 |
| The Atem Skull Border across the White Tooth Rapids (image excerpt from UK6 All that Glitters...) |
The Utdoo River is central to the initial stage of UK6, providing the default route upstream through the Indicara, "railroading" the party to the landmarks of Twin Falls and the Valley of the Mouth.
The river defines the adventure's railroad through both subtle and more overt methods:
As per OSRIC or an equivalent OSR source, a party's daily usual movement is 24 miles (4 UK6 map hexes) if unimpeded and unencumbered, so a party moving through the Indicara can cover 18 miles (3 hexes) per day along the river or 6 miles (1 hex) per day moving through the obstacle of the jungle floor. As most rainforest jungles actually have more "undergrowth" near the waterways and edges than the relatively lightless forest floor beneath the overhead canopy a hundred feet overhead, the slower speed reflects the difficulty of traversing uneven ground, fallen debris and large buttresses of the trunks of the trees in low lighting. It is this combination of obstacles rather than the need to slash a path through thick vegetation that impedes jungle travel.
Note: the article "Real Jungles", by Gregory Detwiler in DRAGON #228 (circa 1996) contains a useful description of the potential obstacles and issues with jungle travel. The details can be used to flesh out the experience of a party that attempts an overland trip through the jungle.
"Characters following a river bank move at three-quarters normal speed due to the density of the undergrowth. Away from the river, the going is even more difficult, requiring characters to chop their way through and reducing movement rates to a quarter of normal." - page 4, UK6 All that Glitters...
As per OSRIC or an equivalent OSR source, a party's daily usual movement is 24 miles (4 UK6 map hexes) if unimpeded and unencumbered, so a party moving through the Indicara can cover 18 miles (3 hexes) per day along the river or 6 miles (1 hex) per day moving through the obstacle of the jungle floor. As most rainforest jungles actually have more "undergrowth" near the waterways and edges than the relatively lightless forest floor beneath the overhead canopy a hundred feet overhead, the slower speed reflects the difficulty of traversing uneven ground, fallen debris and large buttresses of the trunks of the trees in low lighting. It is this combination of obstacles rather than the need to slash a path through thick vegetation that impedes jungle travel.
Note: the article "Real Jungles", by Gregory Detwiler in DRAGON #228 (circa 1996) contains a useful description of the potential obstacles and issues with jungle travel. The details can be used to flesh out the experience of a party that attempts an overland trip through the jungle.
From a meta-game perspective, this implied physical barrier, together with Tikul's map, seems a deliberate attempt by the author to simplify the wilderness section of the adventure by channelling the party along a predictable linear path of least resistance, rather than dealing with the complications of an overland route as commented in an earlier post.
A second element of the railroad is a more overt meta-game "blocking" attempt:
This effectively rules out canoe or raft travel as an option. I'd note that this is an unusual description for a jungle river system unless the trees cover lower mountain slopes or foothills, which I grant is possible given the Indicara abuts the Hellfurnaces. However, most depictions of the Amazon, Congo or Mekong basin instead consist of slow-moving, wide rivers periodically interrupted by cataracts and rapids requiring portage, but otherwise well suited to canoes or rafts as a means of transportation. In addition, for many of these slow-moving river systems, there are often numerous side channels, islands and minor tributaries that make upriver exploration far from straightforward and provide options for side treks and additional encounters.
Another approach is to use an abstracted exploration approach, similar to the exploration system presented in Zzacharov Kwoloski's 5E Shadows of the Forgotten Kings (SotFK) - itself an expansion or "bolt-on" sub-system to his "KNeE tables" that I've analysed in depth as part of an earlier post.
In SotFK, successful exploration generates "exploration points" that accumulate towards a target total for the final destination goal - in SotFK this is the ancient capital lost in the jungle; for UK6 this would be location I2 Twin Falls and the tree with Tikul's dagger embedded. These exploration points are an abstraction of distance and direction of travel, used as an alternative to a "hexcrawl" or "travel montage" approach.
