In the last paragraph of Good Wolf, Bad Wolf for Holed Up (the Dougan's Hole quest) it specifies that the lodge is "thirteen miles west" which is impossible based on the time that is also said for it to take to get to especially taking into account the speed at which players are expected to travel in the wilderness. Going this thirteen mile trek would take several days unless you have an arctic ranger in your party. it would also take the party past the Ten Trail. Does anyone have a good distance to assume that the lodge is from Dougan's Hole for calculating travel time of the party?
I can't see the reference to how long the journey takes aside from the note about the lodge being "More than half a day's walk west of town" which at 13 miles is certainly a stretch for player characters (with snowshoes it'd take 26 hours).
Personally, I would assume this is a mistake and it's 13 hours west of Dougan's Hole which puts it just inside the curve of the Ten Trail. Alternatively, if it is 13 miles you could note that with Auril's spell also blocking the mountain passes, the Ten Trail hasn't been used in at least a few months and/or for the Large Winter Wolves, they can do the journey in about half a day (sled-dogs do a mile an hour (they have to stop for a rest but potentially, without a sled these wolves can keep up the pace?) With the 50% Blizzard chance I think half a day makes more sense
I've marked a small bit of map, red for roughly 13 hours walk, blue for 13 miles:
Edit For Clarity: All details are using Icewind Dale rules and measures of capability, these are not necessarily reflective of rules found elsewhere or experiences you may discover in real life
Ok, well if they added an artificially slow sled dog travel rate, yeah, the distance is really ridiculous. Frankly I suspect they simply did no research and decided to play it conservative to avoid animal rights complaints. But that would be just a guess.
I don't disagree but the logic, I believe, is that they want the players to mostly be walking everywhere, to quote:
"The fastest way to travel across the tundra is by dogsled (see “Getting Around Ten-Towns”). But dogs are expensive and require food, water, and shelter. Unless they have more equipment than they can carry, adventurers are better off traveling on foot." Based off this (and the 50gp price per sled dog) it's unlikely that the players will be operating a full sled dog team for their sled.
Also to note, the average temperature in Icewind is about -49°F (-45°C), which while not beyond the temperature a sled dog can tolerate, is substantially lower than sled dog racing temperatures.
Based also on the strength listed for the sled dog, most of the party would be limited to running alongside (sled is 300lb each dog only pulls 360lb) so the restriction is potential put in on the dog to make it easier to rule for the party, they aren't able to increase their speed without the dogsled so the character limitation is put there (you could double your speed in snowshoes but risk exhaustion after an hour of doing so)
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In the last paragraph of Good Wolf, Bad Wolf for Holed Up (the Dougan's Hole quest) it specifies that the lodge is "thirteen miles west" which is impossible based on the time that is also said for it to take to get to especially taking into account the speed at which players are expected to travel in the wilderness. Going this thirteen mile trek would take several days unless you have an arctic ranger in your party. it would also take the party past the Ten Trail. Does anyone have a good distance to assume that the lodge is from Dougan's Hole for calculating travel time of the party?
I can't see the reference to how long the journey takes aside from the note about the lodge being "More than half a day's walk west of town" which at 13 miles is certainly a stretch for player characters (with snowshoes it'd take 26 hours).
Personally, I would assume this is a mistake and it's 13 hours west of Dougan's Hole which puts it just inside the curve of the Ten Trail. Alternatively, if it is 13 miles you could note that with Auril's spell also blocking the mountain passes, the Ten Trail hasn't been used in at least a few months and/or for the Large Winter Wolves, they can do the journey in about half a day (sled-dogs do a mile an hour (they have to stop for a rest but potentially, without a sled these wolves can keep up the pace?) With the 50% Blizzard chance I think half a day makes more sense
I've marked a small bit of map, red for roughly 13 hours walk, blue for 13 miles:
https://imgur.com/lFFxdr7
Edit For Clarity: All details are using Icewind Dale rules and measures of capability, these are not necessarily reflective of rules found elsewhere or experiences you may discover in real life
I was referring to the Icewind Dale rules not real life.
Specifically, Chapter 1: Ten Towns Overview
"Sled dogs must take a short rest after pulling a sled for 1 hour; otherwise, they gain one level of exhaustion."
and from "Running the Adventure" the general rule on Overland Travel is
"Dogsled: 1 mile per hour"
I don't disagree but the logic, I believe, is that they want the players to mostly be walking everywhere, to quote:
"The fastest way to travel across the tundra is by dogsled (see “Getting Around Ten-Towns”). But dogs are expensive and require food, water, and shelter. Unless they have more equipment than they can carry, adventurers are better off traveling on foot." Based off this (and the 50gp price per sled dog) it's unlikely that the players will be operating a full sled dog team for their sled.
Also to note, the average temperature in Icewind is about -49°F (-45°C), which while not beyond the temperature a sled dog can tolerate, is substantially lower than sled dog racing temperatures.
Based also on the strength listed for the sled dog, most of the party would be limited to running alongside (sled is 300lb each dog only pulls 360lb) so the restriction is potential put in on the dog to make it easier to rule for the party, they aren't able to increase their speed without the dogsled so the character limitation is put there (you could double your speed in snowshoes but risk exhaustion after an hour of doing so)