Wood Lake

The Great Darven Lake of Northwest Dreamsgate

WOOD LAKE, BASICS
Name comes from the Common translation of the Grimmlock word for it. Tol-Tregga is one of the Grimmlock names for “Wood” or “Forest”... The Darvenlanders who came to live here adapted the Grimlock name to their own language.
The south and north end of the lake have rivers flowing in and out. At the south end, the Great River Tegg flows into a rich estuary that leads along the Darvenmoor. The estuary stretches all the way up the western shore of the Lake. The northern outlet of Wood Lake is faster moving, the increased flow beginning a mile or two out into the lake. The northern and southern shores both have sandy beaches--a light brown limestone color, very fine, pulverized by glaciers long ago. The eastern shore is mostly undercut, below the roots of willow trees and shore grasses.
Environments around the lake are mostly quite fecund, for example the rich land that rises from the beaches in the north and south, or the rich, steamy Darvenmoor to the west, or the Willow and Birch forests to the east. The Lake itself nourishes these lands, as does the rainy weather it creates (as the humid air of spring and summer meet the colder air above the (considerably large) water.
The populations around the Lake are more than easily nourished by the abundance of animal and plant life, whether it be by agriculture or wild-harvest.
Cross-lake travel is often on the east side, even though the population centers are more in the west. The east side is reliable north to south, with less underwater obstructions, and usually a better wind.
For History of Habitation and MYthology, go to Wood Lake History, Mythology, and Stories .

WOOD LAKE, BIOLOGY
Downstream from Lake Tegg, Wood Lake is a little cleaner than its source but with the same creatures and biology. The fishing here is somewhat better than in the north, and the Great River Tegg between them hosts many fish as well. There are more trout, especially Greengills, in Wood Lake, and the population of Nixies (both Lake and River) is higher in the latter.
The mouth of the river is a rich estuary fished mostly by fishers from Bluff’s End. The fish are dried and sold in Current, to the gnomes or Grimlocks, or sold fresh in the Bluff’s End market. There is a special abundance of Greengill Trout, especially out where the lake is deeper. The estuary usually holds more Big Browns; they grow to their largest here.
On the far end of the lake, near Current at the mouth of the Anwar River, the water is rushing from the lake at an accelerated rate (surprising to unexpecting boaters), and this is an area rich with a unique Nixie population, where River and Lake Nixies mix. It amounts to a war: The conflict between the Nixies and sport hunters from Current. The Nixies are hunted down and killed for sport by some in Current, especially orcs after heavy drinking. (The ample fish populations are mostly neglected.)
In the Northeastern Lake is a population of Lake Nixies that takes a somewhat cautious, but more humorous approach to boating visitors (or to those that might venture down into their realm). They play shy, but some groups have learned to extort boaters for gold or silver, and threaten to play nasty jokes. For the big-hearted, their laughter is contagious. They have been known to come up very close to the beaches of the north lake. Very few of them speak any kind of common, so usually there is one leading that chats / jokes / insults with those they approach.
The East Side of the lake is much deeper and a bit colder, and here there are much larger fish to be caught. Much larger, but also far less numerous, so that nets are not employed here. Fishers use simple line tackle and hooked bait, OR rod and reel and lure (a gnomish contraption not yet widely known), to catch some of the biggest Greengills and Rainbows in the lake in the deeper waters. The East Side has shoreline that’s undercut, overhung by the roots of willows, with forests of birch further back off the shoreline. Up and down the Eastern Shore is safer for boat travel, as the water is deeper and it’s easier to catch a south breeze in your sails.

CREATURES of/in the LAKE

• Sprids and Spridnymphs (MM3.5 done, cr1 and 3)... Generally at the edge of small inlets, in fresher water, but sometimes further into the swamp or Anwar Estuary.
• Lurkers (Blue-steel Giant Dragonfly, cr3)and Lurkernymphs (cr1/2)--both in 3.5. Eggs laid in the shallows of the lake, all areas but especially in the northwestern portion, and in the estuaries by the mouths of rivers and moors.
• Greengill: A troutlike fish that grows to be very large (50 lbs.): usually caught smaller: turquoise-blue color, good eating: common catch in the lakes, fished commercially
• Streamtrout: In faster moving waters, NW Little Dream; Usually smaller, rarely more than 2 or 3 lbs.; Many of them make a great, tasty fish fry,; and a party with lots of ale; pretty brown trout with red and yellow spots
• Rainbow Trout; A standard fish in the Lake Tegg part of the drainage; In the lake itself, the most common food and commercial fish; silvery-blue; fish with a pink blush; can grow to 30 lbs.
• Big Browns; ("Big Brown Minnows" Torpedo like fish can grow to a foot or two; Very important food for lake raptors; sometimes netted, but make relatively poor food.

