Travel

Location, Location, Location

Creation is huge. One inch on the map of Creation equals 800 miles. To put this in perspective, the period at the end of this sentence is roughly equivalent to four times the size of New York City. An area the size of your fingernail is over 30,000 square miles, about the size of South Carolina or Belgium. One square inch is approximately the total landmass of Alaska or Colombia. The Blessed Isle covers roughly oneand- a-half times as much land as the United States or China and is about equal in size to modern Russia.

The locations and regions described in the books are numerous, but they offer many options for places to set your game. Read through them to find areas that leap out at you. Make a list if you want, noting locations that sound cool. If you know the kinds of characters your players want to play, find places you think would offer opportunities for the characters to thrive. Narrow down your list until you have an area that provides the most opportunities for characters to develop their own stories.

Travel

Traveling through Creation can take a lot of time, so use this to your advantage. It is rarely possible to move as the crow flies due to natural boundaries. If traveling by foot or with a cart, stopping only for supplies and following the lay of the land, characters could easily take three months to move an inch on the map. That's one full season of travel for you to play with, coming up with people or towns the characters encounter along the way. With horses, characters can cover the same distance in roughly half the time, but the travelers must take care of their mounts.

River travel can be faster but is limited by the river’s direction, the speed of the river's flow and whether the boat travels with or against the current. A boat naturally flows downstream at the speed of the current, but to steer, it must somehow be propelled. Travel upstream is always slower, as boats must fight the current. Rivercraft can be sailed if the river is wide enough, but they are most commonly pulled by dray animals on a tow path close to the riverbanks. Boats can be rowed for extra speed, but only smaller vessels use this as their primary method of propulsion.

An average vessel can travel an inch on the map in six weeks if headed downstream, or three months upstream. Faster currents reduce downstream travel times while increasing upstream travel times. Likewise, slower currents reduce upstream travel times while increasing downstream travel times. Generally, the wider the river is, the slower the current flows. Flooding, typically seasonal, often increases the current. River travel over longer distances is usually limited by daylight hours, as navigating sandbars and the twists and turns of the river can be very dangerous in the dark without perfect familiarity with the river. Boats can take shelter nightly in a marina or drop anchor along riverbanks.

Ocean and sea travel is the fastest mundane method of travel in Creation. Assuming average winds and travel as the crow flies, a typical ship sailing over "open water" of an ocean or sea can travel one inch on the map in about a week. Hard rowing can as much as double the speed, but it is not sustainable over periods longer than a few days without risk of injury to the rowers. A combination of sailing and light rowing is more common, allowing a ship to travel an inch in five days. Sailors on open-water vessels generally work in shifts, allowing 24 hours of travel per day. Coastal travel is somewhat slower, with a vessel working its way along a coastline and putting in to ports or anchoring offshore throughout the course of its journey. Coastal travel combines the risks of night travel along rivers with the speed of open water travel. Ships traveling a coast generally do so with a mix of rowing and sailing. They can travel an inch on the map in between two and three weeks, depending upon the complexity of the coastline.

Average Travel Times

The following assumes a moderate pace of travel over open terrain, with no stops but for re-supply or minor repairs. Use this chart as a thumbnail for travel over great distances, with the numbers indicating how far you can go within that period of time. All numbers are in miles.

To calculate the estimated travel time between two fixed points, first determine the distance between them and the method of travel to be used. Look to the travel type's row. Find the column with the highest number that can be subtracted from the distance and leave you with a positive result. Subtract as many times as necessary, with each subtraction one more of that column type. If the remainder is less than the column's number, you can move one column to the left and repeat the process. Total the travel time for your estimate.

Multiple methods of travel is easy to determine. Split land, river and ocean travel separately for the relevant distances. If necessary, split these further into the types of travel used in each leg. Add the total time together to determine the length of travel.

Example: Dave's character Golden-Eyed Vengeance takes a riverboat to Nexus, which is 1,500 miles downstream from his river village. He uses the “downstream” row and finds 600 miles in the "monthly" column is the largest possible number. He subtracts this twice, leaving him with two months traveled and 300 miles to go. This is roughly half a month's travel, so it will take Golden-Eyed Vengeance two-and-a-half months to reach Nexus from his village by boat.

