Building Campaign Maps with Google & GIMP 7 - Scodra takes shape, but doesn't gel

I've been playing around with GIMP again, wanting to start mapping the local area, especially the town of Scodra and the location of the Castle of the Mad Archmage (Gentius' Palace in the campaign).  While the techniques I documented in the previous posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) on the subject work, I find myself scraping the bottom in terms of granularity of the image.

The technique I used was to drill Google Maps down to the highest magnification, remove modern features and replace them with features and names for the setting. I made extensive use of the Smudge tool to soften the edges of the areas I masked. So far so good,

The hexes are approximately 1 mile center to center, I've added the walls of the town roads and a latifundium centered on the twenty year old remains of the legionary camp (Castra Appius).  The black dot on the hilltop is the location of the Castle of the Mad Archmage, just outside of town.

I then selected the center of the image, moved it into a new xcf file and scaled it up by a factor of three.  I immediately noticed that the line I had added pixelated badly when they were blown up, but a little editing and running the Smudge tool over them helped with the appearance.

I then started laying out the interior of Scodra, starting with the king's palace and garden at the east end.  So far so good.  Then the street grid, and because the area is not aligned with the screen pixels, I ended up with jagged edges and blobs.  Not great, but reasonable.  Then I tried placing the 'Old Fish' by the gate - and even at the scale of this image it's visibly not parallel to the street grid.

Perhaps if I can increase the pixel density in the image or go back and blow up the image further, I can improve the quality.  Otherwise I'll leave off buildings and just note the contents of the block.

Not everything succeeds at the first try, the trick is not to be afraid to take the second try.

CotMA Vb - Spies like these

Cast

Midymnoios Moncheri - Paladin of Athena, called One Hand after losing his left to a carnivorous fly.

Segestes One-Eye - Barbarian warrior of the Harii.  Came south along the Amber Road.  Lost an eye fighting kobolds.

NPCs

Akus - a slinger (and failed mage) hired as muscle

Jumilanas - a mercenary crossbow man hired as muscle

The Egyptian - Landlord of the 'Old Fish', cheapest lodgings in Scodra

Ikexanlas - The town physician

   The lamp lit their faces along with the bowl and beakers on the small table, while the rest of the room was shrouded in shadow.  The open window let in the quiet sounds of the night on the gentle breeze.  And the moon's radiance lit the clouds without trickling down to illuminate the ground below.
    "Ravens beg wolf for meat" said Segetes, as he mixed the wine and water in the bowl.
     The paladin smiled, "Rather than hunting for themselves or waiting for the wolves to finish? That's a good way to put it.  I suppose we should have expected the attention when we brought back the gold.  Still, they're not wrong, with Myrphines and Thekitor's deaths we do need help if we are to go back down after the kobolds."
     Placing the bowl back down after his drink, the barbarian suggested, "Spears not enough, we must find the little schuppig Miststücks' nest.  For that we need hunters."
     Picking the bowl carefully with his crippled hand, Midymnios nodded, "A hunting party with those who have skills we lack.  Still there was something about that Carthaginian mage that wasn't right, I wouldn't trust him."
     "Sirras, I like. Still he a local thief, probably set us up for an ambush," responded Segestes,
     "The other four as equal partners? But only agree to escort them once, and do not show them the map!"
     "Smart", grunted Segestes as he drained the bowl.

Soloplay - CotMA Va - Coda

In doing the accounting after the last foray, I noticed that one of the scrolls they recovered was Explosive Runes.  That's not an ACK's spell, so I looked up the definition from ADD 1e.  A mage has a 5% chance per level to notice the runes.  Myrphines rolled a 54 -BOOM!  The details were recorded in this letter to S. Cornelies Cethgi, the Publican (Tax Farmer) for Epirus Nova from his son Tertius.

                                                                                                              Scodra, Illyria - Kal. Dec.

    I am in Scodra at the request of Lactitus, the local king, to discuss trade opportunities.  Despite being part of Illyrium, Scodra is separated from it's cities by rough mountains, while the plain opens to the south towards Epidamnus and Apollonia.
   Rest assured that even in my absence our mercator, Fronieus, will have departed from Apollonia on the Pride of Corcyra no later than today.  He has over 1500 amphora of dried fruit and fortified wines for Aqueleia.  We should make a good profit from that trip, not just from the traders of Noricum but even from the Germans and perhaps the Sagitarii.  For I have heard that traffic along the Amber Road is higher this year.  I have even encountered a grim German here in Scodra!
     From our point of view, Lactitius' most attractive product is a freshwater eel, from the large lake the city is situated upon.  I have had it served several ways, the pickled was the most palatable.  At most this will be a modest increase in the cargoes we send north.  I suspect it might be more attractive in Syracuse and Utica where their firey dishes will mask it's rather greasy taste.
  However, while visiting here I have come across not only an opportunity for profit, but also a chance to bedevil old G. Hirtus, who has the tax farm for Illyrium.  The day of my arrival there was a terrible explosion and fire in an inn called the Unhappy Banker (no one in our family!)  It turned out that some Corinthian (I thought Mummius Achaicus had sold all of them) mage had destroyed part of the building - and himself.  Speaking with his companions, including the afore mentioned German, through one of their retainers who spoke excellent Latin, I discovered that they had recently returned from an expedition under Gentius' old castle, just outside of town.  And that they had each brought out hundreds of gold and silver coins, even the retainers had been lavishly rewarded.  Apparently, old Appius Claudius failed to bring home much of the treasure.
    Here in lays the opportunity I have broached with Lactitius.  He pays his taxes through G. Hirstus as part of the Illyrian tax farm.  Hirstus does not know of the increased revenue and having based his tax gatherers in Issus and scattered through the mountains, only visits Scodra once a year to collect.
  I am also attempting to place an agent with this group, I have sent to Hellieon in Epidamnus, he has a son who has come of age and has skills that would be useful to the German and his companions. Having an agent in the group will ensure that we do not miss levying the tax on any major treasure the group brings out.  I'll offer his son 1% of the additional taxes as a reward.


