afternoonmaps
patreon
Lord's Quarters Battle Map - Launch
🕑 Added 2022-01-31 22:46:04 +0000 UTCHello adventurers! The end of the month is here and with it comes my latest map release, the Lord’s Quarters. This is an interior of some Noble’s private quarters (King, Queen, Lord, Ambassador), along with an audience chamber. As always I did some research into this layout and came across some useful bits of information I’ll be adding to the description found below and in the PDF. Hopefully, it will help you add flavor to your encounters with the nobility :)
Next Maps
The next map I’ll be working on is the Walled/Secret Garden, which will work as a fun exterior to some noble's estate or as part of a ruin of a castle or stately home found in the wilderness.
- Walled/Secret Garden (with Folly)
I imagine this could be a formal garden of an estate that's been forgotten or abandoned. Maybe there are some exotic plants and a folly. This should pair well with some of my other maps, including the Castle Courtyard, Ballroom, and Menagerie maps I’ve created in the past. - White Dragons Lair
I want to create a new Lair battle map and I think this would be cool and useful, not just for housing a dragon but for any frozen mountainous dungeon. So I’m thinking this will be an icy cave (cave system), with an entrance open to the side of a mountain. Maybe some ice tunnels, stalactites/stalagmites, glacial formations, cracks, and ice holes. I’ll probably drop in some old ruins to add to the interest as well.
Collaboration with Tabletop RPG Music!
I’m excited to be collaborating with an awesome Tabletop Creator this release. Tabletop RPG Music reached out to me and created an amazing piece of music to go along with this map release. You’ll find a music file created for this map in the downloads post along with the maps. Their music is fantastic and well worth a look! You can find their details below:
Need a soundtrack for your adventure? Tabletop RPG Music releases multiple tracks every month specifically written for use at the table. Enhance your game with evocative atmospheres, epic battle tracks, and much more in between. Sign up as a patron to gain access to rewards such as bonus tracks, seamlessly looping versions, a playlist of live composing VODs, custom track suggestions and more.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/tabletoprpgmusic
New Map suggestions, please!
It's been quite a while since I asked for new map ideas, so this month I wanted to get some more submissions from you wonderful people on what maps I create next. The best format for your suggestions is a sentence, maybe two, explaining a broad theme for a map. I do love quirky ideas, so go wild!
Thanks for your support, I’m always so thrilled to hear your gaming stories and how you used one of my maps to put your players in mortal danger :D Roll on February, spring is almost here (at least where I live). Have a wonderful week and as always, happy adventuring!
Map Descriptions
The Presence Chamber (Audience Hall)
The Presence chamber is basically the Audience Hall for the head of the house or castle. It's the only ‘public’ area on the map. This is where the Noble receives guests in a very formal setting, ambassadors will be seen here, the public may get the chance to petition the Noble in this room. Often courtiers and nobles will sit at his/her side or along the outside of the room.
The wood-paneled walls are draped in colorful tapestries, between them hang paintings of hunting, court life, and historic battles. The polished wooden floors are covered in thick red carpets, the fireplace is grand and ostentatious.
The Waiting room (Study) and Gallery
These two rooms are accessed from the back of the Presence Chamber and are the start of the private quarters. Honored guests will be invited to a private audience with the Lord/Lady in their private quarters. These rooms are where they will wait at the Lord’s/Lady’s convenience.
The waiting room (or Study) is comfortable and filled with old but well-made furniture. A bust of some long-dead noble sits on a table, back against a window looking out across the grounds.
The Gallery is a long hall, with large windows down one side. Light streams into the room, illuminating huge intricate canvases depicting all manner of subjects, from pastoral life to epic battles. Two candelabras stand at either end of the hall, between them are simple but elegant benches, a place to sit and contemplate the canvases.
The Privy Chambers
These chambers are the heart of the private quarters, the place the Noble would relax and have private meetings with members of the household, special guests, and family. It would be used for private dining and for very special functions.
The room is large and well-lit. Bookcases line the walls, small tables and cabinets are covered in elegant and expensive-looking glassware, ceramics, and the odd bronze figurine. A large dining table is set towards the back of the room, near an ornate fireplace.
The Cupola Room
The Cupola room would be an impressive and slightly imposing room. Its high ceiling and many windows make for a splendid location for social gatherings and would work very well as a place to have an encounter with some secret conclave.
Tall leaded windows make up most of the walls, the ceiling is high and domed, creating an almost open-air feeling to the impressive room. Ceramic tiles cover the floor in a checker pattern, at the center is a plinth with a stone column. There is text engraved on its surface.
