Geography[]
One of the largest bodies of water in the Tyr Region, Vanishing Lake is a vast mudflat south and east of the Estuary of the Forked Tongue. It stretches more than twenty miles in length and five in width. The precise size is difficult to judge, for the silty muck that surrounds the lake is easily mistaken for more of the mudflat. Extended periods of drought cause the lake to evaporate, which means that during the months of High Sun there is less water and more mud. Eventually, the open water disappears entirely, and the lake seems to vanish, leaving behind a thin, watery mire. When the sun beats less fiercely during the months of Sun Descending, the water's source wells up once more, and the lake becomes obvious to the eye, again.
Old silt sailors claim that the periods of open water grow shorter and farther apart as the years pass. Someday the lake might disappear and never return.
Hazards[]
Vanishing Lake is home to one or more aggressive water drakes, and silt runners, floating mantles, chathrangs, and other dangerous creatures live in the surrounding mudflat.
The area is protected by a powerful, ancient druid known as the Old One. Most folk never encounter him, although occasionally a lost traveler, half dead from thirst and sun sickness, claims to have been set on the right path and given a waterskin by a mysterious old druid who disappeared into the silt.