Vault of the Shadow Lich (Patreon)

The Warlock Rosedriah never got along with their patron in the dark arts and thus sought any and all means to extend their life in order to deny their eternal soul’s torment in the patron’s servitude. In time Rosedriah became a lich and after further ages explored new ways to keep themselves from losing their connection to the world. They stretched their existence out for so long that instead of becoming a demi-lich, Rosedriah became something new – a “shadow lich” – incorporeal magical darkness containing and powered by their malice and hatred of their patron.

No longer able to manifest physically, nor able to leave the vault that they created in the ages of their research, Rosedriah now possesses and slowly consumes people in order to experience life still – always worried that if they stop “living”, they will finally surrender their soul to their patron.

The Vault sits under the crumbling remains of a great palace that once belonged to a would-be emperor who sponsored Rosedriah in hopes that this potent warlock would help them in their dreams of conquest. Rosedriah doesn’t even remember his name, let alone his dreams. He was one of the first possessed and consumed by the shadow lich. But without his would-be-empire, Rosedriah has slim pickings of good bodies these days and is currently in the decaying body of a young adventurer who stumbled into the vault a couple of years ago.

This map was specifically designed to fit the deskpad format at Redbubble (basically a great big mouse neoprene mouse pad for your desk. Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons included for scale (and because 15 of my best maps ever are contained within these covers). You can get the Deskpad of the Shadow Lich at my Redbubble storefront here: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/94858263

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 18,900 pixels (63 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 4,410 pixels wide or 8,820 pixels wide, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2022/01/27/vault-of-the-shadow-lich/