It's Beginning to Look like....

 

City Design WIP: Part Three

About two weeks into the process, a more finalized look finally emerges for the bright and beautiful city of Mythuín. As the result of "real life," I spent anywhere from 2 to 9+ hours each day actually working on the map (no weekends for indie publishers, of course), so work hours are indeed piling up. So far, the computer has had no problem handling the growing file size.

For the previous article, click here.

Much of the effort aimed at developing outlying suburbs and natural-looking terrain. At this scale, it was a challenge. After a few scrapped attempts, I happily settled on textures for farmland, woods, and hills.

The image above shows the South Bridge district. The section north of the river isn't finished. The farmland pattern came from an aerial view of fields in England, roughened and slightly blurred. I rendered it in a partially transparent layer over a mottled green-brown texture. Both components are feathered to smoothen out their edges. The process is simple: 1. Select areas on the map, 2. Copy the textures from separate files, 3. Paste to fill the selected areas. Repeat for each layer.

The image above shows the west bank. The step following the placement of farmland addressed small rivers and pathways. A new layer farther down received a mottled brown texture akin to bare dirt. I then traced pathways and riverbeds through the farmland with an eraser tool to reveal the bare dirt on the lower layer. In between those two layers, I drew white lines within the riverbeds, and replaced them with a water texture. When done, the edges of the pathways and the river textures got feathered for a more natural look.

The next image displays parts of the old town, the seaport, and the so-called Tower Hill area. The old town, known as "Old Meru," marks the location of the original Meruín settlement, wedged between a natural cove and a hill. The Meruín are aquatic elves, so their dwelling and street design reflects "fluid" lines. I altered the initial coastline inside the port and added docks and wooden piers. The hill presented a challenge. I scrapped a few attempts before settling on the present look. There are five separate layers, starting with the basic green-brown mottled texture I used for farmland. I tweaked the brightness, contrast, and hue of the first three layers. The last two consist in a brown rocky texture. All these layers were heavily feathered and blended together for the final result.

The Skyport and its warehouses lie on the north side of town. I copied original skyship artwork from earlier projects and rescaled it. This shows how large the city truly is. Most of these skyships are about 30-35 yards long. Ideally I should alter the edges of the river, since its banks are masonry. There ought to be docking features here and there alongside the river. The top of the image also shows a forest texture. It's layered directly on top of farmland, feathered, and rendered partially translucent to better blend it into the image. I also knocked out the grid from the city center, for clarity.

A riverine port and shaft lock are adjacent to the skyport. I had some fun showing rougher waters past the bridge and the waterfall. A shadow hints at the position of the cliff bisecting the entire city. The north bank shows a small suburb at the end of the bridge, a nearby forested stretch, and marshes below the cliff. The edge of the riverine port will be altered to look more like docking facilities. 

Talking about scale: here's a bit more  on the subject. The 1mm = 11 meters indication refers to the scale on the printed map. 100 meters = approx. 110 yards for those of you unfamiliar with the metric system. I also included travel times for characters moving about the city.

That's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

City Design WIP: Part Two

 About a week ago, I started showing the process I follow to design a city (click here for Part One). As promised, here are the next few steps.

The biggest task consists in drawing streets and open spaces with white lines. You can already tell where main districts may be located.

The old town huddles next to a big hill, just south of the port area. A fortification stands on the hill, dominating the harbor and its entrance. Low and lower-middle-class neighborhoods lie east of the cliff's edge. West of the cliff is where middle and upper classes reside, with the wealthiest buildings and those housing the realm's government facilities closest to the giant tree. Two forested parks straddle the large waterfall at the city's center, each with a mausoleum in its middle. Suburbs, hamlets, some forests, and farmland will occupy the west and south river banks. Here's a closeup of the center area.

The next step takes all of 30 seconds, which consists in an automated command adding a thin black outline around the white lines showing the streets. Zap!

The key to all this work is to rely on different layers for most things. Moving right along, the next step knocks out the white color from the map. That's even faster than adding the outline. The intent is to remove anything that would mask the color and texture of the streets in the next stage. Zap #2.