Notes and Tips
- 30x30 Grid Map
- The map can be used for any noble quarters, castle, manor house, palace, even a townhouse or embassy would work.
- Secret passages can be anywhere. I’ve intentionally made them not visible, so you can have them where you want.
- Presence Chamber, Privy Chambers, and Cupola are names the household servants would use. Remember the servants of the house live and work here, they know this place and have names for each room. So add little flourishes to bring the place to life. It could be as simple as describing the study as the ‘Upper’ study, because it's up a flight of stairs, or having the butler complain about needing a ladder to clean the Copula.
- The servants assume the party is going to rob the place blind. They should make snide references to the general unkempt appearance of the players, having a maid sweep up wherever the players walk, count the cutlery between courses, that sort of thing.
- The Presence Chamber works as an audience hall. Lesser nobles, knights, or courtiers would sit on the stools or seating around the edge of the room and watch the encounter.
- The Cupola room would be a fantastic location for some kind of secret conclave of rich and probably evil nobles. Some ‘Eyes wide shut’ shenanigans with everyone wearing masks and talking in code. The players are given just enough info to get into the meeting, they just have to bluff their way through the secret handshakes and small talk :P
- The Lord has been waking up to ghostly apparitions in his bed chambers. He invites the party to investigate while he is staying at a different residence.
- Assassination! Maybe a Noble is marked for death by the local thieves/assassins guild due to some law or social reform they are implementing. The party is hired as extra bodyguards for the audiences the noble must attend.
- How about a heist? The noble is rumored to have something the party needs, maybe it's just gold but more likely it's something specific to a quest. They will never give this item up willingly so it's time to do some breaking and entering!
Variants
You get an unlit version for those night-time heists
And a lit version, candles really do add to the atmosphere ;)
You also get three basement versions, a Torture chamber, an Arcane ritual room, and a crypt for the obligatory vampire Lord.
Comments
Afternoon Maps
Hi Peter, thanks for joining my Patreon. The way my Patreon works is relatively simple once you know. When I release a map I put out a 'Launch' Post with all the details and notes for the map, along with info on what's coming next. You'll also get a Downloads post which is for your Tier, in your case Delver (the higher tier). All the map files will be available for that release as download links. Your best way to get all the older maps is the map list page here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37775640 This page has all the old maps on one page, Thumbnails, tags (so you can search easily) and every download link I've ever published. Only Patrons can download the maps on this page, and only for their Tier. All downloads are free, you are only charged when I release a new map (the charge comes through at the beginning of each month). I hope this helps, and thanks again. If you have other specific questions you can message me directly on Patron, I'll be happy to help. Happy Adventuring!
Peter
I am so confused here. Where are the files?!? I've paid, I searched, I found, here I am.... but the only download is a tiny pdf with more text than "map". There's a link to "https://www.patreon.com/tabletoprpgmusic". Hoorah, but I paid for something else: maps. Someone please advise.
Greg Morrow
Haunted cornfield maze, with mystical fey encounter areas.
Afternoon Maps
Glad to hear it Samuel :)
Afternoon Maps
Hey Bart, I have lots of snow alternatives to many of my recent maps, but I do love the idea of having some kind of Viking village map. That would be really cool and certainly something I'd like to work on. Thanks :D
Afternoon Maps
I actually have an old Theater map, but a circus is certainly a good choice and something that would work great in my style, thanks Grohn :)
Afternoon Maps
Nothing like a good ancient abandoned city :D Love it! Thanks Chromatic!
Afternoon Maps
Great idea, this certainly has potential for a fun map! Thanks Caerdwyn :)
Samantha Webb
This came at the perfect time for me. Fantastic!
Bart Heird
I'd love to see something that would work in a setting like Rime of the Frostmaiden. Maybe a little village cluster of Viking-style huts? OR even a bridge across a treacherous river!
I think it would be interesting to have a (possibly haunted?) circus or theater act. It could be stand-alone or part of a larger city scene.
The blinding light fades, and the adventurers step into the secret heart of the old empire: the hub of portals once used to tie its far-flung lands together. In some of the large alcoves, rubble covers dead runes, while in others, power still flickers along the ancient symbols etched in the ground. One large portal in particular draws the adventurers' attention, not least because it is the only one behind a heavy gate...
Caerdwyn
New idea: Drow near-surface outpost. A bunker with prisoner facilities where kidnapped surfacers are stored before being sent into the Underdark, or a place from which to launch raids/assassination attempts... or the location of Drow rebels who are chafing under the rule of the Lolth priesthood.
