afternoonmaps

City Dump Battle Map - Launch

Added 2021-12-23 23:08:01 +0000 UTC

Hello Adventurers and a happy holidays! I’ve been drawing trash for the last couple of weeks and although it's not exactly holiday themed I thought you’d still want this one before Christmas :D

I did a little research into historical junkyards and rubbish dumps for this and found some interesting information on historical waste disposal. Simply put there weren’t really large-scale dumps as we know them today (we really do live in very wasteful times). There were privately run rubbish collection and sorting businesses called Dust-yards, some of my British Patrons will know the people that collect our bins as Dustmen. Most of the waste was ash, along with other household rubbish, which was taken and sorted at Dust-yards near rivers or canals. I imagine a fantasy city could very well have a similar system.

Next Maps

December has been busier than I anticipated, so I’m a little behind on my map creation. I’ll be working on the Swamp Hags Hut to be released early next month, with the Lords Chambers coming after that. I’ve added another map to the list, the Walled/Secret Garden.

Swamp Hags Hut (Lair)
An old tumbledown Hut in the middle of some dank woods/swamps. Maybe this could have some underground component, a little mini Dungeon, or a half-flooded cave system the hag/hags do their rituals in.
Lords Chambers (Castle’s Private Quarters)
This one will expand on the castle set I’ve been planning on creating. This time I’ll be looking at a wing of a castle that consists of the Lord’s/Count’s private quarters. It will have bed chambers, a general lounge, and/or a reading room. I suspect there will be some secret rooms with weirder stuff, I’m thinking torture chambers, a mini-laboratory, or a shrine to some forbidden diety.
Walled/Secret Garden (with Folly)
I imagine this could be a formal garden of some 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.

Thanks so much for your support this year! I’m so very grateful to be able to create maps for you all and help tell your wonderful stories <3 Those of you that are celebrating over the next few days, I wish you all the happiness in the world and look forward to a new year with hopefully better prospects for us all. Thank you all once again and as always happy adventuring! Oh, and did someone remember to take out the bins? ;)

Map Descriptions

The Neighborhood
You can smell the dump well before you reach the tall brick walls that surround it. A pungent aroma of refuse, ash, and decay lingers in the air, the few people on the street don’t seem to notice or pay it any mind. The streets around the dump are strewn with rubbish, the buildings in this neighborhood are mostly warehouses, old dilapidated buildings, many seem abandoned, all are in different states of disrepair.

The Dump
Inside the walls, the rubbish is piled high into large mountainous heaps, narrow alleys weave between them, often blocked by half-filled boxes and avalanches of refuse. The garbage is predominantly heaps of ash, broken household items, and rubbish swept from the city streets. Some items have been collected together and stored in boxes and crates.

The Shack
The old shack is rickety and in desperate need of maintenance. Its walls are made from old reclaimed pieces of timber, not one matching another. An old set of rough stairs leads up onto a flat roof that sags dangerously in the middle. An open-sided lean-to is attached to the shack, filled with workbenches and crates. At the far end is a large rusty cage, its interior dark and covered in hay and sawdust. Heavy chains are attached to the back wall.

Notes and Tips

30x30 Grid map
This map can be cut into smaller sections. You could remove the shack or the city streets, making it look like a section of a large facility.
The piles of rubbish are unstable, climbing on them or disturbing them can result in collapse. Rubbish avalanches are not a good way to go! The rubbish mountains can also be used for a height advantage.
This place is run by the ‘Trash Lord’. An eccentric crime boss that thinks he is a dragon cursed to be stuck in his human form. He has convinced a clan of Kobolds he really is a dragon and uses them as his minions. Maybe he’s telling the truth :P
Any number of things could have taken up residence in the trash piles and it's the party's job to root them out. Trash Goblins, Giant Rats, Giant Cockroaches, Slimes, Jellies, even an Otyugh. Just theme them towards trash and you are good!
Something of worth has been accidentally lost and sent to the dump, get your party sifting through the waste, only to find something lives here, and it's not friendly.
The Dump is protected by guard ‘dogs’. They don’t need to be dogs, in fact, I’d be disappointed with you if they weren’t at least Hell Hounds :D
Someone has been dumping magical waste into the river illegally. The party has been sent to investigate. I imagine it could be an illicit magical organization unlicenced to be doing magic within the city. Evil obviously ;)
The locals talk of a grotesque beast that climbs out of the dump’s toxic lake at night and stalks the neighborhood. Its foul stench can overcome even the heartiest adventurer.