Giambattista's Megadungeon

Doing some organizing in my D&D folder on my computer today I came across this incredible megadungeon map drawn by Giambattista Nolli in 1748.  I think I came across this one day while Google image searching for floorplans and recognized it for the masterpiece in dungeon construction that it is.  You can visit an interactive zoomable navigable version of the map here (thanks UO!).

I am going to use portions of this for the ruins of ancient Abolon that my 5e Waterdeep campaign players are likely going to be discovering soon under the sewers.

This is just a snippet - the full map is way too big to paste here.

As promised, more maps - Blue Opal House

I promised my 5e Waterdeep Campaign group that I would post the above-ground, more-or-less public levels of the Blue Opal House before our next session. 

One of these days soon I will finish up the recaps of session 1 and 2 and that will included some backstory on the Blue Opal House.  Until then no further explanation of these scribbles will be posted here besides a note that the stairs between levels 2 and 3 were accidentally drawn in reversed direction (they should be leading down from level 3 to level 2, and likewise up from level 2 to level 3).  

Blue Opal House Roof

Blue Opal House 4th floor

Blue Opal House - 3rd floor

Blue Opal House - 2nd floor

Blue Opal House - Ground Level

As promised, some maps

We just had the  2nd session of my new Waterdeep campaign yesterday.  I promised the group I would post some maps for them to reference.

During our first session the group had scraped together and paid a rush fee (50gp) to the Surveyors, Map & Chart-Makers' Guild for a copy of a map of the city sewers.  Although rush jobs typically take two days, the guild had extra copies of the sewer map as they are under contract with the Cellarers and Plumbers' Guild to maintain and supply up-to-date maps of the sewers.

The group also asked the Steward (and current employer of the PCs) of House Adalbrant (known for patronage of map & chart-makers in pursuit of their expansionist trade dreams) if there happened to be any maps of the city sewers in the house library.  There was indeed an older map, drawn before the construction of many of the sewer mains which now connect the sewers of the different wards.  This older map shows 3 sinkholes that drained out the sewers (down into subterranean levels unknown) of the North Ward, Trades Ward and parts of Castle and Dock Ward.  There are some other differences between the two maps, and anywhere a passage shown on the old map bisects one of the new sewer lines, there is a bricked over passage.  The party already knew that there were many old tunnels that were walled off in the sewer (thanks to the late great Marco, contact of party murder-hobo Lochelech.  Poor Marco met an extremely bitter fate in last night's session, but that is a story for another post).

Current Sewer Map (from Waterdeep and the North by Ed Greenwood)

Old Sewer Map showing 3 drain sinkholes

Starting Friends

The first session of my new 5e Waterdeep campaign is tonight - getting excited!  Just finished up a table for determining some random "starting friends" that each PC will already know in the city.  Here is it in  one page .PDF format.

Table headings: You became friends how?; How would you describe the relationship?; Something unusual?; Useful contact that they have?; What physical features stick out?

Here is the .PDF printable version of the massive list of THOUSANDS of canon NPC names from Forgotten Realms novels that someone at Candlekeep compiled and I formatted to print out for the names I need to generate in game:  Forgotten Realms Name List .PDF Format

Three Magical Items

Pouch of Concealment

Twisting the jewel clasp of this pouch in a particular pattern creates an illusory double of the pouch’s contents at that moment.  This illusion will persist even if the contents are removed or other items are added.  The illusion is all that can be seen if the pouch is opened, and a save is granted only if an item is placed into the pouch or it is reached into (Intelligence Save DC12).  Twisting the clasp again will dispel the illusion.

Crossbow of Illumination

Bolts glow brightly for one hour after being fired from this crossbow, shedding bright light in a 20’ radius and dim light for an additional 20’.

Quarterstaff of Pain

This staff does not do real damage, but on a successful hit causes intense hallucinatory pain, requiring a CON save at DC = unmodified attack roll to take any action the following round except writhe in pain.  If the save is failed by 2 or more the victim also drops prone to the ground.

All Art By Moi