It took a couple of hours for Hopper to slow down by adding new elements to the wall. Arnith stood behind the goblin for the whole process, asking him to explain what he was adding and giving the goblin instruction on some of the symbols used.

Hopper was well versed with the general buildup of the great cavern called the Big Empty. Arnith was loath to use the name; it felt too unrefined for such a significant area and he considered renaming it in the future.

When Hopper seemed to hesitate about what to add, Arnith made him stop. Better to explore and add new things as they were discovered, rather than rely too much on conjecture. Arnith hesitated to think that the map was accurate, the distances involved would probably wary, but even a rough understanding of the area was far better than what he had known before.

Brightwater was at the edge of the great cavern, so Arnith had chosen to put it on the left side of the map and because he had no way to tell which way was north, he declared that it was the western edge, and north was up.

Hopper had begun by drawing from Brightwater outward, he had ample knowledge about the western part of the cavern, but as he got further out, there were fewer details that he added, only some larger goblin holds and lakes and such.

Brightwater was a small unclaimed territory between three different areas of influence. To the north-east was the goblin hold of the Black Rat tribe, the former home of Hopper. The Black rats had some mushroom growths in their area, but they also practiced a lot of raiding. Beyond in the same direction, there was a scattering of small goblin groups witch were the occasional victims of the Black Rats.

To the southeast, there was a confederation of three groups of goblins known as the Cold-Water tribes. The river going out from Brightwater ran down in that direction and formed four lakes surrounded by wetlands which were abundant with mushrooms. The Cold-Water tribes had a combined population that far outmatched the Black Rats, but they were less concerned with raiding other tribes, content with the abundance of food in their vicinity. Beyond the Cold-Water confederacy, there was an additional large lake, controlled by a single independent goblin tribe, who the Cold-Waters considered as their main rivals.

To the south was the third neighbor to Brightwater. The immediate area to that direction was empty of life, the floor of the cavern there was bare rock, mostly flat. Beyond the barren stretch of the cavern, there began an area with a cluster of chasms. The Stone Head tribe made their home in the side of one of them, the exact location was not known to Hopper, but he knew that they were there. The goblins of the Stone Head tribe were isolationists, rarely leaving their area. Beyond the cluster, there came a chasm of monumental size, it ran from the cavern wall, wider than could be heard or seen over, slowly narrowing out to the southeast in a distance that could not be traveled in a single day, effectively cutting off any visitors from that direction, as the chasm ran so far as to almost reach the territory of the lake goblins.

Arnith looked at the map and considered the magnitude of the great cavern. The area which housed Brightwater and its neighbors were only maybe a sixth of the whole region, there were three large tribes at the northern edge of the cavern, several more to the south and in the east, there seemed to be the true powerhouses of the region. There must live many thousands of goblins in the region.

There were two large goblin tribes in the east, with huge areas of influence and a couple of smaller ones, and then finally there was the hold of the Red Mark tribe. Instead of the usual squares indicating a settlement, Hopper had painted a walled city at the eastern edge of the cavern, it was next to a large lake with a great forest of mushrooms next to it.

The Red Mark tribe was the de-facto ruler of the region, each of the larger tribes paid regular tribute to the tribe, in the form of food and slaves and also any metal weapons or tools that the goblins found.

Hopper had told Arnith that the reason why he had been able to convince his former chieftain to spare the elf’s life was, that offering him up as tribute would have been a possible way for the chieftain to garner much favor from the Red Marks. The Black Rat tribe was on the far side of the cavern; probably a week of travel time away from the former dwarven fortress. To have such influence over a tribe so far removed meant that the Red Marks were very powerful.

Avoiding the attention of the Red Mark tribe would have to be the top priority, it seemed that they did not concern themselves with smaller groups of the region, but Arnith suspected that if they knew of his presence, that would change.

Finished with the map, Arnith considered what to do next. He wanted to go out and explore some of the areas which he had learned about, but to reach most of them he would have to cross over territory prowled by either the Black Rat tribe or the Cold-Water goblins and he was loath to do so after the last fiasco. It now became clear to him that they had used up a great amount of fortune when he and Tokki had traveled up from the southern part of the cavern without meeting any resistance, if they had gone just a little further eastward they would have walked into the middle of the Cold-Water territory.

