Scarhide Yard (Patreon)

Scarhide Yard is a shipyard run by deep gnome engineers and grimlock laborers in the Black Loch. This strange partnership began when a group of gnomes approached a tribe of starving grimlock hunters with 300 pounds of meat. The gnomes needed workers to build ships and the grimlocks needed food,  so they came to an arrangement. The gnomes got their laborers and the grimlocks got as much meat as they could eat, forever.

Sixty years later, the gnomes are still overseeing operations, but the shorter-lived grimlocks have passed the torch to the next generation. This is good, but, potentially, also bad. The good part is that this generation of grimlocks wasn't raised to hunt. They were raised as carpenters and shipwrights and they're a lot better at it than their parents were.

The bad part is that they eat a lot. And, unlike their parents, they have never known hunger. They've never been without the endless supply of meat that the gnomes send for every week or two. And if that meat stops arriving? That's a scary thought for the gnomes. Best not to let that happen.

If you're looking for a ship for your party to purchase (or steal) from here, you might have a look at the Grinning Widow. It's a ship designed for the underdark and it's exactly the kind of thing Scarhide Yard would build.

This map was partly inspired by Leo's proposal to the Black Loch Conclave. I was always planning to have a grimlock settlement here, but Leo made me realize that I'd forgotten to put a shipyard in the loch, so I sort of hybridized the two ideas into Scarhide Yard. Anyway, I hope you all like how it turned out!

Next, I'll be drawing another one of the five remaining locations in the Black Loch. This time, it'll be the Blind Colossus, a huge, eyeless statue standing in the deep reaches of the loch. I don't know exactly what I'm doing with the place, but it'll definitely have some mysterious rooms and passages inside it, built by an ancient civilization for unclear reasons. Ideally, I'd like it to be unsettling, but highly intriguing. The kind of place that your players feel like they shouldn't go into, but feel compelled to explore anyway. We'll see how it goes.

All right, I'm gonna start sketching. Let me know what you think!