A Sojourn in Sairundan [Judge: Manzanita]

OOC: I am guilty of a minor miscalculation regarding time frames, but it's not absurd.

Let's solidify exactly where Sairundan is. In the world map (the one Phoenix linked to) there is a straight line that leads out from Orussus towards the Tower of Air. Extend that line just a little bit further, and that's where Sairundan is. It's about 3000 miles from Orussus if you walk that line. Keep in mind that this map is hugely out of proportion. (Somebody should take care of that, actually.) This is no walk through the park, we're talking a trek across the continent of America, half of which is through the desert.

On light horses with light loads, you can go 48 miles in a day (on a trade route/road), which means if you travel as much as possible every day, it's 62.5 days. Let's pretend your characters aren't mindless machines and assume that they don't want to trek non-stop for two months. We'll give them a day off every 10 days, meaning 72.5 days. Walking through the desert isn't as easy as the road, so let's tack on another 15 days, for 87.5. Round it up to 90 days, and we have a three month journey on our hands. So let's say that Hayder's letter took 3 months to arrive and he gives you 6 moons since the writing of the letter. (1 moon = approx. 1 month)

On Alternate Travel Methods:
Taking a ship is pointless: Sairundan is as far from the coast as it is from Orussus.

Plane Shift specifically says "From the Material Plane, you can reach any other plane" (emphasis mine), so you'd have to do a double jump, like to the Plane of Shadow or something. The highest level cleric in close proximity is the high priest of Hyrag in Orussus, he's level 9. He could create a scroll for 1,125gp and cast plane shift for 450gp, but he then needs to get back home himself (since he's teleporting you to a different place) and it's no small inconvenience for him to get plane shifted 500 miles from Orussus. Basically, unless you have a humongous donation to the church or you get a phenomenal diplomacy check (too bad you don't have Rinaldo!) I don't think he'll do it for you. I guess you could get the high priest to scribe the scroll and then pay a lesser priest to cast from the scroll, but then you run the risk of the lesser priest screwing up and everybody's stuck in the Plane of Shadow.

There's always the Wanderlust Inn! It's late, so I'll look into that as a possibility tomorrow. Does it run on a schedule?

Retconning on Page 1:
If you guys can figure something else out, go for it. Work out the costs amongst yourselves, keep in mind that your characters don't necessarily have the knowledge that L9 clerics have plane shift (heck, I'm the DM and I didn't even know that!) and pretend that the letter gives you 6 moons instead of 2 (I'll edit the post). If it turns out that travel costs will be much higher than I thought (I was indeed thinking around 500gp) then the Nimbusad wine, which was bottled at the edge of the world, would be worth a truly high sum, and thus I will change the amount that Joe paid Shadya.

Thanks for being good little analysts, folks! I apologize for not thinking this out carefully in advance.

To Knight Otu: I was going to request you specifically, your judgeship. I'm glad to have your insight and input.

OOC: Where are you getting 48 miles? You should be able to travel for 12 hours with a bit of rest mid day, and then some sleep. a movement of 30' is 3 miles an hour. So a Light Warhorse under weight moving at 45' can go 4.5 miles an hour, for 12 hours, which is 54 miles. With light weight, it's actually 72 miles. And yes, I kept 500 gold for travel expenses, and will disperse the rest, though you may want to buy some of your own food and water. If we need more for travel, she may ask for some more from you.

I came up with this for gear for the pack horse so far...


We'd have to stop for supplies a few times, but it's hard not to without overloading the horse. And most of you weigh more that little old Shadya. The horse has 65 more pounds to play with.

(OOC @Solange, you can travel 8 hours before a forced march starts happening. For horses, that is double-plus-bad)

(@Rae--who needs Rinaldo Did you check Lasair's Diplomacy? Second-highest in all of LEW, and much lower level at that If she uses Attraction, she can get mighty close to him)

OOC - not to poop on anyone's party, but a horse working in warm conditions needs 18 gallons of water a day - that's 150 lb right there - for 1 day! We're going to either have to hand-wave the real world requirements, or take along a herd of water-carrying horses (which we leave to die once their water is drunk!) to support the horses that support us - or trust to finding numerous oases - or find some camels somewhere.
If Conuld spends a day and 150 gp to add Endure Elements to his spellbook, he can cast it twice a day (3 times once he reaches level 2), and Kurgahz can cast it twice, so we can cover the sentients, with little magic left to spare. That will keep our own water requirements down, I suppose.

