Perrenland Geography

Rivers

Lake Quag is drained by the mighty Velverdyva river system, one of the largest rivers in the entire Flanaess and the largest river in Perrenland. Indeed, you can board a boat on Lake Quag and journey down the Velverdyva all the way to the Nyr Dyv, and from there down the Selintan, passing Greyhawk City itself, all the way to the sea.

The Velverdyva exits Lake Quag at Quag Quay, a notorious braid of shingles, backwashes and groundings at the southern foot of the lake. The Quag Quay is some twenty miles across and requires a skilled pilot to navigate its treacherous flows. At any one time there are at least a dozen flows from Lake Quag into the Velverdyva proper, however only two or three of these are ever navigable by boats with a draft deeper than two or three feet. The rest may appear navigable - often being several hundred feet wide at the lake mouth proper - but inevitably they shoal out or lead in to the morass of shingle banks, sandbars and small islands that mark the first thirty miles of the Velverdyva's length. Lizardfolk, trolls, and the odd marsh giant inhabit these washes and backwaters, making travel through this region perilous. An experienced pilot one can find the main braids of the river and avoid these perils - but pilots are not cheap, and pirates often lair at the entrance points to the lake.

Currently the main channel used for river trade between the Velverdyva and the communities of Lake Quag is known as the Right Flow. The Right Flow is some two hundred feet wide and averages fifteen feet in depth, with a strong central current. Vessels are often seen queuing for passage down the Right Flow, assembling the night before at the town of Quessell, five miles along the side of the lake from the river entrance. The Right Flow has existed in its current channel for nearly thirty years, a local record that could change almost overnight with a strong storm or unusually high rainfall.

Further downriver the Velverdyva becomes both stable and broad, being relatively safe to travel. The one exception to this is the Gate of the Velverdyva, the canyon that separates Perrenland from the Highfolk, and the Clatspurs from the Yatils. Here the river is both swift and deep and an experienced pilot is needed to make the journey safely.

As an alternative, many vessels travel through the ancient canal system constructed long ago by the Ur-Flannae. The canals allow river traffic to avoid the rapids of the upper cataract of the Velverdyva, and are a cunningly constructed series of locks and weir gates. The canal system runs some fifteen miles inland, before cutting back towards the river, bypassing the twenty-five miles of bad water that marks the drop of the river into the midlands. Three Kanalburgen (Canal towns), Strassvalde, Danelg and Moetburgen control the weirs of the canal system.

With the exception of the Velverdyva and Lake Quag, the central plains of Perrenland are conspicuously lacking in large rivers and lakes. This can make for dry summers for some farming communities and the construction of small holding ponds and wells is common.