Island of Viscan

The Island of Viscan is an isolated island located in a region known for its volcanic activity in the southern part of the Lucidian Ocean.

Terrain
Viscan has a mountain in the center of a very thick jungle, in which there is a cavern system extending deep below the ground.

Jungle
The outer edges of the jungle are healthy and green, but the interior trees are withered and blackened. The withering is the result of a necromantic blight that happened several hundred years previous, and the effect appears to have radiated outward from the mountain.

Sandy patches of ground roughly ten to fifteen feet in diameter are present, increasing in frequency closer to the base of the mountain. These patches are part of a phenomenon known as hollow earth, in which releases of magical energy cause underground caverns to collapse and create areas of unstable ground.

Mountain
The mountain on the island is about six hundred feet tall and was formed naturally. The entrance to the underground lair is located around the base of the mountain. When Vox Machina arrived on the island, the entrance was blocked by a very large rock that was marked by many years' worth of dragon claw marks.

Mountain tunnel
A large carved tunnel, about fifteen feet tall by twelve feet wide, leads into the mountain. The floor is covered in dust and charred bone fragments. Roughly a hundred feet in, the path curves to the left and descends on a gentle slope further under the mountain. As it continues deeper, the tunnel eventually widens with shelves and alcoves built into the walls. About fifty feet beyond that, the tunnel opens up into a hexagonal room.

Hexagonal chamber
The hexagonal chamber is about twenty-five feet tall, with a stonework floor, a large iron door, and a platform in the center. A dark green marble pillar stands on the platform with an iron bowl bolted on top of it. When Vox Machina passed through, a shelf to the side of the chamber also held an iron brazier full of dry tinder and a large, unlabeled, leather-bound book with text that seemed to shift to avoid being read.

In order to open the door and exit the room, fresh humanoid blood must be added to the bowl.

Staircase
The door from the hexagonal room opens into a hallway that leads to a descending spiral staircase. At the bottom of the stairs is a cluster of four-foot-long iron spikes with the remains of many impaled creatures on them. The tunnel leading from the staircase is twenty feet wide, fifteen feet tall, and continues on for about thirty feet before ending at a cross-section with a deep ravine above and below.

Reversed-gravity bridge trap
An underground chasm stretches to the both sides of the chamber. The gap is about 60 feet across, with a rope bridge to be used to traverse the distance. On the bottom of the ravine there are undead bodies of the indigenous people of the island. When walking across this bridge, gravity gets reversed and the bodies fly upward or fall back into the ravine. On the other side there is an entranceway that leads to another hallway.

Fountain chamber
At the end of this 50-foot hallway, a small fountain sits in the center. It has two bowls attached above each other, with the bowl on the upper tier being smaller than the lower one. At the very top is a humanoid face frozen in an expression of terror. A trickle of water pours from the mouth fifteen feet upward onto a green gem embedded in the ceiling, which keeps gravity reversed in the ravine.

Hallway and laboratory
Past the fountain, the ceiling of the cavern grows taller and the hall widens out before splitting in two directions. The two paths re-join on the other side of the large column, where the rough walls transition to stone and the path opens to a new chamber.

The chamber contains a pair of cages in the corners, two glyph-covered pillars in the center, and a large door at the back that locked from the other side. The walls are also lined with shelves, chains, and candelabras.

Background
Originally, the Island of Viscan was populated by an indigenous seafaring people whose trade routes led to the north and west. In the Age of Arcanum, it became the lair of an ancient necromancer named Opash, who built a laboratory there after he was banished from Marquet. With his arrival, the seafaring people disappeared, leading many sailors in the region to believe that the island was cursed and to be avoided for that reason.

Centuries before 795 PD, Thordak attacked Ank'Harel, but after a two-week battle, his armies were defeated and he was wounded, and as he fled north over the ocean he was struck down and fell into the sea, finding refuge on the Island of Viscan.

Thordak was captured by Opash, who experimented on the red dragon in his laboratory. These experiments made the dragon more powerful, who eventually destroyed the necromancer. Thordak became interested in Opash's notes and began making his own additions to his work, growing interested in the research into Guuthal the Ever-Fed, an ancient black dragon who evaded death by becoming a dracolich. After generations of secretly ruling the Island of Viscan, the dragon grew greedier than the island's limited resources could satisfy. He began razing the Mornset Countryside, south of the Verdant Expanse and the Stormcrest Mountains.

