Return to An-Nayyir’s Pyramid – Part 2 (Patreon)

We return to the understructures beneath An-Nayyir’s pyramid today. Today’s map is of the deeper constructed level beneath the pyramid, the secret “tomb of the bright one” – a tomb that was built here before the pyramid and upper levels were constructed. This was a gateway to the underworld that became the tomb of a divine sorcere who was credited with keeping the darkness of the underworld at bay. Beyond the construction on this level is a secret door to the caverns below. This accessway to the underworld was purposefully blocked by the construction of the tomb and later pyramid, and records of this were expunged.

I originally drew the side view of this map in 2013 in a small dollar-store plain unlined notebook. Things have changed a bit in the interim and when I was asked a early last month if I had maps of the lower levels of the pyramid, I pointed out that I didn’t even have maps of the UPPER levels of the pyramid in question. And thus we started on this project that extends over three 6″ x 9″ pages of maps – the third of which will be posted on Friday.

All access to this lowest set of tombs are hidden by secret doors. The two spiral staircases up to the lower level above are hidden behind their own secret doors. Access from the underworld is easier to spot from the other side but requires a specific key to open from the cavern side. Finally there’s an access point via the well here. Originally used by the workers to draw water up while working on the tombs, the gap was closed when construction was completed, but a clever stone mason decided to put a secret hatch “just in case”.

The northmost chamber of this level is the aforementioned “Tomb of the Bright One” – containing the sarcophagus for the divine sorcere – but the sarcophagus is empty and appears to have been empty for untold ages. The other chambers are a mix of crypts and remembrance halls for the divine sorcere, with the southmost chamber having mosaics on the north and south walls of the sorcere’s battles against the underworld, and four large panel pieces of specific incidents during those battles. The one on the northern side of the west wall can be unlatched by lifting it upwards then away from the wall, making that whole section of the wall pull up and swing outwards allowing passage beyond. It takes some significant effort to pull it open, as it raises at a 15 degree incline and the whole section of wall weighs about three hundred pounds. The only means of opening the door from the cavern side is using a magical key that was destroyed long ago.

The caves beyond the door show obvious signs that they have been home to others, with stairs cut into the rock walls and multiple signs of old campsites where teams returning from the underworld waited for the door to be opened for them. The lowest point on the eastern edge of the cavern has been used as a garbage pit, and the shattered and scorched remnants of the magic key for the secret door lie among the junk at the bottom.

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 – the perfect dimension for a 6×9 book). 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 that fit the furnishings shown) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,520 or 3,360 x 5,040, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/03/18/return-to-an-nayyirs-pyramid-part-2-of-3/