Avalor Map Under Construction
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Two weeks ago I posted about Avalor, the world I created for the monstrous heroes of my D&D in a Castle game. I spent the better part of an evening creating the map above in Roll20 using Russ Hapke’s Old World Style Maps tileset. I definitely recommend checking it out! Making maps using Russ’ tiles is fun, easy, and all of his seventeen sets work together!
Since this map is only for a four-day campaign, I didn’t make Avalor huge. It’s surrounded by ocean, mountains, jungle, forest, and desert. I also put a few weird things in there to pique the players’ interested. What is happening in the gem forest of Emeraldbatch? Why is the Red’s Rest represented by a giant dragon skeleton?
Since war is a big part of our adventure, I want the players to be able to use the map tactically for their slow, steady takeover of Avalor. Exactly how they attempt to take settlements and landmarks will be up to them (infiltration, full-on assaults, diplomacy), but I want them to be able to plan when and how they execute these operations, so I provided a hex scale on the map to help them calculate distances quickly.
This is a zoomed out view of Avalor. There are still small farms, towns, and villages dotting the place.
Now that we know the story of the world and we have a base map, I need your help. Ideas are always better when others also build on them. What else do you think this map needs? It’s not done yet! Throw out some cool ideas, and I’ll make them part of the story.
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May 23, 2019 @ 8:46 am
Sure. A physiogeographical one. The river out of the lake flows north, whereas the terrain as depicted suggests that the flow of water might best head east to the ocean instead.
suggestion: Put a couple of hills to the east of the map, to make it clear that the terrain favors that river flowing south rather than the short route east.
May 24, 2019 @ 10:41 am
That large island in the southeast? That’s Punth, sometimes called the Isle if Shells. Once a year a migration of Tortles use the island as a safe place to rest on their journey. The rest of the year only Gwara, the Tortle druid lives there. She protects Punth from something wicked…something old and dry…
May 24, 2019 @ 10:49 am
Fort Anon and Fort Falon are still at war with one another. They are solely manned by constructs and mindless undead. Nobody has been able to tell them that the armies they served and originally fought in have ended and been replaced with new wars. The ash path is left by the trail destruction from of the magically replenishing weapons they still fire at the opposing forts and the last known locations of enemy forces.
May 24, 2019 @ 11:01 am
That’s a nice map, I could see it inside the cover of a novel.
May 28, 2019 @ 6:59 pm
I really like that image of an upside down pyramid in your last dnd in a castle campaign. Maybe another dungeon in that same vein? Underwater City in Oxillia lake? In a rare miscalculation, the empress didn’t think that the monstrous races would figure out a way to destroy the columns that suspended the city of “Oxillia” above the frigid waters of it’s lake. While she sent her forces to destroy a Monstrous Hero General she left her flank exposed to Hobgoblin Demolition Experts. Now the city lies underneath the frozen lake of “Oxillia”. The monstrous heroes must find a way to search the lost city for a secret about the Elf Empress that could bring about her downfall.