So, our group finished a 2 year Kingmaker AP campaign a while back and changed Northeastern Avistan quite a bit. A Surtova-funded nascent River Kingdom called Vertlant quickly grew to encompass the Stolen Lands, eventually assimilating Pitax in a defensive war. After successfully dealing with a threat from the First World, the player characters ignited a civil war in Brevoy. The Surtovas were deposed from power, and the realm was split into two semi-autonomous states: Rostland & Issia. Both of these, as well as Pitax, swore loyalty to the ruler of Vertlant - together these states now form the Czardom of Rogarvion.
Rogarvion is Lawful Neutral with a sizable experienced military, a promintn clergy of Abadar and a Lawful Good ruler with an interest towards helping the crusade in Mendev.
I am planning a short follow up game, that would be centered around establishing a land trade route between Port Ice and Chesed. The thing is, that I've found very little info on this stretch of land, but have made a couple assumptions - if I've overlooked something, please let me know:
1) The Surtovas favored water-bound trade on the lake and thus didn't maintain land based trade routes along the shores. When the lake froze over they just accepted that the trade would halt for a few months. After a huge war and changes in rulership, there might be an interest in trailblazing a trade route along the lake shore. Business in Chesed would stand to benefit from the post-war influx of war veterans and mercenaries turned pilgrims. At the same time, creating positive trade relations with Numeria would solidify both Rogarvion's credibility and security. Rogarvion also has ongoing trade agreements with the Mendevian crusade as well, and the new route would definitely see traffic for this reason as well.
2) The southern shore of the lake is not forested, but a mix of tundra and hard-to-traverse arctic shrubland. There can be several feet of snow during the winter, but this might actually make light travel easier - a dog sled could get from Port Ice to Chesed in 3-4 days, in clear weather. Harsh weather however, might be a deadly hazard.
3) The stretch of land is rather deserted, after the first 20 miles from the end point cities. Maybe an abandoned fishing settlement with a ruin of a lighthouse, or a remote hunting camp occasionally used by a barbarian tribe in summer.
Based on the above, I've started writing a quick adventure, built around finding about what happened to party of trailblazers that disappeared out there during a sudden late autumn blizzard. The adventure would be two or three sessions long, with characters of level ~12. The matter is of notable importance to Rogarvion, but not the most acute problem of the young czardom, thus meaning that the rulers would send an experienced force of adventurers to investigate instead of taking the matter to their own hands. Also, I'm thinking about a final face-off with a wendigo, and that alone isn't possible with low level characters. But considering the recent events in Brevoy and the adjacency of the River Kingdoms and Mendev, finding a couple level 12 hirelings isn't much of stretch.
Not sure if this should be in the Advice subforum, but I decided to post here, being interested in the correctness of lore in this scenario. Feel free to comment on any aspect of this!
Tl;dr: Is there only wilderness between Port Ice and Chesed, or are there settlements/an existing trade route? Also, what's the biogeography like?
