Otter Lake is a bit off the beaten path and not well connected to Lüm's transportation networks, which is how the residents like it—Otter Lake is their refuge and they don't want a lot of traffic through it. A highway does run across the north border of the neighborhood, but no one lives next to it; the area adjacent to the highway is taken up by shops. The highway itself is recessed into the ground so it's not easily visible from the rest of the neighborhood; bridges across the highway connect Otter Lake to Whitegarden on the other side. There are also a few ghostway stops along the line that runs through the northern part of Otter Lake. Of course, the river itself provides a method of transportation to and from Otter Lake, and many of its residents prefer to get around by boat.

[What's a "ghostway"? Well, I've referred in the past to Lüm's "subway", but I decided, eh, a subway, in the sense of a rail line running through underground tunnels, doesn't make a lot of sense here, given that Lüm is built primarily on a swamp. Sure, that doesn't mean it's impossible to build tunnels and give them reinforced walls to keep out the wet, but it doesn't seem like it would be worth the effort if there are other possibilities. And Curcalen is a magical world, so there are other possibilities. I haven't worked out the details yet, but my basic idea is that essentially instead of going underground a ghostway sort of phases into invisibility and intangibility between stations, or possibly enters some sort of parallel space.

Is this a bit of a retcon from my having mentioned subways before? Well, yes, but as I said in the post on my main blog about City '26, I don't consider what I post for City '26 to necessarily be canon until it appears elsewhere; at this stage it's still sufficiently provisory that retcons are okay. In fact, it may be further retconned in the future, in that I'm not 100% sure I want to stick with the name "ghostway", but we'll see.]

Within the city, the streets are well maintained and broad enough for large carriages but somewhat meandering, winding around the residents' often haphazardly placed estates. Signage is not as clear or thorough as it could be, given that nearly all the traffic is by residents who know the area and don't need the signs, so it's easy for visitors to get lost, although the lake is a major landmark that may facilitate their reorienting themselves if they run across it.

Otter Lake is surrounded by the river on the south and on the east and north by other wealthy neighborhoods, Riverway and Whitegarden. Though Otter Lake's inhabitants may occasionally visit acquaintances in these two neighborhoods, they otherwise have little reason to go there, and certainly don't make a habit of passing through them to go elsewhere. Rather, when the inhabitants of Otter Lake do leave their neighborhood by land, it is to the west, through Grandview. Of course, there is little in the rundown neighborhood of Grandview to interest the affluent people of Otter Lake, and they very seldom stop there, passing quickly through it to get to less objectionable neighborhoods like the Arts District and Piedale.