At the base of Mount Thorrien is a shrine to one of the dwarven patrons of the great war – a water deity that helped guide the dwarven earthships to this realm to engage in the war against the Kale. The clan that built this shrine, along with most of the dwarves of Mount Thorrien, were among the clans who managed to maintain their fleet of earthships through the war and then departed in them when the fighting was over.

The Dwarven Shrine At Mount Thorrien

Between the entrance hall and the great hall of the shrine are three areas marked like this on the map:

Trap Trigger

I can’t remember what adventure module I got that trap trigger icon from, but I still use it from time to time. In this case, the three zones appear unimpeded, but when the pressure plate in the centre of the zone is stepped on or otherwise triggered, portcullises fall on each side of the passage.

. . .

On the personal end of things, everything is shaping up that we’ll be able to get back to life mostly-as-usual at the end of this weekend and I can get back to work drawing and responding to people.

It’s starting to feel like “Ruins and Mortuaries” month here at the Dodecahedron with another dungeon suited for the long-term storage of the deceased. Sebastijan’s Shrine is located just west of the city, where it fell into disuse after one side of the stonework structure started to slide away and collapse. No longer maintained by any priesthood, it is instead watched over by a few faithful locals and occasion attempts are made to clean up the mess by travelling clergy.

Sebastijan’s Shrine and Crypts

The only reason the structure hasn’t been completely abandoned is the crypts below it, which include the resting places of many early faithful supplicants to Saint Sebastijan including a few important persons from the foundation of the nearby city and a gnoll prince who fought bravely along with his mercenary tribe against the elves.

This old tower and associated structure were built into an outcropping of rock that had traditionally been used as a watch point for the nearby town for generations. As the town found itself existing in safer and safer climes over the years, the tower changed hands and purposes several times, including a few decades as the town’s butcher shop.

The Butcher’s Tower

Now it is once again used as a watch tower and base of operations for the local bandit warlord. From here he can keep an eye on the shell of the old town and the few families that still eke out a living there. Some families call the tower by it’s traditional name of Hubert’s Tower, but the common name of The Butcher’s Tower seems even more appropriate under current management.

. . .

The Butcher’s Tower was drawn in pencil and ink – using a cheap dollar store mechanical pencil, and a pair of Sakura Micron 03 and 005 pens. It was drawn on a wrinkled sheet of printer paper that survived the flooding we dealt with two weeks ago (albeit not in pristine condition). It was then scanned and cleaned up a little bit in Adobe Photoshop.

I documented a few of the steps in the progress of the map on my google+ account – I started with the side-view of the structure and how I wanted it to look

Then I added the main level and sketched out the tower levels

And here it is just prior to being slapped onto the scanner to create the version posted at the top of the article:

We don’t know why the ancients built so may underground structures (perhaps to remain out of the sight of the elves who ruled the lands) – and something about how they built them enabled them to survive for ages beyond what you would expect for stone structures in unstable land.

Regardless, over the ages since the end of their civilization, their ruins have been discovered by countless miners, diggers, spelunkers and treasure hunters.

Cooper’s Hole

This particular set of ruins is partially collapsed and now links to a cave that is home to far too many bats for entry to be a sanitary or safe choice. But behind all that guano there’s a fairly intact set of ancient ruins, along with the odd artifacts that usually come with such. Occasionally a small artifact makes it’s way to the front of the cave with all the comings and goings of the bats, and maybe it will be enough to get the attention of some adventurers with the right equipment or magic to get past all that crap and the gasses it produces to find the ruins beyond.

. . .

Like the map posted on Tuesday, I too a series of shots of this map as I drew it.

Humble beginnings. And beer.

This is how the map started last night as I was waiting to meet Zzarchov Kowolski (author of many brilliant OSR adventures as well as the Neoclassical Geek Revival RPG that I drew a character sheet for). Within a minute of me taking this photo, he showed up, and I stuffed the map into my bag, forgotten until this morning.

Step 2

Here we see the map expanding with some rooms… and googly eyes. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

Crosshatching & Cave-Ins!

Spur-of-the-moment change to the design was the incorporation of collapsed areas in the map. These are fun to draw, and allow me to make a map that looks like it used to be all interconnected in multiple ways without actually drawing most of those connections.

South Side, Represent!