Now comes the more exciting part: adding color and texture. A light, gray/beige, gritty texture will do fine for streets and open spaces. At this scale, showing a cobblestone pattern is absolutely futile. A neutral blue for the river and pool is easy enough. I added a bit of green here and there for gardens and inner courts. It's important to fill in colors and textures on layers beneath the one with the outlines. Since this is a raster image, trying to add color on the same level would make the black outlines look really ragged. Plan ahead. Make backup copies of previous versions in case you can't fix a problem spotted too late in the process. Some editing will correct small details, such as intersecting outlines that were not visible earlier beneath the white layers. And voilà!

Various colors will replace the buildings' boring gray background. These will serve as a color code to locate the city's various districts. I added thin black lines to delineate adjacent buildings within city blocks. Surely, you're getting the point by now. Definitely easier to look at with the extra bits too. A later step will add more detail such as bridges for sure, extra towers, trees, the harbor's breakwater, docks, piers, ships, boulders alongside the seawall, and so on. Given the size of the city, it'll take a while. Patience is key.

Click here for Part Three.

Black Friday Cyber Monday

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Click Here for Details

City Design WIP: Part One

"Medieval Street" © 2016-2020 Aleksandr-osm on Deviantart

Designing a fantasy city always is a challenge. Other than using random city generators (some of them are fairly good and fun to use), drawing one’s own requires balancing creativity vs. desire for realism, both of which demand planning. The city described here, Mythuín, is a work in progress. I intend to include it in my upcoming gazetteer on Calidar’s elves. I hope to post updates between the early stages shown below and the final result.

            The first step was to establish Mythuín’s physical size and therefore the scale of the map, and how big the streets would look on paper. After some back and forth with cartographer Thorfinn Tait, we went for a 1:11,000 scale. From this, he generated the coastline, based on the existing topographical map from cal1 In Stranger Skies. The next milestone was to figure out the size and graphic resolution of the map’s image, with one version intended as a two-page spread in the gazetteer and the other as an option for a separate 12”x18” fold up map. The red dotted line on the illustration shown below marks the outside limit of the book’s map. All in all, the area depicted is about 2 miles north to south (a little over 3 Km). The grid is set to 1 square = 100 meters (330 feet).

            From this, the widths of the streets could be calculated fairly accurately. For example: a “small” street could be thought as being 18 feet across (a little over 5 meters). On paper, this would be just 2 millimeters thick. I know this actually works, based on the Glorathon city map from cal1. Tracing such a street on a computer screen requires a line 6 pixels wide. Actually, it’s not really as narrow as one might think, so far as Middle Ages streets go. Those of you living in Europe or Asia know what I mean. I Google-viewed the old quarter of my home town of Nice, which is a good example of what a medieval town might look like. Some streets there are 10 feet across (3 meters). It’s great for shopping and ever so quaint to visit, but they do get pretty crowded. On the plus side, there’s no car traffic there. At the scale I’m using, these would show as simple lines, maybe dotted lines on the map.

Rough Draft 2 City of Mythuín ©2020 Bruce A. Heard. World of Calidar™ Fantasy Setting.

            Actually putting pen to paper begins at this point. Besides the existing coastline, I needed to draw the city’s main features. For Mythuín, I wanted a cliff with multiple waterfalls, and a giant oak tree in the middle. First, I drew the edge of the cliff. Then came a river splitting into three branches. The northern waterway is intended as navigable. It requires a river port and a shaft lock linking with a marine channel through a tunnel at the bottom of the cliff, 40 meters lower (130 feet). Two hand-drawn drafts and two computer versions later, I finally have a layout I can live with. I then added bridges and “access towers.” These large towers contain spiraling ramps for mounts and horse-drawn vehicles to reach either side of the city cliff. They also feature levitating shafts running along their central axes.

            With all this in place, I can begin “roughing in” streets and boulevards connecting all the key elements described earlier, which will produce city blocks and open areas. The map shown here is just an early draft with labeled details penciled in as guidelines. Click here for Part Two.

Nice's Old Quarter, Southern France

 

D&D: Winged Elves

My current Calidar project deals with elves. One ancestry concerned winged elves. I thought of including game mechanics for maneuvering, in case none are available in the game system players choose to run this campaign world with. The following material is written for the D&D® game's BECMI rules, although Calidar is officially system neutral. I'm looking for a few contributors to look this over and point out anything broken (or unclear). If you do, thanks!

Here we go.

