I'm currently trying to come up with a potential campaign for my party, but I'm somewhat stuck on one particular part of the story.
"After tracking the cultists to their hideout, they manage to escape via teleport circle. The NPCs accompanying the party manage to estimate the rough location the circle is connected to, but it's quiet a bit away. Nonetheless, the party decides to follow after them. However, it's not gonna be an easy journey, because ... [Edit: they have to pass through XY to reach their goal. However, it's dangerous to go there/difficult to traverse because of XY. Yet, despite knowing the potential danger they are heading towards, they decided to head there anyway.]"
And that's where I'm stuck. I have everything for before and after their journey, I just need to come up with an interesting idea to make the journey itself a bit more exciting.
For reference, both destinations are part of the same kingdom, yet in different provinces. It's all land in between the two locations, so no sea travel or dangerous mountains or anything of that sort.
The province they are currently in is a a partial swamp region (though mostly in the opposite direction of where the players are heading to), due to its proximity to the sea and most forests and the likes having been felt to build and maintain the kingdom's fleet, allowing the sea to creep inland.
The province they're heading to is mostly flat plains and farmland.
So yeah, kind of struggling for an idea why they couldn't just move straight from point a to point b.
If any of you have an suggestions, I'm more than thankful for any ideas.
As always, thank you for your time and help, and the best of days to you.
EDIT: added some clarification, since apparently people weren't really understanding what my question was.
The first thing that comes to mind is backstories. Something in a PC backstory pops up in the space between, and the party stops to deal with it. Then there’s other classics, like a town being raided by goblins, or a villager kidnapped by bandits. Or, of course, a dungeon — some cave complex or something. Most players can’t resist sending their characters into a good cave complex. A local baron is a tyrant, oppressing his people. Bonus with this one, if they don’t deal with him, his power grows and he becomes a large-scale villain in the next campaign. Or, if you want to maybe slow the pacing and give them a break from all the tension, there can be a party. Some town is having a festival for whatever reason, or a traveling carnival is there and they stop to watch the show for an afternoon.
Perhaps the ghosts of someone they killed recently. Especially if the morals of the killing were vague. Or the ghost of someone they couldn't save. Make them regret a mistake that they did. This could be a good time to throw the consequences of their actions at them.
Perhaps a role-play moment, not a combat or particularly dangerous one. We once came across a thespian troll who wouldn't let us cross the bridge until we each gave him our best performance.
You don't always have to have everything planned beforehand. If this is much later on in the campaign, leave it as an opening to tie in something that happens before. You don't know what might come up. Maybe they will anger a thief who waits in ambush on the road, or perhaps they steal from a merchant and they come across that merchant later on. It might be good to save this spot and see if anything comes up.
For the second option I have suggestions among my products as well, including a side quest starting in a swamp and going on in a plain (in the volume B):
It depends what your goal is with this interlude, here are some examples based on different goals:
Break from the Action:
They arrive in a sacred lake inhabited by a group of fairies (pixies/sprites) while the creatures are at first welcoming and friendly it eventually becomes clear that the fairies do not want the party to leave - thus put on parties, festivals and other enticements to keep the party around - because they intend to offer the party up to their god of Drunkenness and Celebration (Pan).
There is a massive harvest festival happening in the nearby town, with many games, friendly competitions, performances, and food & drink. Unfortunately there are also some petty thieves taking advantage of the abundant drunkenness.
They come across competitors in a long-distance horse race, and the competitors are taking advantage of the isolation of this part of the route to sabotage each other.
The party is far from their destination and running low on food & water, however the woods in this area are protected by a group of hippie-druids who are growing psychoactive plants.
Side Quest:
The region is ruled by a tyrant who captures & imprisons the party.
One of the NPCs got cursed during the escape from the cult and is slowly dying, the party must find someone to help him and gather the required materials to for the purification ritual.
There is a junior necromancer hiding in the area and a bunch of his escaped & failed necromantic experiments are wandering around.
There's a curse/disease killing the crops, the local farmers beg the party to investigate & destroy the source of the curse - add in red-herrings like a druid/witch trying to help, or a strange disfigured person who has nothing to do with it.
Random Time-Killers:
There's a massive storm that delays the party.