And the south side is basically done here, except for a bit more cross-hatching. I fill in the hatching as I draw normally – basically I go back whenever I hit a block as to what I should draw for an area, and cross-hatch a previously drawn area until something comes to mind.

North Side, Represent!

And here’s the north side of the map done being outlined but without any hatching or any detail of the collapsed sections.

Tah-Dah!

And the whole thing done and ready to be slapped onto the scanner!

I like towers, I particularly like them when the entrance isn’t completely obvious. This reminds me of a fort at a park I used to play in as a kid – you had to walk down a long concrete pipe (basically a sewer main pipe) under a hill to get to the tower in the wooden fort.

There are two ways into this tower, either the tunnel in through the hillside, or you have to climb the sheer sides of the stone construction in order to access the ladder that leads up to the roof from the tower below.

Specter’s Tower

This particular map was drawn “old school” for me. It was drawn using a 0.7mm gel pen in my Moleskine gridded notebook. It actually takes up three pages in the little notebook – one for the side view, one for sections A & B and finally one for sections C & D.

The whole thing is yours to do with as you please (non-commercially) thanks to the awesome support of the many patrons of my Patreon Campaign.

Rocky hills overlook the poor farming lands along the eastern coastline of the Empire. Most people live by fishing and herding in these lands because the rockiness of the land makes cropping very difficult.

However, it does provide for the kind of terrain that is easily defended against invading forces – making this area one of the more frightfully “independent” regions under Imperial control. Many caves pepper the rocky hills, and fortresses and watchtowers sprung up along the hillsides during the generations of conflict between man and dwarves and the collapsing empire of the elves.

Habddar’s Fortress, also known as the Grey Fortress or Habddar’s Grey Fortress (because of the particularly light grey stone used in the construction) sits on the edge of one of these rocky hills, and connects to the caves on the opposite face of the hill that have been used by herders and farmers as long as people remember living in the region.

Habddar’s Grey Fortress (with grid)

Habddar’s Fortress can serve any number of uses in a game – from the headquarters of a reticent lordling or freedom fighter, to the classic ruins overwhelmed by the local humanoid population that needs to be slaughtered by the local paladins.

Since I don’t usually include a grid on my maps, I’ve also included a version (below) that doesn’t have the grid.

Habddar’s Grey Fortress (no grid)

I drew Habddar’s Fortress in my reporter-style moleskine notebook one afternoon using Sakura Microns in 03 and 01 weights. Several people have been telling me lately how much they appreciate the smaller maps that have appeared on the Dodecahedron over the years – maps that scale well for single session adventures or that keep the feel of dungeon crawling to something “simpler” than the larger dungeon maps. Thus I’ve started drawing maps on smaller pages again instead of generally sticking to my letter-sized Canson pads.

The final drawing was scanned into photoshop and lightly cleaned up before being posted here. It is available for your non-commercial use thanks to the many awesome patrons of the Dodecahedron who support the site through my Patreon Campaign.

The Wolves are a secretive warrior-cult typically pictured fighting with “long knives” (short swords) in both hands. They operate within military forces, tribal warrior bands, city guards and wherever career warriors are to be found. Membership numbers rise and fall, and many members are unaware of religious implications of their “band of brothers” until they are initiated into the higher orders. The “true membership” (those who understand that they are a religious group and who have been involved in at least two rituals involving the Dire Wolf, their god) numbers around a thousand at any one time.

The heart of the organization is Wolf Tower, a small fortified tower in the middle of the territory of an otherwise nomadic hunting tribe. While the tower itself is fairly unremarkable, there is a secret chamber beneath the tower that was once the den of a mighty dire wolf and her pups that is used to this day to commune with the spirit of the great Dire Wolf.

Wolf Tower

Wolf Tower was drawn across two pages of my Moleskine gridded reporter’s notebook using Sakura Micron 03 and 005 pens. The various pieces were scanned and assembled into a semi-coherent map using photoshop, and are presented here for your non-commercial use thanks to the many awesome patrons of my Patreon Campaign.

Also, because there are people who feel that the grid is essential to a map for use with some fantasy RPGs, here is a version of Wolf Tower with a grid:

Wolf Tower with Grid

One of several fairly well known entrances into the catacombs beneath Triumph Mesa, Hesporus Cave is home to a xenophobic clan of dwarves who seem to have given up on most of what people expect from their kin. They are unkempt and dirty, put no time into mining and crafts, and instead worship some dark entity of unknown origin.

