The Goblins Fan Forum

Desert travel is a forking slog, by intent. Having cleric and druid magic certainly makes it much easier, but I didn't want to just say 'ok, you guys travel a few weeks and you get to Estmont'. Even with your magics, it's quite the undertaking... but perhaps not best suited to drawing out through a forum game.... if it takes a year to cross the desert, yeah, it's going to hammer home that crossing a desert is no easy task, but perhaps that isn't as important as keeping things moving?

So far, you've experienced limited city life in game, Circle Vale is more of a town, and a town that only exists because of the Abbey, so isn't really representative. The Eastern Cities are not racially affiliated the way that those to the North, South and West of the continent are, and while we could cover a lot of stuff with history checks or the like, they (and Circle Vale) are more the exception to the rule.... but you haven't experienced the rule yet.

Questions about the astronomy and cosmology of the world got me thinking about a grumpy old dwarf with 6 Charisma that I played in a one shot who had the Sage Astronomer background... gave him a dozen levels and a tower, and there you go.

That being said, since you quite literally are being dropped in the middle of a different setting, my intent is not to force anyone to confront a central conflict of your backstory in this side mission that is intended to be a narrative device to 1) get you more rapidly (and interestingly?) across the desert 2) expose you to other cultures and societies beyond the more accepting Circle Vale (and to a lesser extend the Eastern Cities, once you reach them), and 3) give me an excuse to see what a fun one shot character would be as a high level wizard. What I'm not intending is to drop you right on the doorstep of your nemesis. I'm not going to have Kreldoran's sphere being held by the various mentors, abusers, and nemeses in your backgrounds.

That's not to say that there isn't the possibility for you to discover threads that will lead you to information or future encounters, just that anything of that sort is something that you'd have to discover along the way, and not something I've baked into this job.