Castle of the Bloated One: Tribute

April 3, 1978 Original Concept

This project sat partially finished for thirty years, collecting dust and waiting for a revisit. I had envisioned a five level complex, with approximately ten to twenty chambers/rooms per floor. A central entrance led downwards to an ancient ruin, forgotten to the ages but just waiting for the right circumstance to activate.

March 4, 2008 Revisit

Gary Gygax's passing affected me deeply and when I found this layout, realized it would be a fitting ode to a dear friend. Thus, Tribute is presented below:

Cheers,

Castle of the Bloated One: Iszac's End

March 12, 1978 Original Concept

Directly west of the Castle of the Bloated One is the Crestfallen Mountains, a large scallop that runs for some 250 miles. Iszak Morshow, an enterprising gnome, had been exploring new territory in the range. One day while fishing in a mountain stream he realized there was an opening and being a gnome quickly decided to investigate. He discovered a large cave complex that contained everything essential to develop a thriving business, namely minerals, water, and privacy. Over the next two years he built a successful business, harvesting ore and trading it for information. Every few months, like clockwork, he shows up in town selling rare rock statues, drinks a few pints and disappears just as quickly.

Thus presented below is Iszac's End:

Cheers,

Updated Dropbox links

I've received a couple emails in regards to the links on the blog being invalid. So today I've updated all the links from Dropbox, and added a Dungeon Age pdf for enterprising Dm's looking for more detail on the age of a complex.

Cheers!

BB

Castle of the Bloated One - Scarab's Heart: Level 10

January 31, 1977 Original Concept

After I laid everything out on common brown table paper (with a hand drawn grid), it suddenly dawned on me the direction this level would take, and more importantly what role it would play in my growing campaign. Like my original Isolde-Delta map, this level went through so many changes I had to continually redraw on new paper. Thus, Level 10 was the first level I originally laid out, but didn't really have a fully fleshed out idea of what, or rather who would live there till about six months later.

I envisioned a burrow of sorts with beetles, lots of beetles and two rather large set pieces around a central theme. Scarab's Heart finishes off The Castle of the Bloated One's Main dungeon complex.

Edit: The original I uploaded had a hidden burrows and shadow layer on the Sun Temple. 

Cheers,

Castle of the Bloated One - Ruins of Ja'ron Fer'oc: Level 9

December 29, 1977 Original Concept

"You want to know what happened to the Legion?", the old bard leaned forward and whispered. The children moved closer to the fire, transfixed by his words. "Very well... the fields were covered with human, elf and dwarf. The Legion's finest warriors battling The Wite; a horrible mass of orc, hobgoblin, gobber and undead. From my vantage point smoke rose into the air, billowing upwards from the mass of bodies burning everywhere. but ..." the bard faltered, choking back a sob ... "but... through my gossamer eyes ... they weren't moving, silent screams unanswered, frozen in place mid-strike. The Legion had fought their last battle".

Five of the children started crying, reaching blindly for comfort from each other, when the oldest boy glanced up, anger and tears reflected on his face, "I don't believe it!". The old man nodded "aye, ti's true ... for the fields were covered in glittering ice".

*****
Level 9 was based on that passage from my notes. A larger level featuring snow, ice, fissures and crevices, along with a wilderness look and feel. Presented below is the Ruins of Ja'ron Fer'oc: Level 9.

Cheers,

Castle of the Bloated One - Ophidian Level 8

December 26, 1977 Original Concept

A chance viewing of a silly 1973 horor movie titled "Sssssss" led me to purchase a couple golden books on amphibians and reptiles. Over the next few weeks I slowly worked on a monster who could bite a humanoid and subsequently they would transform into a snake-like creature. Like the vampire, infected humans would be under their master's control. I called them Sssnapes (highly original *rolls eyes*), and added them to my trove of beasties. Six years later the Ophidian would appear in Monster Manual II and I instantly thought, that should have been mine!. C'est la vie...

Thus, Ophidian Level 8 is presented:

Cheers,

Castle of the Bloated One - Organ Donor Level 7

December 19, 1977 Original Concept

Luray Caverns, http://luraycaverns.com/ August 10, 1977.
My family had traveled down to Falls Church Virginia to see my Aunt Marie & Uncle Andy - the same uncle who first introduced me to Miniature wargaming, stamps and coins. After spending a couple days at the Smithsonian, my Uncle took us to Luray Caverns and there I was introduced to a wonder. The cavern is impressive, all the moreso when you account for the ghost stalactite that one can see from 7 or so different places during the tour, and just how cool (literally and figurately) the place is. The bombshell for me however is the stalacpipe organ in the main cavern, operated by a custom console that produces the tapping of ancient stalactites of varying sizes with solenoid-actuated rubber mallets in order to produce tones.

As we listened to this amazing instrument, my mind instantly started working on the next level of The Castle of the Bloated One. We purchased one of the original 33 albums (vinyl, ah how I pine for thee) and I used it, along with the images I'd taken on the trip to lay out Organ Donor.

Cheers,