Hi guys
I am looking for some guidance on the rules for travelling across Irrisen as a large amount is introduced at the start of the second adventure. I am confused about several points, mainly related to Dog Sleds
- Dog Sleds were mentioned on a couple of occasions (Nadya has 5 and the guards that raid the village arrive on them). But it does not clarify how many dogs are on each sled. Do we assume one per sled?
The rules for dog sleds say that they use combined carrying capacity for the dogs.
But do sleds use the dogs movement of 40ft?
Is this reduced by the snow? I would guess not.
What capacity can the dogs move at this speed? Light, Medium, Heavy, Dragging?
It think this is quite important as the PCs will have a lot of gear and rations and two children to transport (for the humans and the dogs)
- On the rations point, how many days worth are likely to be available for sale in the village? I find the idea of 9 days worth of rations for 7 people and multiple dogs being a bit unrealistic. Or am I being harsh?
- The 9 day travel time mentioned in the adventure seems a long time, and appears to be based on walking on foot. Have people who have played this used 9 days as a standard or have they adapted?
- Have other GMs been enforcing the idea of carrying dry firewood? I get the impression that most of the journey is through relatively sparse plains
Overall I am trying to weigh up how harsh I want to play the travelling part in book 2 and would appreciate anyone's input
Thanks :)
I ran into these same questions during my run of book 2.
Based on the map in Irrisen Land of Eternal Winter, the journey seems to be about 300 miles, give or take, from Waldsby. (Going around the lake which seems to be quite dangerous.)
Dog sleds at a full speed overland journey cover 32 miles under normal load. That would fit the time frame they stated. I went with 6 dogs (using the riding dog stats) per sled, assuming the sleds are rather large for Nadya's trading purposes. That also gives them about 500 pounds per sled to use for gear and themselves (I paired them two to a sled, driver and passsenger).
Heavy snowfall such as during day 4 (I think) of their journey might cut that in half. The journey to the Pale Tower in book 1 is detailed based on their walking speed, and half of that for using Nadya's sleds. So I assume that they are traveling by sled for the remainder of their journey. Though they are very unlikely to be able to take any sleds along once they enter the Hut.
Nadya supplies Waldsby with a healthy amount of trade goods, chief of which is food, and depending on how your players approached the Pale Tower, she may have left behind her huge shipment of food or used it as a trojan horse, in either case the recipients did not get a chance to consume it. :)
My players, as soon as they discovered the bag of holding, filled it practically to capacity with kindling. Seeing as Waldsby is a lumberyard village, they had ample supply to do so.
You could also have the jinkins in their evening assault wet or rot the wood within their packs to further rein in any overage of supplies.
I thought I read that it was 132 miles (don't have the book on me atm)
She would have left the food (but they also left her as well). The food was for the tower if I remember correctly? So she is unlikely to have distributed it around town yet.
I would be surprised if my players consider the firewood issue. I assume most wood would be frozen and not usable in general. Perhaps if they used magic to light it they might be OK...
Also the book seems to allude to the chance that the PCs might refuse Nadya's aid but does not mention how they would find their way without her. I would assume many survival checks and a greater chance of getting lost (and more random encounters!)
That would of course mean removing the encounter with the wolves and the child. Hopefully my group will not try to head off alone!
Ah yes, Book 2 does say 132 miles, I was just flipping through the Irrisen guide, but if that's the case, I think I may have assumed the dogs traveled at half speed. Frozen Tundra is listed as 3/4 movement speed though it may be harsher than the standard for that.
The 9-day trek seemed pretty railroady to me so I minimized any random encounters they might have and my PCs all have cold resistance so the survival stuff is pretty trivialized too.
But getting lost would be a good way to mix it up and have them encounter some of the seemingly linear things (Like the haunted ruined village that Nadya seems to know nothing about)in a better manner.
Glacier lake is a pretty ideal and irrefutable landmark for them to use, as long as they can discern cardinal directions okay past that point.