The Road: Finding the Road

  1. The Road
  2. High Road Forty-Nine

“But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?”

This is not an adventure. It’s more of a framework for adventure. This is a journey to the crossroads: the road from the edge of reality (Highland) to the center of it (the Eternal City). If they’ve been chasing somebody, such as Joe Lakono (see Resources), that person may be racing to the city ahead of them. If there is a villain involved, it should be a villain who has some ties to mythological origin stories, such as Tawhiri, Tiamat, or Satan.

Read through the whole thing, and plan ahead. For example, if they’re going to encounter the Coriandrome, make sure they see some faded handbills along the road. There should be lots of thirteens and sevens on the way to the crossroads, as well as 61s and 49s. Other themes should be floods, getting things out of stone, crossroads, and trees.

While the journey can be its own reward in real life, we expect more from our fictional narratives. Even if the players think that their only goal is the Emerald City, it will still be a letdown if they arrive and the wizard cures all of their ills effortlessly. By the end of the road, they should either learn something, find something, or fix something that helps them succeed at a difficult task.

  1. The Road
  2. High Road Forty-Nine