This week’s Friday Five Minute Map challenge over on Google+ was to post an isometric map. This challenge was a bit intimidating to me, as I am just now getting comfortable with the cavern maps with hatching I have been practicing. I was quickly reminded the point of a challenge was to actually be  a challenge and I started to view a few other maps in preparation.

Using isometric graph paper and pencil I was able to get the basic outline of my map down on paper within five minutes. Do not underestimate the importance of using isometric graph paper to help you with an isometric map. Once I had my basic outline done in the five minutes I then spent more time adding some detail and re-doing the lines in ink. This week’s map is a little smaller as I was unsure of the amount of time it would take to draw the stairs.

Once the extra details were done, I scanned the image, tweaked some things in Gimp and Inkscape and finally back to Gimp to fix-up a background. Details on the steps I use are written up in Matt Jackson’s blog post and this write-up at Deviant Art.

This week it is Brewster’s Basement, or rather what lies just beyond his basement…

Brewster’s Basement

William Brewster is the proprietor of Brewster’s Pub, a quaint pub in a small crossroads village in a heavily forested region. Known for the Golden Hook Ale, familiar travelers through the forest always take time from their travels to enjoy an ale or two before heading on.

William is of slight stature and has shoulder length gray hair, typically tied back in a ponytail. He moves gracefully for his age and is a hard worker. His memory is impeccable and he remembers previous visitors of the pub by name, greeting them as they enter. William has been in this village for many years and none of the locals know his story from before he arrived.

William built Brewster’s Pub over the burned out ruins of a small homestead decades ago. Only the ruined cellar and base foundation remained when he built those many years ago. The foundation stones today are still blackened from the flames that claimed the original structure.

Brewster’s Pub is now a two story structure. The first floor contains a common room and a cramped kitchen just off the back. The second story is more akin to a closed off loft, providing just enough room for William to live above the pub.

A small cellar sits below Brewster’s Pub. Stock overflow is kept here as well as several keg racks. On the back wall is a warping oak door, iron bands holding the planks together. William has not opened this door since the pub was built, he frequently has a stack of kegs in front of the door obscuring the view of the door from those descending the stairs from above.

What lies beyond the door?

I have been participating in Friday Five Minute Maps over on Google+ sporadically for the past several weeks. I figure it is a good way to practice my mapping and expand my mind a bit. Recently I have started posting my Five Minute Map to Google+ and then spending more time on it and posting my final results. I feel even in a relatively short period of time my mapping has improved.

I have found adopting Matt Jackson’s and Dyson Logo’s mapping styles I can create some decent, usable looking maps even with my feeble cartography skills. Today’s post takes my Friday Five Minute Map from last week after I spent some more time on adding detail and then scanned it in for some work in Gimp, Photoshop, and Inkscape (still trying to figure out the tool chain that works for me).

So without further ado, I present Kajak’s Kave and a mini-encounter area for you to use with your games. It is system neutral and could easily be used for a variety of fantasy genre games.

Kajak’s Kave

Kajak would be considered a runt of his ogre family, standing just shy of 9’ tall. A mop of tangled, bright red hair graces his head above his lopsided eyes and nose that looks to have been broken one too many times. Kajak’s remaining teeth are jagged in his mouth, a thin film of yellowish-brown covering them. Though on the short side for an ogre, his shoulders are broad and legs thick like small tree trunks, rippled with muscles and scars. Kajak makes up for any deficit in height with ferocity several times over.

Kajak is the solitary sort, his life amongst other ogres not pleasant as he was constantly defending himself. He soon found himself alone in the wilderness carving out an area he could call his own. Finding a small set of caves set on a very steep hillside, he came to call these caves home.

True to ogre fashion Kajak is a brutal beast. He does not take lightly to intruders on the area he calls home, a three mile radius surrounding his cave entrance. Beasts – animal or man – that cross the area he calls home are often brutally dealt with, frequently tortured and toyed with before Kajak declared them dinner.

The only exception to this horrific treatment of trespasses is a trio of wolves Kajak had adopted. This wolves he keeps as pets, feeding them scraps of his conquest for the day or allowing them to join in on the torture of trespassers. These wolves have become loyal to Kajak over the years and frequent his cave home freely as if on patrol many times.

The Approach

Kajak’s cave entrance sits high on the side of a rough hill just shy of the Ironcrag Mountains. A small, winding trail has been carved into the hillside from Kajak’s travels from his cave to the surrounding area. The entrance is difficult to see from the valley floor, a set of scraggly bushes obscuring the entrance.

Area 1

Nearly blocking the entrance tunnel to this small cave system is a large boulder in the center of the tunnel. Foot traffic appears well established to the right of the boulder. The wall of the tunnel here appears worn smooth as if something large frequently squeezes by this obstruction in the tunnel passage.

Area 2

The faint odor of refuse and rotting meat wafts through the air in this large chamber. The floor of the chamber is littered with bones, appearing to be gnawed by teeth. Two other tunnels lead off the back of this chamber.

The trio of wolves claim this area for theirs. The trio immediately lets out snarls and barks and attacks. The barking alerts Kajak to an intruder’s presence.

(3) Wolves, Bite Attack

Area 3

The smell of refuse and rotting meat becomes near overpowering in the this chamber. The cave floor rises in a series of ledges towards the back of the room. The chamber is littered in a menagerie of discarded bits of bones, torn pelts and shattered skulls. A humanoid form, about the size of a man hangs against one wall, flies buzzing around the corpse that appears to have been there for some time.

Rats scatter as you enter the room, diving underneath a pile of furs. An iron cauldron with a large crack running halfway down its side hangs from a crude tripod of thick branches.

This is Kajak’s “kitchen”. Though he has never cooked a meal, preferring raw meat, he would frequently bring his victims back here for hours of torture and misery before finally consuming them. Removing the discarded remains has never been a thought of his, contributing the pungent odor of this chamber.

Area 4

The tunnel to this portion of the cavern leads steeply down before opening in another large chamber. Several large boulders are strewn across the floor. The smell of rotting refuse and decaying meat is replaced by the near overwhelming smell of body odor.

An oversized pile of straw, twigs, and dried grass sits in one corner. A pile of rusted weapons rests nearby.

This is Kajak’s living quarters when he is not tormenting prey in the Area 3 or out roaming the outside lands he calls his.

Ogre, use an Ogre Hook (2d6 dmg)