Draftinggoblin's Drafts

I have a lot of experience running games of D&D, I’ve been doing it for around 20 years at this point. I never put much stock into pre-written modules or adventures. I kind of just assumed it would be better and more fun to make my own stuff. However, within the last few years I’ve had the privilege of playing in the game of a phenomenal DM. The way he ran his pre-written adventures taught me a lot about adventure design(both from when he stuck to or deviated from the pre-written material). After this, I realized I had room to grow as a DM.

I figured I would start with some campaign welding(A term that I’m sure I didn’t invent). Basically I want to take the adventures provided in Dungeon Magazine #1 and weld them into a coherent mini-setting. I might add future adventures to this setting, or weld other issues into their own mini-settings. This way I can look at a lot of pre-written material(and hopefully run it in the future), while still getting to make it my own(which I suppose is the point of pre-written modules anyway). These adventures were written for AD&D, I’m unsure if I will run them as is or convert them to 5e in the future. For now, my scope is just to make a coherent mini-setting.

The Lay of The Land

first things first, we need to look at what material is available to us. I will provide a brief summary and list what I think is important right now for building the setting. The main focus is on cities/towns, landmarks, and maybe factions. I have linked to the https://adventurelookup.com/ page for each adventure.
We have six adventures in #1, they are:

1. The Dark Tower of Cabilar by Michael Ashton and Lee Sperry

This is a level 4-7 adventure wherein the players need to venture to a vampire’s tower and retrive a princes crown. The tower belongs to a dark wizard who killed the princes family in order to usurp the throne. It mentions the city of Stoutwall, a nearby town, and a cliff with a cavern.

2. Assault on Eddistone Point by Patricia Nead Elrod

This is a level 1-3 adventure. There is a mountain with two city states(one on each side). They fought a while back but some druids set up a light system so each city could communicate. They wanted to improve the light towers so they sent a team up to fix it. The team is now missing and the party needs to go help. This adventure gives us a lot to work with: a mountain chain, two city states, some factions(druids and rangers) and an area for Dwarves and Elves to live in.

3. Grakhirt’s Lair by John Nephew

Grakhirt’s lair is a level 1-3 adventure wherein the party ventures into a cave to kill something called norkers(I’m unfamiliar with these creatures but interested to learn more). Apparently the norkers were rallied by someone recently to attack a town. This adventure gives us the town of Nolivari(ruled by an aging Prince Corin, who has no heir), a mountain range to the south, something called The Book of Dalayle, and makes reference to a city-state of Ivirwylliw which is far to the west. There is a circle of druids in the area as well.

4. The Elven Home by Anne Gray Mccready
A level 1-3 short adventure(I believe the term used in future publications is ‘side-trek’). It involves elves who live near some special gas stuff that they like to inhale because it makes them feel energized. It has a small group of elves and a treant. It also introduces a vase that changes colour depending on the day of the week.

5. Into the Fire by Grant and David Boucher

A level 6-10 level adventure. A kings son went missing and the son’s necklace ended up in a dragon hoard. A knight chanced upon the hoard and managed to get it to the kingdom(though he died in the process). The king hires adventurers to investigate the situation. This adventure introduces a kingdom that has mountains in the west. It also introduces Flame, a powerful red dragon, and his hoard.

6. Guardians of the Tomb by Carl Smith

A level 3-5 adventure(another ‘side-trek’). The party finds a shrine to a thief.(the adventure says it could be an “evil, well-known god of thieves”). It exists in a swampy area and introduces this possible thief god.

What do we have?

This gives us some great starting material. It gives us a few towns, two cities, and a couple of mountain ranges. The Guardians of the Tomb gives us a swampy area. Into the Fire also makes reference to putting a prince on the sea. That doesn’t mean we have to have a sea here, but I liked the idea of it.

With it I sketched out a rough geographical area. I mostly just went with what felt right or looked good. I find this step is the one that I agonize the most over(‘would a swamp naturally form here?’ and ‘how big should these mountains be?’ among other concerns) so I tried to focus on making something functional.

This is really rough, but it gave me a starting point. I figure The Old Crystols could wrap down and become the southern mountain range mention in Grakhirt’s Lair. The green line measure roughly 170 miles as Into The Fire says the unnamed capitol is that far away from the fort. I name the unnamed capitol into Ivirwylliw, which is the town that Nolivari split off from.

Putting It All Together

I Expanded The Old Crystols like I planned, I’m not 100% satisfied with how they came together but it will do for now. The frontier area is too large as well in my opinion. I changed Ivirwylliw to Everwillow. That seems to be close to how one would pronounce Ivirwylliw.

Everwillow would be the main kingdom, Into the Fire gave them some forts so I continued. I figured they would maintain their borders with these forts. I came up with ‘The Grasping Sea’ on a whim. I’m thinking it has an abundance of marine flora(like seaweed). I’m thinking the Dark Mountains would be dangerous(Into the Fire says they are unexplored).

Mormek is an invention of my own, it felt like there would be a trade center in that area. I decided on a dwarven fortress, I figure they would be more stern than the dwarves typically found in The Old Crystols.

I put Stoutwall on the top left, it has been taken over by an evil wizard. A friend suggested that there would be a trade road between Stoutwall and Everwillow and I agree. It would probably be old at this point.

I imagine the general vibe of the land would be danger and isolation. Monsters and other threats are on the rise. Cabilar is a high level spellcaster and naturally fits into the slot of BBEG(Big Bad Evil Guy) for the region.

Conclusion

This was a very fun exercise. I’m not 100% satisfied with the map, but I’ve never been the best cartographer. I’ll probably tinker with it was time goes on. Next article will be on the movers and shakers of the area(factions, kingdoms, powerful NPCs).

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!