These winged elves can fly using large eagle-like wings on their backs. Immune to fear of heights and altitude sickness, Elëan elves can maintain flight while moderately encumbered for up to an hour, half that if encumbered (120 Lbs or more), two hours with light encumbrance (60 Lbs or less), after which they should land to rest for at least two hours. Raise encumbrance limits +10 Lbs per Str bonus. Load carried in flight can never exceed twice the elf’s own unencumbered body weight. A winged elf must land when:

1.    Carrying or holding on to more than the maximum weight limit.

2.    Incurring 75% or more combat damage.

3.    Sustaining more than twice normal flight times.

            While in flight with moderate or no encumbrance, Elëan elves receive a +1 bonus to AC and saves against physical and magical attacks. Incurring 50% damage or flying while exhausted halves vertical speeds when climbing (round down) and maximum flight ceiling.

Ø Horizontal Flight Speed: 60’ per round; –10’ if encumbered or if climbing; +20’ if diving.

Ø Vertical Speeds: Climbing—40’ up; –10’ if encumbered. Diving—80’ per round at an angle or 120’ if diving straight down, head first (requires a Str Check to pull up; –2 penalty if encumbered). An unconscious Elëan elf should spin downward at about 30' per combat action, incurring 3d6 damage when hitting a horizontal surface. 

Ø Flight Ceiling: 15,000’ maximum altitude; –3,000’ if encumbered; +1,000’ per Str bonus.

            Maneuverability: Winged creatures do not fly like airplanes. They can use wing and body motions to effect tight maneuvers such as slowing down enough to land on a branch or on a rocky promontory, hovering, or making a tight turn. The latter two require a Dexterity Check. If the roll fails, the flying creature stalls, immediately dropping altitude equal to half its level flying speed; it must resume level flight during the next round. A critical failure results in a drop equal to its full level flight speed. If Dex isn’t known, the following chart summarizes possible ratings and outcomes. Actual Dex for PCs may differ.

             Hovering: If the Dex roll succeeds, the time spent hovering corresponds to the creature’s size, regardless of its actual Dex score. It must resume normal flight afterward. For Example: An Elëan elf with 18 Dex is still limited to 3 combat rounds hovering. A failed roll results in a stall as described earlier.

            Turning: If the Dex roll succeeds, a tight turn (more than 90˚) still requires the clearance noted in the chart, regardless of actual Dex scores. Normal flight must occur during the next round. For Example: An Elëan elf still requires a 10’ radius to perform a tight turn regardless of actual Dex. A failed roll results in a stall as described earlier.

            Flight Conditions: Elëan elves are comfortable at cooler temperatures up to 8,000’ altitude (about freezing level). Damage from exposure to cold temperatures begins past the freezing point. Their breathing also becomes more labored above 8,000’ (Con –1 per extra 1,000’ altitude), unless they wear enchanted devices enabling free breathing. Strong winds affect level flight speeds (double with tailwinds, halve with headwinds). A Str check is required to fly against gale-strength winds (one roll per occurrence while in combat or one check per hour when travelling). Updrafts and downdrafts can alter climbing or diving speeds +/– 50%. Elëan elves can sense the direction of air currents within a 300' unobstructed radius.

Travel Speeds: The limitation on the number of consecutive hours winged elves can fly limits their ability to travel fast. If unencumbered, Elëan elves can travel 40 miles/day at best, regardless of terrain, assuming resting time equals flying time, or 27 miles with moderate enc., or 14 miles if encumbered. Double these speeds with good tailwinds or halve them with headwinds (round up).

            Swooping Attacks: They do no require Dex checks, but a foe should always be able to swing back at its attacker as it flies away. A swooping attack involving a high speed dive (head first) requires a Str check to pull up in time. A failed check would result in the elf hitting an intervening floor (if any), or continuing the dive during the following combat actions until a Str check succeeds.

            Drawbacks: Elëan elves dislike hot weather (Con –2 in weather 86˚f/30˚c and up). They suffer from mild claustrophobia in places where flight is either impractical or impossible (–2 to Wis and Cha while in these conditions); NPCs also incur a –2 penalty to Morale Checks. Elëan elves feel miserable underwater and will refuse to go unless some emergency compels them to do so; they don’t typically know how to swim and are usually unskilled with horse riding. Furthermore, armor does not protect their wings, so their backs remain essentially unarmored. Elëan elves may also need to consume more energy if much flying is involved, possibly going through food supplies twice as fast during rest periods as they would when walking. Overweight elves are both terribly unfortunate and thankfully quite rare.

