Traveling from Syliras to Zeltiva?

[Shiress]

Hello If anyone is planning on a late Fall (75th or later) journey from Syliras to Zeltiva and wouldn't mind a traveling buddy, well, Im here for ya

[Roderick]

Rod's been hiding away in Syliras for a fair while now. I think it's about time he went back home to face the music, no? He would be more than happy to travel with Shiress. I'll be doing a fair number of training threads between now and then, so when he leaves Syliras he'll hopefully be quite skilled in arms - capable of making it through the wilds without being killed by the first wild animal he meets. I'd think that would benefit Shiress too =) Interested?

[Shiress]

I am! I'll PM you shortly about it Thank you!

[Roderick]

It's no trouble!

[Ethan Ironhorse]

So after talking with a few people, I thought I would try and help out with the logistics of actually traveling to Zeltiva from Syliras. (Approximately late Fall into Winter) I am open to any suggestions or improvements on the travel arrangements. So after doing some reading this is basically what I have discovered. Straight Line route from Syliras to Zeltiva is 1375 miles. Assuming that the natural bends aren’t overly heavy, we can safely assume that the road twists and turns will add another 10% total. (This is a guess and could be changed per ST) Right now that takes us to 1522 miles. Mountain passes tend to be an upward hike with rolling hills up and down, Zeltiva will require us to go through a mountain pass right before we arrive. We are probably looking at an additional 75 miles of rough terrain. Bringing up, roughly 1600 miles of total journey a lot of what we need will depend on how we choose to go. So our choices of transportation are: Walk, Horse, or Wagon. Walking with a 60 pound pack: 12 miles on average per day. Overall, this is pretty decent pace and is doable. Traveling on semi level ground or light grade increases, we could conceivably reach 15 miles each day. So why this speed? As a group we will be slowed to the speed of the slowest person, and with a heavy pack 2.5 miles is pretty decent. The problem is fall into winter will have shorter days, and we don’t have the consistent exercise needed to do more than 12 miles in a 6 hour time period. Why six hours, if we wake up before dawn, prep a cold breakfast, no fire, and break camp by dawn. It will give an an extra hour a day. However, it gets old quick and after a while everyone needs the rest and warm meal. Camp generally takes two to three hours to set up, the reason is that we need to find a spot and start a fire to keep us warm throughout the night. So even if I give up 10 hour day cycles that will be destroyed relatively quickly by all the things needed to prep. Additionally, it will require us to forge for food periodically. Total travel time: 135 days (good conditions)/150 days with rest and good conditions/160 days with storms Horse with pack animal: 30 miles a day on average. Overall, horse is the preferred way to travel. Their average natural walk was 4-6 miles per hour, and with a horse slowly moving it will preserve the horse for a long distance. For every two of us, I see at least the need for one pack animal, to lessen the load on the horse we are riding. Two problems exist: One, traveling that fast means that we have to carry food for the horses and ourselves. Additionally, we will hit the Mountain pass in dead of winter, and assuming we aren’t snowed in. We will stop to a crawling pace of one mile per hour for maybe 8 hours, and we will need the skill of riding. Total travel time: 62 days (Good conditions)/70 days with rest and good conditions/75 days with storms Oxen with wagon: 20 miles a day on average. So though this is a lot less speed then a horse, on the upside, are cargo capacity in somewhere in the 1000 lbs and we would use about the same amount of feed as the horses. The reason why the less amount of feed, is due to the oxen are able to tolerate a lot more of the grass and brush, where as a horse needs more protein from oats and such to maintain the speed. The wagon additionally provides a readymade camp and can help set up/break down faster. Problem is that we need a driver, and though I have the riding skill which could translate slightly into driving, it means that all four of us would be sharing about 300 lbs of cargo space for food and personal belongings. Total travel time: 76 days (Good conditions)/82 days with rest and good conditions/90 days with storms Now… I believe our departure date is sometime late fall? Would you like to discuss or vote on which mode of travel or let me try to figure out the whole cost of each?