How would a party plan a trip from the Giantdowns to Yeninskiy?

[Delazar]

Our campaign is currently based in the Giantdowns (Rjurik Highlands), but one of the PCs is from Yeninskiy (Vosgaard), and she's planning to go back home to solve some pending personal issues.

What would be the route that makes more sense to get from the Giantdowns to Yeninskiy?

[Sorontar]

The most direct route would be by sea, but unless they bought a boat and a very good crew with good sea maps, they would need to travel with a variety of boats. The "safest" route would be
- overland through Dhoesone, then
- sea to the Imperial City or Ilien (or both), then
- sea to Khinasi lands, then
- sea to Yeninskiy

That would take them a while. A faster, cheaper and far more dangerous route would be
- overland through the Gorgon's Crown or Lluabraight, then
- overland through Wierech or Danigau, then
- sea to Berhagen, then
- overland to Kal Kalathor, then
- overland to the Raven's realm, then
- overland to Yeninskiy

Sorontar

[Osprey]

Our campaign is currently based in the Giantdowns (Rjurik Highlands), but one of the PCs is from Yeninskiy (Vosgaard), and she's planning to go back home to solve some pending personal issues.

What would be the route that makes more sense to get from the Giantdowns to Yeninskiy?

Sorontar covered the conventional means pretty well. But there are also rare magical methods:

If they or anyone they know has the Travel blood power, that is the fastest and safest method. Travel of Vorynn, Basaia, and Masela would be ideal. Brenna and Azrai's Travel could certainly cut down on the travel times, but would likely require more than one jump.

Slightly less safe would be teleport without error/greater teleport, but this is also a pretty rare spell.

Even more unsafe but more common would be a standard Teleport spell.

Then again, a side trip to the Shadow World - possibly even involving the Raven - might be a unique adventure to spice up your Birthright campaign.

[Magnus Argent]

Sorontar covered the conventional means pretty well. But there are also rare magical methods:

If they or anyone they know has the Travel blood power, that is the fastest and safest method. Travel of Vorynn, Basaia, and Masela would be ideal. Brenna and Azrai's Travel could certainly cut down on the travel times, but would likely require more than one jump.

Slightly less safe would be teleport without error/greater teleport, but this is also a pretty rare spell.

Even more unsafe but more common would be a standard Teleport spell.

Then again, a side trip to the Shadow World - possibly even involving the Raven - might be a unique adventure to spice up your Birthright campaign.

Personally, I like the notion of achieving the goal through adventure and a trip to the Shadow World certainly would be on point.

If you prefer to remain in the World of Daylight, perhaps a wizard with a Mirror of Mental Prowess might be willing to provide transportation as a reward for performing a specific service. Or, if your wizard PC is powerful enough, perhaps an adventure to obtain an Air Boat spell or some sort of homebrew Curragh of Movement.

If you're looking for conventional travel, the only thing I can add to what's already been said is that it would probably be easiest to piggyback on established trade routes. I don't recall all of the inter-regional guilders off-hand but I know Storm Holtson trades with Anuire's West Coast and I'm pretty sure the city of Skappa Hjarring trades with with Anuire as well. El-Hadid in Ilien has trade routes with Khinasi. And I'd imagine there must be regular travel to and from the Imperial City of Anuire and the colony of Suirene.

Any sea travel could easily result in an encounter with the Sea Drake .. yet another adventure opportunity.

And don't forget who runs things in Yeniniskiy .. pirates. Which could be a fun, swashbuckling encounter in an of itself.. especially if you can pull off a good "Har har, matey!" in a thick Vos accent.

[Sorontar]

At one stage in my previous Birthright campaign, we travelled across sections of Cerilia via a boat through underground waterways. That again, would require specialised knowledge and crew, but it might be one way to speed up part of the travel. Doyle, who was the DM, might be able to elaborate on how he designed that aspect. I think we avoided having to travel through the Shadow World (we left that for other parts of our campaign).

The issue might be whether this is just a personal trip or whether it is part of a bigger plan, with support and planning by a regent who has their own objective. This sponsor may wish to speed things up and provide protection and mechanisms to help the party get where they need to go, but using methods that are outside of the understanding and capability of the party by themselves.

