Dangerous Terrain

Do not be misled: just because the works of mortal and Immortal alike can pose great dangers does not mean the land itself cannot align against you. Deep forests can hide the darkest of secrets, mountains and crags give shelter to long-forgotten banes, and the most precious of things have been lost to the trackless deserts over the long ages since the Immortals strode the earth.

The world appears known from where you sit, comfortably reading this, but it is not. It is wild, and changing, and very much master over those who presume to tame it for their own purposes. Though it take an age, the land will exact its price - so tread carefully, with respect and with intent, when into these wild places you must go.

BACKSTORY

Dangerous terrain is generally the kinds of terrain that fits the description - thick, dark forests, deserts or tundra stretching in all directions, broken lands full of boulders, or other more mystic areas, like seas of glass, hills forever hidden in mists, or similar areas.

These kinds of places can usually be avoided by the average traveler, as the truly dangerous places have blocked travel and settlement for their entire spans of existence, and travelers have learned to go around instead of through. Once in a while, though - like our very own Bermuda Triangle - one can strike infrequently enough that the reward of a faster route or potential riches is worth the risk to those who attempt entry.

Dangerous Terrains of all kinds can exist from the Age of Myth onward.

BUILDING

While in many cases the results of moving through a desert or a forest can be represented by a lowered movement rate and a higher frequency of random encounters in a hexcrawl, some dangerous terrains are infamous enough to warrant their own adventures.

In these cases, the recommendation is to go with a pointcrawl format, where points of interest are linked via winding routes which may take travelers past explicit or potential dangers, like denizens which call the place home, or the lost remains of others who tried and failed to navigate the dangers of the area. This mode shift works best when you want to move the party out of a strictly navigational process and into a more detailed exploration phase, so be sure to warn your players when they’re getting “into the thick” of things, as there may be no “wait one day and move 8 miles north” opportunities until they’ve navigated the hazard.