The party come across some haunted ruins.
It's the annual migration of the Aurochs(or other animal) and the party get caught up in a massive stampede & have to defend themselves from the many predators following the herd.
A river blocks their way.
You're in the hunting area of [insert monster here] and it randomly attacks you.
They party comes across a hermit that might or might not be an evil witch.
There's a shrine with a wedding / religious event going on and they demand the party make reparations for interrupting them.
This is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it's too reactive. The party is supposed to know they're heading into danger, your suggestion would only work as a response from the cultists to the heroes action, not the other way around.
Some... interesting suggestions so far, but you're thinking way too low scale.
I'm not talking about some small scale encounter like they run into a weird guy alongside the road, or there's a random city alongside the way throwing a party, or anything like that.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Something like "the roads been blocked by an avalanche" or "the area has been flooded" or "the area has been overrun by monster", making traveling through the area neigh impossible, but we need to go anyway, because it's the only path to where we need to go.
Except that, based on the layout of my map, such natural events would be impossible, as there are no mountains to cause an avalanche and no water to cause a flood, hence why I'm looking for alternatives.
Maybe a hurricane? I know you said no water, but there has to be some water if people are living, and farming, there —rivers and lakes at least. So a hurricane could cause your flooding, in addition to other problems it causes. Or a large tornado cluster blowing around in the area if you want to stay away from the water. An earthquake could happen anywhere unless you’ve canonically established where the tectonic plates are in this world. And even then, there’s no reason earthquakes in this world have to happen for the same reasons they do on earth. it could be something like the world reacting to the dark power the cultists are meddling with. The ground itself is trying to shake the bad guys off.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Depending on what the cult's been doing, their actions could have either caught the attention of a rogue order of druids, or harmed and angered a vengeful fey... and now the plants and animals of the region have been turned against the people living there in a misguided attempt to drive out the cult.
Formerly peaceful fields now host clumps of razor-sharp grass and flowers that emit choking pollen. Formerly benign shrubs now have grasping roots and vines that entangle and choke unwary travelers. Edible fruits and berries now poison or sicken those who eat them. Aggressive nature spirits (blights, or similar) lurk in the underbrush, waiting to feed on anything that wanders too close. Townsfolk have taken shelter behind hastily-erected barricades, hoping their meager food supplies last through the crisis, and they may not trust unexpected travelers, or have anything to share even if they're convinced to open their doors. (Did the party bring supplies for the trip, or just plan to "live off the land" in classic D&D fashion?)
It might turn out that the cult is actually has the resources to manage the situation (spells like create water, purify food and drink, etc.), leaving them at/near "full strength" when the party finally gets to them. In the meantime the party has to make a choice. On one hand, they trudge through the region, with every step they take opposed by the very ground beneath their feet... possibly arriving at their destination injured, sleep-deprived, and low on spell slots. Otherwise, they divert from their journey long enough to either defeat or appease whatever caused the disaster, and they lose precious time that the cult will spend... on their nefarious plans (whatever those are), preparing for the party's arrival, or just gathering numbers and strength in the wake of a crisis that drives people to desperate measures.
Anyway, that's the first "huge, disaster level event" that comes to mind, based on how you described the region.
Tempting. I'm not sure there has to be water though. It's a world with magic after all. I'm sure they could just set some permanent create thunderstorm spells or something off to keep the irrigation going.
However , I haven't fully decided on a mode of transportation for the party yet. Wether I should give them a flying option, since they'll work alongside a quite powerful group of individuals and have to move quickly through vast scores of land, or leave them grounded.
Then again...an earthquake... and it being caused by that ...and it being connected to this... Yeah, that might actually work out very well.
So grounded it is. Now, off to find a mode of transportation for them.
Some... interesting suggestions so far, but you're thinking way too low scale.
I'm not talking about some small scale encounter like they run into a weird guy alongside the road, or there's a random city alongside the way throwing a party, or anything like that.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Something like "the roads been blocked by an avalanche" or "the area has been flooded" or "the area has been overrun by monster", making traveling through the area neigh impossible, but we need to go anyway, because it's the only path to where we need to go.
