After the fall of Thistletop

[Mike]

From my estimation, Jorgenfist is a 3-5 day hike through the mountains from Hook Mountain where we fought the giants/hags/lamia. It took us 16 days to get from Sandpoint to Hook Mountain, but that was with stops for shopping and a wedding and a battle at Fort Rannick, etc. It took us 12 days to return from Hook Mountain to Sandpoint, and that was wasting very little time. Conceivably, we could have make it in 10 or 11 at best.

So I'm guessing that reasonably, this is a two-week journey for us to get to Jorgenfist. On the map, there is an alternate river route that passes north of the Sanos Forest. We'd cut east overland to Galduria, a decent trading town on Ember Lake. That's a 4 day trip. Then from Galduria, we travel up the Lampblack River to the Storval Stairs. We're traveling against the flow of the river, so I don't know what kind of time we make on that. I don't know much about the Storval Stairs (until Dothan makes a Geography check), but from the map and name, I'm guessing it's the most obvious pass up to the highlands/mountains. From there it looks like a couple days through the Iron Peaks to Jorgenfist.

If all goes well, it looks like:
Sandpoint to Galduria -- 4 days
Up the Lampblack River -- 5 days
Cross over to the Stairs -- 1 day
Through the mountains -- 2 days

Any of those might be a day longer or shorter, but figure 12-14 given the likelihood of distractions and complications along the way.

By the look of this map, this is almost certainly the way the giants came down to us, and hopefully Gunrus can confirm that. So therefore, my estimates above of the giants' travel time were probably off. Assuming they move about the same speed as our horses, and assuming they're better at mountain stuff than most of us, maybe they did it in 10. So if there's no magic communication involved going back to Mokmurian, then maybe we have a 3-4 week window before another force could arrive here.

[Elle]

This is where teleportation becomes a major deal. Can we teleport back to Hook Mountain? Then we maybe have no horses, and road to travel is unclear, but we're closer. Or is Anna familiar with other locations closer to our destination? Or do we not teleport?

[Zen]

Kay votes for teleport over river travel ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!

[Mike]

I forgot we could teleport OUT. I would say teleport to Fort Rannick and go from there. We slept at Fort Rannick. We spent a total of two or three days there. (Can't remember how much of that time Anna was with us.) It's up to Darcs, but I would guess Rannick counts as "Very Familiar" or "Studied Carefully", and the Hook Mountain lair would count as one level below that.

That's the difference between a 94-97% "on-target" chance and 88-94%. In a world where an off-target result puts us 1-300 miles away from the target in a random direction... I way we go as safe as possible and hike the extra day.

[Tahlvin]

Or teleport to Fort Rannick, so we can at least check in on Vale and we're at a familiar place, rather than a possibly-hostile Hook Mountain. Or even Turtleback Ferry, so we can rent some horses for the journey northwards from there, then check on Fort Rannick and Hook Mountain on our way. [Mike posted first, but I posted anyways in order to get TBF out there as a possible destination as well.]

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of trying to setup Gogmurt at Fort Rannick to help Vale, maybe live in the caves behind the fort if he doesn't want to be part of the New Black Arrows, allowing him to care for a stretch of woodlands in the area as warden. We could offer to let Gunrus take up residence at Hook Mountain, and offer to trade with them: we offer food and goods in exchange for iron ore he and the ogres get from the mines, and help keeping the peace in the area between giantkin and humanoids. Thoughts?

[Mike]

And once we're at Rannick, is it faster to hop over to Storval Deep and take a boat up the back door of the Jorgenfist? That way, instead of all that mountain climbing and potential lost-ness, we just sail straight to it. We know that river goes right where we want.

Hell, teleport + boat, and we could be there in four or five days. Maybe less.

While we're in Magnimar, I'll even front the money for a Folding Boat. If one of us knows how to sail.

[Mike]

If we can teleport to Rannick or Hook Mountain, then the trek through the mountains from Hook Mountain to Jorgenfist will take 6 days. (48 miles; 8 miles per day if Illian is on foot).

A sailing vessel would take 4 days to make the trip. (200 miles; 48 miles per day). However, that second half of the journey would be upstream into mountains, and I have no idea how big that river is and if there's falls and stuff that would prevent a boat from going there. Plus, I don't know that any of us have sailing skill, so we'd probably have to take an extra day to go to Turtleback Ferry and try to hire someone.

The mountain route is looking more likely all the time.

[Mike]

[Zen]

You really want to put me on some flimsy piece of wood out on the devil's own substance, don't you!

[Mike]

A magical piece of wood, you big baby.

But no, I just don't think it's realistic here.

[Elle]

For the record I am not happy with this march into the jaws of death for no clear reason. However, since you're all eager to do it, I would vote for the mountain route. No unfamiliar area sounds great, but at least we have a reason to want to explore the Hook Mountain region, if we're going to be living nearby it and hoping to encourage mining operations by friendly, non-murderous groups.

[Mike]

We're not just rushing off into the jaws of death. Although, that IS Dothan's vote, and the course of action I see to be most likely.