Finally, he decided that he would range out a little in the direction of the Stone Head tribe if the wasteland between their territories truly without life, then there was less probability of running into any of the goblins there and he wanted to stretch his legs after staying in the cave for a while now.

Before going out, Arnith cooked a meal. The elf could not feel the taste of the meat anymore, there were only two items on their pallet, lizard meat, or rat meat, grilled or smoked or dried, the difference was minimal. Arnith hoped that they could add something soon to their diet. The taste of the food was not the only issue, Arnith knew that over time relying only on meat would be detrimental to their health, so it was a serious problem. Soon they would have to venture down the river to harvest some of the mushrooms.

After the meal, Arnith told Tokki to prepare to go out and he gathered what he needed for himself. It did not take long for the goblin to return, he was armed with his spear and there was a full skin of water on his hip. “Ready, master.” The goblin said as he returned.

Arnith took the other spear they had, it was a little shorter than he would have liked, but it would do for now. Finally, he hefted his shield and the two walked out from beneath the waterfall, turning to the right.

There was not a lot for them to discover at first, as they had already scouted the near vicinity. They walked out of the light-filled valley, going south. After leaving the light Tokki guided the elf to a couple of traps that he had set up in this direction, but they were empty and they left them as they were.

Going south, it took maybe a half-hour before the topography began to change, There were fewer of the pillaring stalagmites in the area and in-between them the ground became flatter, instead of rising and falling in regular intervals. Finally, they reached the end of the pillars, and ahead of them was an empty flatland, even the usually abundant glowing moss did not breach beyond the last of the pillars. Arnith was suspicious about the stability of the ceiling of the cavern in this area but then thought that if it was going to fall it would have done so a long time ago.

The barren land was devoid of light, so Arnith had to take out a small piece of glowing crystal. He had wrapped most of it up, leaving only one side of it bare, this way he could easily direct the light to the ground around them and leave the sides hooded, so they would not be easily seen from afar.

The trip into the barren was eerie. The rock underneath them was black, it made strange forms. In the absence of any points of reference, the darkness embraced them and it seemed as if the silence was stronger here, having an almost corporeal intensity.

Their feet left tracks in the layer of dust that covered the rock and Arnith was glad for it, without a way to retrace their steps it would be all too easy for them to lose their direction and they could walk in circles until they wasted away.

It took a little time for Arnith to realize, that what they were walking over was of volcanic origin, magma had flown here, it had entered the chamber and for it to cool down into an almost level form, it must have been a rapid event.

There was little to see in the area and after an hour of wandering, Arnith decided to turn back.

The pair had been retracing their steps for a little while, When Arnith noticed something glint on the ground, it had been faint and he had almost missed it. He brought the light down to where he had seen the light flicker.

In a footprint, the ground was not fully covered with dust and Arnith brushed more of it away. The ground was dark basalt but Arnith saw a thin line of a glassy glint. The line went into both directions off the path and he followed one of it, brushing the dust away constantly, so as not to lose it.

Some ten meters from the path, the line thinned out and he had to return to the start, so he could try the other side. Arnith soon grew excited as the line of glass began to widen on the other side. What they found was an interesting formation, the line widened more, but also began to turn, at the end of it Arnith found that the ground had formed a spiraling circle a few meters wide and the consistency of it was mostly of the dark glass.

“Tokki, We have found some treasure.” The elf called out to the goblin in a voice far louder than would have been necessary, as Tokki was following right behind him.

The goblin skipped up next to the elf, peering around.

“Where is it, master?” The goblin queried.

“You are standing on it, we have found obsidian.” The elf answered.

Arnith wanted to gather some of the volcanic glass immediately but found that they were ill-equipped for prospecting. And there were no loose pieces of it to take with them.

Frustrated, the elf thought of the distance they would need to cover, just to get a few stones he could use for the job, and then he began to walk.