Gruthren the Excessive (also known as Gruthren Lord of All That Shines and is Burried, Gruthren the Obsessed, Gruthren Master of All Things Great and Small, Gruthren The Builder, Gruthren the Immense and Gruthren Of Too Many Titles) had this great hall constructed on level 3 of a local dungeon that he had cleared out by a team of mercenary adventurers. Purely so he would have something this insanely big for others to discover. Once the reconstruction of the level was complete, he abandoned the site and encouraged it’s repopulation with various foul beasts by leaving behind a significant quantity of gold, gems, foodstuffs, and even some mighty magical treasures he had accumulated.
The Great Hall of Gruthren of Too Many Titles
Sure enough, his plan worked, and foul beasts moved in from below and above, warring over control of the hall in the centre of the dungeon. Finally a potent mind controlling beast took residence here and used one of the magic statues left behind by Gruthren the Foolishly Brave as a magical link back to him, and drew him here to meet his doom.
Well, that’s the story at least. Others say that Gruthren died choking on a chunk of overcooked mutton at the local whorehouse, and the stories of his luring back to the Great Hall was just to conceal how much treasure his advisors and staff took with them when they vacated his palace.
I kept wanting to draw a map like this, and I kept wimping out before the main hall got quite big enough for my taste. So finally I sat down and sketched out the main hall block in pencil on the map before I started drawing any other part of the dungeon. Subconsciously one of the big influences for this map was the Canadian XBox 360 game “Too Human” which I played non-stop for two weeks when it was released. The massive hallway, the little raised side sections, the sunken area with the statue… yeah, pretty much all from my memories of Too Human.
The Great Hall of Gruthren the Excessive was drawn using a pair of Sakura Micron pens (a 02 for the walls and a 005 for the details and hatching). It was drawn on 8-square-per-inch graph paper, scanned and then contrast-enhanced. It is made available for your (non-commercial) use thanks to the awesome patrons of the Dodecahedron Patreon Campaign which pays for me to keep a roof over my head while I draw these maps.
