*sigh*
So I do hate to nit-pick, and I really am loving this AP, but there doesn't seem to have been a lot of consistent thought put into the maps. I've fixed what has bothered me, but this one I just noticed as I'm getting close to Assault on Longshadow.
I can't find any actual descriptions of the Marideth river, as in how big/wide/deep whatever. I have 2 maps. The map way south at Phaendar, where the river isn't more than 75 feet wide.
And the map of Longshadow, which is near the supposed headwaters, and we see on that map easily 450 feet of width, and the map gives you the sense that it is much wider than that; we don't see the other side, but it seems like if the river was just a smidgen wider, it would have been drawn in. Rivers, by nature, get wider as they go downstream. That's basic geography. So I'm left with this map with these elaborate docks and fishing boats(?) and it makes zero sense. So I can scrap this map, and grab any number of large town maps from my saved gallery; that's fine.
Also, if you have a walled town, you put walls on the dock side.
Anyone else see this and scrap the map?
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No. You're nitpicking.
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Rivers are actually probably a mile wide on the map. If they drew them to scale, they'd be a line so thin you couldn't see them. Don't complain, it's called "artistic license."
Rivers are actually probably a mile wide on the map. If they drew them to scale, they'd be a line so thin you couldn't see them. Don't complain, it's called "artistic license."
Except I'm not talking about the region map, I'm talking about the strategic town map. Presumably this is the map the GM needs to run the siege.
Specifically in the pre-siege sabotage efforts, the party can intercept the ballistas as they are crossing north of the city. It says the river there is 75' wide, and the nuckelavee will lower it completely. A nuckelavee is 11th lvl, and can manipulate water 10x10xlvl wide and 2'/lvl deep, so a bit over a hundred foot wide and 22' deep. Probably enough there.
Then we have the town map, with a scale, showing huge docks, a fleet of ships, and a river clearly indicating it's over 300 wide. And in the siege, that same nuckelavee is supposed to be able to lower the river again so troops can march into the dockside area to attack.
So, yes, the cartographer missed the memo(s), but it does mean that the map doesn't make sense. You won't have the elaborate docks like that on a swift-moving, 75' wide river. It's fine. I switched the map out and accept I may be nit-picking, but details such as that are important.
I'm up to this bit now so have had a bit more of a look at the river.
In 115 the Marideth is only around 75' feet wide where the bridge crosses joining Phaendar to the Fangwood. It does say that there is a 20' deep ravine and that the river flows fast and deep at the bottom of it. I took that to being a 20' drop to the water and that the water could be easily be 30' deep or more.
The siege crossing in 117 is upriver from Longshadow and the river is 120' wide. Nuckelavee's are CL9 so it is either going to be a 90' x 90' x 18' lowering or 45' x 180' x 18' lowering using Control Water. Let's say the river is ~20' deep in the middle at that point. All things being equal that is about the same volume of water flowing past Phaendar, but I doubt it would be moving anywhere near as fast, so adding in the 3 small tributaries that join the Marideth after the crossing can easily account for the extra volume downriver. Let's halve the speed (still moving fairly quickly). And I'm also more than happy having the Siege Crossing be 45' wide, shore to shore, and the catapults being pulled through no more than 2' of water at its deepest point.
Which brings us to Longshadow.
As mentioned, you don't want docks where there is fast flowing water, but it does say the river runs swift and strong which doesn't make sense for a ferry crossing. Let's amend that to say that there is a central channel flowing swift and strong but most of the water is flowing no more than 1/4 the speed as at the crossing up river. You also have a tributary joining at that point. That means that the effective volume of water is 4 times as much per length of river, so I could multiply the width by 4 to almost 500' and still have a 20' depth in the middle.
The docks go out a fair way too, so it makes sense to assume the depth is a lot shallower (especially near the shore).
You don't want ferry crossing that is too far so limit it to around 600' across with a 20' deep and 100' wide channel in the middle to allow for the strong downriver current but keep most of the width a lot shallower and slower moving to make boat maneuvering easier.
Nuckelavees can use Control Water 3 times a day. Doubling the length and halving the width means 540' x 45' x 18' deep. Even without shallow banks it is very conceivable to have the AoE stop within the length of the docks on the Longshadow side. The troops move through water that is no more than 2' deep in the middle of the river, and only an inch for the rest, climbing the docks at the Longshadow side.
Yes the large scale map definitely uses artistic license on the relative sizes of landmarks (rivers, forts, hills, mountains), but IMHO it is also definitely within the realm of possibility to have Magdava effect both river crossings of the Marideth, and be able to use the Longshadow map without changes.
There also seems to be a fall line about halfway between Longshadow and Phaendar. My interpretation is that the fall line marks a geologic change where the river cuts deep and swift through something softer like limestone as opposed to denser strata in the foothills of the Mindspins. There can be a plateau of sorts where the river widens out before funneling through these falls.
Another option that can split the difference here is adding a small dam just downriver of Longshadow. It makes sense for a mill town, and would explain a more wide and placid river with the substantial docks.