Except that, based on the layout of my map, such natural events would be impossible, as there are no mountains to cause an avalanche and no water to cause a flood, hence why I'm looking for alternatives.
Curse, famine, pestilence, war, all work regardless of geography. But again, what is the goal? Why does this region need to be somewhere they don't want to go? How does it serve the fun of your game?
Do you want to have an interlude where they are playing a survivalist game rather than battling monsters? - So something like a famine, or a curse that makes all food & water in the area toxic would work.
Do you want to shift into a stealth / intrigue game? - So a hostile force dominating the area like a tyrannical government or intense war between powerful rival factions would work.
Do you want this to be the start of a new questline / quest arc? - i.e. something with an unnatural cause that the party might want to investigate and help resolve - so something like a curse they could investigate and undo, or a monster they could hunt down and kill, a war they could attempt to negotiate and end to, or a tyrant they could subvert and overthrow. Or should it be a natural or uber powerful effect that the party has no hope of resolving - e.g. a drought causing famine, a forest fire burning thousands of acres of forest, a Divine punishment causing the area to be cursed/monster infested.
Also, why does it need to make sense with the geography? You control the geography, you want a flood there just put in a river that is flooding. You want a volcanic eruption, you can put a volcano there. Fantasy worlds are full of magic and mystery, they don't need to obey physical laws or geographical constrains. e.g. the mountain chains making up Mordor are completely impossibly from the position of techtonic plate theory, but who cares? Mordor exists because it makes a good story.
For that matter why does the journey need to be interesting? Just montage it and have them get where they want to go in a few paragraphs of narration. Or have the teleportation circle dump them out where they need to go. Why have a travel section here at all? If you are worried about realism, then why do the cultists have a teleportation circle that leads to a random teleportation circle in the middle of farmland in the first place?
PS: Is this for a book rather than for a campaign??? Does it need to be dangerous as a cliff hanger or something?
Heavy rain could have flooded portion of the plain they'll travel into, basically turning it into wetland attracting more beasts to this area.
More extraordinary, a recent breach to the Plane of Water could have occured after a magic ritual gone awry, causing water to flow up in the Material Plance, along with elemental creatures.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Depending on what the cult's been doing, their actions could have either caught the attention of a rogue order of druids, or harmed and angered a vengeful fey... and now the plants and animals of the region have been turned against the people living there in a misguided attempt to drive out the cult.
Formerly peaceful fields now host clumps of razor-sharp grass and flowers that emit choking pollen. Formerly benign shrubs now have grasping roots and vines that entangle and choke unwary travelers. Edible fruits and berries now poison or sicken those who eat them. Aggressive nature spirits (blights, or similar) lurk in the underbrush, waiting to feed on anything that wanders too close. Townsfolk have taken shelter behind hastily-erected barricades, hoping their meager food supplies last through the crisis, and they may not trust unexpected travelers, or have anything to share even if they're convinced to open their doors. (Did the party bring supplies for the trip, or just plan to "live off the land" in classic D&D fashion?)
It might turn out that the cult is actually has the resources to manage the situation (spells like create water, purify food and drink, etc.), leaving them at/near "full strength" when the party finally gets to them. In the meantime the party has to make a choice. On one hand, they trudge through the region, with every step they take opposed by the very ground beneath their feet... possibly arriving at their destination injured, sleep-deprived, and low on spell slots. Otherwise, they divert from their journey long enough to either defeat or appease whatever caused the disaster, and they lose precious time that the cult will spend... on their nefarious plans (whatever those are), preparing for the party's arrival, or just gathering numbers and strength in the wake of a crisis that drives people to desperate measures.
Anyway, that's the first "huge, disaster level event" that comes to mind, based on how you described the region.
Very good suggestion, and probably close to what I will go with thanks for the idea.
Some... interesting suggestions so far, but you're thinking way too low scale.
I'm not talking about some small scale encounter like they run into a weird guy alongside the road, or there's a random city alongside the way throwing a party, or anything like that.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Something like "the roads been blocked by an avalanche" or "the area has been flooded" or "the area has been overrun by monster", making traveling through the area neigh impossible, but we need to go anyway, because it's the only path to where we need to go.
Except that, based on the layout of my map, such natural events would be impossible, as there are no mountains to cause an avalanche and no water to cause a flood, hence why I'm looking for alternatives.
