The Isle of Dread is huge. My players are heading to the Tar Pits. By ship, it's nearly 100 miles from Farshore to the land closest to the tar pits. That takes, what, slightly more than 3 days given the Sea Wyvern's sailing times?
From the nearest landfall to the Tar Pits is around 10 miles - 30 ft movement is 24 miles per day, 1/4 speed for trackless jungle is 6 miles per day. Nearly two days to get TO the tar pits and then two days back? Not to mention carrying all that tar back. Which also begs the question - how did the tar pit get discovered anyways?
Did you keep these distances for your adventures? Do you just hand-wave away the travel time all together? Are the adventurer's supposed to have other means of travel?
I found this part of the adventure tricky to manage because you want the jungle to feel dangerous, but at the same time if it takes 15 days or so to hike from Tanora to the tar pits than with the ammount of random encounter checks you will have to roll you will end up having several random encounters on the way, which can really bog down the pace of your game.
I had miscalculated the ammount of time it would take to get places via trudging through the jungle (actually I hadn't calculated at all and just guessed, but when I did calculate the time it took was much longer than I had thought it would take), and made it a little too short. Even that ended up with way more random encounters than I wanted, so I just ran a couple and did a bit of narrating to explain that they had seen signs of other danger, but had been able to avoid combat.
For instance, it's easy to have them come to the edge of clearing and see some big dinosaurs grazing, but give them the chance to detour around the things without a fight. You can also have them come upon the remains of dead cretures that are harmless, but still remind them of the nasty predators lurking about. I had a wild pig type creature tear through their camp one night while being pursued by a dire tiger, and the tiger and the pig thing both just keep on going and ignored them completely. Stuff like that can add a little flavour without taking much game time.
Even that ended up with way more random encounters than I wanted, so I just ran a couple and did a bit of narrating to explain that they had seen signs of other danger, but had been able to avoid combat.
I did much the same thing, but forced Survival checks for it (as a nod to the PC who'd maxed out that skill and then not used it at all until reaching the Isle).
For instance, it's easy to have them come to the edge of clearing and see some big dinosaurs grazing, but give them the chance to detour around the things without a fight. You can also have them come upon the remains of dead cretures that are harmless, but still remind them of the nasty predators lurking about. I had a wild pig type creature tear through their camp one night while being pursued by a dire tiger, and the tiger and the pig thing both just keep on going and ignored them completely. Stuff like that can add a little flavour without taking much game time.
Nicely done--this is really good stuff.
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For instance, it's easy to have them come to the edge of clearing and see some big dinosaurs grazing, but give them the chance to detour around the things without a fight. You can also have them come upon the remains of dead cretures that are harmless, but still remind them of the nasty predators lurking about. I had a wild pig type creature tear through their camp one night while being pursued by a dire tiger, and the tiger and the pig thing both just keep on going and ignored them completely. Stuff like that can add a little flavour without taking much game time.
I am so using this.
In Complete Adventurer there is an additional use of the Survival skill that allows you to bypass the effect of terrain modifiers on overland movement. Basically, with DC 15 Survival you increase the multipler by 1/4, with DC 25 you increase it by 1/2 (to a maximum of x1, of course).
In the original draft, I recognized this as a problem and had written up a short section that reveals an ancient, steep staircase nearly covered over with jungle growth along some cliffs directly south of the Tar Pits where you have that inverted u-shaped gulf. The idea was to allow some Knowledge/Survival skill checks or even Gather Information/Diplomacy with the natives to help the PCs discover it and thereby blaze a new trail to the tar pits, perhaps set up some booms and lifts to lower/lift barrels of the stuff directly into/out of their ship from a likely section of the cliffs that would accommodate this kind of engineering.
Very nice Steve!
I can see why that might get cut for space reasons, but I think it is a tremendous addition. Solves some of the issues noted here and adds more feel to the ruined civilization that once dwelt here.
Good stuff.
Sean Mahoney
As for the Tar Pits, the Olamni knew of these (they have been around on the Isle for a few centuries) but avoided the place as mostly useless to them. they send along two scouts (plus a character replacement after HtbM turned out to be Olmani, which significantly helped ). The players commonly ported or sailed to near Tanaroa, then moved inland from there. Charming of dinosaurs (Stegosauri proved popular) procured suitable mounts and carrying capacity,
After a time, they also resorted to overland flight spells and items to move around more quickly if nothing needed to be hauled
as for the "sailing speed" of the "Sea Wyvern", that is actually quite a joke, since it is estimated way too low, and never takes into account that ships keep sailing through the night (instead of striking camp).
At an average low 3 knots (3 nautical miles/hour, = 1.2 miles each), and 24 hour movement that would be around 84 miles in one day.
And since even less advanced cogs and hulks sailed at approximately 4-6 knots in medieval times.... do the math yourself.
Even if the vessel shortens sail for nightime sailing and does a lot of tacking and or careful depth sounding and slow approaches to an unknwon, volcanic and reef-ridden coast, a ship will be by far the best way to travel about the isle.
In an emergency, have them build a coastal work cutter or large pinnace, which shouldn't even have the problem of draft etc. with a similar speed and performance...
Oh well, here I am nagging at naval and maritime matters again...
/bonk self
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Ruined staircase: Cool.
Having authors post: Priceless.
I'm planning on doing Survival checks too, and setting the DC in the range where the best PC will make it 80 percent of the time. As long as that character is active, it'll be up to the party whether they want to get into a fight (with a tactical advantage from them stalking the monster instead of visa versa). If that "guide" PC is ever taken out of action, the wandering monsters will suddenly become a threat rather than an option.
Rise, thread, rise from the dead!
We're reaching the end of "Tides of Dread", and I estimated/computed/made up some travel times over the course of the scenario. Thinking that other DMs might find them helpful, here they are!
All times assume a move of 30'.
- Farshore - Mora: 1/2 day by outrigger canoe
- Mora - Tanaroa: 1 day's leisurely journey, well-maintained trail through grasslands
- Tanaroa - tar pits: 2-1/4 days, poorly-maintained trail mostly through jungle
- Tanaroa - Zotzilaha's shrine: 3 days, poorly-maintained trail
- tar pits - Zotzilaha's shrine: 1-1/4 days, no trail through scrub and badlands
- tar pits - phanaton village: 2-1/2 days, poorly-maintained trail through jungle
- phanaton village - rakasta village: 1 day, no trail through grasslands and jungle
- Farshore - Sea Wyvern's wreck: 4 days (stopping at night due to unknown waters)
I don't know if this is "correct", but it worked for us. If the PCs hadn't left Zotzilaha's idol on the Sea Wyvern back at the beginning of "Here There Be Monsters", they would've finished the major quests in five full weeks.
Don't most groups also have access to Teleport by 9th level? That helps with travel in many cases.
I imagine there are decent trails to the Tar pits from the Olman village because it is a useful resource.
Don't most groups also have access to Teleport by 9th level? That helps with travel in many cases.
I imagine there are decent trails to the Tar pits from the Olman village because it is a useful resource.
They certainly could have teleport, though my group doesn't (the only dedicated spellcaster is a sorceress who hasn't gotten 5th-level spells yet); it would be good for getting back to Farshore (though watch out for being off-target; they're probably not very familiar with the colony yet).
I decided the trail from Tanaroa to the tar pits was "poorly maintained" simply because I thought it wouldn't be a route that's traveled very often; they usually stay behind the Wall.