I stopped at a flat stretch near the edge of my Sense range, just far enough that no serpents would reach me immediately, but close enough to still map the area where the cluster was if I pushed it.
The glowing moss thinned out here, the dark compacted soil gradually giving way back to the pale color of sand. Behind me the terrain was open and clear. Ahead, the vegetation thickened and the ground changed color.
I could not see the sinkhole from here. I could not see the lake. I could not see any serpent. It looked the same as any usual stretch of the wasteland.
But Sense told a different story.
I pushed it outward to its limit and felt the territory fill in my perception like a map assembling itself. The pack was distributed through the tunnel system below. It spread across a central presence, bigger than everything else. The seven headed serpent was not moving. It was coiled somewhere deep in the central cavity.
I took the cube from my inventory and held it in my left hand.
