Thanks, all, for the lovely comments!

@ThomasR That's great to hear! I tried a few things to try to get that to come across, but after staring at this map for so long, I couldn't decide if that feeling was coming across anymore. I don't know if it contributes to the "tortured" vibe or not, but, to that end I tried making the spines of the mountains a bit stronger... nearly imbalanced with the rest of the lines of the mountains. Felt weird to draw, but I hope it contributes to the sense of unease.

@MistyBeee I threw that little detail in for the commissioner, who had written into the adventure that one of the wide, shallow lakes near the desert is a salt lake. So, I let the river continue into the lake to show where the fresh water pushes into the saline water.