However, if you can deal with them (or sneak past them), access to the depths below is fairly simple. Those  who have negotiated passage in the past typically ignore the dwarves as they use the ledge above the dwarven mushroom farm to acccess the deeper passages.

And the dwarves grumpily ignore them also.

Hesporus Cave

Of course, these “fallen” dwarves are not always trustworthy. For the next five days or so after someone has passed through to the lower regions, they will post sentries to watch for their return. If they appear to have suffered badly in their descent and are returning injured and missing a few party members, the dwarves will fall upon them with cannibalistic fervor.

Hesporus Cave – Gridded

Hesporus Cave was actually drawn at least 18 months ago. When I started drawing in my Moleskine reporter’s pad again recently, I noticed that a few of the older maps in the book hadn’t made it onto the blog for one reason or another (mostly my own disorganization). It was drawn on a 4 square per inch grid in the aforementioned gridded reporter’s pad using my old 0.7mm gel pens.

It is posted here for your non-commercial use thanks to the awesome patrons of the blog who support it through my Patreon Campaign.

The goblin trail leads to this cave, and presumably within they are holding the missing dwarf and fighter – maybe as prisoners, maybe just as food. But the origin of the cave isn’t geological in nature. This cave is part of the old coolant processing facility that was part of the nearby space elevator (the city of Winterspire is built into the foundation of that same elevator, this is one of 16 sub-spires that supported the original construction).

Cragmaw Hideout in the Coolant Processing Facility

The goal of this redraw of the Cragmaw Hideout adventure map is to inject a little bit of a different feel to my D&D5e campaign. It isn’t set in the Forgotten Realms, it’s set along the remnants of much older technologies that everyone has forgotten. Yet the bits and pieces of those prior ages are so abundant that people don’t take notice that they are in any way special. In game play the passages and systems of the coolant plant are described as “smooth passages” and “big lumps”, “small lumps” and “protrusions”.

The goal is to make it feel just that little bit different, to inject a bit of a Count Brass feel to the setting. Obviously these caves were made by magic at some point, and unknown magics were used to produce the waters that flow from them. Unless you are a sage who specializes in these things, that’s all most characters will care to learn. You can see the map I drew for the players of the region here.

And since I’ve been adding grids to my maps lately, here’s a version with a few screened layers added: grid, shrubs and water.

Cragmaw Hideout – Gridded

I totally recommend this process for learning everything about an adventure before running it – redraw the map as you read the adventure. In the end it should run as well as any adventure you have written yourself since you’ll be that much more familiar with the material.

This map was drawn on plain white bond paper (stolen from my printer) using a Sakura Micron 01 pen. It was scanned and contrast-enhanced in photoshop, and then the three additional screen layers were added there also.

It is made available for your (non-commercial) use thanks to the awesome patrons of the Dodecahedron who support the blog through my Patreon Campaign.

The forest of the Beastmen is well known as a place where those who serve fell gods travel to prove themselves against one another for the attention of their dark lords. One constant in the forest is of course the Beastmen, and the westernmost part of the forest is the stomping grounds of Tallhorn’s Herd, a savage group of centaurs, minotaurs and beastmen lead by the Tallhorn – the mightiest of their kin.

What makes this herd more permanent than the other herds and tribes in the forest is Tallhorn’s Retreat, a shrine / crypt / temple / fortress cut into a rocky outcropping in their territory.

Tallhorn’s Retreat

While lacking in easy access and egress points besides the front door, this structure provides shelter and a sign of the favour of the gods through the various shrines that have been built and desecrated over the years.

Tallhorn’s Retreat (Gridded)

Since this map was drawn freehand, there is no way to really match the grid up to the map – but I’ve done my best in this gridded version.

Tallhorn’s Retreat was drawn in a single draft using Sakura Micron 03 and 01 pens in my Dollar Store mapping booklet (which is damned near full and in sad need of replacement soon). It is presented here for your non-commercial use thanks to the awesome people who support the site through my Patreon Campaign.

