The First Deep Wastes Battle matts for against the Robots

Lone Erratic

Water hole and low hills

Both are variations on the same map in much the same way as I did those for the more fertile parts of the north the main difference between the two other than some features is that I remembered to add a faint cracked mus texture to the areas of bare earth on the second as a way of adding a bit more visual interest when zoomed in

In both cases they could be individualised  by the addition of tokens once uploaded to Roll20 there will be more in this line when I have had some time to think about what to do

Wooly Gazers beasts of the Wastes

A Gazing Beast

more about these to follow

Angrad (torch) Market a work in progress

 Made enough of a start to post this

A work in progress map based on an enlarged section of the map of Torch from the first Iron Gods module. This has been stretched and enlarged considerably which has causes a lot of pixilation and other artefacts form manipulating the image  and automated cleaning up and sharpening of the image having not worked as I wanted it I have resorted to manually retouching the image

More of the same done whilst it might not look that different the image will be cleaner in Roll20 but its still no where near done.

More work done I have all the paths and the roads sorted and the areas water but there are a lot of hoses to do as whilst they look fine at the size shown above they break down into pixilated blobs when you zoom in and given that the image may get further manipulated when it goes up onto Roll20 this is not a good thing

Screen shot Close up

The screen shot of the image viewed at 100% rather than 18% I think gives some idea of what I am fixing and I am begging to really loathe doing  urban maps even more. This is a relatively unworked area but you can see the start of my fixes on the buildings re-outlining them and then and then blocking them back in. All rather involved and time consuming.

More progress made

Yet more progress made but its painfully slow work compared to the rural maps and I am still cleaning up the distortions caused by manipulating the original image

A screen shot of pretty much same area as the first close up image and as you cam see there is a lot less image manipulation artefacts but a lot less detail as the artefacts where a result of the break up of the detailing on the original image.

More done mostly on the trees and beginning to put down some roof details in the form of ridge lines. Three is still some unwanted image manipulation artefacts mostly on the lots around the buildings and I am trying to work out how to deal with those, as well as to decide on the level of detail I need to add to the map. 

Screen shot showing the trees which I am quite pleased with as well as some of the remaining artefacts and the limited work I have done the houses

More done yesterday whilst unable to post  mostly house roof detail but also some other things and a few more of the remaining artefacts bit the dust. The Changes might be a bit to subtle to show clearly zoomed out this far

Against the Robots A field of Erratics

another battle mat 

Open country in the wilds showing animal trails and a cluster of large erratics

An Erratic being a large boulder deposited by a glacer or in this case an ice sheet classically found atop a mound of finer deposits or uneroded material as these are. 

Also have the Market Place at Angrad (torch) in the works and had rather planed to get a WIP of it posted if not it actually done but was rather distracted by my non gaming life so that plan will have to wait a bit longer

The finalized half ruined fortress

The final Version

I am quite pleased with this but it has led me to realise that I need to do more maps for earlier in the story particularly I need one of the Market square at Torch before I run it again.

Nasty stuff from the northlands

Artefacts recovered from the wastes 

Descriptions 

These weapons are largely named for the noise they make when discharged all are very simple to use once mastered and fire horrendously fast compared with just about every other weapon in the game. Most are ranged and are largely assumed to be magic of an unknown type.  They also have the capacity to utterly terrify even the boldest Kethian tribes man on sight and are taboo with them to a level that worked even conventional worked metal is not.The names given are either descriptive or in some way onomatopoeic based on  the sound it makes when discharged.

It is also important to note that whilst these may all appear to be in some way enchanted and analogous to the wands arcane spell casters make on occasion none of them  detect as in any way magical appearing entirely mundane in all such divinations, they are also to all intents and purposes indestructible in normal use much as a +5 piece of equipment is.

