For those who happen upon this post who don’t know what this is about, Skullport is a location within old school D&D that’s been lacking resources for over 30 years. I claim no ownership over the maps, but wanted to give them out to whomever for free. My reasons and processes for these materials are as follows:
I wanted something for a campaign I’m running for Skullport that would have the maps properly overlaid over one another. I’d seen several iterations, but none were truly accurate to the book: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I set about to make my own, utilizing the same information from DotMM for consistency as well as it being one of the few sources of official content out there.
However, in my campaign, the Keepers of the magical locks have returned and I really liked the idea of the Keeper Enclave being restored, so I combined the level 1 maps from DotMM and the AD&D book Skullport. I’ve added here as well, iterations of the upper levels that are transparent. I also added color coding to help make it visually distinct what level is what. Eventually I’d like to possibly make a 3D model, but it’s really low on my priority list of projects. Frankly, leave a comment if you’d like to see it!
Hoist – WIP
There’s not a lot of information on the Hoist used in the magical locks and I have yet to see any sort of artist rendition. The best description comes from the AD&D book on Skullport on page 8:
At the rear of this last cavern stands a retaining wall rising a good 10 feet above sea level, and hanging far above that is a massive hoist capable of lifting a vessel of almost any size. Heavily armed humans supplemented with the brute muscle power of rag-clad zombies operate this complex mechanism of winches, pulleys, and other mechanical lifting marvels.
Even still, this didn’t really explain much of the hoist, so I went to history. What large hoists have existed and what can I put together combining this description along with real world examples? My best guess was anything with treadwheels because the hoist is meant to lift sailing ships. This site https://gruasyaparejos.com/en/construction-crane/ancient-crane/ had a lot of wonderful examples, but the two that struck me the most were these:
The hoist needed to be tall enough to have ropes wrap around a ship, but also be able to swivel as it has to move a ship from one level to another level 100ft below while also lifting it over 10ft first with regard to the lock wall. At first I was thinking a boat could move the base of the hoist, but thought better of it because if the ropes (or chains) are angled at all, it would create tension and make swiveling the hoist difficult, if not impossible. Not to say what I’ve come up with would actually work or solve all physics issues, but I at least thought about it for a moment. In the end, man power seemed the way to go and a ship’s capstan has been able to do just that for a long time with anchor chains.
I have a picture incoming of the hoist from further away with a sailing ship for size reference. I also figured, this place isn’t super close to anything, so having a little bit of infrastructure for the Keepers would make sense. However, they ARE mages and so I pictured ramshackle huts that are in quite a bit of disrepair. Once I have that done, I’ll add it to this post. Again, comment if this interests you or you have feedback.