Curse, famine, pestilence, war, all work regardless of geography. But again, what is the goal? Why does this region need to be somewhere they don't want to go? How does it serve the fun of your game?
Do you want to have an interlude where they are playing a survivalist game rather than battling monsters? - So something like a famine, or a curse that makes all food & water in the area toxic would work.
Do you want to shift into a stealth / intrigue game? - So a hostile force dominating the area like a tyrannical government or intense war between powerful rival factions would work.
Do you want this to be the start of a new questline / quest arc? - i.e. something with an unnatural cause that the party might want to investigate and help resolve - so something like a curse they could investigate and undo, or a monster they could hunt down and kill, a war they could attempt to negotiate and end to, or a tyrant they could subvert and overthrow. Or should it be a natural or uber powerful effect that the party has no hope of resolving - e.g. a drought causing famine, a forest fire burning thousands of acres of forest, a Divine punishment causing the area to be cursed/monster infested.
Also, why does it need to make sense with the geography? You control the geography, you want a flood there just put in a river that is flooding. You want a volcanic eruption, you can put a volcano there. Fantasy worlds are full of magic and mystery, they don't need to obey physical laws or geographical constrains. e.g. the mountain chains making up Mordor are completely impossibly from the position of techtonic plate theory, but who cares? Mordor exists because it makes a good story.
For that matter why does the journey need to be interesting? Just montage it and have them get where they want to go in a few paragraphs of narration. Or have the teleportation circle dump them out where they need to go. Why have a travel section here at all? If you are worried about realism, then why do the cultists have a teleportation circle that leads to a random teleportation circle in the middle of farmland in the first place?
PS: Is this for a book rather than for a campaign??? Does it need to be dangerous as a cliff hanger or something?
Because there needs to be some kind of conflict for the game to be interesting?
Because "the party arrives at area x and nothing happened" isn't interesting or fun? Neither from a gameplay standpoint, nor a story-telling one.
I simply want there to be something interesting for my party to do, so they'll actually enjoy playing the game, instead of me just skipping over the entire game and the players having nothing to do.
How is that even a question?
As for why I can't just create something out of thin air; to use your example, yeah, the mountains of Mordor may not make geological sense, but you know what still didn't happen in the book? Gandalf didn't point to a map and went "the mountains are located over here and we need to go in that direction to reach them", only for him, halfway through the book, to point at the same map and go "no wait, never mind. The mountains suddenly disappeared and there's an ocean now, lol. We actually need to go in that direction now". Did you maybe consider, that, if I can tell you the exact layout and makeup of the provinces, I'm working with a concrete map I designed? One that the players already have seen and are aware of, so I can't just willy nilly move locations around, as that would contradict what's already been established and what's shown on the map? That if I could do that I wouldn't explicitly have stated that that's not an option?
Think, dude, think.
But, to your credit, a famine/curse could work. A war is out of question, as it doesn't make sense, neither from a political nor a geographic point of view (but that would go too far into detail to go into here). Then again, that wouldn't necessarily stop any travelers passing through. Yeah, a famine would suck for those who live there, but wouldn't really slow down a group of people who brought their own supplies. Neither would an illness/curse. Well, depending on how contagious it is.
"the party arrives at area x and nothing happened"
Why do they have to arrive at area X? You said they are getting there via teleportation circle, that teleportation circle could go anywhere, just drop them off at a more interesting place or at their final destination. You don't need to have long periods of travel, at higher levels of D&D travel is completely eliminated and it doesn't negatively impact the game at all.
I still don't understand your goal of this part of the story. Are they just passing through this area to get to their final destination? Or are they putting their current goal on hold to go on a mini-adventure / side quest in this area? (Like the Mines of Moria) Or is this area foreshadowing the next quest arc once they have finished their current task?
If they are just passing through, you don't need to add extra hoops for them to jump through, you can fast-travel them right to their final destination either by having the teleporation circle take them there or dropping them out near a farming town where they can hire a carriage to take them to their final destination. Not every moment of the adventure needs to be high-stakes life & death. If this is a side quest you need a fairly complex challenge they can investigate, a villain they can uncover and defeat, and/or NPCs for them to interact with. If this is foreshadowing then obviously it needs to link into the next quest arc in some way.
