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Lava Pool Dungeon |
This is a belated follow-up to two posts I made back in 2013, where I scanned maps from my youth drawn on photocopies of the "Draw Your Own Floor Plan" sheet in the back of the module B2.
Again, there's no surviving key for this map, but I'll note a few features:
As previously, black squares are pits and yellow squares are falling ceiling blocks.
2: Stairs lead down to a lower room, shown in outline. I'm not sure about the zigzag.
6: End of the corridor is the mouth of a monster! Note the little eyes and arms.
7: Ramp sliding down to a pit. Update: IIRC, this is from a similar trap in Tomb of Horrors.
9: Bridge over part of the underground river influenced by the river in the Sample Dungeon.
12: Trap where pressure plates at each end trigger the spiked walls to crush together.
13: Magic Pool. Not sure how the tiny area to the south was supposed to be accessed.
14: East side of room is cavern, with a secret door in one crevice.
15: Trap door in floor leads to tunnel under river and on to room 16.
16: The trap to the north of the room is a falling net.
17: Waterfall, drawn falling down the edge of the map.
18: Crevasse in the middle of the corridor. The style of the crevasse is from the map features Key in Moldvay Basic, page B58.
20: Platform/Altar on the edge of a lava pool. The black spot in the lava may be a rock, or some sort of monster.
See also Drawn Your Own Floor Plan I and Part II. I just updated Part I when I realized that many of my friend's trap features were influenced by the Traps list in Moldvay Basic.
The Zenopus Archives website has a gallery with all of these maps in one place.
Again, there's no surviving key for this map, but I'll note a few features:
As previously, black squares are pits and yellow squares are falling ceiling blocks.
2: Stairs lead down to a lower room, shown in outline. I'm not sure about the zigzag.
6: End of the corridor is the mouth of a monster! Note the little eyes and arms.
7: Ramp sliding down to a pit. Update: IIRC, this is from a similar trap in Tomb of Horrors.
9: Bridge over part of the underground river influenced by the river in the Sample Dungeon.
12: Trap where pressure plates at each end trigger the spiked walls to crush together.
13: Magic Pool. Not sure how the tiny area to the south was supposed to be accessed.
14: East side of room is cavern, with a secret door in one crevice.
15: Trap door in floor leads to tunnel under river and on to room 16.
16: The trap to the north of the room is a falling net.
17: Waterfall, drawn falling down the edge of the map.
18: Crevasse in the middle of the corridor. The style of the crevasse is from the map features Key in Moldvay Basic, page B58.
20: Platform/Altar on the edge of a lava pool. The black spot in the lava may be a rock, or some sort of monster.
See also Drawn Your Own Floor Plan I and Part II. I just updated Part I when I realized that many of my friend's trap features were influenced by the Traps list in Moldvay Basic.
The Zenopus Archives website has a gallery with all of these maps in one place.
What a great map - am I correct in assuming this is your version of the Cave of the Unknown (judging from the cave entrance and the elevation grade to the north of it)?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your monster at the end of the corridor was inspired by that illustration in Blackmoor I think it is, with the trio of adventurers entering a cave that looks like the mouth of a monster.
The little room to the south of the pool could probably be accessed by diving into the pool and swimming down the river - although characters could end up getting swept over the waterfall!
I'm guessing the black spot in the lava was a rock with a treasure or item on it...
It's possibly for Cave of the Unknown, but I don't recall. I did get Blackmoor at some point in the late 80s but this map probably preceded that. That's probably the most likely explanation for accessing the little room although the stream only seems to be about 2' wide. Possibly the magic pool would shrink you and let you fit.
DeletePaleologos' comments are awesome! Even if they aren't correct, I'm going to pretend that they are :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I see you have a contour line running across the level change there! My Site Formation for Landscape Architects class would be proud. Clearly this is a dungeon not far below the surface but following the shape of the land, like the Caves of Chaos.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that above. The contour line was influenced by the TSR area maps that used them like B2 and L1.
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