(OOC: Lasair can grab the aloe that she brought from her homeland and left at the RDI. With that and desert garb again, she, at least, should be fine without Endure Elements. Presumably Shadya has similar arrangements or she wouldn't have made it to the RDI alive )

OOC - yes, with the magic of aloe and knowing where all the juiciest scorpions are hiding, you two will be just fine. Kurgahz can make 22 litres of water a day using his orisons - combined with Endure Elements, that would make us self-supporting for water, I would guess. I say we turn loose any horses once we reach the desert edge, and hope we don't lose the cleric or the mage.

Addendum - but, gee, that relegates us to the role of walking wands with crossbows

OOC: I think a little hand waving happens anyway for travel. I didn't know about the forced march thing. That slows us down a bit to either 48 miles a day, or more likely with a loaded light horse, 36 miles per day (which is better than 24 on foot). Yes, I'll be fine with water myself, knowing the ways and dress of the desert from life there (IC, OOC I'm probably not as good with that). Don't forget, till we get to the desert, there should be enough water to let the horses drink ground water, and there are Oasis's in the desert. Not every desert is the Sahara/Death Valley either, as there is often a lot of life in the desert, and water isn't as scarce as it's made out to be. It's the heat you need to worry about.

Solange said:

OOC: Don't forget, till we get to the desert, there should be enough water to let the horses drink ground water, and there are Oasis's in the desert. Not every desert is the Sahara/Death Valley either, as there is often a lot of life in the desert, and water isn't as scarce as it's made out to be. It's the heat you need to worry about.

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OOC: Okay, but we still have 1500 miles of desert to cross. I agree with some of the above. There's not as scarce as it's made out to be, and then there's NASAIMOTB for 5 people and at least 5 horses. Try finding water in a pine forest, or on a plain, even, let alone something that actually qualifies as a true desert, even if it's not Sahara-type dunes. Heat and dryness amount to the same thing in the end - a human can get by (according to the SRD, and it's not far wrong) on 1 gallon a day, but needs 3 times as much in hot/dry environments - in reality, someone active in a hot desert needs to drink 8 gallons or more a day (a gallon for every hour of activity, coincidentally), and will need replacement salt in large quantities. Bedouin, I imagine, historically followed known oasis routes and travelled primarily at night, when it can be bitterly cold, but water loss is less of a problem.
We could of course travel at night and pitch tents for the day. Why not?? Still would need an occasional Endure Elements for comfortable day-time sleeping, but maybe only some of the time.
I know I'm over-thinking it, so feel free to slap me and point out that we can just have a series of entertaining oasis encounters.
By the way, did I mention that Conuld grew up on the boundary of the lava plains of Tharg and the acid swamps of Yoniss, and therefore, courtesy of his backstory, has immunity to both fire and acid?

OOC: Consider yourself slapped I think we'd best be worrying about being reasonable, but caravans come to and from the desert all the time. Perhaps once we reach the edge, we can hook up with one. They'll probably need the extra protection and maybe some able bodies, and we can use the extra supply room for water and food.

OOC2: I was looking through Sandstorm just a bit, and people from a natively warm climate aren't too affected by temps up to 110-120 F, and it's not hard to protect yourself from that. Others who aren't, well, it takes them a few days till they're ok with the heat. After that, we really only need worry about the scorching temps of mid-day, which is when we put up tarps for shade and rest for a short period of time. Of course, that's just one theory, and it's also a book that has dune caliber water retention suits in it. So take it for what it's worth.

Solange said:

OOC: Consider yourself slapped

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Awesome. True that... A horse might not be able to carry enough supplies for itself, but it can pull a wagon, or sand-sled (??) with enough. And normal desert dwellers can leave caches throughout their home range. Which we can raid. Muha!