Then again, that wouldn't necessarily stop any travelers passing through. Yeah, a famine would suck for those who live there, but wouldn't really slow down a group of people who brought their own supplies. Neither would an illness/curse. Well, depending on how contagious it is.
Depends on how you run it. If there is a famine, then you put sick & dying children on the road in front of the party, if the players give them food (and they'd have to be pretty heartless not to) the kids go home and tell their parents / friends.. now there's a huge crowd approaching the party asking for food - more than the party could ever feed - if the party hold back they the crowd gets violent, if the party give away all their food well now they are the ones starving, and they have to investigate the cause of the famine and figure out how to resolve it. You can add in all kinds of subplots - a criminal enterprise exploiting the situation and selling food at outrageously high prices, a nearby greedy lord hoarding food for their soldiers, a circle of druids who could use their magic to restore the crops but won't because of some grudge they have against the lord or the people, carts of relief supplies gone missing on their way to the area attacked by some monster or bandits, giants or other monsters attacking the towns in search of food for themselves, groups of roving bandits that have stolen the food reserves of one of the towns affected by the famine. etc... etc...
Curse is easier since you can just have it immediately affect the party after they long rest in the area, thus they are forced to investigate to try to cure themselves. Plague works similar to famine in that it requires the players to care about the NPCs in the world and want to help them.
So .. the cultists hire a slew of cut rate assassins to kill the adventurers they know are likely coming. They ride hard and fast (the assassins that is) to an inn at a crossroads they feel fairly sure the PC's will have to visit. With good descriptions of the PC's and generous bribes paid to the innkeeper, they wait paitiently - and not for long.
So there's a whole bunch of lower level goons trying to kill the pc's. Meanwhile, their leader - a cultist of slightly better ability - is busily pouring greek fire all around the inn, setting in on a merry blaze with everyone inside.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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I'm currently trying to come up with a potential campaign for my party, but I'm somewhat stuck on one particular part of the story.
"After tracking the cultists to their hideout, they manage to escape via teleport circle. The NPCs accompanying the party manage to estimate the rough location the circle is connected to, but it's quiet a bit away. Nonetheless, the party decides to follow after them. However, it's not gonna be an easy journey, because ... [Edit: they have to pass through XY to reach their goal. However, it's dangerous to go there/difficult to traverse because of XY. Yet, despite knowing the potential danger they are heading towards, they decided to head there anyway.]"
And that's where I'm stuck. I have everything for before and after their journey, I just need to come up with an interesting idea to make the journey itself a bit more exciting.
For reference, both destinations are part of the same kingdom, yet in different provinces. It's all land in between the two locations, so no sea travel or dangerous mountains or anything of that sort.
The province they are currently in is a a partial swamp region (though mostly in the opposite direction of where the players are heading to), due to its proximity to the sea and most forests and the likes having been felt to build and maintain the kingdom's fleet, allowing the sea to creep inland.
The province they're heading to is mostly flat plains and farmland.
So yeah, kind of struggling for an idea why they couldn't just move straight from point a to point b.
If any of you have an suggestions, I'm more than thankful for any ideas.
As always, thank you for your time and help, and the best of days to you.
EDIT: added some clarification, since apparently people weren't really understanding what my question was.
The first thing that comes to mind is backstories. Something in a PC backstory pops up in the space between, and the party stops to deal with it.
Then there’s other classics, like a town being raided by goblins, or a villager kidnapped by bandits. Or, of course, a dungeon — some cave complex or something. Most players can’t resist sending their characters into a good cave complex.
A local baron is a tyrant, oppressing his people. Bonus with this one, if they don’t deal with him, his power grows and he becomes a large-scale villain in the next campaign.
Or, if you want to maybe slow the pacing and give them a break from all the tension, there can be a party. Some town is having a festival for whatever reason, or a traveling carnival is there and they stop to watch the show for an afternoon.
Perhaps the ghosts of someone they killed recently. Especially if the morals of the killing were vague. Or the ghost of someone they couldn't save. Make them regret a mistake that they did. This could be a good time to throw the consequences of their actions at them.