MONSTERS IN THE LAKE

• Rivernixie
• Lake Nixie
• Lakenixies are curious creatures, and often silly and full of jokes, but they can still be very untrustful. They swim along the boat and often play tricks if they aren’t placated with shiny things. Very very rarely you will find one of them that speaks the common tongue.
• Spridnymphs
• Lurker Steel-Blue Dragonflies and their nymphs

Creatures Along Beaches and Banks

• Dire Hawk and Large Hawk
• Toad and Dire Toad
• Swamp Strider Swarm
• Osprey
• Lurkers
• Sprids
• Weasel
• Little Brown Bat
• Swamp Strider Swarm

Creatures Around and in Surrounding Rivers and Lakes

• Rivernixies
• Lurkers
• Swamp Strider Swarm
• Spridnymphs and Sprids
• Osprey
• Blue-Green Bitterns
• Blue Herons
• Blackbirds
• Antire Crow
• Blackfrog
• Brownfrong
• Black Spotted Toad
• Centipedes, Giant--Small to Medium
• Swamp Strider Swarm
• Greengills and Big Browns
Or in Lake Tegg and surrounding streams

• Blue Green Bittern
• Blue Heron
• Osprey
• Greengill trout
• Rainbow Trout (lower and Tegg)
• Big Brown minnows (lower and Tegg)
• Streamtrout
• Lurker Nymphs
• Lurker Steel-Blue Dragonflies
• Spridnymphs, in the rivers
• Sprids, river and lakesides (monsters from larvae in )
• On the shores: Brownfrog and black spotted toad
• Lakenixies

Type

Lake

CREATURES OUT OVER THE LAKE

• Taturi's Swallows
• Lurker
• Bats, Little Brown, swarm’
• Swamp Strider Swarm

WOOD LAKE: PLANTS

• Lakewood: Grows slowly, looks like a tree underwater, with stout branching… In deep areas it’s an amazing height, without enormous girth. Difficult to harvest and work with, but the wood is the strongest there is and can be used to make any number of things (with the right tools)
• Slimeweed: Used by travelers going in and out of Bluff’s End. Fairly bland, but incredibly nutritious, and one day’s worth weighs only ½ lb.

The Anwar Estuary...

WOOD LAKE: FISHING IN SOUTHERN WOOD LAKE
(See @bluf document for more and more detail of population and activity at the Lake’s Southern End.)
The Lake gives the people of Bluff’s End their primary livelihood. The estuaries at the outlet of the Great River Tegg provide more than enough food for the villagers, and a good deal to trade with outsiders. (These outsiders are generally Froddks, Grimlocks, and Gnomes.) The Lake also provides income by ship-building and -making, along with so many other livelihoods that relate to fishing and sailing.
Village Fishers use strong, stable catamarans in the estuary, usually with trawler nets, fishing for Big Browns mostly, which get quite large here. There are also certain places designated for Fixed Nets, where both Big Browns and Greengills can be caught. Catamarans also sail to the eastern end of the lake using bait and tackle and sometimes trawling to catch larger Greengills, or Rainbow Trout (the true prize).
Camps are made as designated (or other) sites along the Eastern Shore on these trips, when an overnight is called for. Most catamarans have live-wells in which to keep their catches.
In the case of fishing closer to shore, especially along the border of the Darvenmoor, with dip nets usually, well-lashed rafts are employed, with sails or poles.
Blue, and blue designs, are the favored decoration of the sails. Bluffs Enders are beholden to no crown or ruler of any kind, and their blue designs celebrate it. Each sailor has an individual design, some with fish, some with lines, some with more geometric patterning.
So fishing is primary income in Bluff’s End, but there are more goods and services to be had at the bottom of the Bluff by the water. Traders in lumber, stone, and metals pass through Bluff’s End, along with other vendors. Villagers from “up on the hill” come down and make use of a number of services. So that the village definitely has a flavor, if an insular one.



WOOD LAKE, FISHING IN THE NORTH
There is less fishing here, and certainly nothing organized. The permanent residents of Current certainly fish for their food, but there are only a few who really put their catches on the market. In the area before the outlet to the Anwar River, there are places where the fish (especially rainbows) get very, very big. Some hotshots set out to catch them with bait and tackle.
The biggest travesty here is the sport hunting of not only fish, but also nixies; the latter have organized all out war with boats (usually small catamarans) that come out to this area. Too many nixies have died utterly meaningless deaths at the hands of ruffians coming out from Current.