Session 22: The Island

## Summary

The fleet of airships the party was on found a small island, which seemed to be on fire. Turns out, an active volcano resides there, along with many buildings. The party was selected, among 100 passengers, as a part of a peace group. They were to talk to the inhabitants of The Island.

The group lands near an obsidian temple, which has ornate carvings of dragons and monsters. They also see some shacks and black crabs. The heat is overwhelming, the sea almost boiling. Near the temple, the party, now departed from the others, sees three people in long black dresses and cloaks. They gasp and bow at Alastor, saying that they have never met anyone “of his caliber,” mistaking him for an elemental. Another woman, wearing a black dress and red and gold jewelry walks out of the temple, who introduces herself as high priestess Rubia. Alastor continues to pretend to be an elemental, calling the others his peons. Rubia recognizes the party as Arborans and told them that Arbora was a Vani. Rubia is confused that Alastor does not know what a Vani is, which lets out that he is, in fact, not an elemental. Nona manages to grab a crab, and she immediately dissects it. The party is shown into the temple, where they have a buffet of crab meat, bird meat, and meh looking plants. After a long info dump, Rubia mentions some ancient lava tubes, which the party presses her for. Turns out, some priestesses went in to deal with a threat, but they had not returned after a few days. Rubia suspects that the party is either dead or partying.

The party goes down the tubes, and to their surprise, there is no lava. The party comes across some symbols, which were carved by unsteady hands. After thorough deciphering, they found it to tell a tasteful story, which was written by a drunk priestess. After passing many crab statues, along with many crabs scuttling along, they end up at a seemingly dead end, blocked by large crab statues holding a disc. Upon further inspection, the crabs make up a tall, mechanical door, where the disc should be lifted, and there is a small notch in the center. When a crab is put in, the door opens, lifting the crab with it. The room on the other side is on fire, with merely a line of traversable ground. They cross the fire with varying levels of difficulty. Shade, Nonamé, and Oliver can only see each other, and Cryllos, Annora, and Alastor can only see each other. The party is separated.

* Oliver sees some light at the end of the tunnel, which he runs towards. The others join him, noting that the tunnel is getting hotter as they more along. They come across another sealed door with writing: "To prove you worth to go beyond, state the one thing you know lies beyond this door." Some rumbling shakes the room. Oliver tries to lift the door, to no avail, when suddenly, the three hears a voice saying, "Do you seek death? Then, this path is closed to you, the power is not suited for you." When asked for her name, she says that it can not be spoken by the human tongue, but calls herself the burning one, the one who bides her time. She says that someone must throw themself into her flames. Nonamé tries cracking a joke about socks, only to be given a harsh response of, "I do not wear socks." The Goddess of Fire explains that something is attracting them to this room and that unless they make a sacrifice, they should leave. Nonamé chucks her dissected crab, but that was to no avail. Shade considers going in solely because he wants to. To prove his determination, she requires him to kill the other two. Thankfully, Oliver and Nonamé convince him out of it. The Goddess of Fire, angered by the cowardice, chases them with golden fire, which they escape from, unscathed, except for Oliver's piano. Seeing the danger this poses onto him, he puts it out. Thankfully, due to the fire's behavior, his piano is unscathed. They find the other tunnel, see a large crab with the other half of the party, and joins the fight.
* The other group hears some sound, leading them down the tunnel, which a boulder is blocking. They hear the loud voices of ladies, along with music. Behind them, they hear a deep skitter. They turn around to dee a revenge-blind, large crab. They engage in battle, where Annora successfully disguises herself as a crab. They chip down the angry crab's health.

Suddenly, as the party rejoins, everyone lost the ability to hit each other. After regaining their marbles, Cryllos finishes it off, and a sexy priestess opens the cave opening. She blankly says, "Oh. It's dead," closes the doorway again, and the music resumes.

## Misc.

* Rubia's info dump:
	+ Vani: god-like, powerful beings, but not exactly a god
	+ People could get power/something by contracting with a powerful Vani
	+ The Vani of this Island is the Goddess of Flame
		- The priest/priestess trades a condition (sometimes a sacrifice) for flame power
	+ Alastor's mother may be a Vani
		- This explains why he still has his power (it was through a self-sustained contract)
	+ Guardians are not Vani
		- Arbora took people and turned them into plant-monsters via a forced contract
	+ The Island was spying on Arbora through large binoculars
	+ The Ethereal gold fire some will burn souls
	+ Everyone on the Island was priests/priestesses who undergone the sacrifice and contract

* The tasteful story is the common porn trope of "the girl orders pizza, but she could not afford it."