Forbidden Forests

Thought you might enjoy a walk through the forbidden forests of Alfdaín, my present gazetteer project for the World of Calidar. I posted card-like entries during the past several days on various social media. Some of you who caught those earlier will recognize them. I added several more for good measure and a key to get around them.

            (...) Paths, markings, and other attempts at leaving “bread crumbs” in one’s wake fail as vegetation and topographical features randomly shift. Speaking with plants and animals does not work therein. No people or normal-sized animals live there. Giant animals and monsters from random encounters (including woodland beings) are evil, hostile, and mostly immune to the forests’ curses. Druids or rangers encountered here are performing their monitoring duties* and will demand unwarranted parties leave at once. Replace military patrols with haunted battle sites. Pegasus-riding scouts fly above the forest (if anyone notices); they will alert rangers if they spot outsiders in these woods.

[*] Note from the Author: Elaborate random encounters mentioned above are available earlier in the Gazetteer.

Happy camping!

A Brave New Game World

As my present project moves ahead, time has come to pick a new map style. Before getting into this, here's a bit of background: the third Gazetteer for Calidar focuses on the elves of the Great Caldera. Right from the beginning, it was clear that this book also had to cover the place where elves came from. They did not grow on trees, although the idea crossed my mind. Actually an alien race on the main world, they emerged on a moon gravitating Calidar. After fighting each other and the gnomish wizards who'd created them (!) they eventually sailed across space to land on Calidar, along with their rivals, dwarves and humans who came from their own moons. So yes, there are three moons spinning around Calidar. Very, very loooong story short: the new Gazetteer now has to cover both the elves' realm on Calidar and their moon, Alorea.

Thorfinn Tait pledged his time and talent to render Alorea's map in the same manner as the one he'd produced for Calidar seven years earlier. This does also imply that the next two Gazetteers will each cover a realm on Calidar and its related moon. You can expect lots of maps therefore. I handed Thorfinn the coastal outlines I drafted for Alorea, the general positions of mountains, and the climate zones. From this, Thorfinn generated four topographic roughs, one for each projection style. I posted them here for your perusal.
Which one do you like best?

1. Van Der Grinten

[From Thorfinn Tait:] This is the protection I chose for Calidar itself. Its focus on the central area of the world is perfect for Calidar, as the main Great Caldera region appears front and centre. For Alorea, however, I’m not so sure. The edges of the map look progressively more and more warped, and I’m not sure this fits Alorea’s design so well.

2. Mollweide

[From Thorfinn:] The oval presentation of the world is rather distinctive. This projection is often used for palaeontological maps of the ancient Earth, and as a result ended up being used for the Mystara setting’s world map. For Alorea, it de-emphasises the poles rather nicely, as these are not really regions of interest in this world. However, the outer edges of the map appear rather warped.

3. Robinson


[From Thorfinn:] An old favourite projection dating from the 1960s, Robinson is now slightly out of date, which can be a plus when dealing with fantasy worlds. It does a good job of rendering the mid latitudes without too much warping, while not placing too much emphasis on the poles. It seems like a natural fit for Alorea in many ways.

4. Winkel-Tripel

[From Thorfinn:] A more modern take on the same concept as Robinson, and the similarity is pretty striking. The main difference for our purposes is in the depiction of the poles: Winkel Tripel places more emphasis on these areas. As such, it seems like an inferior choice to Robinson for Alorea.

[Back to me:] You're welcome to vote in the related poll, or to comment about these maps. Now's a good time to let us know what you like or don't like. I posted the poll in Calidar's Facebook group (click here to visit).

D&D: Sky Warriors of Phrydias

Here's an oldie I originally posted on EN World more than 4 years ago. It's actually part of CC1 Beyond the Skies. I bet a number of people haven't seen this. This excerpt introduces an order of half-elven knights who ride giant eagles. Their base of operation is a circular structure hanging from a gigantic balloon.

This order of half-elven knights originally formed in honor of an epic hero by the name of Bambathiel. His legends tell of the first recorded case of a Calderan eagle being tamed as a mount. The giant raptors are reputed for being particularly difficult to approach, let alone to befriend and ride like a horse. Magic sometimes works in this respect, but followers of Thaëldar see this as an insult to their deity. For them, Calderan eagles embody their Lord of the Skies. Being entrusted with one is nothing less than a holy gift requiring utmost respect and devotion.