Perhaps a role-play moment, not a combat or particularly dangerous one. We once came across a thespian troll who wouldn't let us cross the bridge until we each gave him our best performance.
You don't always have to have everything planned beforehand. If this is much later on in the campaign, leave it as an opening to tie in something that happens before. You don't know what might come up. Maybe they will anger a thief who waits in ambush on the road, or perhaps they steal from a merchant and they come across that merchant later on. It might be good to save this spot and see if anything comes up.
In my opinion you have two options: random encounter tables and side quests.
For the first option I wrote a couple of bestsellers which could help you, they contain multiple tables encompassing dozens of encounters:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/236022/Forgotten-Realms-Starter-Set-2
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/312140/The-Forge-of-Fury-EXPANDED
For the second option I have suggestions among my products as well, including a side quest starting in a swamp and going on in a plain (in the volume B):
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/514922/Greyhawks-Expeditions--Volume-A-The-Damned-Swamp
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/515241/Greyhawks-Expeditions--Volume-B-The-Cursed-Bridge
It depends what your goal is with this interlude, here are some examples based on different goals:
Break from the Action:
They arrive in a sacred lake inhabited by a group of fairies (pixies/sprites) while the creatures are at first welcoming and friendly it eventually becomes clear that the fairies do not want the party to leave - thus put on parties, festivals and other enticements to keep the party around - because they intend to offer the party up to their god of Drunkenness and Celebration (Pan).
There is a massive harvest festival happening in the nearby town, with many games, friendly competitions, performances, and food & drink. Unfortunately there are also some petty thieves taking advantage of the abundant drunkenness.
They come across competitors in a long-distance horse race, and the competitors are taking advantage of the isolation of this part of the route to sabotage each other.
The party is far from their destination and running low on food & water, however the woods in this area are protected by a group of hippie-druids who are growing psychoactive plants.
Side Quest:
The region is ruled by a tyrant who captures & imprisons the party.
One of the NPCs got cursed during the escape from the cult and is slowly dying, the party must find someone to help him and gather the required materials to for the purification ritual.
There is a junior necromancer hiding in the area and a bunch of his escaped & failed necromantic experiments are wandering around.
There's a curse/disease killing the crops, the local farmers beg the party to investigate & destroy the source of the curse - add in red-herrings like a druid/witch trying to help, or a strange disfigured person who has nothing to do with it.
Random Time-Killers:
There's a massive storm that delays the party.
The party come across some haunted ruins.
It's the annual migration of the Aurochs(or other animal) and the party get caught up in a massive stampede & have to defend themselves from the many predators following the herd.
A river blocks their way.
You're in the hunting area of [insert monster here] and it randomly attacks you.
They party comes across a hermit that might or might not be an evil witch.
There's a shrine with a wedding / religious event going on and they demand the party make reparations for interrupting them.
The cultists summon a monster to slow the party.
This is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it's too reactive. The party is supposed to know they're heading into danger, your suggestion would only work as a response from the cultists to the heroes action, not the other way around.
Some... interesting suggestions so far, but you're thinking way too low scale.
I'm not talking about some small scale encounter like they run into a weird guy alongside the road, or there's a random city alongside the way throwing a party, or anything like that.
I'm talking about a huge, disaster level event that would be widely known and would ensure that people heading in that direction would want to actively avoid going there, if at all possible.
Something like "the roads been blocked by an avalanche" or "the area has been flooded" or "the area has been overrun by monster", making traveling through the area neigh impossible, but we need to go anyway, because it's the only path to where we need to go.
Except that, based on the layout of my map, such natural events would be impossible, as there are no mountains to cause an avalanche and no water to cause a flood, hence why I'm looking for alternatives.
Maybe a hurricane?
I know you said no water, but there has to be some water if people are living, and farming, there —rivers and lakes at least. So a hurricane could cause your flooding, in addition to other problems it causes.
Or a large tornado cluster blowing around in the area if you want to stay away from the water.
An earthquake could happen anywhere unless you’ve canonically established where the tectonic plates are in this world. And even then, there’s no reason earthquakes in this world have to happen for the same reasons they do on earth. it could be something like the world reacting to the dark power the cultists are meddling with. The ground itself is trying to shake the bad guys off.