Sorontar

[Delazar]

A faster, cheaper and far more dangerous route would be
- overland


Would overland be faster than by sea?

[Delazar]

To those that suggested adventures hook, these are all great ideas! The thing is that this is some sort of "side" personal arc, and needs to last a total of 9-10 sessions, so the travel itself is not really the focus of the arc. There's still a lot we have to do in Yeninskiy.

I just need to plan the actual voyage for calendar purposes (how many weeks it takes to go from A to B). Probably we'll play out a couple of "stops" during the travel, for RP purposes.

[Doyle]

Doyle, who was the DM, might be able to elaborate on how he designed that aspect. I think we avoided having to travel through the Shadow World (we left that for other parts of our campaign).

IMC, most of the Dwarven realms (in particular Baruk-Azhik) have extensive underground road and river networks for trade, exploration and defence. Some of these have been built when flushing out Orog tunnels and others are extension of mining operations under what is now human lands. The underground paths are known only to the dwarves, so a (reasonably priced) guide / bargeman is generally required.

The exits to the surface are secret and well guarded.

I'd suggest that if your PCs want to use this method of travel that they require good relations with the dwarves and a good amount of gold or another precious commodity. An adventure may be required to deal with a nest of Orogs, either as part payment or an encounter along the way.

[Magnus Argent]

To those that suggested adventures hook, these are all great ideas! The thing is that this is some sort of "side" personal arc, and needs to last a total of 9-10 sessions, so the travel itself is not really the focus of the arc. There's still a lot we have to do in Yeninskiy.

I just need to plan the actual voyage for calendar purposes (how many weeks it takes to go from A to B). Probably we'll play out a couple of "stops" during the travel, for RP purposes.

If you want to gloss over the dangers one might encounter on the trip, you might want to consider taking the Ruide River to the Lake of Stars, then crossing through Khurin-Azur into Danigau. The city of Blackgate would be the ideal location to charter a ship to take your Vos PC on a voyage north out of the Great Bay, east through the Leviathan's Reach, then south, following Cerilia's eastern cost down to Yeniniskiy.

That's in the neighborhood of 20 or so maritime areas and, depending on the type of ship and the weather, travel time would anywhere from 5-20 days (1-4 maritime areas per day). That doesn't include the time it would take to get to the city of Blackgate.

A trip through Leviathan's Reach would be risky during winter due to ice flows but a ship could skirt around the northern harbors of Torova Temylatin and have an easier time of it

[Sorontar]

Would overland be faster than by sea?

It will depend on many things. Overland is more direct and can be done as fast as the party can travel. Travelling by boat is faster than walking or riding mounts, but 1) it costs more 2) you have to find a boat going where you want (or buy one and have a crew) 3) you have to be able to travel when you want to (ie. not impeded by ice, wind direction or weather). The sea route is also less direct.

If you don't want it to be a lengthy delay, you might have to make it a mix of 3 stages 1) going overland to a dock (perhaps through dangerous areas like the Gorgon's Crown), going over seas (either south of Cerilia or across the Great Bay), making a final travel overland (perhaps having a "small" trip underground or via the Shadow World).

Sorontar

[Osprey]

I think most landlubbers would find the sea voyage infinitely more terrifying as well -much as air travel terrifies people today, but with a far worse accident record when it comes to medieval seafaring! If a ship goes down at sea, survivors are rare.

[Magnus Argent]

I think most landlubbers would find the sea voyage infinitely more terrifying as well -much as air travel terrifies people today, but with a far worse accident record when it comes to medieval seafaring! If a ship goes down at sea, survivors are rare.
If I understand Delazar's question correctly, he's looking for travel times from point A to point B. I don't dispute anything anyone here has said. Lots of good info and good advice. But I think he's trying to address a calendaring issue so his PCs can stay in sync.

Not Back Street. NSYNC.

No?

[masterdaorin]

Would overland be faster than by sea?

It shouldn't be, by any stretch of the imagination (if you exclude magic).

