D&Demetrius 2025 Map Pack - Part 2

Welcome back fellow adventurers! We're kicking off the releases with a beloved location from Dark Souls, the Darkroot Basin! One of my personal favorite areas, the Darkroot Basin and general Darkroot Gardens, have such a unique atmosphere, low moonlight, misty corners, and lush greenery, perfect for ambushes, dark dealings, and just all around surprises!

Right after the tower that Havel is constrained in, and right before numerous important bosses, is a small basin with an "interesting" denizen...the first dreaded hydra you come across in the game!

As always, I've created a multitude of variants, 14 in total, for this beloved scene, which you can preview below. Dragon Tamers also get a top down token of the Hydra that is included in one of the variants, so you can use it with any of them, or any other of your maps!

_{The figure sits slumped against a moss-covered wall, clad in rotted leather and chain, their voice rasping yet longing, you are surprised this one hasn't turned hollow yet...}

_{"Mmm… So you've taken to wandering the garden, have you?
Beware the path beneath the stone tower… Yes, the one they sealed, long ago. The mad knight once kept vigil there. Havel… he feared the gods, or so they say.}

_{Beyond the tower, down where the roots run deep and the air grows wet, there lies a basin forgotten by time.}

_{Green, yes, verdant and still. But do not let it fool you. The water there is not for man to touch.}

_{A beast waits, a relative to the ancient dragons of yore, heads like serpents, eyes like glass. It watches the lake. Always watching.
The old ones called it Hydra. A remnant, perhaps, of dragon-blood and broken age.}

_{Many brave fools went to that water, drawn by the shimmer of scales or the sound of the falls.
None returned whole. If they returned at all. Still, if it is power you seek… heh…
then drink deep of the abyss, and pray your bones are not found beneath the lilies."}

 

 

Welcome back adventurers! Hope you’re all well and rested. This is our first release for the month, continuing our Dwarven-Themed map packs. After braving the stronghold’s descent and city center, we’re stepping into the mind and muscle of dwarven ingenuity: the Tinkerer Workshop. Next up on our themed releases will either be a dwarven tavern or a runic-inscriber! Haven't decided yet. Before that though I will probably have an unrelated release. Regardless, hope you'll enjoy this and our upcoming releases!

We stepped from the quiet neighborhood into a place alive with clinks, clicks, and the faint hum of machinery and distant welding equipment. A red runner, deep as fresh-forged iron, stretched ahead, its weave heavy with the sigils of the artificers’ guild-hammers, cogs, and fine little tool-marks. Despite it clearly being a shop of sorts, the air was warm with oil and brass, and the smell of singed cloth drifted from somewhere deeper in. To our left and right, stone counters brimmed with curiosities: goggles with shifting lenses that winked in the light, brass spiders that twitched their legs when you drew near, knives that cut air as if it were cloth, and crystals that hummed faintly under the gaze. Automatons and mechanical robots whirred and made faint clacking sounds, as their gears and cogs grinded against each other. Above us, tall arched windows spilled gold light down across the displays, dust motes drifting like sparks from an unseen forge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Welcome, welcome,’ boomed the shopkeep, a bald and broad-bellied dwarf with one finger stained in grease and ink, and the other in some strange mechanical gauntlet. ‘You’re just in time. Got fresh stock in, mind your pockets, some of it’s cleverer than you are.’ He grinned, and the grin had the same shine as his brass-toothed jaw.

Pipes ran overhead like coiled serpents, hissing gently, carrying the scent of the workshop beyond. Somewhere deeper, I could hear the steady rhythm of hammers and the occasional crackle of crystal discharge. Past the counters, through a stone archway, lay the domain of the tinkerers proper, and the work that would make the wonders on these shelves seem like children’s toys.

 

Adventurers and heroes, welcome back! Today we have a winding path up the mountain. Your players are headed to their destination, but an ambush, a landslide, or some harpies could offer a great opportunity for some mid-travel combat or skill challenges! As always, the variants I've created offer you a few ideas for encounters you can work around, check them out below.

We followed the road as it clung to the mountain’s side, little more than a scar carved into the stone. To our left rose the mountain, impending, a sheer and cold watchman, streaked with veins of iron, a constant looming threat, standing still for now. To our right, the world fell away into mist. Far below, glimpses of green broke through the haze, where a river wound its silver way through a hidden grove. The wind carried the scent of pine and wet earth, though up here, only dust and grit filled the air as we traversed through the...

 

The path climbed steadily, spiraling upward with each turn, until the mountain itself seemed to swallow the horizon. Loose stones shifted beneath our boots, and every echo seemed louder than it should be, bouncing back from unseen heights. It was no road of peace, but a place where ambush or accident could end a journey in silence and in falling.

Still we pressed on, for beyond the spiraling trail lay our goal, higher still. Perhaps the Seven Spires, or the heart of some dwarven hold. The path itself was only a way, yet even a way may be a test, and the mountain never yields without asking its price.”

 

 

The Dungeon Monastery is a massive underground complex, a mixture between a traditional dungeon and a holy place of contemplation and asceticism. The overall tone and aesthetic of the interior is derived from Eastern Orthodox churches and monasteries, particular those I visited at  Mount Athos. You will find gold-embraided icons, colorful mosaics, and wall iconography, in the general style of Byzantine churches. The interior includes a church or chapel, with a nave, worship area, iconostasis, and psaltire (the chanting stands).

“The monastery pressed itself against the mountain’s ribs, a weight of stone and faith that seemed more grown than built. The wall was thick with moss, and the iron gate sagged on its hinges, dark with rust and rain. Beyond lay a courtyard split by weeds and broken flagstones, where two tall bell towers rose into the grey sky. Their golden tongues silent, at least until the darkest part of the time, when they will sing yet again, announcing the mid-night prayer. We have finally arrived at the....

 

 

At the center between them, the mountain itself opened to receive us. Wide steps descended into shadow, carved smooth by centuries of sandaled feet. The air grew cool and heavy with the scent of wax, dust, and smoke that lingered even in the absence of prayer. The mountain did not welcome us. It consumed us, stone by stone, until the world above was gone.

The silence grew thicker the deeper we went, until it was broken by a faint prayer, repeating, calm, and nearly inaudible. Icons peered down from cracked walls, their faces solemn and stoic, saints, angels, and sages unknown to you. The dimly lit corridors feel oddly relaxing, yet you remind yourself to keep your guard up. You are in a place of devotion, yet you are well aware that corruption has spread even to these lands, and these monks might not only be capable of prostrations and fasting...."

 

 

Cultist hunters and heroes, welcome back! These cavernous paths and yawning holes await you to craft an ideal scenario for your own campaigns! 

“We've been tracking these cultists for weeks. Ever since the disappearance of yet another fief, his lordship had had enough, he called upon us to serve his justice. Finally, their tracks led us here. Yet we've been going down for hours....or days...my sense of time is fleeting from me, and I begin to hear and see things that are not truly there..."
~Journal Entry Page 2




"The caves twist downwards like the throat of some buried beast. The air is thick and close, the stone sweating with damp, and every sound seems to echo far longer than it should.
Our torches cast orange glow on the cave's walls, but the dark always presses close again, swallowing the glow as if eager to claim us.
Chanting! I hear it!"
~Journal Entry Page 5

"Effigies, crude yet terrifying faces carved from stone and bone were raised in these cavernous halls, the blood upon which they stood watered with blood...of what or whom I dare not think. The bastards are dead, but the aftermath of their occult rituals left most of us retching our breakfast....yet there is something else, sounds that shouldn't be heard, yet we can all hear them in perfect unison...deeper in, there is something, a....chasm...."
~Journal Entry, last page