Tomb of Shemayet

[wdmartin]

I needed an Egyptian tomb, so I whipped this up.

Tomb-of-Shemayet-01.jpg

The layout is modeled closely after that of the tomb of Nefertari, the favorite wife of Rameses II. Hers, however, is gorgeously decorated with intricate wall paintings, and I didn't have that kind of time. Plus getting the perspective right on top-down walls is tough. Fortunately, the scenario I have in mind calls for the tomb's occupant to have been hastily buried in an unfinished tomb, so the lack of decoration actually suits.

I did want some light variation in it, so I stuck in some braziers, which I will be describing to my players as lit using Continual Flame spells.

The shelf in the entry chamber is a place to leave offerings. The side chambers are apparently supposed to represent phases of the journey of the Akh through the Duat during its nightly journey of rebirth. They may also have been used for storage of grave goods, but it's hard to tell in Nefertari's case since the joint was robbed blind thousands of years ago. I haven't decided what to put in them in-game.

Any feedback would be welcome. I'm pretty happy with it over all -- the sand on the floor turned out nicely -- but I need to get it finished up and sent off to the printer, since the game is happening in 13 days.

[damonjynx]

Very nice WD. Love a good dungeon map - after all, regardless of what you play, they call it DUNGEONS and Dragons for a reason...

[wdmartin]

Thanks! I think it turned out pretty well. ^_^

[wdmartin]

The one-shot happened a week ago, and went quite well! Sufficiently so that I'm planning on posting the adventure publicly. The write-up is almost done, but I thought I should add a few final touches to this map. Here's a revision:

Tomb-of-Shemayet-02.jpg

I've added an isometric view of the floorplan in the bottom left to better convey the depth of the area. I've never made any isometric projections of any of my maps before, but it wasn't too hard once I found Inkscape's axonometric grid options. Thanks, Google! I'm trying to decide whether it needs the entry staircase added or not. That's missing at the moment.

I've made a compass rose based on a lotus design -- but I'm not sure whether I'm going to use it or not. Here it is, separately from the rest of the image:

Lotus-compass-rose.png

There definitely needs to be some kind of compass rose, and the lotus does go with the Egyptian theme. Artistically, I have no particular quarrel with it. But the image I based it on -- lotus.svg at the WikiMedia foundation -- is licensed GFDL/CC-BY-SA/FAL. Speaking of which, the above lotus image falls under those licenses, have fun with it.

Anyway, if I incorporate the lotus, the whole map will fall under the terms of whichever of the three licenses I pick. I don't mind that for my own stuff, but I dislike viral licenses that force other artists who might repurpose my work to use the same license. Viral licensing schemes makes sense for computer code, where it's possible to make money by charging for support or additional development. But they don't really make sense for artwork, where there aren't really any potential revenue streams other than licensing. Also, I'm using JubileeRR Bold for the N (top left of the map above) that would indicate North. It's commercial, and I think the font license might conflict with the copyleft license for the lotus image.

I'd rather just license the map CC-BY or similar. So sadly, I don't think this compass rose will work for the map. I'll have to go find or make up something that does.

[ChickPea]

Map's looking good, and that compass rose is very pretty... though I understand your hesitation in using it.

[wdmartin]

And here it is with a compass rose -- a more generic one, sadly, but at least it's public domain. And the isometric view now has the entry stairs.

Tomb-of-Shemayet-03.jpg

Oh, and I put a boat in the back chamber, because the adventure calls for it.

[Bogie]

Very nice work WD!!

[damonjynx]

Nice work WD. Your ISO insert confused me for a minute as it's orientation is opposite to the map.

BTW, How do they get the boat out? Or is it some ornamental piece with story implications?

[wdmartin]

Ah! Sorry for the slow response.

They don't get the boat out -- the boat casts Astral Projection on the PCs, after which they ride its astral double through the Gates of the Duat on their way to the Halls of Amenti.

If they want to take the boat out later, the entire thing disassembles. It doesn't use caulk or nails; the entire thing is held together entirely with ropes, just like the real-world one found at Pharoah Khufu's pyramid.