Chapter Two: The Hippocampus on the Cracked Lintel

"Forgive me, I thought stories of the Badgerways were commonly told," Patlen says. "They're the old caves and tunnels under the Elkfang Hills north of the Hazard Road, said to spread far and wide under the earth. We were always told they were very dangerous, because of the changelings and goblins who lived in them."

This more or less tracks with what Mordred has heard of them, although he suspects one is more likely to find bandits and smugglers rather than changelings and goblins. Still, there's a logic to it. If somebody wanted to pass through the densely populated areas around the river near Hazard undetected while under relentless pursuit, the Badgerways might be the best option.

N.B. you were all awakened and gathered to confer with Patlen.

Some old-school dungeon-delving ahead of us! What are we looking at in terms of travel times/methods to get to the Badgerways? A boat down the Ophid still the best way? As long as we have enough scratch to charter the boat, I'm fine with tossing Adan's gold.

You'd probably have to go about 50 miles down the river or road (so yes, a boat would still work fine for that leg of the journey), then maybe another 5-10 to the north into the hills to find an entrance to the Badgerways. Of which there are many, and not all of which would take you anywhere useful, which is probably why Zora was trying to hire a guide. Can I get an Insight roll from you, Mordred?

If we hire a boat, Adan is almost certainly going to hear about it through the Beerpool grapevine. Is there an alternate destination we can give our pilot that doesn't sacrifice too much time, or expose us to too many prying eyes? Maybe we could buy a boat in Beerpool for 100GP and then sail downriver ourselves while getting rid of the tainted gold at the same time?

Patlen shakes her head. "The only people I ever saw him with after he joined them were his 'teacher' in the pointed hood and the mercenary they brought along when they passed through here on their way north. He has only sent his apparition into our house on a few occasions before this, and the first times it happened, I hid in my room. Once he spoke to a trio of thieves in our house to hire them to rob a particular merchant wagon. Another time, he spoke to a woodsman who reported to him on the movements of a band of orcs that had come south from the Lesser Dulehans. That's all I can remember."

Wow, I accidentally hit "edit" instead of "quote" and it let me edit rocksteady's post. Sorry about that! Should be reverted now.
Since you're still in the marshy headwaters that feed the Ophid, going by boat from here would be very slow going until you hit the river proper. Further, the only vessels you've seen here are little skiffs and rowboats made for pond fishing. As far as alternate destinations, there's any number of localities along the Ophid you could name, but none of them would really cover your tracks.

(Insight = success) It occurs to Mordred that if Zora thought of traveling via the Badgerways, Adan probably did too.

A small, sad smile twists the unscarred side of Patlen's face. "Jeb Tuell, Sunny Larch, the thirty-third day of summer. My brother carved that into any sneaky place he could in the days after Sunny agreed to marry him. As for finding an entrance to the Badgerways, I'm sorry. I have not traveled far outside Beerpool, I know no adventurers, and I would be at a loss to tell you how best to get there."

You're about 15 miles or half a day's travel (five hours walking) from the river proper and a place where you could easily hire and launch a boat. You can cover 30 miles a day on foot as long as you stay on flat ground near the road/river. A good boat will go downriver at at least five miles per hour.

Patlen's story gives you a timeline: the day before Edvers was executed, Zora was in Grine's Knot, trying to hire a ranger. The next night, she was camped by the Ophid per the Oak's Wife, and hadn't yet made it to the Badgerways. Four days have passed since then.

Grine's Knot is about 30 miles down the road.

Posted a map in the About Bload thread.

Thanks for the map!

I vote for option 1. We might get more info about Zora and I feel like we are going to need a guide to find our way through the Badgerways.

Octo, does Mordred's knowledge of the Badgerways include some sense of how essential a guide would be? I'm OK with Option 2, but I worry that if we end up in a different tunnel/cavern complex than Zora is in, we could be wasting our time for several days.