Enhancement LivreaQuest - I want to call this a typo but it's more just poorly thought out geography

[NinjaTacos]

My deepest apologies if this isn't really the right place for this/no one cares but me.

From the bottom of the first big paragraph after starting Livrea's Hawkthorne quest, just after describing your companions' reactions to the long walk.



You don't find watermills (with waterwheels) at the tops of hills, because watermills require a river to work, and you don't find rivers on tops of hills (unless the river can run uphill, which is unusual). The watermill is more likely to be in a valley.

You might find a windmill on top of a hill, but probably not in the foothills of a mountain range, because the mountains would block the wind part of the time.

 

[Ace Hangman]

Possibly the mill was at the top, and the waterwheel was at the river the party is following. Khor'minoan construction (or Belharan, depending on who built the mill) was pretty sophisticated (or helped with magic). The shafts and gearwork could have gone into the hill and connected via shaft to the ruins at the top. That or the aquaduct you're following ported water into place. That... or she's mistaken. She sees an old map with a square or building marked on it.. and assumes.

 

[NinjaTacos]

It's a point about there being a shaft/gears inside the hill, but I'd still question, why do that when you can build the mill by the river? Aside from being more difficult and expensive, it would also mean whoever was unfortunately enough to work the mill would have been constantly having to carry heavy burdens (whatever the mill is made to process) up and down the hill. Unless they really hated millers in Savarra back int' day, and just wanted them to suffer.

 

[Ace Hangman]

I certainly am not able to officially answer it, but maybe the river is down in a narrow gully or rocky cleft in the foothills (making it flow faster for a wheel)? Too narrow for a building to be placed or a road for a cart to get down to. They can fit the wheel down there, then the drive shaft up the hill to the mill, which, even though it's at the top of the hill, would be much easier for farms and travelers to spot and probably has a road going to it. I think the party is traveling along the river to find the source of an aqueduct or river (rather than following a road, which would likely lead to a gate or opening that would be blockaded.