Depending on what the cult's been doing, their actions could have either caught the attention of a rogue order of druids, or harmed and angered a vengeful fey... and now the plants and animals of the region have been turned against the people living there in a misguided attempt to drive out the cult.
Formerly peaceful fields now host clumps of razor-sharp grass and flowers that emit choking pollen. Formerly benign shrubs now have grasping roots and vines that entangle and choke unwary travelers. Edible fruits and berries now poison or sicken those who eat them. Aggressive nature spirits (blights, or similar) lurk in the underbrush, waiting to feed on anything that wanders too close. Townsfolk have taken shelter behind hastily-erected barricades, hoping their meager food supplies last through the crisis, and they may not trust unexpected travelers, or have anything to share even if they're convinced to open their doors. (Did the party bring supplies for the trip, or just plan to "live off the land" in classic D&D fashion?)
It might turn out that the cult is actually has the resources to manage the situation (spells like create water, purify food and drink, etc.), leaving them at/near "full strength" when the party finally gets to them. In the meantime the party has to make a choice. On one hand, they trudge through the region, with every step they take opposed by the very ground beneath their feet... possibly arriving at their destination injured, sleep-deprived, and low on spell slots. Otherwise, they divert from their journey long enough to either defeat or appease whatever caused the disaster, and they lose precious time that the cult will spend... on their nefarious plans (whatever those are), preparing for the party's arrival, or just gathering numbers and strength in the wake of a crisis that drives people to desperate measures.
Anyway, that's the first "huge, disaster level event" that comes to mind, based on how you described the region.
Tempting. I'm not sure there has to be water though. It's a world with magic after all. I'm sure they could just set some permanent create thunderstorm spells or something off to keep the irrigation going.
However , I haven't fully decided on a mode of transportation for the party yet. Wether I should give them a flying option, since they'll work alongside a quite powerful group of individuals and have to move quickly through vast scores of land, or leave them grounded.
Then again...an earthquake... and it being caused by that ...and it being connected to this... Yeah, that might actually work out very well.
So grounded it is. Now, off to find a mode of transportation for them.
Thank you very much.
Curse, famine, pestilence, war, all work regardless of geography. But again, what is the goal? Why does this region need to be somewhere they don't want to go? How does it serve the fun of your game?
Do you want to have an interlude where they are playing a survivalist game rather than battling monsters? - So something like a famine, or a curse that makes all food & water in the area toxic would work.
Do you want to shift into a stealth / intrigue game? - So a hostile force dominating the area like a tyrannical government or intense war between powerful rival factions would work.
Do you want this to be the start of a new questline / quest arc? - i.e. something with an unnatural cause that the party might want to investigate and help resolve - so something like a curse they could investigate and undo, or a monster they could hunt down and kill, a war they could attempt to negotiate and end to, or a tyrant they could subvert and overthrow.
Or should it be a natural or uber powerful effect that the party has no hope of resolving - e.g. a drought causing famine, a forest fire burning thousands of acres of forest, a Divine punishment causing the area to be cursed/monster infested.
Also, why does it need to make sense with the geography? You control the geography, you want a flood there just put in a river that is flooding. You want a volcanic eruption, you can put a volcano there. Fantasy worlds are full of magic and mystery, they don't need to obey physical laws or geographical constrains. e.g. the mountain chains making up Mordor are completely impossibly from the position of techtonic plate theory, but who cares? Mordor exists because it makes a good story.
For that matter why does the journey need to be interesting? Just montage it and have them get where they want to go in a few paragraphs of narration. Or have the teleportation circle dump them out where they need to go. Why have a travel section here at all? If you are worried about realism, then why do the cultists have a teleportation circle that leads to a random teleportation circle in the middle of farmland in the first place?
PS: Is this for a book rather than for a campaign??? Does it need to be dangerous as a cliff hanger or something?
What type of cult is it?
Heavy rain could have flooded portion of the plain they'll travel into, basically turning it into wetland attracting more beasts to this area.
More extraordinary, a recent breach to the Plane of Water could have occured after a magic ritual gone awry, causing water to flow up in the Material Plance, along with elemental creatures.
Or Abyss, ashes and fiends.
