So, the golden road north to the vilhon reach. Then by ship to Westgate?
or by the magical teleportation devices.
Not that I care one way or another, but I'm assuming this is for an official 4e campaign, and the DM may have issues with the 'quick & easy' fix.
These two locales are on the same latitude, pretty much, but are still fairly far away from each other. The easiest explanation may be to take the Vilhon Reach, but it may be more interesting to cross the Nagalands and Serpent's Holding, which will take you through the Plaguelands, and thus offering the DM some interesting stuff to use for/against you some other time (like some sort of weird change or power that manifests later).
It may also bring you up through Erlkazar and the Deepwash region, wich has both a Yuan-ti city and some Undead-held territory (in 4e). Here is a 'blank map' so you can see the distances and terrain involved.
If you were captured by Calishite (Skyfire Emirates? I can't keep track of this crap anymore..) slavers, and were brought to a northern Lake of Steam city for sale (Ankhapur?), and then escaped and fled north, you could either travel through those Plaguedlands (formerly Sespech) and then take a ship via the Vilhon Reach (not as likely in 4e, given the much smaller and shallower nature of the Vilhon in 1479) to Westgate, or travel through the Vampire-haunted lands of Erlkazar, which could have garnered you a few interesting enemies along the way. The first route would mean a long ship voyage around Turmish, and the second would be an overland trip. Either way, the original slavers would have transferred you from ship somewhere in the Lake of Steam (using the Golden Road, assume Innarlith - they got a pretty new canal at some point that connects everything, although weather it survived or not is another story).
Edit: Forget that - the Golden Road appears to have been obliterated, and Innarlith is also a ruin... I wonder why they even bothered to say that canal was completed in the GHotR.
So the other way - overland (after a brief ship voyage) - may be your best bet, although that would mean also traveling through someplace called Nathlan on the last leg of the journey... and I can't find a thing on that place anywhere... anyone know about it? It doesn't seem to have a listing in the FRCG...
and I thought they wee using teleportation pads or something now....like the menhir circles.
Edit: Forget that - the Golden Road appears to have been obliterated, and Innarlith is also a ruin... I wonder why they even bothered to say that canal was completed in the GHotR.
Simple, they did that to mess with those of us that gave a crap about the setting for the last 20 years.
and a DM can say no to that.
and I thought they wee using teleportation pads or something now....like the menhir circles.
Well, I'm not an RPGA/LFR DM, but I have been a DM for a LONG time, and if I request back-stories from my players (which I only do half the time), and one of them handed me a single sentence that read "he accidently stepped through a portal to get here", I would be a little... annoyed...
Thats just me, though, and in those few campaigns where I'm going to put a lot of background work into, I will expect the players to do likewise. I suppose a single sentence of backstory is something very.... 4e-ish.
-Downplayed or not, there are, or were, plenty of portals on Abeir-Toril. The setting depends on portals, in many ways.
Are you talking about that wonderful old setting called Forgotten Realms, or that setting-lite, two-book, "bare-bones" 4eFR?
The new setting is not the old setting... I thought we established that.
I don't remember where I heard it, or from whom, but I know someone 'official' made the statement that many of the old portals no longer function. My memory ain't what it used to be, so if anyone can help me out here and jog it, I'd appreciate it. It may have even been one of Rich's responses here, for all I know, or something Ed said over at CK.
But whatever, I'll just get back to map-making... I promised myself not to participate in lore conversations here anymore, and I'm already kicking myself for posting here.
Edit: Forget that - the Golden Road appears to have been obliterated, and Innarlith is also a ruin... I wonder why they even bothered to say that canal was completed in the GHotR.
So the other way - overland (after a brief ship voyage) - may be your best bet, although that would mean also traveling through someplace called Nathlan on the last leg of the journey... and I can't find a thing on that place anywhere... anyone know about it? It doesn't seem to have a listing in the FRCG...
Humm...darn. well the Goldenroad was what I went with. Oh well this is for a home game so it may not have been destroyed. Does not matter really as the game will take place in a GM created city near Wheloon.
Well, I'm not an RPGA/LFR DM, but I have been a DM for a LONG time, and if I request back-stories from my players (which I only do half the time), and one of them handed me a single sentence that read "he accidently stepped through a portal to get here", I would be a little... annoyed...
