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 only a few years before the Year of Ascension 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, and now most people in Yrth have at least heard rumors of the Southern Continent.

The next logical thing was that traders and adventurers wanted to go there and see first-hand if all the legends were true. Did the land really move and shift? Were there really hundreds 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. There are three known modes of travel between the Continents, by physical travel (usually sailing or flying), by Teucri Gate, and by high level magic.

The sea route, is a long and dangerous passage; only the most prepared and courageous (or crazy and desperate) have ever attempted the six month journey. While the length alone with no port to reprovision requires the services of magic to continuously feed the crew, the most difficult part was the crossing of the “hump.” The Wold, as everyone knows, is flat and circular; go in any direction for too long, and a traveller comes to The Edge. Yet, the center line of the Wold is a crease across the ocean. Sailors who have seen this phenomenon have called it “The Hump” or “Godsmount”, where the ocean rises higher and higher seeming to “climb the sky.” Both maneuvering a ship up and down this hump is fraught with danger, but the success of a few have made fortunes. The traditional arrival point for the Southern Continent is the village of Herenmar in the Gateway Downs.

(The following is inserted in another script) Since Sir Nonam’s [Jerry: the spelling is Nonam] enlightening treatise, the Southern Continent experienced a Great Migration. The closest and arguably best port for merchants and adventurers is now Hook City.

Teucri Gates are currently operated by the Dragon Consortium, the Star Mages Guild of the Floating City, and the Mayor of Plateau City. [Jerry: Two -ly words in a row make this sentence unwieldy. Also, change Mages Guild to Star Mages Guild.] 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.

In Floating City and Plateau City, mages are able to tune the magical gate that allowed trade between The Big Float and Plateau City to allow travel to the Southern Continent, specifically a random point somewhere in Mudtown, but always within easy walking to Hook City main gates. [Jerry: Ok, Hook City wouldn’t want the arrival point to be the bridge. That allows automatic entry for all Yrthian visitors. Instead, can we have it arrive on a giant platform in Mudtown?] A flawless gem of 5,000 gp is required to open the gate for one hour and then shuts the Gate down for all traffic for the rest of the day. These drawbacks have ensured the process is only used for the most important travel. Two other known gateways have since been destroyed. One was rumored to have been in the church where the Chaos Bell was kept before it was recovered by the Children of Chaos. The church’s keystone was also 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 Rattledam, the hometown of the Bloodpack before the entire Sargrass was destroyed.

The third method of travel is high level magic. The most reliable has been Greater Teleport, Limited Wish and Wish, but these high level spells are for only the few and powerful. Some have claimed using flying ships, planar travel like Shadow Walking, or even travel to and from Jericho Space but even if possible pose their own problems… and dangers. Again, few have access to such luxuries, and those who have claimed such travel have been debunked as lunatics.

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 relatively commonplace.

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