Underground Lake, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

Hello Adepts/Experts, and welcome back! This week I prepared a couple extras for you, the version above with lighting and colors similar to the Cultist Lair (notice that the tunnel to the south of the lake lines up well with the Lair's entrance), as well as a couple crops which you can find in the 'Underground Shore' file- cleaned up slices of the lake which are intended to be used to imply a much larger space off screen than I could depict in a usable map, like Rocky Shore for example. I think this is a handy tool to have on hand and it took only a little extra work to prepare for you, so hopefully it makes this map somewhat more useful for you.

1. So, the idea for this one was that it would be a continuation of Flooded Dungeon, a fan favorite from January. I decided that the tunnel at the bottom of the Dungeon's map would lead into the lake, and therefore the stream would have to empty into the lake as well. Additionally, I wanted the map to have another exit across the way, perhaps so that this map could be used as part of a longer underground journey, as well as a couple patches of solid ground for the sake of giving the average player some amount of upper hand. 

The issue I came across was that I wanted to depict a large and complex terrain while being at a physical size that most people can use. I think I could have done this better, skirting the frame of the image so as to allow for more open space at the cost of less interesting rock wall shapes, or perhaps less solid ground in general. Perhaps this is a map I'll return to someday to redo, there's obviously a lot that can be done here that I didn't monopolize on. 

2. The biggest undertaking of this map was the rock wall- long, twisting, and detailed enough to give the sense of rough and striated rock. These dudes are always a pain in my side, but since it's the most important part of the map and I wasn't going to be drawing grass (ugh) I spent most of my efforts on making it look particularly nice as well as somewhat 'taller' than usual (more details further from the ground line) to give the feel of a cavernous ceiling. 

Because this is essentially a lake map I had to stop myself from overpopulating the water with rocks/little islands/stalagmites; it wouldn't be much of a lake map if there weren't stretches of open water, right? Still, I think I would rather have packed it with fun terrain, the openness of the map just doesn't appeal to me, but that's my personal preference I suppose.

3. I promised I would make this one to be similar to Flooded Dungeon. The problem I came across was that FD has super weird lighting, is way too bright for an underground map, and gets its look from tight and shadowy corridors. These things don't quite work for a lake, but I'm a man of my word and I did it anyway. I can't say I'm very happy with the results, but the maps are at the very least similar, at a glance, and I suppose that's a victory.