Three Roads
Rolling farmlandA market town prospers where three roads meet, though each road now leads somewhere new every few weeks.Where: Northwestern crossroadsNext to
The Long Mile
World · A world with a strange edge
The Long Mile
Every road leads somewhere, but never by right.
Overview
The Long Mile is a realm where roads, rivers, and passes do not always connect the same places twice. Most ground is ordinary, but old boundary stones can redirect a journey at dawn or dusk, joining distant valleys or leaving a familiar village days away. People survive by tending routes together, recording changes, and arguing over whose maps count. Trade and rescue depend on these customs, while rulers, merchants, and local keepers compete to shape them.
The world
ShapeA world with a strange edge
What it is likeA strange-boundary realm of ordinary lands whose borders and connections shift along established routes.
How people travelTravel by road, river, or pass; at dawn and dusk, boundary stones may redirect a route, and reliable passage depends on local guides and shared records.
Themes
Heroic journeys, Community versus control, Uncertain maps, Low magic
Laws of the world
The rules
MagicMagic is uncommon and practical, drawn from bargains, study, or devotion; spells cannot command a road to lead to a chosen destination.
TechnologyMedieval tools, castles, ships, and hand-copied maps are common; boundary stones are the closest thing to public infrastructure.
Death and soulsThe dead pass beyond the world's shifting boundaries; rites and familiar names help the living let go, but cannot call a soul back.
Special rules
Crossing a boundary stone can change which region a road reaches, but only at dawn or dusk.
A route used by a community for generations is harder to alter than a new track.
The skies
SkiesThe sky is familiar, but distant landmarks sometimes appear in the wrong direction, like a road seen from its far end.
Moons and stars
The Sun, The White Moon
SeasonsThe year has four ordinary seasons, though a region reached by an altered route may be a season ahead or behind its neighbors.
Ages
3 agesTravelers learned to navigate by public boundary stones, restoring trade while giving whoever tends them power over movement.
Powers
4 powers · 2 conflictsPowers
- The RoadwardensCivic orderReach: A loose network of route keepers and patrols across the settled regions.Keep crossings safe and preserve local agreements, even when that means refusing royal orders.
- The Market LeagueTrade compactReach: Merchant houses, toll collectors, and caravan captains in major towns.Make trade routes predictable and place the most profitable crossings under their contracts.
- The Crown SurveyorsRoyal officeReach: Royal agents, mapmakers, and garrisons dispatched across the realm.Map the realm as one territory and bring its wandering roads under crown authority.
- The Lantern KeepersRitual traditionReach: Village elders and shrine attendants who tend old stones.Protect local boundary rites and keep outsiders from altering crossings without consent.
Conflicts
- Who Holds the StonesSidesControl of the boundary stones decides which communities receive trade, aid, and access to the wider world.
The Roadwardens, The Market League, Independent villages
- The Missing MileSidesA route erased from official maps may contain a stranded town, or a threat that its neighbors deliberately abandoned.
The Crown Surveyors, The Lantern Keepers
Atlas
10 regionsSecrets
Secret 1 · GM only
Secret 2 · GM only
Secret 3 · GM only
Plot hooks
4 hooks- 1The Missing StoneInvestigationA boundary stone has gone missing from a busy road, and three villages now claim the route used to pass through their fields.
- 2Food for NowhereRescueA relief caravan arrives from a famine-struck town that no map or traveler can locate.
- 3A Road Under GuardEscortA local keeper asks the party to escort a new survey team before the Market League changes the route markers.
- 4The Pass at DuskExplorationAt dusk, a well-traveled pass opens onto a battlefield where every soldier bears the colors of a neighboring village.
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