Travel rules
Travel rules documents Eldurae’s overland travel system. The world map is a hex grid at 1 hex = 60 miles. Per-day travel distance depends on mode (foot / mount / wagon / water), terrain class (road / off-road easy / off-road rough / off-road harsh), and pace. The DM uses this table to resolve in-fiction journey length. The party’s session-16 skiff voyage from the Eldwythe sewer outflow towards the White Lantern Shrine, for instance, is a multi-hex coastal voyage and resolves at the skiff rate of ~0.5 hex/day.
Map scale
The Eldurae world map is a hex grid. One hex = 60 miles. All travel calculations resolve in hexes-per-day for the journey’s mode and dominant terrain class.
Terrain classes
- Road: improved roads, paved or well-maintained tracks. Includes major freight roads (e.g. the road south to Aurelia), trade corridors, and well-trodden post routes.
- Off-road, easy terrain: plains, coast, hills, open desert. Travellable in any direction; visibility is generally clear.
- Off-road, rough terrain: forest, frozen lands, broken ground. Slower; navigation is harder; weather affects pace more.
- Off-road, harsh terrain: mountains, swamp, cursed land, volcanic badlands. Slowest land travel; many vehicles cannot pass at all.
Pace tables
On foot
| Terrain | Pace | Distance per day | Time per hex |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road | Fast | 0.5 hex | 2 days |
| Off-road, easy terrain | Normal | 0.4 hex | 2.5 days |
| Off-road, rough terrain | Slow | 0.3 hex | 3.5 days |
| Off-road, harsh terrain | Very slow | 0.25 hex | 4 days |
Horse / mount
| Terrain | Distance per day | Time per hex |
|---|---|---|
| Road | 0.6 hex | ~1.5 days |
| Off-road, easy terrain | 0.5 hex | 2 days |
| Off-road, rough terrain | 0.4 hex | 2.5 days |
| Off-road, harsh terrain | 0.25 hex | 4 days |
Carriage / wagon
| Terrain | Distance per day | Time per hex |
|---|---|---|
| Good road | 0.5 hex | 2 days |
| Poor road / trail | 0.4 hex | 2.5 days |
| Off-road, easy terrain | 0.3 hex | 3.5 days |
| Off-road, rough terrain | 0.25 hex | 4 days |
| Off-road, harsh terrain | Usually impossible without a road. |
Water travel
| Vessel | Distance per day | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Skiff | 0.5 hex | The party’s session-16 vessel from the Eldwythe outflow. |
| Large riverboat / sailing ship | 1 hex | |
| Fast military ship | 1.5 hexes |
Worked examples
These resolve the party’s journey from the end of session 16 to the Aurelian coast in session 18. Each leg uses one mode of travel.
Skiff from the Eldwythe sewer outflow towards the White Lantern Shrine
The party left the Eldwythe sewers in a small skiff at the end of session 16. The DM placed the White Lantern Shrine “a bit north towards the coast from Aurelia” and put the voyage at “probably roughly three days of sailing” [2]. At the skiff rate of 0.5 hex/day, three days’ sailing covers about 1.5 hexes, roughly 90 miles of coastal travel. The voyage was cut short: the Winged catfish destroyed the skiff when the party was “roughly a couple of hours away from land” [3], and the rest of the way to the coast was a swim.
On foot from the landfall to the shrine
After the landfall the DM put the shrine at “roughly half a day to a day’s travel inland”, with a road ahead [4][5]. On foot along a road (0.5 hex/day), half a day to a day covers about 0.25 to 0.5 hex, some 15 to 30 miles.
The shrine and Aurelia
No travel calculation is needed for this leg. The DM describes the shrine as “a half-ruined way shrine on the freight road, a few miles from Aurelia’s outer approaches” [6], and the party knows it as the approach to Aurelia’s north entrance [7][8]. It is a waystation outside the city, not inside it. In session 19 the party decided not to go on to the shrine [9][10].
Pre-campaign reference points
These help calibrate any new travel calculation against journeys the party has already done.
- Gloamhearth (s1) → Wyrmbough Grove (s2-s3): short trip, near the same forest edge.
- Wyrmbough Grove → Mirestrand (s4): multi-day.
- Mirestrand → Umbrafall (s4-s10): extended overland journey via road.
- Umbrafall → Black Vein Quarry (s8) → return: out-and-back; the quarry approach is described as a day-and-a-half through Biogloom forest.
- Umbrafall → Eldwythe (s12-s14): fork in the road; Eldwythe sits at a road junction between Umbrafall, Arcanthys, and Aurelia.
- Eldwythe outflow → White Lantern Shrine (s16-s18): about three days by skiff, southward [2]; cut short by the loss of the skiff off the Aurelian coast [3].
How to use this page in a recap
When a session describes travel, the recap should note the mode and dominant terrain in the metadata, then cite this page rather than re-deriving distances. Example: “The party sails south along the coast by skiff (water travel, 0.5 hex/day); three days’ sailing covers ~1.5 hexes.” A journey that changes mode, such as landing and continuing on foot, is resolved leg by leg, each at its own rate. This keeps in-fiction travel times consistent across sessions and gives the DM a stable lookup if a player asks “how long would it take to get from X to Y?”
See also
- Eldurae - World Brief
- Sapphire Sea: the named open water; coastal voyage relevant to the s16+ arc.
- Greywater River: the only waterway leading inland; under Velkris’s toll.
- White Lantern Shrine
- Aurelia
References
- ^ DM world brief, 2026-05-17 (Discord lore drop)
- ^ Session 16, line 1717: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 18, line 747: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 18, line 1619: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 18, line 1633: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 15, line 700: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1544: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1545: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 19, line 397: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 19, line 398: Inline citation.