[D&D] Eberron travel

[Duos Greanleef]

I don't think that this issue concerns editions, so ignore the fact that it's 4E.

My party wants to travel from Korranberg, Zilargo to Passage, Aundair.
By my measurements, it's approximately 1800 miles along the Orien trade routes. If they were just riding horses, they could make 40 miles a day (assuming no trouble i.e. bad weather, side quests, and random encounters) putting them there in 45 days.

Getting better horses is probably out of the question. One of our characters is a member of House Vadalis, but not one intimately involved in the magebreeding processes. So magebred horses are out of the question given Vadalis' weak presence in this part of Zilargo. Valenar Riding horses would also be unattainable (given the Valenar peoples' natural distrust for House Vadalis and their lack of proximity to Zilargo).

Reading the description in the Travel section of ECG, it says that someone with the Mark of Passage can perform a ritual to speed the process along on the Trade Routes. We're just hitching a ride with a caravan, so someone has probably already cast that on our party.

"But Duos! Why don't you let them hop on the lightning rail?"
There was a zombie/succubus attack on the lightning rail when they used it to get from Sharn to Zolanberg. They simply don't trust House Deneith to protect it in Zilargo. Even if they hopped on the next station outside of ZIlargo, they have to go as far as Wroat, which is still 815 miles (20 days) away. so my travel question still applies.

So here is my question:
1) How much faster per day should the Mark of Passage ritual make a caravan go?

Thanks playground.
--Duos

[Inyssius Tor]

Caravans are cheap, vaguely safe, vaguely discreet, and not terribly uncomfortable... but they are slow. I'd say the very best you could hope for, and this would be both unlikely and expensive for the caravan (if not you specifically), is a ritual that would double the speed of the caravan. That would get you 40 miles a day. Not exactly an improvement.

With player character money, you'd probably be better off contracting a House Orien mage to teleport you there directly. It'd be expensive, but not that expensive, and you'd be treated like very important businessmen while you're all waiting for the ritual to catch. :smallwink:

[Fishy]

This is pretty much exactly what airships are for.

If you don't want to go that way, there's the Earth Sled in Magic of Eberron- basically a hovercraft powered by Earth Elementals, moves 6 miles an hour and doesn't care about terrain.

[bosssmiley]

So here is my question:
1) How much faster per day should the Mark of Passage ritual make a caravan go?

Thanks playground.
--Duos

My DM wisdom says +50% over the group's base speed (effectively a forced march rate sans fatigue). It cuts travel times by 1/3, which is a big deal.

If you want faster, then purchase tickets on the Eberron red-line-crossing-the-map adventure transit system. :smallwink: