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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8379531" data-attributes="member: 6801228">To answer these questions, since it was my game. 1) We were hired as an escort for a caravan of goods. This was actually the core conceit of everything that followed. It would have been much faster if we didn't take that job2) In a word, monsters. A) We were attacked by goblins and a horde of beasts. Fought them off. Caravan master asked us to go investigate because they killed some of the guards and if we could destroy their base it would be safer for us to move again and make the road safer. This led to a ruined temple of an evil giant god, who a cult leader was trying and successfully summoned. We fought the avatar while the cult leader escaped. This all took multiple sessions (about 3?) This was our first adventure. B) I know we were attacked at least one more time by monsters, ah right, an ambush disguised as a toll road by some hobgoblins. That combat happened, and I think we might have pursued them a little, but I'm fuzzy on the details.C) We then found the road was closed by an inquisition of powerful paladins and clerics (all levels 9 and up) who were dealing with some monster threat. They refused to let anyone pass until the situation was dealt with, and we seemed like just the people for the job. So, we were sent into a swamp where animals grew to enormous size. There was an abandoned estate filled with massive fiendish hornets (and an intelligent queen), some tiny wall-living thief trickster creatures, and a cult of Yuan-Ti cloning super-soldiers. Clearing that out took about four sessions, maybe five. We had to go up to the attic, where the queen nearly killed us, to get to the basement where the cult was located. It was all based on some 2e adventure because the DM kept finding things that didn't translate, like a barrel full of instant death poison, that he immediately nerfed as soon as the party was able to safely get some for their own use, because we didn't just jump into the first barrel for the secret passage. I think we killed all the cult leaders, but our child warlock died.D) So we went to the super powerful clerics to have him revived, but the only way we could do it is by one of them lending us a diamond, which she only did if we traveled up into the mountains to help a mine her brother worked at. So we traveled there, some more combats with random beasts. Found the area infested with wild magic because an archmage lived there. Went into the cave system underneath to find the missing dwarf. Fought some wild magic monsters, made a deal with a Demilich who fled, fought a spelljammer full of Neogi and saved some slaves. People did character changes via wild magic because they were getting bored with their characters. Decided to leave the spelljammer behind, because it would make travel too fast and too easy (also turned out that there were three patrolling spelljammers that would have attacked the ship if they saw it). This all took 3 sessions or so. The slaves joined us, one in particular becoming my character's servant. (She was a great foil for my fey noble character)E) So we return to find most of the caravan left with the caravan master. Those who stayed wanted us to protect them, so we gathered them up and left. We found a bridge with trolls who had killed the caravan master, had to kill them. (1 session). Ended up in a town where one of the caravan people my character was friends with was killed, was a small murder mystery involving the slaves and my servant, that took a session. F) I think this is where one of the players offered to DM for a bit, and so pulled a dream shenagin to pull us into a Domain of Dread. That was a nearly painful five sessions that involved traveling through a featureless wasteland doing nothing and a lot of railroading. Ended badly and that guy left. G) Then after that we were attacked on the road again, and then found ourselves trapped in a hag covens illusion. That took about a session and a half to track them down and kill them so we could continue on. H) And then we were attacked by land pirates on a boat with wheels, pulled by mammoths. Possible slavers, I don't remember, that was another session and half. We took the boat. And I think after that we finally arrived at Neverwinter. Were we stayed for about two maybe three sessions before leaving. All told I think we figured that two week journey actually took our characters nearly two months to complete. 3) Exploration as travel was my thought, point out how throwing various challenges and side-treks in front of the players to create tension can drag a simple journey into a very very very very long journey.That's a neat system. I've often wondered about adopting things like "pools" for other types of challenges. It makes marking progress a lot easier.</blockquote>

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