The Lair of Kaliphex (Patreon)
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In case anyone is having a hard time understanding this complex labyrinth of a map, I made an annotated version to break it down for you. Hopefully that clears everything up.
There's an unfurnished version, too, in case you need a cave without a giant, golden head and huge piles of cash. I suspect your players will prefer the one with the money, but it's up to you.
So, the Lair of Kaliphex is a part of the Black Loch and is home to the resident dragon. Patrons can read about her in the DM notes, but here are the important parts:
- Kaliphex is a red dragon.
- She's around 11,000 years old. Even for a dragon, that's ridiculously old.
- She's not evil. She's not good, either, but she's killed and destroyed so much that it just doesn't do anything for her anymore.
- She's lived on a number of different worlds. The last one may have been the Old World, where the tabletop wargame Warhammer was set. And she may-- possibly-- own Ghal Maraz.
For those of you unfamiliar with Warhammer, Ghal Maraz is the specific warhammer from which the game gets its name. It was made by dwarves, wielded by a god and seemed like an appropriate thing for an 11,000-year-old dragon to have.
In case you're wondering, I do play Warhammer. My army is mixed Destruction and it's pretty weird. The general is an ogre on a pink stonehorn. I've also got some orc cavalry whose armor is painted with elaborate heraldry like Brettonian knights. I call them the "High Orc Noble Cavalry." And then there's Pamela the Devourer, a colossal squig wearing way too much makeup and crashing through a wall like a demented Kool-Aid man. I want to be clear that no part of that last sentence was a joke or an exaggeration. I paint some weird stuff.
I also play Warhammer 40K, for which I have a Tyranid army. I mainly play Tyranids because I like the models, but it's also nice to be on the team that's winning. I haven't actually played in quite a while, but I'm looking forward to meeting up with a friend for a game as soon as the Warhammer store re-opens. He's probably reading this and, yes, I mean you. I haven't forgotten.
Next, I'm going to be drawing a spelljammer. I drew a mind flayer dreadnought a few months ago, but this is going to be a more reasonable-sized vessel. Something for the party to cruise around in. Spelljammer is the one setting where people are still using maps from 1995 and I think it'd be good to get a proper map out there for DMs running their games offworld. I'm not sure exactly what kind of ship design I'll be doing, but it's not going to be the kind that just looks like a boat.
Well, I'm gonna go look at some spelljammers. If you've got any suggestions, let me know!