BzzCrack

resembles a for shortened and rather stubby cross bow without a span  made of some entirely of some light weight metal it is feature less externally except for an arrow shaft diameter hole in the face where the span  on the cross bow if it where a cross bow would be attached. This goes about three inches into it and then stops. If is can be discharged and not all of them can it as many are either inert when found or become so after a few discharges. This seems to require a steady pressure on the place where a cross bow trigger would be ant the taking up of a shooting stance, there is no trigger and it active the device discharges with a soft buzz  then a load crack. what it discharges is unclear as it is in most conditions invisible thought after several discharges the area of the hole becomes warm and some have reported that it shows as a ray of light would in a dusty or smoky environment. Whatever it is seems to burn its target and largely ignores any sort of armour beyond burning or melting  a neat hole in it of similar dimensions to that of the hole in the span end of the item. One thing is certain its discharge has a devastating effect on flesh appearing to leave deeply burned locally to the strike and almost cooked beyond that. There are some reports of lightning arcing all over metal armour but those few sages who have heard of these things and Kethian folk lore discount this. There seems to be no way of reloading the thing or of telling how many times it can be discharged before becoming inert. 

Distance (ft) Attack Die
5 - 80 d20p
81 - 140  d20p-4
141 - 190 d20p-6
191 - 250 d20p-8
250+         d20p-10

These might seem low but the item has no way of sighting it except looking along its length as is as such no more accurate than a crossbow.

GM note when found the item has 2d6p charges but don't tell the player.

Fzattt
a much shorter and in parts slimmer item resembling in many ways a stubby wand with a slight asymmetric kink in unlike the former it is not clear where the thing discharges from and some have reported discharging it at themselves as a result. fortunately the effects of the discharge are non lethal but do cause the target to become slowed or even stunned. As before the discharge is not visible though some with  low light vision report a faint bluish flash in complete darkness as the discharge strikes its target.

The mechanical effect is to attempt to force a ToP check with the discharge causing 2d10p points of virtual damage for this purpose.the effect on the target depends on the result of the check.

Mechanically any hit add a +1 to the speed of any action in progress and may cause spell mishaps other than that the normal rule for trauma apply except that the strike is not particularly painful having a numbing effect. Multiple hits stack and can cause fatal results on rare occasions but most just increase the time to recover

Distance (ft) Attack Die
5 - 30 d20p
31 - 50 d20p-4
51 - 70 d20p-6
71 - 100 d20p-8
100+       d20p-10

Spitter 
Of all the Artefact weapons  one is the most compensable in that it seems to shoot a projectile of very hot and possibly initially molten metal. That said the source of the metal it shoots and the method by which it shoots it are just as impenetrable as the other ones

Distance (ft) Attack Die
0 - 5  automatically its every one in the radius of  5' with a shower of hot metal droplets including the user armour does not protect and every one takes 1d4p 1 point wounds

5 - 30 d20p damage 2d6p+2d4p Dr of heavy metallic armour is doubled but the target also takes 1d4p 1 point wounds as above
31 - 50 d20p-4 damage 2d6p+1d4p
51 - 70 d20p-6 damage 1d6pp+1d4p  
71 - 100 d20p-8 damage1d6p

Combined  weapons table

Weapon Name	Strength Required	Skill Level	Damage	Shield Damage	Rate of fire	Weapon Size	Max range	Damage type
BzzCrack Fzattt Spitter	8 5 5	low low low	4d10 Special Special	2 nil 1d6p	3s 5s 5s	medium small small	500 120 100	E E P

Somthing for the future

A conversion of the map for one of the parts of the second Iron Gods book

WIP ONE

It started of as a tracing of the map from the PDF but has been adapted and indeed is still being adapted as I work it into my bespoke setting. an this has included inserting a base layer which is the same one used for most of my northern wilds battle mats

I have quite a lot more work to do on this yet and I may not be needing it for some time however I wanted to get it up here and show it off as its the first attempt I have made at such a thing.

WIP TWO

A bit more work done in particular trying to give the three dimensional effect that the original map I traced form had to the fortress walls in particular

WIP THREE

 I am now going to go off and work on improving some of the common map textures for a bit particularly that of the flowers so common in the north in the short summer.

WIP FOUR

Now  after some more tweaking and the addition of the ubiquitous summer flowers I think we are getting there

Consolidated Nortlands Summer maps Part I

All the Maps I have done so far and which will be going up on the Against the Robots game over the week end.

Farm

Wilds one

Wilds two

Wilds Three

Wilds four

River crossing at farms edge

The Road house

The Village

Against the Robots Episode 0ne

what happened in the session

Well the honest answer is nothing really we had just made a  some what delayed start with half the players present when the GM's internet connection went down and after around an hour of trying to work out why and fix it and failing and beginning to get rather annoyed  he decided that going to bed was in order it being after one am UK time at that point so this seemed a good choice.

