Village of Caerildaern

[ericlboyd]

[Unpaid Commission]: Village of Caerildaern

Greetings!

For fun and the amusement of my children and other fans of the Forgotten Realms, I am writing a sourcebook and 3-part adventure pack for the High Forest of the Forgotten Realms (a D&D campaign setting).

I will not be making any money on this endeavor.

I have written many game products in the past for Wizards of the Coast for the Forgotten Realms, but this is just a “fan project” which I intend to post (for free download) on the web when complete.

I am hoping to recruit a similar fan of the setting or a fantasy mapmaker who is inspired by the description below to join me in creating this unique setting who is interested in an unpaid commission.

The 170+ page sourcebook is essentially done (and can be shared with the accepter of the commission). I have not yet started on the adventures. The adventure pack will include 3 settlements and 3 dungeons.

This commission is for one of those settlements.

Please let me know if you are interested!

--Eric

SUBJECT
=======
This is an unpaid commission request for a cartographer to map the village of Caerildaern. I have not yet begun the write-up of the village, so the cartographer can have a pretty free hand.

Caerildaern is a recently settled wood elf village with 100 or so inhabitants that lies on the left (west) bank of a river called the Unicorn Run in a massive sylvan, fey forest (The High Forest). Unbeknownst to any of the wood elves, its leaders are slowly being replaced by shapeshifting demon-elves (fey’ri).

The most notable feature of the village is that is built amidst the tangled roots of a massive stump of an ancient tree felled by a giant of titanic size of yore. The stump should be at least 50 feet across, maybe more. (For those familiar with the setting, imagine a giant had cut down the Grandfather Tree with an axe.) Two of the stump’s largest exposed roots act almost as walls of the village, leading down to the water’s edge. Hidden beneath the ground amidst the roots of the stump is a dwarfhold once known as the Amber Halls of Arvuddaern, but now known as the Stronghold of the Nine.

A century ago, what is now the village of Caerildaern were the “out-buildings” of the subterranean dwarfhold (now a monster-haunted dungeon). A few years ago, the wood elves moved in. So, the current village includes a mix of traditional dwarven buildings (built of stone) and wooden buildings (possibly tree houses or perched atop the stump and its roots or possibly nestled amongst the roots) built recently by the wood elves. There is a massive, ornate, dwarf-forged door in the side of the stump leading into the fallen dwarfhold. There are also the remnants (stone piers?) of an old dock (nothing major) built by the dwarves so that they could load small barges for shipment down the Unicorn Run. The river is about 100 feet wide. The only real “road” through the village is a cobblestone path that leads from the entrance to the dwarfhold (in the side of the stump) down to the remnants of the dock. There are no roads leading into the forest.

This commission is just for the village. However, if the cartographer is also interested in depicting the upper reaches of the dwarfhold below the village, we can discuss!

I’ll leave the scale of the map for the cartographer to determine.

STYLE
=====
I’m looking for a bird’s eye view from the south looking north and west. It should show the river, the forest, the stump, and the village. Buildings in the village should be labeled in some way (could be a second version of the map with labels overlayed), so I can detail the village in the text.

Although this is still a work-in-progress, it is a good representation of the style of map I am looking for:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...arlath_v11.jpg

from this thread:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/ma...-arlath-4.html

Quality and Size
=============
The map could be color (preferred) or greyscale, as the cartographer sees fit.

I’m looking for the map to look good when printed on an 8 ½” by 11” piece of paper or viewed on a computer. When pasted into the PDF, I will probably scale it down to leave a half inch border on all sides of the map, but I’d like to also offer up the map file itself for folks who just want to print the map.

Time Constraint
=============
I can keep writing other parts of the sourcebook / adventure while you work, so hopefully 1-2 months to deliver the map.

If there’s a good fit and you’re interested (no implied obligation!), we could also talk about doing some of the other villages (or dungeons) when you are done.

Copyright
========
The cartographer will retain copyright for the map. The map will be included in a PDF I post for free on the web and called out separately for map-only download.

You are free to sign your work and/or include your copyright in the corner of the map.

Contact Details
============
You can reach me at eric--at--ericlboyd.com.


Please pardon any mistakes in the format of my request, as this is my first attempt. (I did read the FAQ, but I'm sure I missed something!)

I appreciate your interest.

--Eric

[xpian]

Shelves of Arlath, huh? That's the look you're going for? Cool. ;-)

By the way, there's a more complete, more finished version of the map here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/fi...lenge-map.html

[Mark Oliva]

[Unpaid Commission]: Village of Caerildaern

Greetings!

For fun and the amusement of my children and other fans of the Forgotten Realms, I am writing a sourcebook and 3-part adventure pack for the High Forest of the Forgotten Realms (a D&D campaign setting).

I will not be making any money on this endeavor.
--Eric

Gee golly whillikers, Eric! It's been years since I've seen an Eric L. Boyd signature. It's great that you're on board here and great to see the name of one of RPG fantasy's true legends once more. Apologies ... my time is too short to make maps for you. But any guild member who's looking for something to map and doesn't jump at the chance to map something for an Eric L. Boyd work needs psychiatric help! I do believe you'll get good responses! Keep us informed!

[xpian]

I am engaged in helping Eric with his needs for this project, and I'm sure we'll be able to post the results of the mapping project to the Guild at some point in the future. I won't say more without checking with Mr. Boyd first, but it's a fun and exciting set of maps we're doing.

[ericlboyd]

Hey Mark,

Long time no chat!

For fun (and I stress, unofficially), I've decided to do a sourcebook on the High Forest of the Forgotten Realms and an accompanying 3-part adventure.

Christian's been doing an amazing job mapping the first adventure and we're cruising right along.

We will definitely share Christian's artistry back to this forum sometime next year when the project is ready to go. The "draft" maps he's done are already fantastic, so I'm sure the final project will be even better.

--Eric

PS For those who'd like something sooner, I'm hoping to post another sourcebook/adventure I did for fun in the near future. It's an introductory campaign set in the Forgotten Realms for levels 1-8. Basically, I rewrote a 48 page AD&D1 module called Under Illefarn into 300 pages of fun for a campaign i ran for my kids. Look for that around the first of the year.