Saturday, January 27, 2018

Adventures in Comalan: Spiral Island

In Comalan, the spiral is a symbol of love akin to the heart. On a large island to the south of western Galeon, there is a resort devoted to this theme. Spiral Island is so named for the winding mountain that comprises the majority of the island's surface. While it was under the control of the Akis Empire during the First Age, the inhabitants chose to glorify romance in the belief that the spiral surrounding the mountain is a work of Salica's art. However, with the empire's fall, Spiral Island was ultimately abandoned. It wasn't until a Galean adventurer named Kamran Farsea set foot on the island in the year 2E160 that it would be inhabited again. His initial aim was to create a living museum in tribute to the Akisian tribe that once inhabited the island as a sort of performance art piece. The success of this project and the coming of countless visitors caused the museum to expand into a luxury resort for lovers to bask in blissful romance.

But beneath the surface of this paradise celebrating love lies a plethora of dark secrets from two different sources. The first of these is in the legacy of Kamran Farsea, who grew to regret what Spiral Island had become. What had originally been an elaborate tribute to a far gone culture had developed into a commercial exploitation of the emotions of tourists. He was said to have resisted these changes very hotly but became withdrawn when the resort was officially open. He continued to live on the island in seclusion until his death, but no one has ever managed to discover where. The current owner of the resort as of Age Three, Adin Lovejoy, has offered a standing reward for anyone who can find Farsea's old home in the hopes that he was hiding ancient scrolls that might contain insight on the unique magic contained within the island's natural environment.

The second of these mysteries lies in the spiral of the island of itself, which seems to be marked with layer of stone that's inconsistent with the soft earth composing the mountain. The oddity of this stone formation fuels speculation that the gods have arranged this island deliberately for some reason. Whether their reasoning for doing so is related to the romantic significance that Akisians have attached to it is highly doubted in academia, but the Salican clergy takes a more positive stance on this question. 

Possibly related to this is the strangest aspect of the island, which is the very bliss that people feel while staying there. For whatever reason, the atmosphere seems to attract visitors to want to stay indefinitely. Those who spend more than a week there often find themselves extending their stays for even longer, which the resort enables by allowing people to stay without compensation in exchange for work. The longer people stay there, the less they want to leave. While most people attribute this to the island's natural charm, the Windlords have taken a particular interest in this quality. Where most explain this mystery with nature or magic, they seem to sense a conspiracy among the resort's staff.

Spiral Island remains a site of natural beauty and the resort built upon it is equipped with countless amenities to help people celebrate and inspire their romance. But for any but the most dedicated adventurers, the island's powerful allure is a trap for any who don't limit their enjoyment of the resort to a few days.

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