The higher point in the mountain is the complex where I came from, some sort of metallic block around thirty meter from the canyon, I stayed away from it even in soul form, if the Node can connect directly with my soul, I don't want to risk it. The all area around the canyon is the hunter bear territory, the other end of the canyon is cover by a small forest at the top, with some kind of little monkey living there, there is also a lake up top, where the bear go fishing, he can also swim, which is good to know.
In the East and north I can see a vast forest extending kilometer away from the mountain, no sign of smoke or anything that would imply someone was living down there, maybe this winter ?
To the west is the territory of the birds, which include most of the sky over the valley, they don't go down so I'm safe, and they don't seems to go in the canyon either, I saw a few birds skeleton at the bottom of the canyon, so maybe it's dangerous for them ? Anyways, it mean I would be able to leave the valley without having to fight off big meat eating bird. A big plain is to the west and south west.
To the south, more mountain, many of them are higher than mine so I don't know what's on the other side, and the chain going to the west a bit, bordering the plain. Maybe there is someone living just the other side of the mountain, or under it, dwarfs are a thing after all.
Speaking of underground, I stopped my exploration that way a while back. The vast city is not the only thing down there, in the cave network under the valley their seems to had been a whole country, I found a few more city , with the biggest being the one next to the snake lair.
What stop my exploration was the discovery that the old cities are haunted, I almost collided with the first ghost I found, a level 3 lowly servant, the thing attacked me, and I will tell you that : getting a soul wound hurt a lot more than a body wound. My soul attack seems to have hurt him a lot more, and I was able to destroy it quickly.
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But with a more careful inspection, I realized that the city is overflowing with them, they simply stay close to the ground and don't seem to notice me earlier. They definitely are very aggressive when they do. They probably have a limited soul sight too, but I won't risk it while my soul attack does so little damage with that expensive magic point cost. It's enough against a single low level ghost, multiples could overwhelm me and kill me for real.
The lake at the center of the valley is quite deep, with some fish and gators, more fish and less gators since I arrived I will admit. I was surprised to find what appear to be an underground tunnel linking the lake to the one at the top of the canyon. There are also a few other tunnels going to the underground, one of them probably alimenting the pond of the snake, but again, I didn't look too closely.
"The last expedition that explored the region knows as "the divider" was almost two centuries ago, I think it should be way higher in the priority of the Cartography association to finance and send a new one there."
"With all due respect, you are thinking like an academic, not a politic."
"I am an academic !"
"That's what I'm saying. You want us to update our map of that area, and I agree, the information is old and poor. If we are comparing them to the maps of the lower Frodan where new maps are published every year, the difference in treatment is obvious."
"Exactly, as a council member, surely you could allocate some found to that situation ?"
"My poor young boy, you don't understand. What is of interest in the divider ? The last expedition told us enough : It's a chain of mountains in the middle of the continent, far from any country, hard to traverse, full of dangerous beasts, and potentially a nesting ground for dragons. They lost half their member, and used massive amount of magical and costly expedition material. There is nothing to gain except knowledge by sending a new expedition, and that particular kind of knowledge doesn't participate in the budget of the association. While the merchant of the south are more than happy to pay massive amounts for the map of the glaciers of Frodan. So I won't try to convince the Council, because I already know it won't work. If you manage to gather the found, I will make sure your expedition is sponsored by the association, but that's all that can be done as of now."
Discussion at the headquarter of the exploration association.