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Vatican City: Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians

After looking at the title of this post, I’m sure a good few of you are wondering what exactly an Abyssinian is. Let me save you a google: it’s an Ethiopian. This church, located just behind St. Peter’s Basilica, was assigned to Ethiopian Catholic monks in the 1400s. It’s over 1000 years old and is the Vatican’s oldest surviving church.

I’ve been working on the Vatican megaproject for almost a year now and I think it’d be nice to get a sense of how far along we are. So I’m going to take a minute to put all the parts of the Vatican that I’ve drawn so far into a single image.

After that, I’ll be drawing an Ottoman-style caravanserai. Caravanserais were the truck stops of the Silk Road, where travelers and merchant caravans could pull in, get some sleep, fuel up the camels and get back on the road. I recently learned that it was typically free to stay at a caravanserai. The idea was that kingdoms wanted traders to feel safe and comfortable on their roads so more of them would pass through, since collecting customs taxes on merchants’ goods was a big source of revenue around there. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but it makes sense.

Anyway, there’s another bit of Vatican City done. Hope you like it! I’ll be back with that update on the progress of the project soon.

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Elmkirk Children’s Workhouse

A workhouse is kind of like an orphanage, except much more depressing (as if a building full of children whose parents are dead wasn’t depressing enough). Unlike a regular orphanage, a workhouse could be self-funded using the glorious power of child labor. At Elmkirk Children’s Workhouse, the orphans are put to work carding wool, a low-skill, labor-intensive task.

Try to imagine being in this situation. You’re six years old. Mommy is gone. Daddy is gone. And now, in order to get food and shelter, you have to do the world’s most tedious, unskilled labor for twelve hours a day. You’re six. This is a thing that happened. The past was just merciless.

Anyway, to spice things up a bit, Elmkirk Children’s Workhouse also has a secret cellar that’s used as a meeting place for the local thieves’ guild (or some other sketchy organization). I’m also making a version with a cult temple in the cellar for patrons, which should be done tomorrow.  After that, we’re back to the Vatican!

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Belgarten Palace

I want to point out the secret door in the large, round room here. When I include a secret door in a map, I don’t actually draw the door (or an “S” where the door would be), because that makes it obvious to your players. And you can’t really hide it in a VTT. So I just draw a wall and leave it to you to decide which side the door is on. I thought I should mention that to avoid any confusion.

I intentionally made this place as convoluted and oddly-designed as possible, which makes it good as a sort of dungeon, I think. Maybe the party is looking for something or maybe they’re clearing out the monsters living here. Or maybe the place was sacked recently and they’re looking for survivors. In any case, there are a lot of potential paths through this place and a lot of different ways in (most of which involve climbing). I think it’d be a fun place to explore and there are some good spots for a battle– especially that courtyard with the big fountain and the walkway overhead.

Next, I’ll be drawing an orphanage with a secret hideout below it. Or possibly behind it. I’m not sure of the layout just yet, but the basic idea is that it’s an orphanage that serves as a cover for some really sketchy people. Maybe it’s a thieves’ guild, maybe it’s a cult of the god of disembowelment. I’ll leave it to you if and how the orphans might be involved. There’s a lot of potential for some highly traumatizing adventures. God, I’ve got some great ideas for this already.

All right, that’s it. I’m gonna get to work sketching out that orphanage. Let me know what you think of the map!

 

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Sprawling Palace (Work-in-Progress)

My usual workplace, the Milby’s Maps Command Center (or, “your office,” as my wife incorrectly calls it) is currently undergoing renovations*, so I’m posting this from the Milby’s Maps Executive Guest Bedroom today. It’s not an ideal situation, but I should be able to deal with it for another week.

Anyway, here are the drawings for the sprawling palace map I’m working on at the moment. If sprawling palaces are a thing you’re into, I have good news:
I’ll be drawing the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace before long and it’s the sprawlingest thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

All right, I’m gonna get to work on coloring this. Hope you like it!

*They’re putting in insulation so I can hopefully turn on the heat this winter without it costing more money than exists in the known universe.

