Iopos

[freid78]

[Mataxes]

Assuming you're talking about the canal from Iopos to the Serpent, it isn't addressed in the GM book.

It's probably done. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be. The distance it covers is roughly 75-100 miles. The Erie Canal was almost 400 miles and took about 8 years to build (at least according to Wikipedia). (The Erie Canal also didn't have the benefit of magic to aid in construction.)

Building a canal from the northern end of the Tylon to Lake Vors would be a much more difficult prospect. The issue is less distance, and more terrain since you need to contend with the Tylon Mountains.

While I have seen some maps that have the upper end of the Tylon north of the mountains, that doesn't work because water flows downhill. Anything coming off the northern slopes of the Tylon range would flow north and feed into the Serpent up there. The Tylon River goes where it does because it is flowing downhill from its headwaters, which puts those headwaters coming out the southern slopes of the Tylon range.

That's just physics.

At that point, trying to connect the two involves going through the mountains, or around the mountains, both of which make that project a lot more difficult and time consuming -- even with magic.

[Telarus_KSC]

I consider the Iopan canal "finished", even though it does not directly connect to the Serpent. No good leaving that avenue of attack open to T'skrang (and pirate) riverboats. So I imagine that smaller vessels would be ported over the short hop, much like the Greeks or Vikings did. Larger loads would be transferred on sleds to barges that stay in the canal, which are probably towed "upstream" by teams of pack animals. At the "downstream" Serpent end of the canal would probably be a large reservoir (usually half full), with a set of gates to spill excess into the Serpent. At the Iopan side, you would have a system of aqueducts feeding the "upstream" side, probably also into a reservoir that serves as the city's emergency drinking water supply. The Iopan nobles are the ones who control the slow current of water into the canal, manage the guards at both ends and organize the work teams and dredging teams (canals like this need to be dredged to function over time).

There! Plenty of great hooks for adventures. Have a group of PCs sneak a small elven craft onto the canal and spend the night didging barges while sailing it against the wind upstream (elves can tack against the wind, most other cultures in BArsaive don't have that skill). Infiltrate the guardsmen at the downstream reservoir so you can sneak in some Named Water Elementals. Etc, etc.....