Longboat Mountain - The Drop Falls (Patreon)

As we begin the climb up Longboat Mountain from Silver Vale, the trail doubles back and we find ourselves at the top of the waterfall that feeds Silver Lake by the old mine. The small river that runs down the mountain from Longboat Valley above is joined here by a small stream that feeds directly out of the stone face and propels a water wheel. In turn, the water wheel is connected to a chain of indeterminate length that feeds down (and back up) from a 6 foot wide shaft that descends straight down. The stream used to carry much more water (and still does in the early spring) but the current light flow isn’t enough to pull more than about a hundred pounds up the chain – so while someone could ride the chain down into the shaft, climbing back up will be much more challenging.

A few other items of interest are in this bend in the trail up the mountain. An old shrine sits on the other side of the small river and evidently had a small level stone bridge over it. Someone took significant effort years ago to remove all markings indicating whom this shrine was dedicated to, down to removing the faces on the statue overlooking the pond here and the two statues overlooking the falls themselves. The statues are humanoid, apparently garbed in a robe or gown, and were holding a staff or spear or polearm or something similar. The shrine has seen occasional maintenance (by one of the residents of Longboat Valley) and is thus clean of major debris and contains a pair of wooden chests containing blankets and rope.

The pond is about 12 feet deep at the lowest point, and is home to an aquatic otyugh that lives in the muddy bottom happily sifting through the mud and filtering the waters for organic debris picked up along the descent. It keeps an eye on events around it with its sensory tentacle that it pushes just over the surface of the water. It isn’t hostile but is quick to anger if harassed or attacked.

Finally, there is a small cave here that was cut by falling waters in ages past that also links to the shaft containing the chain from the water wheel. From out here it is evident that something fairly large lives within – likely one or more bears of some variety. The cave will be the subject of our next map.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,200 x 13,200 pixels in size (34 x 44 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,380 x 3,080 or 4,760 x 6,160 pixels, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2024/07/15/longboat-mountain-the-drop-falls/