This "Exploration System" appears to have the following components in abstracted 5E terms:
Although the system presented in SotFK is designed for use at short time intervals (30 minutes) as the ruins lie just beyond the starting village and the module takes place in one night, when distilled down, the exploration system essentially just boils down to rolling "triple dice" (d8+d6+d4) after a set time interval on an Encounter Table (a revised Indicara Jungle table and perhaps an additional Utdoo Riverbank one) to generate not only a situation to overcome, but also an "encounter total". In SotFK this is used for 5E Skill related difficulty checks, but could instead be used to calculate other elements such as: base number of opponents, which side of the river the creatures appear (even as same bank, odd as opposite bank) or even the time (4 hour watch interval) that the encounter occurs.
For use in the Indicara, the time interval could represent a day of travel rather than just 30 minutes. By my calculation, regardless of whether the riverbank route or direct southwestern overland path is taken, the Twin Falls lie about four to five days from Kett's Rapids according to the overland movement rates and terrain modifiers in the module. Assume the party starts at the "*" just inside the blank white circle labelled "The Jungle" on the map above and that they gain 2, rather than 3, exploration points per day of travel, modified by the following options below.
The Riverbank: using Tikul's map or travelling along the Utdoo River may result in either an automatic success on the Investigation check (gain 3 exploration points per day), or prevent a loss of an exploration point if backtracking ie. an automatic success on the Survival check respectively. Using this route, it's highly unlikely, if not impossible, for the party to become lost unless they lose the map or are forced to flee into the jungle.
The Jungle: although they are not forced to travel at night like in SotFK (go buy the module - no spoilers!), the overhead canopy blocking out the sunlight does make it difficult to see and navigate if the party chooses to not follow the river and they do have a chance of becoming lost. If the party becomes lost (negative exploration points) while travelling overland through the jungle, they will have instead arrived at one of the alternate numbered river sections on the map above (roll d4 or choose one of the options below):
This should trigger a set encounter, depending on the location. More on that later.
Successfully climbing to the top of the canopy (100 feet into the air) via a suitable tree can greatly aid navigation by potentially allowing a glimpse of the sun and the Twin Falls, adding 1d4 exploration points to the total each time it is attempted to a maximum of once per day. Unless the party contains a Thief (or similar character such as a LotFP Specialist), the time spent finding and climbing a suitable tree covered in lianas reduces travel significantly (reduce maximum distance travelled by 6 miles *before* adjusting for terrain).
"None of the rivers above Kelt's Rapids are navigable by watercraft. They are all too shallow and fast-flowing to allow passage. However, this makes them easy to ford and characters will experience no problems in so doing." - page 4, UK6 All that Glitters...
This effectively rules out canoe or raft travel as an option. I'd note that this is an unusual description for a jungle river system unless the trees cover lower mountain slopes or foothills, which I grant is possible given the Indicara abuts the Hellfurnaces. However, most depictions of the Amazon, Congo or Mekong basin instead consist of slow-moving, wide rivers periodically interrupted by cataracts and rapids requiring portage, but otherwise well suited to canoes or rafts as a means of transportation. In addition, for many of these slow-moving river systems, there are often numerous side channels, islands and minor tributaries that make upriver exploration far from straightforward and provide options for side treks and additional encounters.
So let's assume this prohibitive description was a deliberate choice to simplify the adventure - as the rivers are easy to ford, the encounters are therefore all "land-based" without any aquatic or amphibian creatures or challenges. However, to my mind, this turns the first wilderness section into a somewhat bland "jungle corridor" negotiated by the party simply hugging the northern river bank. It forgoes an opportunity for creating a sense of exploration that would further evoke the pulp explorer atmosphere I think is intended by the jungle setting.
But perhaps there's a way of recreating that sense of exploration and agency?
The Indicara as Abstracted Exploration
Another approach is to use an abstracted exploration approach, similar to the exploration system presented in Zzacharov Kwoloski's 5E Shadows of the Forgotten Kings (SotFK) - itself an expansion or "bolt-on" sub-system to his "KNeE tables" that I've analysed in depth as part of an earlier post.
 |
| "Abstracted Exploration" Indicara Map |
In SotFK, successful exploration generates "exploration points" that accumulate towards a target total for the final destination goal - in SotFK this is the ancient capital lost in the jungle; for UK6 this would be location I2 Twin Falls and the tree with Tikul's dagger embedded. These exploration points are an abstraction of distance and direction of travel, used as an alternative to a "hexcrawl" or "travel montage" approach.