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Vatican City: The Sistine Chapel – Lower Level

The undercroft of the Sistine Chapel is a bit less picturesque than the floor above. In the late 1800s, it was mostly used for storage. 50 barrels of wine, 20 crates of incense, 7 tons of communion wafers, that sort of thing.

I’d like to give a shout out to Paul-Marie Letarouilly, who drew some excellent floor plans of the Sistine Chapel, Apostolic Palace and the Vatican Galleries. He’s been dead for 170 years, but his work will save me a huge amount of time and headaches on this project and the man deserves a mention. Also, look at that cape. God, we gotta bring capes back.

I need to get caught up with the Cartographic Congress maps again, so I’ll be drawing two in a row next. The first is a sprawling palace complex, with centuries of new construction concealing disused rooms and hidden passageways. I’m imagining it as a place that could make a good dungeon. After that, I’ll be drawing an orphanage that’s used as a hideout by a secret organization. Maybe I’ll call it “Kults for Kids” or something. After that, I’d say we’ll be back to the Vatican.

All right, that’s it for now. Hope you like the map!

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Vatican City: The Sistine Chapel – 2nd Floor

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that not a lot of people spend hours and hours studying the interior of the Sistine Chapel in detail and pay zero attention to the ceiling. I can now count myself as one of the strange few who have.

The Sistine Chapel is the long, horizontal room with the red and green floor. That floor is so intricate that it was basically impossible to draw. Let me show you what the actual floor of the Sistine Chapel looks like. Sorry, but I can’t draw that. And if I tried, I’d end up in a padded room. Do you see that rectangle in the bottom left corner? What color is that? What color am I supposed to make that? What color am I supposed to make any of this? Anyway, I hope you understand. I tried my best.

I’ve got the lower level of the chapel about halfway colored, so I should have that for you pretty soon. In the meantime, let me know what you think!

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Sistine Chapel: Upper Floor (Work-in-Progress)

The Sistine Chapel is the long, horizontal room near the top– the one with the insane floor. The room to the right with the patterned floor is the Sala Regia (Regal Hall). And below that is the Pauline Chapel. In the upper right, the map runs into the Apostolic Palace, which I’ll draw the rest of in the future. For now, I’m going to get this colored.

Let me know what you think so far!

Also, if you want to see the rest of the Vatican City maps I’ve made so far, you can find them all here.

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The Black Nail

The Black Nail is a demonic tower that’s been driven into the ground. There’s a bunch of bizarre stuff on each floor, all of which leads down to a giant hand holding a large, stone chest at the bottom. The chest probably contains a demon, artifact, magic item or something pertinent to your campaign. Let me suggest you go one of two ways with this:

  1. There’s a demon/monster/enemy in the chest, or
  2. The hand holding the chest is the monster and it attacks once the players open it.

Or you could do both. I put some suggestions on what to do with the other rooms in the DM notes, so patrons may want to check those out.

Next, I’m going to make a variant of this map for patrons. It’s nothing too elaborate, so I should have it done in a couple days, but I think it might be useful to some of you. Anyway, I’m gonna get to work on that. Let me know what you think!

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Rhynstock Lighthouse

Those of you from Spain might be thinking this place looks familiar and, yes, this is the Torre de Hércules (Tower of Hercules). Except it isn’t. The Tower of Hercules is an amazingly unique lighthouse, but it has one big problem, which is that it’s a terrible D&D map. The interior is just a staircase. So this is the Tower of Hercules on the outside, but not on the inside.

I was a little conflicted about whether to title this the Tower of Hercules or not, but I decided against it. My longstanding policy is that I only give a map the title of a real place if it’s a reasonably accurate depiction of that place. If I’m using a real place for inspiration, but still getting creative with it, I give it a different name. Still, I try to be as open as possible about my inspiration when I take it from real life. I don’t want to get accused of taking credit for designing any famous landmarks.

Next, I’ll be drawing a great, demonic tower driven into the ground like a giant nail, with only the top floor sticking out. After that, it’s back to drawing more of the Vatican. You know, there’s a nice holy/unholy mix here at Milby’s Maps lately. Widely varying levels of holiness available. I hope everyone’s enjoying that.

Anyway, I’m gonna get started on that demon map. Hope you like the kinda-sorta Tower of Hercules!