The old stone structure at the end of the lake by Devil’s Creek has been quiet but not abandoned for a few years now and the town folk know to keep their distance. Once the lakehouse of Viscount Tramur, it is now home to strange and somewhat disturbing demonic Kabuki infestation. The white-faced demons maintain the grounds immediately around the lakehouse and are said to grab anyone coming too close and forcing them to watch their endless plays… and then something even more foul perhaps, as no one has yet returned.

Tramur’s Lakehouse

Sure, the white-faced Kabuki demons might actually be a team of hobgoblins with a penchant for makeup and scary stories, but either way, they have managed to cow the locals and thus to live in some semblance of peace out here. And perhaps their disguise and performance skills are honed enough that they could pass themselves off as not-so-local farmers when they come into town to resupply…

Tramur’s Lakehouse was drawn in my Moleskine reporter’s pad over three pages and then thrown together (along with a few screens for the water, trees and grid) in photoshop. Below is a version without the screen overlays:

Tramur’s Lakehouse

Tramur’s Lakehouse was drawn in my gridded reporter’style Moleskine in a single draft using Sakura Micron 03 and 005 pens. It is presented here for your non-commercial use thanks to the awesome support of the patrons of the Dodecahedron Patreon Campaign.

If you look at the Mushroom Cavern map posted on Tuesday, you’ll note a secret trap door in one of the chambers near the entrance to the cave complex. During a multi-year dry spell, a team of mildly insane cultist dwarves converted the lower caves into a small temple and living area. When the nearby river started to flood again, they sealed the entrance to this area with a metal trap door that they would dog to keep the waters out.

Over the years, the door has partially rusted out, and now water flows through into this cave when the cave above floods. However, the flow is restrained significantly by the old door, and the result is that the flood often piles mud and debris over the door, keeping it well hidden from those who harvest the mushrooms above.

Mushroom Sublevel (with grid)

As long as the flooding isn’t extreme, the carved out portions of this level remain dry, or at least under minimal amounts of water. The natural cave funnels most of the water and mud down towards the sinkhole in the southern end which in turn connects much further down into the subterranean complexes.

While the Mushroom Cavern uses a grid size of 20′/square, this map uses a more standard 10′ square grid.

And for those who don’t use grids, I’ve kept a nice clean copy for you:

Mushroom Sublevel (no grid)

This map was drawn on 4 square-per-inch graph paper. I used one of my old 0.7mm gel pens for the walls, and a Sakura Micron 01 for the detail work (mushrooms, doors and crosshatching).

On the original node map of the MegaDelve, this map is part of the “Small Caves” node (same as the Goblin caves earlier this week, and the Cannibal Cave coming up next week).

MegaDelve Node Map

This area of the MegaDelve is inhabited by the “rat folk” who are actually messed up halflings who worship a rodent god-type-thing. They are cannibalistic, get most of their food from the “Vietnamese cavern” to the north of their lairs, and are on the constant watch for Ogres coming in from the east (which is actually goblin territory, but the ogres raid the goblins and occasionally head this way to get to the big-ass cavern). Fortunately the Ogres generally take the easy (wide) route to the big cavern, leaving the rat folk to their own devices in the smaller twisting caves around the main travel route.

Rat Folk Tunnels (with grid)

The passage to the right leads to the western exit from the goblin caves. The southern secret exit leads eventually to the abandoned dwarven city by way of the ogre base. All three passages to the top side of the page lead to the big-ass Vietnamese Cavern. The two sets of stairs lead up to the cannibal cave which I’ll probably have up on Tuesday.

And below I have a version of the map without the grid:

Tunnels of the Rat Folk (no grid)

And below are a few shots of the tunnels as they came together.

Still in the “small caves” node of the Dyson Mega Delve, this map links up to last Friday’s map via the two staircases leading down to the Tunnels of the Rat Folk. The northern exit leads to an upper mezzanine in the Vietnamese Cavern (which is going to need a different name soon, since it is coming up quickly on the list of things to map and detail).

The Cannibal Cave

The large cavern is home to a foul beast that devolved from the halfling rat folk who live in the small complex and the caves below as well as a horrendous slime creature that lives by the pool in the uppermost cave (at the bottom of the map).

The small complex of rooms here is also home to the shrine of the rat, the semi-deity that has perverted these halflings into the cannibal rat folk who live in this area.

Below is a version of the map without the grid (and I noted that the grid is missing in the above version in the room between the rat shrine and the northern stairway room, but I’m not going back to fix that any time soon).