Bambathiel died in a fight with a night howler, a great beast of evil that had been preying on Calderan eagles in the Kaël Mountains. Though he who became known as the First Knight defeated his mythical foe, his wounds and those of his majestic mount were awash with deadly poison. No prior in Phrydias could stop its spreading, and both died in writhing pain. The High-Prior of Thaëldar prayed for their return to life, but the Great God of the Skies decided to keep them both at his side. Since then, faithful followers of Thaëldar, those who are pure of thought and brave at heart, have created the Order of Sky Warriors in memory of their fallen hero. Bambathiel and Oba Eagle-Lord together became scions of the cult and the order’s spiritual protectors.

The night howler is an enormous beast that sometimes appears late at night. It is born from the nightmares of slumbering evil Phrydians, and vanishes before dawn. What is unclear, however, is why so many people would make the same horrid dream during one fateful night. No Bongorese literature had ever mentioned night howlers. A sect of malevolent wizards or perhaps a demon are thought to be at work, summoning the beast when the moons are right, perhaps as the consequence of an unholy ritual planting seeds of evil into many a weaker or disturbed mind. Priors of Thaëldar have come to believe that in the heart of the eagles lies great spiritual power, which the wicked covet for their evil deeds. What they do with such wondrous power remains a mystery. As the beast unexpectedly rises again to wreak havoc upon Thaëldar’s flock, the knights scramble to deny the odious harvest. In truth, the beast springs from a curse. It was cast by the demon-prince Kokumo, when Thaëldar cast his spear at him.

This order is the armed chapter of the Faith of Thaëldar. Aside from safeguarding breeds of eagles small and large, they live to protect of the Sky God’s temples in Phrydias and elsewhere. A contingent resides in northwestern Alfdaín where the cult has found significant following. Their ethos is neither fundamentally malevolent or purely benevolent. Their philosophy concerns more specifically the order of all things in the universe. Most members of Thaëldar’s fanatical legion stick together as a military organization. Others ride their fabulous mounts, travelling the world in search of clues about who or what lies behind the summoning of night howlers. They are avengers, adventuring warriors looking for a worthy cause for the purpose of acquiring goodwill toward their quest and their faith. Their beneficiaries are to watch for defilers of great eagles and for clues about the night howlers, and alert them if such comes about. Following the belief that evil doers dwell in evil places, sky warriors aren’t loath to exploring dungeons and other places of despair, for hints may lie there was well.

Isn’t a knight anyone who desires it. Prerequisites include being at least a pious follower of Thaëldar. In this regard, race is not an issue. To become a squire, one must already be a fine warrior or a skilled prior (one with the experience of at least a dozen worthwhile dungeon expeditions should qualify). A time will come when the squire will have to seek out a giant eagle’s nest high in the Kaël Mountains and earn its occupant’s respect, a perilous quest on its own. Magic of any kind, clerical or otherwise, is not permitted, and the squire must act alone. Should a glorious fate shine upon the squire, an egg will be available for the taking. It must be safely returned to the order’s sanctum, wherein its new owner will have to care for it until it hatches. The squire must raise the young eagle, nurture its growth, earn its loyalty, and train it as a mount.

Note: The remainder of the chapter goes on about risks and rewards of being a knight, and creating a player-character. You'll find all this in CC1 Beyond the Skies. 

D&D: Don't Eat the Purple Lotus

            The so-called purple lotus is a very strange creature. It grows in shallow waters, on ponds, lakes, and slow-moving rivers. Its bloom closes up at dawn and sinks below the surface during the day. When it emerges to take in the light of stars and the moons, the purple lotus is resplendent in its shimmers glowing from indigo to deep violet. Its petals wither and fall off over time for others to replace them, curling up and taking the appearance of a mound of gold coins under the water, around and beneath the plant. Withered petals turn into decaying muck when scooped up. The oddities do not end there.

Golden Lotus Field by Samantha Genier, Deviantart. ©2013 Samantha Genier.

            These flowers grow in large patches of at least 10 plants, each one about 10’ apart from at least two others. They do not grow below ground, unless they can receive moonlight which they need to survive along with nutrients from the ground. All of them connect through a network of roots. Called a prime, one among them is a sentient being able to see and hear through each of the surrounding plants. Their number indicates how intelligent the prime is: min. 9, +1 for every 10 lotuses above the first 10. It takes about ten years for a prime to sharpen its mind by a mere point. With an Int of 10, it can cast druidic spells as a level 2 cleric, +2 experience levels per point of Int above 10). There isn’t a limit to how intelligent a prime can grow, but anything above 18 is extremely rare. Such large patches usually breed another prime that leaves with 10-40 plants to establish its own colony. The chart below summarizes the progression.

