Chinchbug |
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When I get a new Pathfinder, the first thing I do is flip through it and check out the artwork and the maps. I must admit that when I got to the Devildrome map in PF #27 (What Lies in Dust), I wasn't all that impressed. The map was very simple for taking an entire page. Of course, the second thing I do with a new adventure path is read the thing from cover to cover. Again, the section with the Devildrome didn't have much detail, but my imagination filled it all in and I came up with something very evocative. I could see this big round cage resting in a ring of dilapidated half-timber buildings. Like some huge, bizarre nest.
I was so smitten with the notion that I laid it out in Sketchup. I have two renders, the first is an aerial perspective view of the Devildrome and the second is a view from within the cage (which was on a whim but turned out looking pretty cool). Feel free to snag them for your own campaigns if you like.
http://www.rlucci.com/images/devildrome1.jpg (1811x1039, 598K)
http://www.rlucci.com/images/devildrome2.jpg (1266x673, 195K)
I should point out that I made the central platform a mere five feet high while the adventure path said it was 15 feet. I assumed that was a misprint since a ramp that's 15' high but only 10' long is no ramp. That's a tilted wall.
While putting this together, my wife made some very rude comments about the construction of the cage. Something about not being able to support its own weight. She has a PhD in engineering, so I suppose it's only natural for her to look at things that way. But I'm the DM, so all I have to do is smile enigmatically...
Stormrunner |
Excellent job on the surrounding buildings. Not quite sure about the cage. It looks ... very modern, especially in the first view. I look at it and my first thought was "chainlink fence?" It needs a bit more randomness, like it was cobbled together (I'm thinking like the "ball of bones" cage in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie). And I see your wife's point, the broad flat ceiling would have some support trouble ... maybe the ceiling should be domed, or at least conical. I could see a conical roof with five major support beams, crisscrossing secondary beams forming a pentacle, and at every intersection of the bars, a skull is tied, facing the inside - the skulls of the losers... mostly human but here and there a tiefling, halfling, gnoll, etc. for variety.