Travel Between the Islands
Many adventures will require the party to go to several different locations in the Archipelago.
Roads and horses
If the location is on the same island, you could just walk. However, walking is slow and arduous. If haste is desired, a horse can speed things in up considerably, either by riding it, or by riding in drawn carriage or wagon.
Neither horses or wanderers can go much more than 8 hours per day before exhaustion sets in.
Walking
The base travel speed is (movement speed in feet/10) miles per hour, minimum of 3. This gives an average of 25 miles per day of travel. This is including taking short breaks from time to time. As per the PHB, you can go slower or faster:
| Pace | Effect |
|---|---|
| Fast | +33% movement speed, -5 penalty to passive Perception while travelling. |
| Normal | - |
| Slow | -33% movement speed, able to use stealth. |
Travelling along a road allows for fast travel without penalty, or stealthy travel at the normal pace.
If you do any strenuous activity after a full days march, such as fighting, you must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer a level of Exhaustion.
Mounted Travel
If ridden, mounts follow the normal rules for walking, with the exception that the rider can do strenuous activity upon arrival without risk of Exhaustion.
Just as for walking characters, the travel speed of a mount is (movement speed in feet/10) miles per hour.
If you do not have enough mounts for an entire party, they can still be used to carry packs and take turns riding them, giving the slower movement speed of walking, but can still do strenuous activity after a days march. To achieve this benefit, the number of mounts or vehicle passenger slots needs to be at least half the party size.
Wagons and Carriages
A cart has two wheels and is usually drawn by a single animal, while a wagon has four wheel and can be drawn by several animals.
If multiple animals are attached to a vehicle, their slowest speed determines the overall movement speed of the vehicle.
| Mode of transport | Movement Speed | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Walking | 3 miles/hour = 25 miles/day | Doing more activity, such as fighting after a full days march, probably leads to Exhaustion |
| Wagon | 4 miles/hour = 32 miles/day | Can carry 4 people, or 800 pounds of cargo |
| Carriage | 6 miles/hour = 50 miles/day | Requires two animals. Can carry 8 people, or 2000 pounds of cargo. |
Ship
The most obvious way to traverse the water between the islands, ships are expensive to acquire and difficult to handle. Larger ships require big crews, who needs to be kept paid and happy. Thankfully, many captains augment their income by taking passengers on their trips. Depending on pay, these ships might not take the most direct route.
The going rate for passenger fare is about 10gp per person and day of travel, but this can be modified further if the party wants to go somewhere off the beaten track, or extra dangerous.
| Reason | Price Modifier |
|---|---|
| Dangerous location or path | x1.5-5 |
| Not where the ship was going | x2-3 |
| Extra fast ship | x2 |
| Comfortable or protected travel | x1.5 |
| Willing to work onboard | x0.5 |
| Cargo | 50gp/ton |
These modifiers are just guidelines, and individual captains might apply them very differently, or even outright refuse the fare if they deem it not in the ship's best interest.
An average ship that is well handled can hope to make about 100 miles/day (4 miles/hour), given fair winds. Being able to travel day and night make them one of the fastest modes of transport.
| Greystone | Covenant | Cottenhorn | Alyn Iunaes | Maeral | Solstice | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solstice | 375 miles | 500 miles | 325 miles | 300 miles | 250 miles | - |
| Maeral | 200 miles | 300 miles | 200 miles | 75 miles | - | |
| Alyn Iunaes | 175 miles | 200 miles | 200 miles | - | ||
| Cottenhorn | 175 miles | 350 miles | - | |||
| Covenant | 225 miles | - | ||||
| Greystone | - |
Consider a party of 4 who wishes to go from Cottenhorn to Alyn Iunaes. The distance is 200 miles. However, the path goes near the Forsaken Isle, which sailors believe cursed and best avoided (x1.5 price). The captain believes they could make the journey in 2 days, and thus charges 4x10x2x1.5 = 120gp. If the journey is delayed by inclement weather or other reason, the price usually stays the same, but some captains try to push for more money in this case.
Teleportation Circles
Powerful wizards keep permanent sigils that anchor a point as a conduit for teleportation. Access to most of these is tightly guarded and only given to allies of the controller, perhaps for a fee. Most likely, you would be given access to all circles that an organization controls, but this is not a given.
Estian League
- Greystone: In one of the towers of Greystone Keep.
- Covenant: In Council Hall. Primarily for use by the councilmembers.
- Owl Rock: In the Golden Ayrie.
- Heimdall's Anvil: In the Temple of Heimdall.
- Myrknes: In the Jarl's Fortress.
Pilgrim Knights
- Solstice: In the Grandmaster's Tower of the Grand Refuge.
- Greystone: In the cellar of the Greystone Hospital.
- Covenant: In their embassy.
Kingdom of Iacaris
- Tel Edhil: In the Silver Oak Palace.
- Maeral: In the Maeral Town Hall.
- Tel Cindris: In a wizard tower in Tel Cindris.
- Covenant: In the Iacaris Embassy.
Frontier Trade Company
- Greystone: In the Governor's Mansion (assumed).
- Tec: In the dungeons of the Headquarters.
These are the somewhat publicly known ones, but nothing stops a sufficiently knowledgeable spellcaster from making a Circle of their own, given enough time and resources. For example, Caspian Arbrintirel maintains a private circle at Roslake Manor to enable his commute to Covenant.