Cats + Cartography is a series where I post a map I’ve made along with a picture of one of our cats.
This week’s post is a quick one I wanted to show off from the home campaign I run with my wife Arella. Her current situation in Curse of Strahd has left her with the deed and land sale documents for an entire 2 mile square region at the western end of Barovia.
Little is written about Luna Lake in previous editions of Ravenloft. Its waters are fed by the Luna and Ghakis Rivers, and its nestled in between two mountainous rises bridged by Tsolenka Pass. It’s elevated above the fetid marshland that makes up the Ruins of Berez, but no burg, village, or settlement was ever made their as far as I could find.
When Prianna decided that this cycle of the mists she was going to build and open a sanctuary for all her favorite NPCs in Barovia, Luna Lake was her first choice. This campaign is now set to involve a lot of work and systems around settling land, renovating ruins, building structures, and farming. As excited about it as I was, I knew it was going to need a custom map that Arella could build atop of. So I made one by hand.
I’m a big fan of using wet-erase vinyl hex and grid maps for D&D games. Partly because they’re less expensive than dungeon tiles or terrain, but mostly because I’m decent at making fine-detail maps by hand. This is what I came up with on my first try.
It’s not perfect, but it’s legible enough to use and comprehensive enough that she can draw new things on it and use it as reference when needed. It’s the start of something much bigger.
Speaking of Ravenloft, please enjoy our cat Matilda chilling in the Beadle & Grimm’s Legendary Edition box for Curse of Strahd. Apparently, it makes for a legendary sit.