However the pre game chat did come to the conclusion that we should perhaps run it at a more sociable time as we have people in a fair spread of time zones form  GMT-6 to GMT +2 all of whom have day jobs and non gaming lives which can get in the way  .

A Northlands Villiage

because it deserves a post in its own right 

Last call for Episode I of Against the Robots

with the clock at T - one hour I am all ready to go but will be taking a quick power nap before heading on out to the hangout. and the game.

Against the Robots Episode 1

The Flame Flickers and dies

on the northern borders of the great Varzzaran empire the new company of Varnia rides out to the town of Angrad on a mission to see a scholar and weapon smith of their crippled masters acquaintance bearing a sealed letter to the master Weapon smith  and where the road goes from there any one can guess.

Another North lands Rural map - a work in progress

Still a work in progress but I have an early start so I will have to finish it off latter

More work done adding additional paths to the fields and texture to the banked fields so its developing but there is still quite a bit more tom be done.  One of the additions that I am considering is a path down to the sink hole in the north east corner made by the village live stock when they are taken to be watered and perhaps a paddock or two like the one I din on the earlier road house. I also think I need to suggest the presence of crops in the fields.

I am beginning to think that this one is almost done I need to finish of the house roves as I have only started on some and to make the banks around the fields look a bit more three dimensional but I feel its close and heading in the right direction 

I am all in all increasingly chuffed with these battle mats

This is I think now finished 

Standard Vazaran Road house

 A Summer map

The external detail of a common Vazzaran road hose variations on which are to be found around every twenty miles along any major rural thoroughfare in the north lands. The province a bed and board to weary travellers as well as the chance to restock on basic gear and supplies in winter though this one is depicted in summer stumbling upon one has been the difference between life and death for many.

Internally they are not significantly different form any in one may have encountered any where, and a map of the inside of a typical one is a future project..

Some more northen wilds encounter maps

A rural map from the north. a bit more of a civilized locale featuring a ford across a fast flowing seasonal melt water stream and one of the small banked fields typical of the area as well as some of the topography which is cool when you get it right so I am practising away at it. This to be honest is one of the reasons I have done so many of these maps when I am not I think going to need them right away.

 

An earlier Battle mat tweaked to add some hills

Having done this I think I prefer the new way I am doing these maps however it does add to the variety available for use. I need to do some winter ones next thought its going to be a while before they are needed.

Northern Wastes Battle Mats

I am building up a collection of these for Against the Robots 

This one  was done in an effort to show a a bit more of the typical features of the more fertile parts of the wastes in summer the fast flowing seasonal stream in the top corner  and the sink hole where the permafrost had melted differentially leaving a small deep pond. I also had a go at adding three dimensions to an other wise flat map with the small hill topped by an erratic ( stray bolder) jutting out of the otherwise fairly flat flower covered plain

Another variation on the same theme showing a bit more topography and a game trail. The nice thing about these is that they can me customised further once uploaded to Roll20 by adding map tokens and even drawing additional elements on them even thought the drawing tools in Roll20 are not as sophisticated as GIMP they are easy to use for that last minute tweak

The More Barren Parts of the Wastes

Evocative   Images

Deep in the wastes

Seasonal Melt water Stream

Central Plain

The more fertile edges of the wastes

Mostly images looted form an internet image search on Iceland but blown up larger than perhaps they should be they take on a painting like quality and evoke the hard and often forbidding lands north of the gap and that is before you reach the Mountains of the Giants of the sea of Grinding ice.

More battle maps for the Against the Robots

The wilds in summer 

Battle Map for Against the Robots

Done with GIMP on an A3 canvas this is the first attempt I have made at drawing a random encounter map for the Against the robots game and I feel it needs some more tweaking but an still thinking about quite how. It is meant  to show a typical small isolated rural farm probably built by southern immigrants and mostly designed for subsistence farming. It features the typical small thatched cottage tower shaped grain store couple of southern deciduous trees all surrounded by the riot of colour that is the more fertile part of the northern wastes in summer thought the plants are not the native grasses and succulent vetches found south of the gap though the farmers have attempted to plant a small meadow around the permafrost summer melt pond and their imported trees.

Be warned expect more in a similar vein as I prepare for the game which should be Monday next week I hope