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Description
My campaign is based in Cormyr, and my party was traveling to Arabel. Going by the recent maps of Cormyr, Arabel is situated on, or at a minimum, very close to the Sword River. I mean, if you were founding a city and a river flowed nearby, why *wouldn't* you build the city on the banks of a life-giving river? But the only map I could find, although very detailed and well drawn (compliments to the original artist!) had no sign of a river at all and only had ONE well in the entire city! Sorry, but that didn't make sense to me.

So I went about modifying the original file using my favourite Photoshop equivalent (and FREE) tool, GIMP. I spun the city about 65 degrees counter-clockwise, and ran the river down the main roads that made sense to me. Split the city apart a little, rotated all the numbered circles, and colour coded them so it was a little easier to guide players around the town. Added a Key for those colours, named the bridges and added a few more wells.

I did get some constructive feedback about the lore of Arabel that it is primarily and overland caravan/trading city, and so the fit in with that, I've added a weir to the southern walls so as to make water-based trade minimal, although not impossible if they use the "Smugglers Run" dock. This weir also ensures that water remains in the city during the drier months. During great deluges of snow-melt off the Stormhorns, the additional walls at the north end of the city divert water around the city. The canal itself has been dredged out to keep it nice and deep and could also be sources of adventure for some underwater caverns?

Hope it proves useful to any DMs out there. Enjoy!

Description
My campaign is based in Cormyr, and my party was traveling to Arabel. Going by the recent maps of Cormyr, Arabel is situated on, or at a minimum, very close to the Sword River. I mean, if you were founding a city and a river flowed nearby, why *wouldn't* you build the city on the banks of a life-giving river? But the only map I could find, although very detailed and well drawn (compliments to the original artist!) had no sign of a river at all and only had ONE well in the entire city! Sorry, but that didn't make sense to me.

So I went about modifying the original file using my favourite Photoshop equivalent (and FREE) tool, GIMP. I spun the city about 65 degrees counter-clockwise, and ran the river down the main roads that made sense to me. Split the city apart a little, rotated all the numbered circles, and colour coded them so it was a little easier to guide players around the town. Added a Key for those colours, named the bridges and added a few more wells.

I did get some constructive feedback about the lore of Arabel that it is primarily and overland caravan/trading city, and so the fit in with that, I've added a weir to the southern walls so as to make water-based trade minimal, although not impossible if they use the "Smugglers Run" dock. This weir also ensures that water remains in the city during the drier months. During great deluges of snow-melt off the Stormhorns, the additional walls at the north end of the city divert water around the city. The canal itself has been dredged out to keep it nice and deep and could also be sources of adventure for some underwater caverns?

Hope it proves useful to any DMs out there. Enjoy!