A treasure map: Harpy's Silver Tongue

[Straf]

This was my entry for the July/August 2017 Lite Challenge - "Map a Hidden Treasure". My WIP thread can be found here.

The backstory to the map went like this:

This map and the clues should lead our adventurer to the hidden treasure of King Seth. Among the treasures is supposed to be Harpy's Silver Tongue, a relic of the gods. Harpy was a rogue, a scoundrel, but was liked wherever he went. He had an amazing power of persuasion and would have people forcing their wealth on him after listening to his confidence tricks. So impressed were they the gods turned Harpy's tongue to silver. When he died this silver tongue came into the possession of many fellows until one day it found its way into the pocket of a rogue called Gavvan who used its power to talk himself into the bed of Queen Jade the wife of King Seth. Unfortunately Gavvan being caught with his pants down, quite literally, and unable to summon the power of the tongue found himself skewered by Seth's sword. It is believed that Seth was the last person to possess the tongue. The kingdom was lost centuries ago and the tongue and Seth became legends. Nobody has known where the treasure of Seth has lain until now...

The map was done in GIMP and the labels in Inkscape. The scrawl was done in GIMP as well.

Harpy.jpg

[Mouse]

Sorry Straf! I still can't locate that treasure.

Should I just keep digging?

Good drawing, and harmonious colours. Green is a difficult colour to tame, but you've done it here

[northerncartography]

Hey, this map looks great! I love how it includes the "scrawlings" on the side to help flesh it out!

If you're open to constructive criticism, I wonder what else you could do with the black borders along the coastlines. I like them, but when they get broken up by the rivers flowing into the sea, it looks just a touch off, you know? I don't really know off the top of my head how to fix that, though.

[Ilanthar]

Hmmm, I must have missed this! I like the colors and the way you did the rivers a lot. And what you started with the topography is very promising!

[ThomasR]

Fantastic layout and nice to see you experimenting (with success !).

[Josiah VE]

Neat map! Somehow I totally missed this... The colour scheme is really nice. I think it could maybe use some depth to the sea though.

[Straf]

Sorry Straf! I still can't locate that treasure.

Should I just keep digging?

Good drawing, and harmonious colours. Green is a difficult colour to tame, but you've done it here

Thanks Mouse. There's treasure there somewhere. Well there was, there's just some buried ruins left now

Hey, this map looks great! I love how it includes the "scrawlings" on the side to help flesh it out!

If you're open to constructive criticism, I wonder what else you could do with the black borders along the coastlines. I like them, but when they get broken up by the rivers flowing into the sea, it looks just a touch off, you know? I don't really know off the top of my head how to fix that, though.

Thanks northerncartography. I do know what you mean. It looked odd just leaving it as a border as well. Maybe I could have stroked the rivers to give them borders.

Hmmm, I must have missed this! I like the colors and the way you did the rivers a lot. And what you started with the topography is very promising!

Thanks Ilanthar. The topography is something I started to experiment with. When I draw the landmass the next job is to add some contour lines. They don't appear on the final map, I just poke that layer in the eye at the end. I use the contours to add shading and highlights to give the impression of low/high ground. The places where contours are close are going to be more extreme (steeper slopes) Also instead of trying to draw forests I just used different shades of green.

Fantastic layout and nice to see you experimenting (with success !).

Thanks Thomas. Each map seems to bring a new set of challenges and a new solution for me to develop.

Neat map! Somehow I totally missed this... The colour scheme is really nice. I think it could maybe use some depth to the sea though.

Thanks Josiah. I had completely neglected the sea. Neptune will be vexed! I'm going to make sure I do something with the sea in future maps.