Travel Type	Hourly	Daily	Weekly	Monthly
Land Travel
Foot/cart	3	15	75	250
Drawn carriage	4	20	100	350
Horse	6	30	150	500
Horse relay, simple	10	50	300	1,000
Horse relay, elaborate	15	100	600	2,000
River Travel
Upstream, unassisted	2	25	100	300
Upstream, assisted	3	30	120	360
Downstream	4	50	200	600
Ocean Travel
Coastal travel	6	100	400	1,200
Sailing	6	125	800	2,400
Light rowing	8	175	1,000	3,000
Hard rowing	12	250*	1,200**	4,800**
Supernatural Travel
Tireless rowing	15	360	2,500	8,800
Horseback, tireless	25	600	4,200	15,000
* Mortal rowers safely maintain pace for (Stamina) days, resting 2x that amount
** Assumes one day hard rowing per two days rest, with sailing in the interim

Distance and Communication

Creation is populated with societies typically equivalent to a bronze or iron age level of technology. Natural boundaries such as mountains, oceans, dense forests, tundra and deserts discourage the formation of trade routes between cities. In many places, the concept of "nations" is nebulous at best, with city-states aware of their immediate neighbors and a vague notion of "exotic lands" 800 miles away—roughly an inch on the map of Creation. Most maps made in the Age of Sorrows are generally local and vague, accounting for major landmarks, changes of terrain, roads or trails, dangerous areas and the general direction of other significant cities or towns.

News travels at the pace of those who spread it, which generally means on foot and rarely in a straight line. It's often colored with embellishments, rumors, misunderstandings or just plain wrong information the further it spreads from the source. Faster methods include horseback or bird messengers. On an established road, with a series of horse-relay stations established to keep mounts fresh, a message can travel roughly 100 miles per day. Without roads or horse relays, a single rider can manage roughly 30 miles per day through open terrain or half that through rough terrain. Very difficult terrain usually requires a rider to walk her mount, dropping both to about 10 miles per day. Word delivered by riverboat spreads faster downstream, at 50 miles per day, than upstream, at 25 miles per day. Rough waters can drop this by half, with particularly bad conditions taking five times as long. Messages carried in open water sailing vessels travel 125 miles per day, or 250 miles per day of hard rowing, with bad weather reducing the distance covered. For this reason, coastal cities generally communicate faster than those inland.

Although rare, messenger birds trained to return to a certain location can carry messages in tubes attached to their legs. They can travel 30 miles per hour through unfamiliar terrain, with short bursts of speed up to twice that, and have a range of about 500 miles before they must take an extended rest. Beyond this distance, they have an increasingly greater chance of becoming lost. Messenger birds have their flaws, such as hostile forces looking to intercept the messages or natural predators. Also, messenger birds can make the trip in only one direction—they are trained to return "home." As such, they are often caged and carried with a messenger who releases them to travel home with their message.

One form of rapid communication uses a series of signal towers manned by sentries. The towers are within visual range of one another—often dozens of miles distant, sometimes over 100. When a predetermined signal must be sent over a great distance, the sentries in the first tower light a great bonfire at its top. The sentries in the next tower see this and light their own bonfire, and so on down the line until the predetermined message is delivered to its destination. The message itself must be determined ahead of time and is a one-way "yes" or "no" form of communication, generally some kind of confirmation, such as a call for aid or a signal to attack at dusk. Care must be taken to prevent provocateurs from lighting such towers prematurely to send false or early confirmation, and methods of doing so vary in sophistication from area to area.

Supernatural Communication

Everything changes when magic or First Age technologies enter the picture. Immediate or near-immediate communication over longer distances is possible, with greater rarity as distance increases and communication delays decrease. Imperial legions travel with portable heliographs, large shuttered lights that can rapidly transmit information for as far as the naked eye or telescopes can see.

The Realm actively maintains a system of heliographs. Such devices are prohibitively expensive outside the Scarlet Empire, but travelers occasionally encounter decrepit Shogunate heliograph towers elsewhere. Heliography typically requires those communicating to do so in code, as anybody looking in the same general direction of a signal lamp will notice its presence at night. Use during daytime is more difficult to spot, but still possible if someone is specifically watching for it.