In the meantime, we've sort of agreed that we're taking about a week to sort stuff out here. During that time, we may find out things that cause us to move sooner or later.

Things that we should do in our "down time":

1) Dothan is finishing her journal.

2) Dothan will find out from Gunrus more about how the giants got here, how Mokmurian will find out the status of their mission, and how he might be likely to react in case of mission failure. This will give us more information about how much time we might or might not have.

3) We will be making plans (and by "we", I mean people who aren't Dothan) for the defense of Sandpoint. At a minimum, we need to help implement a better lookout/early warning system; establish an evacuation plan; leave a method for the people of Sandpoint to contact us in case we need to teleport home in a hurry. There's probably more than that, but it's a start.

4) We have to determine the fate of Gogmurt (if possible), then decide if we want to offer Gogmurt and/or Gunrus new lives in the Fort Rannick/Hook Mountain region. Figure out the logistics and terms of that. Possibly neither one is interested.

5) We should go to Magnimar. There's always shopping to do. Plus touching base with our patron Grobaras. (Every time I see the Mayor's name, I read it as Lord-Mayor Grab-ass.) Maybe we are interested in setting terms with him or trying to put him in his place. Sandpoint IS a Magnimarian holding, so he is responsible for it's defense in these trying times. Dothan can easily work up some simple songs to start spreading around that will shame him if he fails to defend his people.

6) Maybe more of us should visit Brodert Quink at the Old Light, now that we've had some discussions on the matter. We may have new things to look for there or new questions to ask him. This surge of interest in his work will probably thrill the old man.

7) Just more research and questions about Teraktinus's target in general. I've covered all the stuff Dothan can think of, but maybe some of you higher wisdom folks have some contacts or inspiration that haven't occurred to me. We'll check with the other historian/sage types in town about ancient Thassilonian magic and the ruins/remnants that can be found in and around Sandpoint. Maybe there's more clues in that.

8) Maybe a Sending to our man in Fort Rannick to see if there's any news or rumblings out there of the giants at Jorgenfist. I know they're a ways off, but it's the same mountain range. Maybe he's heard something in the two weeks since we left. Maybe other smaller humanoids are fleeing the Jorgenfist area as Mokmurian builds his army, and maybe he's run into them?

9) General research about our path. I assume we'll work out the teleport travel thing, but it might be good to know something about the overland path on my map. And whichever way we go, we need to know more about what to expect when traveling through the Iron Peaks in Neth/Kuthona. IF we decide we need to go there right away, we're talking about possibly being in the heart of the mountain range near the start of winter. There's got to be stuff we'll want to have prepared for that.

Help me out here, people. I think of three things and forget two while I'm writing the first one down. What else should we consider? And this time, let's ACTUALLY get most of this basic stuff done before the session next week.

[Bluedevyl]

I think its more reasonable to head to Jorgenfist, where the giants that attacked Sandpoint came from, then waiting around in Sandpoint waiting for more giants who may or may not be headed towards. If they are heading for Sandpoint, and we take the fastest route to Jorgenfist, we'll encounter them en route and will be able to head them off.

That would be my only argument against teleporting to the Fort and heading out from there... its less likely that more giants would head towards Rannick if they were, in fact, coming for Sandpoint again, so we may be better off remaining mounted or on foot for the duration to ensure another strike force doesn't get by us.

As for Teleporting in general, Anna only has access to 2 5th level spells at the moment, so to take all of us would take 3 days, as I can only take an additional 1 small or medium sized humanoid for every 3 levels I have, and I'd have to make a return trip. Unless you guys want to jump into the bag of holding and probably suffocate, it'll take us some time. Traveling to Magnimar and back may be easier, as perhaps all of us don't feel like going.

It might save us a ton of time going up to Skull's Crossing and taking boats, as Anna and Sam actually came across the Storval Deep, and are at least passingly familiar with the area, but as Black Magga lives (lived?) in the Deep, maybe going by way of Galduria, Wolf's Ear, and Ravensmoor is better.

[Mike]

Oh snap. I was reading Teleport wrong. I saw that you could take yourself and three others with you with full gear, so I assumed* that you could cast Teleport on another person who could then take three people with them. Then you'd follow along with the other three, and then Bob's your uncle. But no... you can only cast it on yourself, which means Anna 'ports out with Sam, Hal, and Dwyn. Anna 'ports back. Rest one night, regain spells. Anna 'ports out with Dothan, Illian, and Tahlvin. Anna 'ports back. Rest 2nd night, regain spells. Anna 'ports out with Kay first thing in the morning. It's still three days instead of many, but it does seem needlessly complex.

And you make a good point about meeting a second invasion force head on. I'm certain they would have come down the Storval Stairs and then followed the Lampblack. There's no other path that makes sense. And hopefully Gunrus can confirm this for us. If another force is coming that way, then we are sure to either meet them on the road or at least hear that they are nearby from locals (or see evidence of the destruction they might leave in their wake), and we can meet them in the field away from innocents in town.


*"Never assume. Because when you assume, you make an ass out of Uma Thurman. Isn't that cute?" --Stuart Smalley