Knowing about the Thordak's lair, Raishan fled to the island after his death, taking Thordak's body and two of his eggs with her. Keyleth and Allura Vysoren found the cavern into which Raishan had fled when they scried. In their vision, portions of cavern appeared ruined, and Keyleth sensed sort of geothermal activity in the vicinity. She also saw that the cavern led to an ancient stone laboratory.

Keyleth used Transport via Plants to bring Vox Machina, Kerrek, Lady Kima and Allura to the island. At the entrance of the mountain, she used Stone Shape to make a slight opening in the large heavy rock. Using Kima's sword as leverage, they moved the boulder and set it in place with the Immovable rods.

In the necromancer's sanctum, Keyleth started a fire in the iron brazier with Flaming Hands, which caused an explosion that destroyed both the tome and the brazier. With the blood of Vex'ahlia and a basilisk put in the bowl, the iron door opened, activating four flameskulls. Percy exploded two skulls with Animus, Vex'ahlia cut an arrow straight through a skull causing it to crack in half, and Allura used Magic Missile to turn the last skull to ashes.

The staircase leading down from the hexagonal chamber had a glyph on the ceiling that activated as the party passed by. Scanlan used Dispel Magic to dissipate it.

At the gravity chasm, Vax'ildan teleported across with Whisper, Percy went across the bridge with his Boots of Spider Climbing and the Endless Rope, Allura used Dimension Door to cross with Kima, and Kerrek and Keyleth made the crossing on the Carpet of Flying. When Vex'ahlia and Pike attempted to cross the ravine, they were hit by bodies falling upward and the broom began to fall in the same direction. They were saved from falling by a Grasping Vine from Keyleth. With the help of Percy and the carpet, they made it safely to the other side of the chasm. Vex'ahlia then went back across to get Grog and Scanlan on the other side, Grog in the Raven's Slumber necklace and Scanlan on the back of the broom.

At the fountain, Allura covered the gem in the ceiling with a jug. Shortly after, the bodies in the ravine began falling back down as gravity reversed to normal.

The party found Raishan in the laboratory. The two large scaled, crimson eggs were being kept on one side of the wall, and on the other side a withered and long-dead corpse of Thordak the Cinder King.

Vox Machina began their second battle against Raishan. Raishan attacked the party with multiple powerful spells, including Meteor Swarm. During the battle, Raishan killed Scanlan. Keyleth managed to hit her with a successful Feeblemind spell, preventing her from using any more spells. Nevertheless, Raishan still managed to get another kill, this time gutting Percy. Shortly after, Raishan's was killed by a fierce hammer blow from Kerrek.

After Pike revived Percy, he left a gate stone behind, and Vax took Scanlan's body in his arms. Allura attempted to use Teleport on the party to leave the island, but the spell failed. The party began to investigate the cause, and Grog was able to break down the door with his Titanstone Knuckles, revealing a cave-in. Pike discovered an ancient, leather-bound book, locked on one side, that Raishan had been reading. Percy took several other books. The party then did their best to destroy the laboratory with fire from Keyleth's staff, Scanlan's Wand of Magic Missiles, and some spells from Allura, running into several more minor traps in the process. On their way out, the party encountered the flaming skulls again and defeated them with Animus, a high-level Magic Missile, and a hit from Kerrek.

Once outside Allura attempted to draw a Teleportation Circle on the ground but then vanished with a strange spark. Kima went after her. Vox Machina became suspicious and determined that something on island warped arcane transportation magic. Keyleth scried on Allura and saw that she was in the ocean, and then saw faint movement in the distance. Vex was able to reach them on her broom and bring them back to the island. Once retrieved, Keyleth used Transport via Plants to successfully bring the group back to Whitestone.

Behind the scenes
The island is imbued with magic that interferes with teleportation. Mechanically, Matt would roll a d20 and consult his pre-made chart to see whether an attempted teleport away from the island (as in ) would succeed or fail. Sometimes the teleportation spell would fail by having no effect. Some failing rolls would have sent the party deeper into the sanctum. For other fails, as that which befell Kima and Allura, he would then roll for the random direction and the distance away from the island they would be teleported.