March 2015 3ntry: Dread Bog Witch's Lair
So I decided that I indeed had time to enter the One Page Dungeon Contest since I have the time to do so this month. Since I'll be doing a long series of photo-realistic maps for an upcoming video game strategy guide map commission, I won't be doing any hand-drawn maps for a while, so I decided that I should try and fit a hand-drawn map while I still have time to do one. Of course I am using my hand-drawn/vector hybrid style for this one. Since I also recently created quite a few hand-drawn swamp map objects, I decided to use them for this challenge entry.
My plan is to create a swamp map that covers the entire letter size page. Instead of a key, I plan to place comic book frames on the top, sides and bottom that will contain some comic figures, but mostly hand-drawn text details on the local dangers, the plot (which I haven't figured out yet), a couple NPCs and a villain, and an inset map of the larger area that this hollow tree lair is contained within - all written in "fluff" style, with no mechanical references to any actual game system. Since my upcoming video game strategy guide map commissions will be for Arkham Origins Blackgate (Batman), I'm inspired by the comic aspect of Batman, which is the reason I'm trying this tact.
The Dread Bog is an extensive forest wetlands swamp along a great river, thick with cypress groves and hardly any dry land throughout. A witch is said to lair within the hollowed center of a huge cypress tree in the center of this swamp. A part of the tree is still alive with trunk and branches rising high above, while the rest of the tree has become a home for a dread witch.
So far, I've created the cypress tree lair. I plan to furnish the inside, and place piers surrounding part of the lower part of the tree covering some of the bottom. I will also include giant cypress knees, but I want to determine where the piers are first before I include them. I might include a couple adjacent trees or islets connecting by bridging or planking from the witch's main tree lair. After which I'll fill the surrounding terrain with islets and my swamp objects.
Only once the map portion is complete will I add the comic book frames and adventure text.
Oh, and for those thinking "Hey, that's not a dungeon!", read the rules and review the past entries for the OPDC, and you'll note - a dungeon by their definition is a map of any playable location, even a wilderness map like this one.
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