Day 18-Forgot to ask; How do we get around?
What modes of transportation are available to people in the setting.
Elowen’s Journal
West Haven is small enough that you can learn it all on foot.
You can walk everywhere here. It surprised me at first how close everything feels. The streets curve, but they always seem to bring you where you need to go. The South Road, coming out through the Beltane Gate, is the busiest and safest. In East Haven, they call it the West Road, or the Western Trade Road, which feels like a small argument in itself. That’s where the Drunken Orc Inn sits, and where most travelers first arrive. It feels like a threshold more than a road.
People cross the lake all the time. Boats go back and forth, especially during market days. I don’t like it. The water feels crowded to me, and not in a friendly way. I prefer to keep the lake at a distance, even if that means walking farther than necessary.
A lot of witches fly. More than I ever imagined. Brooms, charms, whispered spells, things I don’t fully understand yet. Because of that, many buildings have entrances on both the upper floors and the ground. It took me a while to stop being startled by someone stepping out of a second-story door like it was the most natural thing in the world. I hope someday I’ll be able to do that too without thinking. Gaining your first besom, or witch's broom, is something of a milestone event for a witch.
Larina has a Gate in her cottage. She uses it to travel to distant places, even other worlds. She says I’m not ready yet. I want to argue, but every time I look at it too closely, I get dizzy, like the world is tilting sideways. So that feels like a fair warning. I’ve also been told there are Gates hidden in the Library, but the librarians, Cassandra and Celeste, won’t tell me where. Though I did find out by accident that Larina used to be the librarian before she became the Witch Queen. That explains a lot.
Doireann says there are Gates in the Labyrinth, too. I don’t know if she’s teasing me or not. With goblins, it’s always hard to tell. But goblins seem to have a way of moving all over, so maybe she is right.
For now, I walk. I watch the sky. I learn the paths that don’t show up on maps. West Haven makes getting around feel like part of the adventure, even when you’re just going home.
Designer’s Notes
Travel in West Haven was designed around two core ideas. First, everything important should be close enough that play does not get bogged down in long, uneventful journeys. Second, the setting needed to acknowledge the reality that witches fly.
West Haven is walkable by design, but vertically layered. Upper entrances, rooftop paths, and night-time travel through the air are common for witches, which changes how the town functions socially and architecturally. This idea was inspired by my time at the University of Illinois at Chicago while working on my first Ph.D. The East Campus buildings were connected by elevated walkways, creating an entirely different sense of movement than ground-level travel. They were there when I did my first campus visit and gone before I started attending some 6 months later.
That physical East/West divide also fed directly into the conceptual split between East Haven and West Haven. Though Lake Haven is a bit more dangerous and has fewer restaurant choices than Chicago's Little Italy, which splits the campus.
Gates exist, but they are deliberately restricted, hidden, or guarded. Easy teleportation solves too many problems too quickly. In West Haven, magical travel is powerful, tempting, and dangerous, something to grow into rather than rely on from the start. Movement here reinforces one of the setting’s core themes: magic expands possibility, but it also demands patience. Esmé is my expert on Gates. I am sure she will teach them all to Elowen someday.
Join Adam Dickstein of Barking Alien, and his RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE 2026!
No comments:
Post a Comment