Travel Between The Continents

by Sir Nonam Firstorlast of the Storm Dragons

Travel between the Northern Continent of Yrth and the Southern Continent was never an issue until recently. In fact, it is easy to forget that the Southern Continent was not even discovered until about 50 years ago when a young adventuring group was blown off course and landed in Heranmar. This fledgling group became the renowned Children of Chaos. Their success paved the way for north and south relations to grow and slowly over the next few years, most people in Yrth began to hear about the Southern Continent.

The next logical thing was that traders and adventurers wanted to go there and see firsthand if all the legends were true. Did the land really move and shift? Were there really 100s of gods and powers? But travel proved difficult. A simple teleport spell wouldn’t work. It took something more powerful! The difficulty caused the legends and myths about the Southern Continent to grow.

The sea route proved to be a very long and dangerous passage. Over half of the ships attempting the voyage did not make it. The voyage took over a year to make. The most difficult part was the crossing of the “hump.” The Wold, as everyone knows, is not spherical. It is elliptical. As if you put two Frisbees together back to back. At the very center of the Wold, is the hump. The ocean rises higher and higher seeming to “climb the sky.” Circumventing the hump or “Godsmount” is one way to avoid the area, but it adds several months to the trip. However, if one can maneuver the boat up to the top, a magical effect will push the ship down the other side at a very high rate of speed allowing you to make the Southern Continent in about two months and shortening the journey by four months. The traditional arrival point for the Southern Continent is the village of Herenmar in the Gateway Downs.

The first organization to break the teleportation mystery and find a magical means of travel was the Dragon Consortium. They developed a new spell called Mass Teleport and began including them inside their Dragon Rings given to each group that became full members. They guarded the knowledge well and other organizations had to either ask them for help or develop their own method.

The Mages Guild of the Floating City was able to tune their huge magical gate that allowed trade between The Big Float and Plateau City to allow travel to the Southern Continent, specifically a location about 10 miles north of Hook City. However, a reagent was required. A gem of 5,000 gp was required. However, the gateway would remain open and tuned to the Southern Continent for an hour and many could go through allowing the city to charge quite the sum for those who wanted to travel south. Soon Plateau City, which was the other normal end of the gateway, had the trick solved as well. However, the High Lord Mayor refused to offer it to the public without a treaty for travel in place with Hook City.

Soon it was discovered that Limited Wish and Wish would do the trick, but again, few had access to such luxuries. There IS a gateway back to the northern continent of Yrth in the Gateway Downs near Heranmar, but it is probably destroyed. It is rumored to have been in the church where the Chaos Bell was housed, once upon a time. However, that church was destroyed when the Chaos Bell was rescued by the Children of Chaos. Plus, the keystone was stolen and taken to Threshold to try and block all the undead coming out of Koshe Marr during the Day of Cowardice. A second gateway was in the home town of the Bloodpack before the entire Sargrass was destroyed.

Regardless of the means, travel between the continents is still difficult and expensive. Despite this, more and more travel and trade is occurring. It is only a matter of time, in the author’s opinion, until travel is considered commonplace.

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