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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pvandyck" data-source="post: 1809735" data-attributes="member: 6885">Hey, Nightfall.I've been lurking out here and at scarn.mortality.net for a while.   Reading yours and other's posts.  I just started a Scarred Lands campaign.  Looks like I came in when it was deciding to bow out.  Oh, well.  Lots of great material in-place.Here's our site, if anyone's interested.  <a href="http://danshouse.kicks-ass.net" target="_blank">http://danshouse.kicks-ass.net</a>Click on Scarred Lands.My question is this:  I've gotten some books, and have started with the Serpent Amphora cycle.  My players basically bypassed the first module, never giving up the amphora to the bad guys.  So, I've sent them off to Vesh, using some story that they can acutally make good time going UPriver on the Eni (glossed over some kind of boat with oars and sails that uses the wind from the Kelders and the slow flow of the Eni to achive half-way decent time up the river), rather than dealing going through the Kelders by way of  the pass.  (one of the players is a dark elf with no memory.   I didn't want to get into all that with Burok Torn until later in the campaign.)So, they are headed up the Eni.  I threw the storm hag (from all of the modules of the cycle, it seems) at them, nearly sinking the boat, forcing them to de-bark to continue north.  So, now they are on horseback, going through the Blood Steppes (which i read is nearly impossible, but I've decided to just make it slow).  I've told them they have about 2 days of travel left (to get to Denev's Aquifer).   My plan is to have some kind of outpost of Vesh on the south side of Denev's Aquifer, so that they can get a boat and go across to Vesh.  Some random encounters with some Scarred Lands monsters before then, but that's about it.  Then I'll move on to the second module in the cycle (don't have it in front of me - Serpent in the Fold?).  Any other canon that I'm not aware of that would screw with some outpost of Vesh on the south side of the aquifer, holding it's own (mostly) against the occasional monster(s) from the Blood Steppes?Part of my concern is that I get fairly confused about traffic routes in Ghelspad.  Irontooth pass is supposed to be this great contested through-way in the Kelder mountains.  But, from what I can tell, it simply leads to Durrover.  From Durrover, you can get to Vesh, I assume by some route past the Mourning Marshes.  Well, looking at the map, maybe not even that, Durrover looks mostly surrounded.  How is past/through the Mourning Marshes any safer than through the Blood Steppes? Why's the Pass so important?  I mean, what, make Durrover some big naval place where you'd get a ship to Vesh pretty easy?  I dunno.The Eni river is supposed to be a nice trade route.  Okay.  Then, screw Irontooth pass, it doesn't GO anywhere.  But, on the other hand,  my impression of a river that seems to go up through the mountains, or at least very close to them, is a river that you may be able to travel DOWN, but UP? I dunno.The Canyon of Souls is supposed to be this big place to pass through the Kelders, too.  Sure, it's neat, it's got a lot of flavor, and I like what I"ve read so far, but why the heck wouldn't someone in their right mind simply go down to Denev's Aquifer, sail/row liesurely across that?  Strange.At this point my plan for this is to say that the Blood Steppes are so dangerous, you just don't travel through them for trading or invasion purposes.  (but, you may if you are a small group of desparate adventurers <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)  There's simply no such thing as a road or even a trail anywhere.  (someone will come out with a cool map, and I'll have to eat my words, I can just feel it).And the Eni is great for trade going south, sucks time-wise going north  (look at the SRD on overland travel.  It's like 10 miles a day or less)  And as to why Denev's Aquifer isn't a great place to get through the Kelders is because one side is on the Blood Steppes, where no-one lives long.Good plan? Bad? Comments?pvandyck</blockquote>

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