Very good suggestion, and probably close to what I will go with thanks for the idea.
Because there needs to be some kind of conflict for the game to be interesting?
Because "the party arrives at area x and nothing happened" isn't interesting or fun? Neither from a gameplay standpoint, nor a story-telling one.
I simply want there to be something interesting for my party to do, so they'll actually enjoy playing the game, instead of me just skipping over the entire game and the players having nothing to do.
How is that even a question?
As for why I can't just create something out of thin air; to use your example, yeah, the mountains of Mordor may not make geological sense, but you know what still didn't happen in the book? Gandalf didn't point to a map and went "the mountains are located over here and we need to go in that direction to reach them", only for him, halfway through the book, to point at the same map and go "no wait, never mind. The mountains suddenly disappeared and there's an ocean now, lol. We actually need to go in that direction now". Did you maybe consider, that, if I can tell you the exact layout and makeup of the provinces, I'm working with a concrete map I designed? One that the players already have seen and are aware of, so I can't just willy nilly move locations around, as that would contradict what's already been established and what's shown on the map? That if I could do that I wouldn't explicitly have stated that that's not an option?
Think, dude, think.
But, to your credit, a famine/curse could work. A war is out of question, as it doesn't make sense, neither from a political nor a geographic point of view (but that would go too far into detail to go into here). Then again, that wouldn't necessarily stop any travelers passing through. Yeah, a famine would suck for those who live there, but wouldn't really slow down a group of people who brought their own supplies. Neither would an illness/curse. Well, depending on how contagious it is.
"the party arrives at area x and nothing happened"
Why do they have to arrive at area X? You said they are getting there via teleportation circle, that teleportation circle could go anywhere, just drop them off at a more interesting place or at their final destination. You don't need to have long periods of travel, at higher levels of D&D travel is completely eliminated and it doesn't negatively impact the game at all.
I still don't understand your goal of this part of the story. Are they just passing through this area to get to their final destination? Or are they putting their current goal on hold to go on a mini-adventure / side quest in this area? (Like the Mines of Moria) Or is this area foreshadowing the next quest arc once they have finished their current task?
If they are just passing through, you don't need to add extra hoops for them to jump through, you can fast-travel them right to their final destination either by having the teleporation circle take them there or dropping them out near a farming town where they can hire a carriage to take them to their final destination. Not every moment of the adventure needs to be high-stakes life & death. If this is a side quest you need a fairly complex challenge they can investigate, a villain they can uncover and defeat, and/or NPCs for them to interact with. If this is foreshadowing then obviously it needs to link into the next quest arc in some way.
Depends on how you run it. If there is a famine, then you put sick & dying children on the road in front of the party, if the players give them food (and they'd have to be pretty heartless not to) the kids go home and tell their parents / friends.. now there's a huge crowd approaching the party asking for food - more than the party could ever feed - if the party hold back they the crowd gets violent, if the party give away all their food well now they are the ones starving, and they have to investigate the cause of the famine and figure out how to resolve it. You can add in all kinds of subplots - a criminal enterprise exploiting the situation and selling food at outrageously high prices, a nearby greedy lord hoarding food for their soldiers, a circle of druids who could use their magic to restore the crops but won't because of some grudge they have against the lord or the people, carts of relief supplies gone missing on their way to the area attacked by some monster or bandits, giants or other monsters attacking the towns in search of food for themselves, groups of roving bandits that have stolen the food reserves of one of the towns affected by the famine. etc... etc...
Curse is easier since you can just have it immediately affect the party after they long rest in the area, thus they are forced to investigate to try to cure themselves. Plague works similar to famine in that it requires the players to care about the NPCs in the world and want to help them.
So .. the cultists hire a slew of cut rate assassins to kill the adventurers they know are likely coming. They ride hard and fast (the assassins that is) to an inn at a crossroads they feel fairly sure the PC's will have to visit. With good descriptions of the PC's and generous bribes paid to the innkeeper, they wait paitiently - and not for long.
So there's a whole bunch of lower level goons trying to kill the pc's. Meanwhile, their leader - a cultist of slightly better ability - is busily pouring greek fire all around the inn, setting in on a merry blaze with everyone inside.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.