Pentagonal Monuments in the Ghost Dunes (Patreon)

Standing tall over the endless sands of the ghost dunes are these ruins made of five pentagonal structures set into a pentagon themselves. The structures, said to have been risen from the sands by the will of a wind-wizard, are a sacred site to the cult of the Sand Children who climb the ruined tower to the upper level where they can whisper to the winds to carry their message of damnation to across the desert to the ears of those who would listen.

When the rains come to the desert, water pools in the centre between the monoliths and fast-growing vines take over. These vines bear flowers that cause drowsiness to those who breathe their pollen – and the Sand Children then rush to feed them the deadly but delicious melons from the vines, claiming that it will counter the somnolent effects of the flowers.

The Sand Children only have access to the three structures that are open to the elements (towers 2, 3 and 5 if counting clockwise from the top). Ropes have been hung between the ruined sections of 2 and 5 in order to climb between them, and the door to tower 2 has been forced open and cannot be locked or secured again. The other two structures are silent and undisturbed.

I drew this map as part of the GOZR RPG playtest I’m running. Gozr is a science-fantasy RPG written by James V West that takes place in a world long after the departure (somehow) of humanity. Perhaps they all mutated into the Gooz, or perhaps they left the Gooz behind as they left this world. The group detected the soporific flowers and immediately left the area without exploring the structures or meeting the Sand Children.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 pixels (32 squares) wide. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,240 pixels wide or 4,480 pixels wide, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2021/09/09/pentagonal-monuments-in-the-ghost-dunes/