Midgard and Call of Cthulhu Maps and Illustrations for Kobold Press

The “The Red Eye of Azathoth” is a millennia-spanning Call of Cthulhu campaign in five parts. It pits the investigators against two Mythos factions battling over whether to summon Azathoth to destroy the world. It starts on an island off the coast of British Northumbria in 887 A.D., just after Viking raiders raze a British monetary. The investigators reincarnate four times to continue their battle to save the world, in medieval Japan, Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, colonial Roanoke Island, and finally the Arizona Territory in 1887. Tim Connors wrote the Viking/monk adventure, Tim and I co-wrote the Spanish Inquisition adventure, and I wrote the Arizona Territory installment, which we all came to call Wild Westathulhu.

Here’s the main map of the wild west adventure setting, Cañón de Espiración, a small box canyon east of the Mojave, named for the sound of the desert winds sighing between its cliffs. Ten years before the adventure, three thousand souls filled the canyon’s gold-mining boomtown. By 1887, most of the town’s mines have been tapped out, and its population has plummeted to fewer than two hundred. Many buildings stand vacant, and everyone simply calls it “Desperation.”

I cannot tell you how much fun I had with this map! Of all the maps in this set, this is the only one of which I’m really proud.

Take a look at the street pattern. They form the Mythos symbol for summoning Azathoth: a humanoid body whose head forms the pupil of an eye. It’s the image in the tiny black-and-white file attached. The players’ investigators have been bumping into this symbol through five lifetimes, but they likely don’t notice the pattern until they try drawing their own map of the streets they’re walking.

Here are the local jail and church. I like the jail! Great colors, convincing illumination, nice composition. It cries out for a jail-break sequence.

The church is the location where the entire millennia-spanning adventure comes to its climax, the site where the insane antagonist finally opens the dimensional doorway to summon Azathoth and end the world. I’m disappointed with this one. Too muddy and dark. No real sense of light despite the high contrast.

Not the best map for the place where the world likely comes to an end.

Here are four illustrations of investigators the players likely play in the Wild Westathulhu adventure. In the published adventure, space limitations required Wolfgang and his art and layout editors to publish only cropped-down images of their faces. No one has seen the full images before. I drew myself as the gunslinger in the lower-right corner, with extra-gaunt, scarred and sick-looking, and with a Doc Holliday mustache. Not the first or last time I'll be my own model. I'm cheep!

My Viking adventure for “Midgard Tales” produced eight maps. All will be redrawn by another cartographer to ensure a consistent look in the final publication. That should free me up to share a couple now, before the book hits the bookshelf. Better than that, they might serve as advertisements inviting roleplayers to snag the book when it comes out! You really should. Putting my adventure aside, I've been involved in playtesting many of the others. They are spectacular!

Here’s one of my maps of a traditional Viking mead hall and another of the ground floor of a tower three-quarters encased inside a glacier.

Last and surely least, here’s an overview map of the village of Viezla (which means “meeting place” in Old Norse). I did not get anywhere near finishing this one. The town hosts the annual Ice-Break "Þing" (Old Norse for festival, pronounced "thing"), where you can by any of the wares available in the Northlands, drink yourself unconscious in the mead halls, and watch or participate in numerous events. Longship races. Archery and melee competitions. Dog, wolf, and bear-pit fights. Combat Dogsled Race (many two-person teams, blunted melee weapons only; disqualified for harming another’s dog). Fear Not the Axe competitions (throwing axes at a companion by torchlight; whoever comes closest without hitting, or companion flinching, wins). Even a rousing round of Take the Maiden (like capture-the-flag, but with women instead of flags, played with blunted melee weapons while riding charmed-bear-drawn war sleds).

Yeah, yeah, I've slipped into another advertisement for "Midgard Tales". But it's such an awesome collection of adventures!! How can you resist!!

I may go back to it some day, even though this map will never get published. I’d like to drape snow across the mountains and rock forms and pull the forests up over their footings. I’d like to pull in a wider variety of subtle colors. But most of all, I’d like to plunge the scene more deeply into darkness. Then I could add all of the buildings and light them from within and the squares from without with torch and fire light. The center of Viezla could glow with a radiant warmth pouring out over the snow, and the outlining structures and mead halls could flicker like candles in darkness. Ah, that could be glorious!

Some day.

So there are a few of the maps and illustrations I've been working on recently. I'm now up to my neck in painting the illustration for the Midgard Tales cover. Since that one WILL be published, I cannot show you even a glimpse of the drafts.

Kobold Press remains one of my favorite publishers to work for. Wolfgang and his crew are fantastic, and they have an endless stream of projects. If you're interested in producing fantasy cartography, you ought to consider contacting them!

Wow - that's a ton of cool stuff. Thanks for sharing - and good luck with the MT cover! I couldn't agree more. Kobold Press are fantastic, and always put out excellent work.

I love the way you do your water on the ships and boats ... very nice.

Yeah thats some real nice work there - all of them. You can do free hand work, 2D maps, 3D boats the whole 9 yards. Very good stuff.

Thanks, guys!

The deck plans were particularly fun. It's the first time I've done thorough deck plans since the maps for my adventure, "Freedom's Flight" for Serenity Adventures, by Margaret Weis Games. (I won an Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement for that one.) Wicker and wood proved just as enjoyable as space craft!