mearrin... I get what you're saying. That was the last thing I put in and I'm not settled on it at all. It was very much kicking this and that around looking for a good dead-grass feel. I'm not sure how much winter is going to sit atop all that or what form it will take. The village is only 100 meters above sea level and eight or ten miles from the Pacific so I'm not sure how much snow they keep. I know the storyline is that the adventuring samurai are snowed in for the winter, so that seems to give license to taking a Tibetan approach, but I strongly doubt it is anywhere near that severe in fact.

Right now my focus is on getting the river right. I'm not sure how I feel about it at this point but I really haven't had time to really tinker with it or vet it against some real-world examples.

Thanks for your critique and it will surely factor into my thoughts.