-They'd then get that sentence returned to them, that's what I'd do.
Are you talking about that wonderful old setting called Forgotten Realms, or that setting-lite, two-book, "bare-bones" 4eFR?
The new setting is not the old setting... I thought we established that.
-Right, right. I'm still new to this.
I don't remember where I heard it, or from whom, but I know someone 'official' made the statement that many of the old portals no longer function. My memory ain't what it used to be, so if anyone can help me out here and jog it, I'd appreciate it. It may have even been one of Rich's responses here, for all I know, or something Ed said over at CK.
-I can't say I recall anything. I do know that the D&D mechanics of teleporting and portals and all of that have changed, but other than that, I can't say I recall anything else, about mass portal destruction and wreckage. The FRCG has an entry about portals in the 'Magic' section, and says that portals link places while talking in the present tense, so that seems to show that they still exist- they, of course, being many, and possibly less exist. At least some exist, that much can be said for certain.
From what I understand, WOTC wants to down-play those portals now, and most should be considered defunct or at least acting erratically in 4e.
I recall reading the same. Don't recall where though.
Edit: Forget that - the Golden Road appears to have been obliterated, and Innarlith is also a ruin... I wonder why they even bothered to say that canal was completed in the GHotR.
They were trying to disguise the coming of 4E Realms but still had to tie off loose 3e bits. It's probably a case of two hands getting confused which wipes the rear and which strokes the fore.
So the other way - overland (after a brief ship voyage) - may be your best bet, although that would mean also traveling through someplace called Nathlan on the last leg of the journey... and I can't find a thing on that place anywhere... anyone know about it? It doesn't seem to have a listing in the FRCG...
From what I gather, Nathlan is where Nathlekh was. I think it's a nation of Shou expatriates.
From what I gather, Nathlan is where Nathlekh was. I think it's a nation of Shou expatriates.
I figured out the Nathlekh part, just from looking at the maps.
Weird how they sprinkled the Kara-Turrans in all over the place now.
I suppose if the Shou fits....
I figured out the Nathlekh part, just from looking at the maps.
Weird how the sprinkled the Kara-Turrans in all over the place now.
I suppose if the Shou fits....
WotC likes to fiddle with some OA elements, but doesn't feel it worthwhile on a larger more cohesive scale.
I hope it's not just a bigger version of the already overused stereotypes of "Shou-towns" and yakuza. Personally I'm not a big fan of KT elements smeared so thickly (and sloppily) on top of otherwise (and originally) interesting FR regions.
Edit: I guess they didn't try to depart from stereotypes that much after all if at all.
Nathlan is a small, feudal state on the Dragon Coast inhabited primarily by Shou immigrants from Kara-Tur organized in clans. Nathlan is suspicious of non-Shou and nonhumans.*
*Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, p. 116. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4924-3.
I find it very hard to believe that anyone bothered to proof-read the FRCG, and if they did, that they felt it was good.
I find it even harder to believe that their are real fans of 4eFR... its kinda like being a fan of imitation cheese...
Edit: Forget that - the Golden Road appears to have been obliterated, and Innarlith is also a ruin... I wonder why they even bothered to say that canal was completed in the GHotR.
Actually, the canal was built and destroyed in the same trilogy. Given that the trilogy was based off of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead", it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I'd imagine you could even surmise how and why it was destroyed.
It wasn't really willy-nilly, simply a relatively small element of the series, and for me, not the most aggravating thing ever done in any edition.
-RW
It makes it appear that the canal was re-built after the novel series... which makes very little sense, since WotC went ahead and blew-up everything.
Unless that entry is just worded poorly...
Yes, but if you read the entry in the GHotR, it says that the canal was eventually completed anyway, despite all the setbacks.
It makes it appear that the canal was re-built after the novel series... which makes very little sense, since WotC went ahead and blew-up everything.
Unless that entry is just worded poorly...
I just re-read the entry, and it does seem strange. That said, there were a number of things done near the end of the timeline that seemed to make little sense beyond flavour.
I think the intent was to wrap things up nicely for everyone, and closing all open stories, to make way for the future. A good example being the resolution of the Mulhorand/ Unther war, only to remove the former in the new edition.
-RW
Which is why we got all that stuff about the Iron Throne.