Cannibal Cave (no grid)

While these maps are meant to go with the still incomplete Dyson Mega Delve, they are also yours to do with as you want in a non-commercial manner. They are presented here for your use thanks to the awesome people who support the blog and my mapping through my Patreon Campaign. For as little as 5 cents a map, you can become part of the powerhouse of awesome that keeps these maps flowing!

I’m now 8 maps into the Dyson Mega Delve and I thought it was about time to take a second look at the node map I used to originally lay out the place:

MegaDelve Node Map

Now, many of the nodes are made up of multiple maps, so I started redrawing the whole node map using a chart-building program to come up with this revised version that shows all eight currently complete maps and what maps I expect to see when the project is done, as well as how they all link.

Mega Delve Node Map (8 complete)

The map doesn’t come out all that clearly at blog resolution, so if you click on it you’ll get to see it blown up to it’s native resolution.

8 Maps into the process and we’ve got two nodes complete and a third nearly complete (the old Vietnamese Cavern node will be complete at the end of this coming week with the last two maps drawn for it). The only node that has a chance of being nearly as big as the “Vietnamese Cavern” in number of maps is the Dwarven City. Currently I have it listed as three maps, but I expect that in the end it will end up being somewhere between 5 and 8 maps.

If I actually stick to the number of maps shown on the node map above, then I should have the whole thing done in 17 maps – or 8 1/2 weeks from now. That’s a lot longer than I had originally anticipated for this project, but that’s what happens when you go MEGA I guess!

Last Tuesday’s map of the Lost River Cave (West) included a temple run by a religious order of ghouls and ghasts. Today’s map is of the region underneath their temple, where they don’t permit interlopers, adventurers or anyone not of their faith and race.

Under the Lost River Temple (grid)

The immediately noticeable point is that the two stairwells down from the temple above lead into separate sections down here that are not linked.

Secret passages lead to a chamber set directly below the everburning funeral pyre. Entering into this chamber requires a saving throw to avoid being transformed into a ghoul over the next 2d6 hours. The walls of the chamber are made of massive golden ribs – the ribcage of an ancient gold dragon long ago interred here and slowly fossilized into pure necromantic gold.

The skull of the dragon now sits in the centre of the chamber, and in its jaws is a massive ruby wreathed in magical flames. If the ruby is removed in any manner it immediately disintegrates, and the everburning pyre above goes out. Another gem placed here will change the colour of the flames above, but will also be destroyed should it be removed.

Other points of interest include the chamber of the heguman of the temple to the northwest (notably secured from the rest of the temple because the heguman is a potent and unpleasant undead bastard who awakens at most every 13 years, eats a few of his followers, switches out the gem in the dragon head, and then returns to his studies and eventually falls back into his undead slumber), the depression full of bones (mostly humanoid) to the east, and the “Black Well” full of rotted blood just beyond it.

Finally, in the largest chamber on the west side and in the room of the “Black Well” there are a matching pair of 6′ tall obsidian mirrors. While they don’t reflect all that well, they do act as a portal between the two rooms.

A frightening collection of ghouls and ghasts live within this complex as monks, requiring little living space as they either “sleep”, meditate, or pray most of the time. The ghasts never climb to the surface, and generally keep to the eastern complex where their smell mixes in with the rot of the “Black Well” and the pit full of bones.

Under the Lost River Temple (no grid)

North of the Lost River Cave (West) are a pair of tunnels that were once river beds lead into the tunnels and constructions of a war party of morlocks.

And then, just as I was writing this, I realized that I don’t remember morlocks in the classic B/X rules, but use them all the time since I got Labyrinth Lord as my standard reference document. Sure enough, Morlocks don’t turn up in the B/X rules, and seem closest in concept to the Grimlocks from the Fiend Folio (but statistically are very different).

But anyways, Morlocks are a race of devolved subhumans (in my campaign they are actually the natural form of half elves – the few half elves in society are exceptions to this standard) who have become carnivores who prefer the taste of human and humanoid flesh.

Morlock Retreat

The morlocks in this area number around 50 individuals and their lair has been carved from the limestone here in a poor attempt to recreate the style and architecture of ancient elven empires.

Restricted from access into the deeper areas of the delve by the ghoul acolytes (whom the morlocks have occasionally attacked and are thus attacked in turn by the otherwise very peaceful ghouls), the morlocks us a concealed passage and ladder at the very northern end of the caves to reach the surface and raid local wildlife.