Wanting to date the letter is what prompted me to develop the calendar page,which I have now made dynamic and added recurring events.  The comment about Mummius Achaicus refers to the sack of Corinth in 146 BC, at the prompting of Roman mercantile interests.  The picture is of the ruins of the Acrocorinth or fortress.

Calendars Old and New

The 1e DMG has a stern admonition on tracking time "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT."  Emphasis in the original

I never have.

In retrospect, part of it is the way my college group played - we did the modules and one shot adventures, never a mega-dungeon.  That type of episodic playing allows the group to hand wave the time accounting.  You adventure until you've cleaned out the local dungeon and then some undefined time later you're at the next dungeon having done your training and leveled up.  Don't get me wrong, it's nature and nurture that made me avoid doing the forensic accounting of strict timekeeping.  I don't want to fiddle with anymore paperwork than I have to, and as long I stick to running adventures for the group I can get away with not tracking time.

But now I'm running through Castle of the Mad Archmage, building a corner of my setting around it and time tracking has become important for determining when a room gets re-stocked and when background events occur.

Restocking

Hack & Slash did a nice post on dungeon restocking in answer to a question from a reader.  And I have to say, I don't do restocking, mainly because most of the adventures I run are one shots and there isn't enough time for anything to creep back into the area between forays by the party.

In my soloplay with Castle of the Mad Archmage, I'm attempting to follow the restocking rules that +Joseph Bloch wrote into the mega-dungeon.  But those come down to after awhile the creatures will be replaced by something similar*.  That's pretty broad and leads us to the point of Hack & Slash's post.  There are a couple ways you can approach it.   You can come up with some sort of random stocking tables, such as a vermin table to determine what moves in after you kill the fire beetles in Room 27.  It doesn't need to be limited to just insects and arachnids, any sort of non-intelligent creature would do.  The second way is to have or steal a good idea and run with it.  I'm in the midst of doing that.  The party recently cleaned out the bandits on the surface, leaving me with the question 'What, besides more bandits, has a role similar to the bandit's role in he dungeon?'  The first step is determining what the bandits' role is in the dungeon - stealing the characters ill-gotten hard earned loot.  Now most humanoids and demi-human can be cast in that role, in fact that's what the dwarves and elves in the first level do.  But a group of orcs inhabiting a castle just a couple miles outside of town, sort of begs for the town to clean them out in the interest of hygiene and public safety.  Then I had what to me is a good idea.  Replace the bandits with tax collectors aka government backed bandits, pulls money out of the campaign, creates incentive for the characters to find alternate means of egress or practice hiding their loot.
 

One of the esteemed Mr Bloch's rules is that dead characters have a chance of rising as undead. Not exactly the same as re-stocking as whatever killed them is probably still there, nut an idea that I shall shamelessly steal when running other dungeons.

Soloplay - CotMA V - Befriend & Disruption

Continuing the exploration of the Castle of the Mad Archmage

Cast

Myrphines Ektomias - scion of the Heraclidae.  Recently castrated by a bandit

Midymnoios Moncheri - Paladin of Athena, called One Hand after losing his left to a carnivorous fly

Segestes One-Eye - Barbarian warrior of the Harii.  Came south along the Amber Road.  Lost an eye fighting kobolds.

NPCs

Akus - a slinger (and failed mage) hired as muscle

Jumilanas - a mercenary crossbow man hired as muscle

The Egyptian - Landlord of the 'Old Fish', cheapest lodgings in Scodra

Ikexanlas - The town physician

Scene: Returning the body of Thekitor to the dwarves in accordance with his last wishes.  Dwarven leader will volunteer another spy to accompany them.

Chaos Level 5, Roll 2 - Interrupt scene.  I've got nothing in mind and the opening is already set by the cliffhanger ending last time - a situation that Mythic doesn't anticipate.  Random Event: Action 22 - Befriend; Subject  62 - Disruption.

Interrupt Scene:  Unnoticed by the party, a large force of kobolds, accompanied by a giant weasel has crept up the passage and rushed into the open door right behind the party.  (Disruption) Assuming the some of the dwarves and party members survive, the party will be considered friends by the dwarves.