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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!

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Vatican City: The Sacristy – 3rd Floor

There’s remarkably little information out there on a lot of the non-public parts of the Vatican and that includes some of the sacristy. One of the few things I read about the uppermost floor is that there were apartments and a salon there and that’s how I depicted it. I also saw a photo of one of the terraces (where the gardens are in the map above) with a bicycle on it, so I suspect there might be people living there now. Either that, or people are really paranoid about bicycle theft in the Vatican. Actually, that’s not too hard to imagine. Rome is, like, 50 meters away from here, after all.

Anyway, that’s the sacristy done, so I’ll probably be drawing either the Sistine Chapel or the Apostolic Palace next. But first, I need to get caught up with the Cartographic Congress maps, so I’ll be drawing a few of those next. First up is a fortified lighthouse based on the Tower of Hercules in Spain. After that, I’ll be drawing a great, demonic tower driven into the ground like a giant nail, with only the top floor sticking out. That’s a high-concept kind of map, which I always like. Hopefully, I can come up with some suitably disturbing stuff to fill it with. Fingers crossed.

Well, I believe that’s it for now. If you’ve got any thoughts or questions about the sacristy or anything else, let me know!

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Vatican City: The Sacristy – 1st Floor

Here’s the first floor of the sacristy finished. It’s occupied by the Vatican Archives and the workshops of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, which is the organization responsible for the maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Okay, I’m gonna get back to work on the third and final floor. Be back with that before long!

By the way, If you want to see the rest of my Vatican City maps, you can find them all here.

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Vatican City: The Sacristy – 2nd Floor

If you’re wondering if you missed the first floor, you didn’t. I started with the second floor because it connects with the main floor of St. Peter’s Basilica. If you recall, there are quite a few steps leading up to the entrance of the basilica, so its main floor is higher than that of other buildings. It’s a little confusing and I’d estimate that there’s approximately a 100% chance that I’ll get emails asking if I connected the ground floor of one building with the second floor of another by mistake, but there’s nothing to be done about it.

Anyway, I’m going to push ahead and draw the other two floors of the sacristy next. I’ve got quite a bit done on the first floor and the third shouldn’t take too long after that.

All right, I’ll be back before long with some more Vatican!

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Vatican City: The Sacristy (Work-in-Progress)

Here’s the linework for the sacristy, or at least the middle floor of it. There’s a level above this and a level below. There’s an attic as well, which I’ll draw if I find out there are rooms in it. If it’s just bats and insulation, I’ll probably skip it.

The sacristy is where the clergy and choristers get ready before a mass. The vestments, chalices, candles, censers, and various other clerical equipment are kept here. This is also where the Vatican Treasury is located, as well as the Vatican Secret Archives. Today, most of the archives are in the Vatican Library and can be browsed by academics, but before that, they were all kept here.

By the way, here’s a fun fact: a few years back, Pope Francis changed the name of the Vatican Secret Archives to the Vatican Apostolic Archives, presumably in an effort to stop the spread of conspiracy theories and Dan Brown novels.

Well, there’s your Vatican update for the moment. I’m gonna get started on coloring this thing. If you’ve got any questions or thoughts, let me know!

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Circensis: The Underworks

Here in the lower level of Circensis, there are some crypts, guard posts, a stable and a few other things. There are also a few disused chambers where the town’s poorest residents sleep.

I added a small tunnel leading into the underworks from the house in the upper left, which I thought might create some interesting possibilities. Maybe the party has to sneak into or out of the town and meets a group of smugglers who know about the passage. Or maybe a group of raiders finds out about it and sneaks in under cover of night. You may not have a use for it, but it’s there if you do.

With Circensis finished, I’ll be getting back to the Vatican. I’ll be drawing the Sacristy next, which is just south of St. Peter’s Basilica. This is where the passages at the bottom of the basilica map lead. Sacred relics were (and are) kept here, as well as the treasury. It also contains the workshops of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the group of maintainers and restorers responsible for the upkeep of the basilica.

All right, that’s about it for now. Hope you like how Circensis turned out!

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Circensis: A Town Built on the Ruins of an Ancient Amphitheater

Well, this place turned out a bit bigger than I expected, but I think it was worth the effort. I’ll be drawing a map of the underworks next, which won’t be nearly as elaborate as this level, but will have some interesting stuff going on. It’ll also give this place an entrance.

As you can see, some of the amphitheater’s tiered seating still exists, making it clear what this place used to be, although most of it has been leveled off and built over. The walls of the ancient city that this was once a part of are scattered around nearby and were probably picked apart to build the town.

As I said, I’ll be drawing the lower level of Circensis next (and I’ll have DM notes for patrons with that). Then, it’s back to the Vatican. Anyway, this town-built-on-an-amphitheater seemed like a popular idea, so I wanted to ask how you think I did with it. Let me know what you think!

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St. Peter’s Basilica – The Reliquary Lodges

This is the last part of St. Peter’s Basilica, which means all that’s left to draw is… *checks notes* everything else in Vatican City. Not a problem.

These small rooms were built into the large columns around the basilica’s main dome, each with it’s own balcony. Here’s a photo. Each one contains a notable relic: the True Cross, the Spear of Longinus (aka the Spear of Destiny), St. Veronica’s Veil, and the Head of St. Andrew. Here’s a picture of the spear, which is kept in a crystal vase. And here’s a picture of the Head of St. Andrew, which is kept in a container that I think we can all agree is very head-shaped and very normal.

The next map of the Vatican will be the sacristy, since it’s adjacent to the basilica, but first, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: a village built inside the ruins of a huge amphitheater similar to the Colosseum. I’m thinking of circular tiers of houses around the sides, a market in the center, Maybe some sewers, cisterns and shady stuff in the underworks.

I’m pretty into this idea and I expect it to be a fairly large map. Not quite a megaproject, but a lot bigger than Templemore Village, which was a similar sort of idea. Anyway, if you’ve got any suggestions or interesting ideas about it, by all means let me know. I’ll be back once I’ve got something to show you. Until then!