Sorcerers, creatures or spirits capable of providing near-instantaneous communication between two or more parties are highly sought after. The Realm uses an extensive network of freelance sorcerers to keep its various prefectures and satrapies in touch, usually with the Terrestrial Circle spell Infallible Messenger. Such relationships can often be a devil's bargain, for while such communications are almost always secure, the messenger typically remains aware of the parties involved. He could even learn the contents of the message itself, so it is in the best interest of all parties to utilize the most trustworthy of envoys. Rarely are those with such a prized ability killed outright for bearing witness to sensitive information, although it has been known to happen. Typically couriers privy to sensitive information are kept in a gilded cage of sorts, their every earthly desire provided for while they are kept under heavy guard to prevent capture or voluntary departure.

Armies on the March

Well-trained armies in Creation can realistically march about 15 miles per day, or 25 to 30 miles with a forced march in relatively open terrain. Rough terrain can easily halve those distances. Armies typically march in column formation along roads, which leaves them vulnerable to attack but offers the fastest method of advancement. Cavalry and lightly armed scouts move in a screen before the army, ranging a few miles ahead to sweep for enemy troops. Marching armies often disrupt any other transportation along the road.

Crossroads, mountain passes and bridges offer strategic positions for armies. Armies cross rivers by fording and at bridges, either those already existing or over hastily built artificial fords or temporary bridges. Fodder for mounts travels with the baggage train, typically the slowest part of the army and found to its rear.

The Importance of Supply

Food is a serious issue for armies. Range and direction is limited by food carried, available plunder and any storehouses along the way. One rider and mount together require about the same amount of food and supplies as four soldiers. Armies that cannot find enough food to survive will starve, disband or revolt against their commanders. There is often a high agricultural surplus in most civilized areas because the rice crops come in three to five times per annum.

The logistics capabilities of most societies means that a roving army of 5,000 is a force to be reckoned with. Defensive forces fortifying a central point such as a typical city-state can exceed this number by three or four times if kept in good supply, though troop quality can vary greatly as these forces generally include militias, conscripts and mercenaries in addition to a core of professional soldiers. Societies capable of fielding larger armies over sustained periods of time and distance can dominate substantial amounts of land.

Naval Power

Navies or naval convoys are typically limited in speed by the slowest vessel amongst the pack, with faster outriders splitting off from the main force when speed is a necessity. Imperial warships often have a heliograph setup of some kind. Imperial flagships also have some form of near-instant magical communication such as at least one sorcerer capable of casting Infallible Messenger. Squadrons of fighting vessels can form a blockade to prevent supplies or enemy vessels from traveling through, typically around a port or along common routes of travel. Armies transported by naval vessels must be sufficiently supplied for longer journeys, but those traveling in convoy can send supply ships to friendly ports or link up and redistribute supplies if necessary.

Accelerated Travel

Various forms of non-standard travel and communication exist within Creation. The following is a short list detailing the approximate rate of travel for each. Italicized entries indicate travel is “as the crow flies,” defined previously. “Treat as Exceptional” means that you should add in that modifier to more easily approximate the speed, although the mount isn’t necessarily exceptional itself.

Ships

Powered paddlewheel (First Age only): Ocean "rowing" speeds. Engine quality and fuel requirements determines quality of rowing.
Cranked paddlewheel: River "upstream, assisted" speeds, even in the ocean.
Haslanti iceship: Ocean "sailing" speeds on ice and water. Iceships cannot be rowed.
Haslanti air boat: Ocean "sailing" speeds. Air boats cannot be rowed.

Mounts

Riding bird (gryphon, hawk of Metagalapa): Land "horse relay, simple" if three days or less, otherwise use "horseback." Mount is assumed to be exceptional when factoring prices and speed.
Howdah-mounted bird (roc): Land "horse relay, elaborate" if a week or less, otherwise use "horse relay, simple." Mount is enduring.
Mammoth or yeddim: Land "cart" if pulling a wagon or heavily burdened, otherwise use land "drawn carriage." Mount is enduring.
Tyrant lizard: Land "horse relay, simple." Mount is enduring.

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