The Ziggurat of Shadows - top view and upper levels (Patreon)

At the edge of the city, beyond the ruined necropolis, sits the heavy stone ziggurat of shadows – made of massive grey stones that had to be hauled from a quarry weeks away. The dark grey stones sweat in the rain and creak and pop in the sun. The priests who tend it to this day speak of it as a monument originally meant to worship the lords of the old city. They claim that these lords were struck down for their insolence and pride, and now the ziggurat is dedicated to the gods that smote them and the tales of human excess and pride.

The truth is that the ziggurat is much older than that. When settlers found this site, the ziggurat was already standing in the swamplands at the head of the river. The settlers built around it because the land here was dry and solid, never questioning why. None asked why the swamps had not reclaimed it.

This is the continuation of the Ziggurat map posted on Wednesday. Today we have a top down view of the ziggurat on the upper left, and detailed maps of the top and middle levels of the structure.

The ground level of the ziggurat is where worshipers and petitioners are welcomed via the large double doors on each side of the structure. The upper tiers are accessible via a number of secret entrances (secret doors on the ground level as well as ones on the mid tier) and via the door into the structure at the very top of the ziggurat. The upper structure contains idols of the Silver Scions, the gods of the city who struck down the old noble and stairs leading down into the mid level of the structure. Very narrow windows allow a small amount of light in but the chamber remains very shadowy unless the door is open or the lamps are lit.

The mid level has multiple access points. The main one is the stairs from the upper tier, but there are secret passages to enter it as well – the passage on the left leads into the main chamber where yet again we find statues of the Silver Scions, and the passage on the right connects both to the main chamber as well as to the secret chambers. The south side of the structure is full of secret chambers. The chamber on this level has a hatch with a ladder down to the secret chambers on the main level as well as small observation spaces cut into the large obelisks along the front stairs. These small chambers look out through 2 foot tall half-inch gaps in the stonework of the obelisks.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,800 pixels (24 x 36 squares) wide. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,520 or 3,360 x 5,040, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/03/13/the-ziggurat-of-shadows-top-view-and-upper-levels/