The Millstream
The only natural watercourse inside the city, the Millstream rushes out froma small natural cave in High Quarter to run through the Garden Quarter, Clerkburg, Foreign Quarter, River Quarter, Slum Quarter, and Thieves’ Quarter before sappearing into a small cave again. It reappears as South Millstream outside the city walls.
The Millstream averages 10-15 feet wide and is very shallow, about 1-2 feet deep at most. During prolonged or severe rain, the Millstream widens and flows swiftly, especially south of the — Nobles’ Wall from-all the runoff in the neighborhoods. The southern portion of the Foreign and River Quarters sometimes have trouble with flooding in such weather. Over its length, the Millstream runs under eight bridges and over two fords, and flows through wire- covered tunnels built under two city walls (Nobles’ and Black). Citizens ‘sometimes drink the water in New City, and almost everyone in Slum Quarter has drunk from it. The Millstream is an attractive and armless feature of the city, except for two problems. It happens, very rarely, that a saboteur or madman pours poisons into the water, ntaminating it and making many Old City sick. This last happened in 585 cy, resulting in 10 deaths. Also, if an aquatic creature gets loose in the city, it usually heads for the Millstream; water elementals are dangerous in this regard. A water weird was set loose in the Millstream by a rogue wizard in 569 cy; it drowned 14 people before it was destroyed.
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