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.

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 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.