Jefferson watched as the horses trudged along the towpath, pulling the low boat along the canal behind them. Why anyone would want to hijack a canal boat was beyond him, but the company was paying him well to investigate. The pace was agonizingly slow, affording plenty of time for his mind to wander. So he did not notice immediately as three hulking shapes appeared from under a bridge on either side of the canal, grotesque forms leering hungrily at the horses . . . and the passengers. When at last he looked up, it was into the impossibly large face of a drooling creature that looked as if it had stepped from the pages of Grimm. It gripped a horse in one gargantuan hand, but with the other it was groping around the deck for juicier morsels – and it had just found Jefferson.
Travel by land and sea is much easier on Gothic Earth than in most AD&D campaigns. Whether traveling aboard advanced sailing ships or steamships, stagecoaches or railroads, Gothic Earth adventurers can hope for speedier and more comfortable travel on their journeys – at least as long as they remain near civilization.
The clipper ship, developed near the middle of the 19th century, provided very fast sailing. In 1851, the Flying Cloud set the record for a journey between New York and San Francisco (before the Panama Canal, meaning it traveled around Cape Horn, at the tip of South America) – 89 days. The Sea Witch in 1849 sailed from Hong Kong to New York in 74 days, which was about 3 months faster than the same trip had taken aboard a schooner. The Lightning in 1854 could cover about 500 miles (436 nautical miles) in a day. Travel aboard a clipper ship was cramped and uncomfortable for the most part.
Steamships provided much faster transportation after the 1860s. A steamship could cross the Atlantic in about 20 days, and provided much more comfortable accomodations, especially by the end of the century. Equipped with screw propellers for ocean-going journeys, as opposed to the paddlewheels seen on river-going steamboats, these vessels were increasingly used for shipping, gradually replacing the clipper ships towards the turn of the century.
Paddlewheelers carried theater groups and even circuses up and down the major rivers of the U.S. Called "floating palaces" these were more like a means of entertainment than a mode of transportation, much like cruise ships today.
The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, offered water travel from New York City to Lake Erie, opening the midwest to trade and helping to create such cities as Chicago, while increasing the financial development of New York as well. A canal boat on the Erie, towed by a 3-horse team, plodded along at about 3 miles per hour. Canal travel was at least relatively safe, if hardly as luxurious as steamboats.
The stagecoach reached its height of importance and popularity in the early part of the century, but where the railroad does not reach, the stagecoach must. Coaches travel in stages of 10-12 miles, trading horses between stages. A stagecoach carries 8 to 14 passengers (with baggage and mail) in extreme discomfort, at the risk of overturning, for a very long 12- to 18-hour day, covering only about 25 to 40 miles per day’s travel.
Much more comfortable – even luxurious – and also much faster is the railroad. By 1876 the newfangled contraption called the railroad engine could make the journey from Boston to San Francisco (over 2500 miles) in a mere 8 days. The Pullman sleeper car made travel aboard a train similar to a stay in a fine hotel – barring a derailment or similar misfortune along the way. Gas chandeliers, upholstered seats, curtained fold-out bunks, well-dressed porters, and menus which might include turkey stuffed with chestnuts, baked rabbit pie (American style), and English plum pudding with brandy sauce – all the amenities of the Pullman car contributed to the railway boom which made the United States’ rail network in 1890 larger than that of all of Europe – more than 200,000 miles of track.
Trains traveled about 20 to 30 miles per hour (or up to 40), but with stops an average of about 15 mph is more likely. At every stop, cheap hotels and restaurants could be easily found near the train station.
As adventurers journey farther away from civilization and the railroad, more conventional means of travel will be required. Horses or carriages will be the norm, with speeds typical for such modes of transportation under the AD&D rules.
Of course, whatever mode of travel is chosen by Masque of the Red Death adventurers, and wherever their journeys take them, the spectre of the Red Death will haunt them all along their path. Whether you lead them to confront a jackalwere in the ancient caverns under Jerusalem or giant humanoids along the Erie Canal, the trappings of technology and the mood of a foreign culture should always contribute to the atmosphere of horror, rather than distracting from it. Trains do derail (with surprising frequency), bizarre forms are sometimes glimpsed through the car windows, and hideous undead creatures may be battled atop speeding engines (as in the cover art of the Masque boxed set). In a good Gothic Earth campaign, the familiar world of the 1890s should be twisted just enough that the players are kept on their toes, confronting new mysteries around every corner, peeling back the layers of the onion in ever-increasing horror until their villainous foe finally comes into view. The rest is just the icing on the cake.