hey @Royal Scribe I shared other information, also using the Mike Schley style, maybe some of it could be useful in your next venture.

https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/13386/mixing-mike-schley-isometric-city-mike-schley-overland-symbols#latest

Big zoom of the image - made in the open CC3 program.

Then I place my city or any other icon, and in this case, I use trees to hide the mouth of the river

Hide the origin of the river with trees and... now the cat's jump... in this case the river... the biggest imperfections are not its contact with the symbols. These are the curves with strong corners of the fractal node... precisely where I try again to "hide" the imperfection with some icon... in this case trees.

Another option is make a mini valley between hills of groups that go faster. Put a river.