I am working on a map of the City of Greyhawk.  After watching many more vlogs and reading more books and articles, I realized that the enthusiasm of the Greyhawk fandom is inspiring and intimidating.  I want my city map to be used at the game table and framed up on my wall.  I want to pour all my imagination into it, as that is the point of enjoying these games.  On the other hand, I worry about annoying the very passionate and knowledgeable Greyhawk fans with my own random fantasy imaginings and bits of art or maps.

So, what I think I will do is focus on smaller bits and pieces of my ideas for the City of Greyhawk and the surrounding region.  This will give me some additional time to think deeper about what it is that I want in each smaller area for my game and hopefully translate all of that into some future, final version of the city map I feel inspired to create.

I have a fully drawn first draft map of the city, and I've decided to go ahead and color it since I plan to use it more as a player hand-out than as a final piece of art.  I will share pictures and, eventually, some scans of that map here as time allows.

Tonight, I was working on a zoomed-in neighborhood map for a part of the City of Greyhawk that I've dubbed Downbank.  Downbank is located outside the city wall, on the South end of the wharf on the East side of the Selintan River.  In my version of the city, it is sometimes called the Old Docks district, as it was once a section of some of the earliest docks and buildings of the port, but what is left of the docks in this area are neglected, half rotten, barely used, and ignored.  

Further to the South still, past Downbank, is a section of wall running from the SW corner of the city all the way to the South gate for almost a mile, where the ground is mostly dank and swampy.  The natural flow of water in and around the City of Greyhawk runs from the North to the South, and so the city water system and sewers drain into this piece of land before rejoining the river.

The very Southern tip of this section of muddy, overgrown, insect-infested land outside of the Southern city wall climbs up abruptly into a rocky point.  The graveled shore and solid purchase around the rocks have made it a useful landing spot well away from the activity and guards of the wharf proper.  Over the years, the outcrop has been dubbed Smuggler's Point.

Indeed, ten years ago, a good-sized river barge skirting the shoreline down the Grey Run ran afoul of some of these rocks and was so badly damaged and run aground that it was abandoned.  For three years, the ruined barge sat neglected until an enterprising old gnome named Fiddlebart Bendbuckle greased sufficient palms in the city proper to allow him to construct a permanent and secure tavern, one with its own small private dock right up out of the remains of the shipwreck.  For the last seven years, The Broken Barge Inn has operated a successful private business just a hundred and fifty yards to the East of the stone outcrop of Smuggler's Point.

So I suppose I have two smaller detail maps on the kitchen table.  One for the Old Docks or Downbank area and one for the muddy section of neglected land immediately South of the city wall out to Smuggler's Point to include The Broken Barge Inn.