Dragon 157 Vulture Peninsula
Part 5 of the Princess Ark included a map that expanded south to the Vulture Peninsula for the first time. Although it didn’t give it a great deal of development, the locations visited by the ship did give some hints as to where the sites featured in the episode are located. The most important of these was the site of the ancient capital, and its ruins in the modern day.
Replica Map (July 2021)
Sources
- The Voyage of the Princess Ark Part 5: As they fed on a nation, so were they cursed, Dragon 157 (May 1990)
Chronological Analysis
This is Map 136. It was published in May 1990. The updated version of this map has not yet been released. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see the upcoming Let’s Map Mystara 1990.
The following lists are from the Let’s Map Mystara project. Additions are new features, introduced in this map; Revisions are changes to previously-introduced features; Hex Art & Fonts track design elements; and finally Textual Additions are potential features found in the related text. In most cases, the Atlas adopts these textual additions into updated and chronological maps.
Additions
- Seas — The Wyrms Strait. The Gulf of Mar appears for the first time on a map, though it was referenced in the previous episode in Dragon 156.
- Terrain — The Southern Aryptian Desert. The plateau around the Vulture Peninsula.
Revisions
- None.
Hex Art & Fonts
- Symbols — Simple, clean line art style.
- Fonts — Century Schoolbook throughout.
Textual Additions (Dragon 157, 1990)
- Nations — The historical nation of Varellya is introduced. It is noted to have ended in calamity four centuries ago. At that time, the now-ruined city was “surrounded by fertile plains, lush forests, and several rivers and lakes” (page 43a).
- Settlements — A network of ancient roads converges to a ruined city, which is almost completely razed to the ground. It includes a ruined temple on a hill.
- Terrain — The plateau surrounding the Vulture Peninsula is referenced in the text: “A large plateau can be seen on the peninsula, no more than a few miles from the coast, forming sandstone cliffs falling into the sea. The plateau reaches 600’ in average height.” (Page 41c) The peninsula is noted to be an “infertile wilderness” with “very little vegetation” (page 41b) — a desert. The peninsula itself first appeared in the Master Set (1985), but this is the first time to hear of any detail on it.
