Release the Kraken: Roots of the World (Patreon)

(This is a free post - not one of the twice-weekly map posts - thanks to the Release the Kraken initiative that we've unlocked through Patreon funding)

After a VERY tight vote last month, the Roots of the World ( http://wp.me/psUVp-Wy )just squeaked past the early leader - Axebridge over Blackbay ( http://wp.me/psUVp-1sQ ). Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll put together this month's selection for voting.

So yesterday I loaded up the old version (which was drawn in pencil, and never inked) and cleaned it up a bit before re-releasing it under the commercial license thanks to YOU, my Patreon Horde. The original map was posted to the blog just over five years ago, and was drawn the year before that for a Labyrinth Lord campaign that started with good old Goblin Gully.

The Roots of the World were where the party had to collect a water-based artifact (they got the fire artifact in Ember Crag and then proceeded to get an earth artifact elsewhere). The majority of the structure is flooded knee-deep in water (with the massive central area having much deeper sections), and the central chamber is a massive cavern with regularly spaced stone columns.

The name of the site is not mere allegory however – these columns are indeed the “Roots of the World” and any attack that strikes them makes the whole place shake and rumble (everyone in the dungeon makes a save versus Petrification / Paralysis (or a Dex or Reflex save) or they cannot move for one round those making the save still treat the dungeon as difficult terrain for the round).

The Roots are home to a lot of Toads (a racial class I used in my campaign), along with some massive toad ogres (using Ogre stats, except they can make a special attack once every six rounds that stuns everyone within 120 feet who fails a save versus paralysis – this is usually a massive bellow, but could also be slamming the ground with their massive clubs or something similar). The southern section (the old fort on the southern plateau) is currently home to a small team of hostile gnomish explorers who got here before the party but who are finding the guardians of the main areas to be too hostile to deal with.

When I ran this, that’s basically all the notes I had, the rest I made up as I went along. So I recommend you do the same. Alternately, you could actually take the time to stock the Roots of the World and I’ll post your version (or link to it if you post it to your own blog).

Parts of this map made a return visit to another campaign I ran a few years later, where a race of giant dwarves were protecting (and destroying) the roots of the earth.

You can download the new commercially-licensed version of the Roots of the World map (both with and without grid) from the blog post at: http://wp.me/psUVp-2ho