Well Psion, since you asked....
The city of Vosh (pop 50,000) lies on the Bright River, so called for all of the quartz gravel in it's bed, that sparkles in the sunlight.
Vosh lies on the river, but has no docks. In fact, the city has a very high wall separating it from the river, and the only houses that even have windows facing that way (North) are quite old. The wall is tall enough that the highest window in the tallest building cannot look over it. Vosh has one gate, facing south. The road goes south, through the woods for about half a mile before intersecting with the main East/West road. If you travel about 5 or 6 miles west on this road, you will come to a small community whose sole reason for existence is to act as a warf for Vosh. All goods coming up or down the Bright River that are bound for Vosh must be unloaded here. The people of this community may well know why Voshians fear/shun the river, but they're not talking. If you are foolish enough to mention the river in town, you'll be reported to the guards. If you're lucky they'll just throw you out of town.
So you want to look at the river yourself? You can do that, but you will have a bit of a walk. The city wall extends on either side beyond where it curves south to enclose Vosh itself. This wall extends for a mile along the river bank both East and West. If you walk to the end of the wall, and look back, you will see that there's an island in the river. On this island are what appear to be extensive ruins. If you could actually get someone to talk to you about these ruins, or you were lucky enough to find an old book which mentioned them, you would find out that they were the ruins of an ancient city which possibly was built by the indigenous peoples of this world, who are now relatively scarce, and extremely hostile. Oh, did I mention that these indigenes are shapeshifters? They might have been demon worshipers too, but the truth is buried in time....
