will answer three questions)
The emblem of the Peacock Empire
The Armored Port
The Wandering Fortress
The Spider Vale (where lies the Axis Gun)
There will be an Enchanted Road as part of the underlying map, but no illustration for it.
Depending on how much space I end up with left to fill, there may be some more information about the quest. I think I should wait and see how things start coming together to decide how and to what degree to indicate the progress of the quest. I am thinking either a series of colored lines (red?) with arrows, showing each stage of the quest or else numbers at important points visited and a key explaining what each stop provides.
Nothing to show yet, as I just did some rough penciling of general designs tonight. Hopefully, I'll be able to get at least a couple of drawings inked and scanned tomorrow so people can have a good laugh.