Jan/Feb 2013 Lite Challenge Entry - "Oivalf's Odyssey"
Since I pestered the moderators about when a new lite challenge would start, I figured I had to enter...and the topic worked out pretty well with an ongoing narrative one of my players and I were working out for our campaign. Their character is a half-orc barbarian (viking) from a semi-arctic region. They pillage/plunder party got lost at sea and shipwrecked on the sunny shores of al-qadim.
I've modified the story to suggest that they were on their way to plunder an island rumored to house a sacred temple full of unimaginable treasures. They reached the temple, but from that point forward, the character (Oivalf) completely blacked out. He awakes alone in the middle of the sea on a small river boat/canoe. There is no land in sight and he has no idea where he is, how he got there or how long he's been out for. His clothes are bloodied and in tatters and the only possessions he still has are his backpack (which luckily contains a compass and journal among other things), shield, and axe. He also finds several vases of fresh water on the ship. After a perilous time at sea, he eventually arrives on the desert coast. He has never heard of this place and no one he meets has ever heard of where he's from.
So, my entry will be his journal notes...where he records what he knows and tries to figure out whats missing. I'm using the outline of a map I already did of his home region (Myrr)...I figure this doesn't violate the rules since I'm only using the outline and will be filling it in a bit with different symbols in a completely different style.
I'm still pretty new to photoshop...so trying to figure out how to make a convincing looking journal...I've also never made a map in this black outline on parchment paper style....so any comments, criticisms, and general thoughts would be very helpful.
### LATEST WIP ###
*I'm not at all wedded to the font or actual text used at this point...it was mostly just an experiment to see how I would start laying the whole thing out. I plan on using the bottom right page to map out the coast of my Al-Qadim region (Manaff). The space in the top right will probably be used for more of his notes and maybe a small sketch of the boat he found himself on