Prime Lotus Intelligence
Number of Plants	Intelligence	HD	Spellcasting Level
10	9	1	none
20	10	2	2nd
30	11	3	4th
40	12	4	6th
50	13	5	8th
60	14	6	10th
70	15	7	12th
80	16	8	14th
90	17	9	16rd
100	18	10	18th

            The prime looks like the surrounding plants, unless someone leans over its bloom and observes its pistil, which will reveal a pair of tiny eyes looking back. It can cast its spells through any of the surviving plants. Although it cannot speak, the prime can respond telepathically to visitors able to speak with plants. The prime is also able to produce written material from its leaves, their veins forming a natural script unique to the region. Local monsters with animal intelligence or better have learned to avoid lotus patches.

Purple Lotus: AC 9 (unarmored), HD 1*, 5 hp, MV 30 (10’), AT 1 cloud, D nil, Save F1, Int 1, ML n/a, AL Neutral, Size: S, XP 13.

            Abilities: Cloud of pollen.

Prime Lotus: AC 9 (unarmored), HD 1-10********, 5-50 hp, MV 30 (10’), AT 1 cloud or spell, D nil of by spell, Save F1-10, Int 9-18, ML 7, AL Neutral, Size: S, XP 13-7,000.

            Abilities: Cloud of pollen; spellcasting as a druid (see chart for experience level).

            When disturbed, these plants shoot a cloud of pollen about 30’x30’x30’ large (enough to fill its 10’x10’ space and eight others immediately adjacent). Each lotus can release a new cloud every 3d4 rounds. The pollen acts as a narcotic for anyone failing a saving throw. Each cloud requires a separate roll. Failing the first check results in several penalties: move at 1/3 MV, cannot cast spells, –2 penalty to AC, saves, and attack rolls. With a second failure, victims stand by the closest mound of fake gold and defend their “treasures” against anyone approaching. With a third failure, victims fall unconscious for another 3d4 hours and possibly drown in the shallow water; golden pollen covers their clothes and exposed skins, and takes 3d6 days to come off.

            The prime lotus will cast its spells at anyone or anything threatening its patch. Its intelligence and spellcasting ability drop according to the number of plants killed. If the prime is destroyed, the entire patch withers and dies. If victims are lying unconscious among the plants after the fight ends, the surviving patch will move to another location. A patch can also move at the behest of the prime at MV 30’/Turn (180’/hour or about 1½ mile per day). They pull up their roots and use either the prevailing westward wind or the water’s weak downstream current.

            Purple lotus patches are more common on far eastern coastal lands which possess many rivers, streams, and lakes. In their own way, they are akin to human clans and are able to communicate by discarding one of their own to carry a message to another patch. The prime can cast a create water spell variant maintaining a safe depth for its patch to survive a drought, or raising the surface of an enclosed body of water. The spell lasts for 24 hours and raises the surface level about 1” per hour (2’ per day). The area affected must be no more than 90’ across plus 10’ per HD, otherwise reduce the speed at which the water rises accordingly.

Black Lotus: Far more uncommon than the purple lotus is one that is undead. Those patches have fallen prey to a water hag, a horrid creature that corrupted and cursed them to guard its lair’s entrance below the surface. It is perhaps the only extant case of an undead creature able to cast druidic spells.

            The hag awaits in deeper, darker waters, dragging into her lair victims falling unconscious. Back lotus pollen is poisonous to exposed skin, inflicting 1d4 hp of unhealable damage per day (no save). Magical or natural healing may resume after the pollen wears off. Those who die of this poison rise 1d4+4 hours later as wights. A cleric can Turn a black lotus patch as an undead corresponding to its prime’s HD. The Turn attempt requires a score high enough to result in the destruction of the undead, in which case the entire patch is destroyed. Black lotuses are generally found in bayous, swamps, or waterlogged moors.

Source: The map was cropped and altered from the revised climate chart by Thorfinn Tait, available as a poster map on DTRPG ©2019 Bruce A. Heard. The purple lotuses as fantasy creatures constitute original content ©2020 Bruce A. Heard.