My players have just finished liberating Phandalin and the Lost Mine from evil forces and, along the way, picked up some clues from a Red Wizard of Thay and a strange cult trying to obtain the help of a young green dragon that things are about to get real in a town far to the south called Greenest.
Once the Spell Forge of Phandelver is operational again they will be getting funds sent to their estate at Tresendar Manor monthly.
As a result; I would like to figure out what the travel time would be in Weeks (or Months) for a party going by horse and carriage. I have read through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and looked at the full Sword Coast Map (taking current errata into consideration) and have not been able to figure out the numbers.
Chapter 5 deals with the party infiltrating a caravan and heading north with them but it is not a straight shot and is wrought with interuptions along the way. And internet search is just as useless.
Can anyone help me figure out what this distance would be?
Best Answer
From the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide map made available from Wizards of the Coast. Phandalin is located in the northern foothills of the Sword Mountains, northeast of the Mere of Dread Men and south-southwest of Neverwinter. Greenest is located in the Greenfields, north of the Snakewood and south of Burdusk, its exact location within this largeish area is not specified.
Eyeballing this with the scale on the map gives a direct line distance of 1,000 to 1,200 miles (i.e. a bloody long way). For comparison this is approximately the distance between Los Angeles and Denver, New York and Orlando, London and Warsaw or Sydney and Melbourne.
Assuming that overland routes will be 25% further then you are looking at 1,250 to 1,450 miles. From the PHB p.182, normal pace is 24 miles a day - this is independent of the mode of transport, walking is slower per hours but a person can walk for longer than a horse can so it evens out in the end. This would take 52 to 60 days assuming no rest days - most caravans would rest 1 day in 7 so say 61 to 70 or 2 - 2.5 months.
Until the development of the railway, waterborne travel was much quicker than overland travel. Based on the figures in the PHB, a sailing vessel is 2-3 times faster than overland travel (since ships don't need to rest, they can travel for 24 hours a day). By traveling from Neverwinter to Candlekeep by ship you could probably shave 20+ days off the travel time even though the distance traveled is longer. Further, the Chionthar is navigable to Elturel saving another week or so and may be navigable to Berdusk - at least another 3-4 days saved.