Morlock Retreat (no grid)

A new node in the MegaDelve! And unlike the last few, this node is only a single map. Here it is in red on the node map – the Ogre Base (click to enbiggen):

While labeled as the Ogre Base, this is also the primary entrance to the Dwarven City since the collapse of the upper access to the city (which will be detailed when I draw up the map for Level 1 of the Dwarven City). As is evident by the name, this area has been taken over by a tribe of Ogres – base and crude creatures, but ones clever enough to avoid the city and it’s hazards. Instead the ogres farm the mushroom cave and occasionally launch raids against the goblins and as far north as the Lost River Cave.

Ogre Base (with grid)

There are several entrances and exits from this map. The passage on the right side leads back to the Mushroom Cavern. The cavern at the top of the page leads to a secret passage in the Ratfolk Tunnels. In the middle of the page we have two sets of stairs that lead down to level 2 of the Dwarven City, and the natural chimney at the bottom of the cave also leads there.

Both passages that lead over the natural cavern are actually bridges that span the narrow but deep cavern that was dug out of the mountain by a small river untold years ago. The north bridge is 20 feet above the cavern floor, while the southern bridge is 40 feet above the floor.

Because of the way air flows through these areas, the ogres keep the doors to the great hall (lower right side of the page) closed – when any door is open, an eerie and echoing deep whistling noise can be heard throughout the area as the wind blows through special pipes build into the pillars and some of the wall architecture. Because ogres travel through here, the noise will be ignored for the first turn, but if it continues after that some ogres will investigate from neighbouring areas in order to close the offending door and to beat whoever was responsible for leaving the door open in the first place.

Ogre Base (no grid)

As I feared, the Dwarven City is going to be more than 3 maps. Probably a LOT more than three maps. At least three maps just for level 2. But that just means more Mega Delve for everyone!

Marble Hall (with grid)

I’m enjoying the fact that the MegaDelve has had a lot of large spaces so far, and felt that it would be awesome for the PCs to first encounter the Dwarven City in a way that would be immediately visually striking. The typical entry to the city would be via the Mushroom Cave, through the Ogre Base, and then down either of the two staircases… Into a massive underground chamber nearly 150 feet tall with a facade of dwarven architecture facing them as they climb down the spiraling staircases.

This is the Marble Hall – not intended to be a primary entrance into the city, but it has become the easiest way into the city since the destruction of the great gates on level 1 of the city (we’ll get there, honest!).

Most of this area is typically abandoned, unclaimed by any of the factions and groups within the delve. It is instead home to stirges that nest near the top of the natural chamber and giant spiders that climb up from the depths beneath. The halls themselves feel desolate and haunted, with oversized marble reliefs of dwarven warriors, engineers and priests looking down upon those who trespass within.

There are a lot of access points in and out of this map -

• the left-hand exits proceed further into the dwarven city (and the Hall of Bronze)
• the stairs lead up to the Ogre Base
• the circular chamber in the massive stone pillar is 50′ tall, and near the peak is the chimney that leads up to the cavern in the Ogre Base
• stairs lead down around the pillar through the spider lairs to the Hall of Venom (in level 3 of the dwarven city)
• across the destroyed bridge, a cave leads to the crypts of several noble dwarven families

And here’s a version of the map without grid:

Marble Hall (no grid)

The various sections of the Dwarven City in the MegaDelve are named after the large halls that they are centred about. While the last map was the Marble Hall which is the main entrance into the abandoned city, today’s is its neighbour – the Hall of Bronze – named after the massive bronze statues of dwarven champions that decorate the great hall.

The Hall of Bronze (with grid)

This is the most dense and honestly the least interesting map so far in the MegaDelve – focused primarily around dwarven living quarters, the Hall of Bronze and The Descent. The Descent is the large circular chamber over 80 feet across on the left side of the map. This chamber spans all three levels of the city, with stairs leading up and down to levels 1 and 3.

Now’s when I also have to admit that I haven’t figured out what faction controls this part of the delve. The entire content of the dwarven city remains in that state in my mind – I’m not sure what or who is living here currently, except that it’s not the obvious LotR goblin hordes…

What would you have living here?

Hall of Bronze (no grid)