A ship could probably travel a sea zone in a day, assuming perfect conditions, so you simply have to count the number of sea zones from the port(s) departed to determine the travel time to the destination.

From the Giantdowns, the best way to go about this is to head to the port of Nolien and get to one of the larger ports (most likely Skapa Hjarring or Aaldviika) and head to a major Brecht port. From there I would assume it should be easy to find a Brecht merchant ship heading to eastern Cerilia.

The trouble would be finding a captain that would want to go to Yeninskiy. No right-thinking sea captain would want to venture there, unless the pay was really good...

[Delazar]

I sent a map of the continent to the players, so they figured this out in between sessions, I think we can work with it:

• from Lemnjohen to Mandal by LAND - 3 weeks
• stay in Mandal (adventure) - 1 week
• from Mandal to Folda Fjord by LAND - 2 weeks
• stay in Folda Fjord - 1 week
• from Folda Fjord to Kopingdal (Hjolvar) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Kopingdal - 1 week
• from Kopingdal to Alber (Grabentod) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Alber - 1 week
• Alber to Gnoll Fens by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Gnoll Fens - 1 week
• Gnoll Fens to Luthkovsky by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Luthkovsky - 1 week
• Luthkovsky to Hilov (Yeninskiy) by SEA - 1 week

They'll have a real "adventure" in Mandal (in our campaign, the White Witch is dead, Mandal is an undead-infested ruin, and the PCs are trying to recover the Ring of Winter), then the "montage" travel will start.

In Folda Fjord they have an NPC waiting for them with a drakkar and a contingent of Vos warriors, they will travel together.

I'm thinking of having the travel last a full session (2-3 hours), by having some RP encounters when they stop at each place of rest. Then at least they'll have a sense they've traveled, I hope.

[Osprey]

I sent a map of the continent to the players, so they figured this out in between sessions, I think we can work with it:

• from Lemnjohen to Mandal by LAND - 3 weeks
• stay in Mandal (adventure) - 1 week
• from Mandal to Folda Fjord by LAND - 2 weeks
• stay in Folda Fjord - 1 week
• from Folda Fjord to Kopingdal (Hjolvar) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Kopingdal - 1 week
• from Kopingdal to Alber (Grabentod) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Alber - 1 week
• Alber to Gnoll Fens by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Gnoll Fens - 1 week
• Gnoll Fens to Luthkovsky by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Luthkovsky - 1 week
• Luthkovsky to Hilov (Yeninskiy) by SEA - 1 week

They'll have a real "adventure" in Mandal (in our campaign, the White Witch is dead, Mandal is an undead-infested ruin, and the PCs are trying to recover the Ring of Winter), then the "montage" travel will start.

In Folda Fjord they have an NPC waiting for them with a drakkar and a contingent of Vos warriors, they will travel together.

I'm thinking of having the travel last a full session (2-3 hours), by having some RP encounters when they stop at each place of rest. Then at least they'll have a sense they've traveled, I hope.

Wow, a 4-month voyage at best - assuming there are no delays from bad weather or monster mishaps! I can't imagine trying to describe all of the lands and sea voyages they would see in just a few hours of gaming, especially if you allow PCs some options to interact with NPCs, shop, sightsee, etc.

I would expect multiple sessions in addition to those needed for the adventure...and some rolls for random encounters (or roll them ahead if you prefer to carefully plan everything) might also spice up a long trip and break up the narrative description.

Some rolls for weather might also make for a nice variable.

I know some DMs like to control everything ahead of time, but I have always found it fun to make those rolls in-game so players know that not everything is scripted and carefully balanced - it gives a sense that the natural world is unpredictable and dangerous, and not merely a storied script in which the DM decides everything.

[Delazar]

I just like to be prepared :)

The way I do it, I plan what in my mind is the most probable course of action, and what are my NPCs’ goals, and how they plan to achieve them.

Then the PCs throw a wrench into it all, and we have a game!

Concerning the trip, of course if the party wants to stop longer at each location, looking for adventure there, they’re free to do what they like.

It’s a TTRPG after all.