This "Exploration System" appears to have the following components in abstracted 5E terms:
- Gain a total of 13 exploration points to find the goal destination
- A negative exploration point total indicates the party is lost
- Resolve the situation indicated on the encounter table:
- Gain 3 exploration points if the party moves through successfully
- Lose 1 exploration point if the party backtracks unless a Survival (Wis) check is passed
- Some specific situations will modify (add or lose) the accumulated encounter points
- The SotFK example is spotting the spires of the city on a max total 18 roll
- An Investigation (Int) check against the difficulty of the encounter total adds an exploration point
Although the system presented in SotFK is designed for use at short time intervals (30 minutes) as the ruins lie just beyond the starting village and the module takes place in one night, when distilled down, the exploration system essentially just boils down to rolling "triple dice" (d8+d6+d4) after a set time interval on an Encounter Table (a revised Indicara Jungle table and perhaps an additional Utdoo Riverbank one) to generate not only a situation to overcome, but also an "encounter total". In SotFK this is used for 5E Skill related difficulty checks, but could instead be used to calculate other elements such as: base number of opponents, which side of the river the creatures appear (even as same bank, odd as opposite bank) or even the time (4 hour watch interval) that the encounter occurs.
For use in the Indicara, the time interval could represent a day of travel rather than just 30 minutes. By my calculation, regardless of whether the riverbank route or direct southwestern overland path is taken, the Twin Falls lie about four to five days from Kett's Rapids according to the overland movement rates and terrain modifiers in the module. Assume the party starts at the "*" just inside the blank white circle labelled "The Jungle" on the map above and that they gain 2, rather than 3, exploration points per day of travel, modified by the following options below.
The Riverbank: using Tikul's map or travelling along the Utdoo River may result in either an automatic success on the Investigation check (gain 3 exploration points per day), or prevent a loss of an exploration point if backtracking ie. an automatic success on the Survival check respectively. Using this route, it's highly unlikely, if not impossible, for the party to become lost unless they lose the map or are forced to flee into the jungle.
The Jungle: although they are not forced to travel at night like in SotFK (go buy the module - no spoilers!), the overhead canopy blocking out the sunlight does make it difficult to see and navigate if the party chooses to not follow the river and they do have a chance of becoming lost. If the party becomes lost (negative exploration points) while travelling overland through the jungle, they will have instead arrived at one of the alternate numbered river sections on the map above (roll d4 or choose one of the options below):
- The eastern river that arises from the jungle due south of Kett's Rapids
- The southern tributary that leads to the Atem Barrier Shrine and swamp
- The northern branch from the canyon waterfall near Mt. Gegesti and the giants
- The party arrive back at Kett's Rapids near Tikul's skeleton and must start again!
This should trigger a set encounter, depending on the location. More on that later.
Successfully climbing to the top of the canopy (100 feet into the air) via a suitable tree can greatly aid navigation by potentially allowing a glimpse of the sun and the Twin Falls, adding 1d4 exploration points to the total each time it is attempted to a maximum of once per day. Unless the party contains a Thief (or similar character such as a LotFP Specialist), the time spent finding and climbing a suitable tree covered in lianas reduces travel significantly (reduce maximum distance travelled by 6 miles *before* adjusting for terrain).
Conclusion
I'll have to work through this concept some more but I think the "abstracted exploration" approach provides a more interesting set of options for travelling through the first section of the module - I think a waterborne option using canoes would be worthwhile considering. Perhaps the Utdoo after a prolonged downpour floods its banks, transforming into a more "conventional" jungle river?
I'll need to generate some KNeE tables (Jungle and Riverbank) for even the non-waterborne options - the basic Indicara random encounter table is somewhat woeful relatively speaking and could do with a good going over I think...
I'll need to generate some KNeE tables (Jungle and Riverbank) for even the non-waterborne options - the basic Indicara random encounter table is somewhat woeful relatively speaking and could do with a good going over I think...
