Illustration by Yans Velasquez
Each month, I try and pass along the generosity you show me by employing other artists to create a variety of illustrations, portraits, magical items and other works of art that can be used in your games at home, whether they be homebrew or official modules.
This week, I wanted to highlight one of those pieces -- the Maelstrom from Storm King's Thunder with art by Yans Velasquez.
The Maelstrom is a Storm Giant lair at the bottom of the ocean, accessible primarily by a massive whirlpool that shipwrecks boats and brings crews to a watery grave. The area itself is a 3-level aquatic lair with several chambers designed to follow the module's encounters, but you could certainly use it for your own homebrew campaigns or adventures.
The interior pools within the chambers are extremely large, some of them holding killer whales and groups of sharks, while others sprout with bioluminescent algae and other plant life, all supporting the Storm Giants that live there.
Storm/Sea Giant (from Morvold Fantasy Art Gallery), by Lukas Sanctum
Most of the maps provided by the module are presented with 1 grid = 10 feet, but this map was designed and scaled to be played in a 130 x 110 environment, allowing every grid to be 5 feet and really feel the size of the environment. Medium creatures moving through the space should feel understandably intimidated and small compared to the surroundings.
So, how I can use this location?
Social Scenes - the store front provides plenty of opportunity for repeat encounters, and the other chambers within the exchange provide plenty of context for storage, inventory, security and record keeping.
Spying & Burglary - sometimes the PC's don't always trust the NPC's and that means poking around their house in the dark of night hoping to find evidence of said wrong-doing. That could easily result in some combat with unexpected guards, fruitless searches or discovering just the evidence they needed to advance a plot.
Here's the original Maelstrom levels (attachment at end of post):
I hope you enjoy the piece and seeing where some of your support goes!
If you're not yet a Patron, consider joining to help support other talented artists! =)
Best,
Jeff @ Morvold