Now that the "official" stuff is out of the way, here are some things to consider:

Maps during similar periods of Earth history have been laughably inaccurate, so we assume that Faerunian cartographers are offering "best estimate" distances. This is supported by real-world evidence. As this enterprising gamer has noted in detail, changes to maps distances have been substantial. Between the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and the official 5E map, distances are often off by up to 20 miles; it even puts BG as around 17 miles north of the Chionthar!

It goes without saying, but take these map as aids, not as a hard and fast requirement for your own campaign.

So... fudge the distances if you need to; these maps are off by nearly 20 miles in some places! Elturel is 15 miles further east on this old map versus the newer map, for example, and there's a similar distance discrepancy between Trollclaw and Baldur's Gate. So... there's wiggle room, even if you're trying to be 'official.'

For me, I prefer to place Moonrise 15-17 miles west of the Grove. Having it a mere 7 miles away seems a bit too close.

The Grove being 21 miles east of Elturel DOES make sense and is consistent with my original estimates (the 200 miles here is very close to the 200 "by river" I measured before) ; that's between a day and a day and a half of travel on trails through mountainous terrain.

TL;DR:

Elturel = 215 miles east of Baldur's Gate
The Grove = 200 Miles East of Baldur's Gate
Moonrise / Reithwin = 193 Miles East of Baldur's Gate

As noted in my last post, my partner and I have been trying to pinpoint the locations in Baldur's Gate 3 on the Sword Coast map.

Larian, in their Gameplay Demo, revealed two vital bits of information. First, that the nautiloid crash site was on the Chionthar and second, that it was approximately 200 miles east of Baldur's Gate. The Blighted Village, Goblin Camp, and everything else should be relatively close (within 5-10 miles) of The Grove. In-game text suggests that The Blighted Village, Moonhaven, is on the border of the lands controlled by Elturel, but where that border is or what it means is squishy.

Moonrise was more difficult. The only out-of-game reference to Moonrise was in an old adventure, and the only map we could find with Moonrise definitively mapped was in the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Access mapping tool. We got our hands on a copy and proceeded to measure distances. The results are available above.

Caveat: The maps of the Sword Coast have changed over time. Sometimes, TSR / Wizards changes distances dramatically, so this estimate is only that. Take this with a grain of salt / as a fun project we undertook to better understand how in-game locations meshed with Sword Coast locations.

The location of the nautiloid crash site and the grove have been bugging us for some time, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to figure out where exactly, we start. The inner line on the image, where it intersects the Chionthar, is our estimate.

Supporting evidence:

In the gameplay demo, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9hU6UJX_pc, references the crash site as "200 miles from Baldur's Gate. However, 200 miles from BG intersects Elturel, suggesting that "as the crow flies" is not right. Instead, we used string to measure out 200 miles by river.

The tieflings in the Grove mention being "a ten-day" away from the Gate. #dnd characters move approximately 24 miles a day. We assume they round up a bit, account for difficult terrain on parts of the trail, and the slower pace of children. They also likely estimate from their (former) home of Elturel versus the relatively unfamiliar Grove.

Blighted Village / Moonhaven

The Blighted Village (Moonhaven) is recorded as being on the edge of Elturgard. While Elturgard likely extends out quite a ways on paper, they are not likely regularly patrolling more than a day out.

Additionally, goblin raiders on the grove do not carry many supplies, suggesting that they can raid and return "home" in less than a day.

Some maps place the Grove much closer to Elturel. However, we believe that even with their recent return from Avernus, they'd have sent scouts to investigate the crash of the nautiloid if they'd seen it. Based on the altitude of the ship when it began its descent, our placement puts it below their line of sight.

The tiefling refugees would have put enough distance between Elturel and themselves to avoid harassment, but they were laden with children. A day's journey, if that was the edge of Elturel's patrols, makes sense to us.

Placing the grove further west puts it too close to Baldur's Gate, in our opinion, as the travel times would no longer make sense. #dnd #dungeonsanddragons