A cloaked figure engulfed in flame appears before you, its face indistinguishable under its smoldering hood. It holds out blistered hands as if asking you for something. Do you oblige it?

From the ominous cavern containing the eerie chest, the path led Romeo to the first set of stairs he’d encountered so far, and it caught him slightly unawares. He paused at the top, eyeing the darkness below and wondering what awaited him, noticing that the moss that currently covered most of the stones at this level slowly lessened as the steps descended.

Thankfully the stairs were large enough to allow a courser of his stature to decline comfortably, but nonetheless he still took his time, feeling uneasiness slowly begin to swell within him. As he descended, he felt the air become warmer, smokier, and before long an ominous red glow appearing and alighting upon the lower steps.

He frowned as he reached the last few steps, whereupon the stairwell ended with a decorative archway that led out to a wide, castle square-type landing. And moating the warm stoneware paving (and similarly the source of the warm glow), lava.

Stepping out of the archway and onto the landing, Romeo was hit with both the intense heat and sulphuric smell of the molten earth, and he had to hold himself back from retching. His eyes similarly began to smart as he started forward, and he was barely a few yards from the staircase when the blurriness forced him to stop once more. He snorted as he tried to recall whether or not he had packed anything that could help him in this situation, and whipped his head around to attempt to reach one of his packs.

A strange crackle sounded in front of him as he rummaged, and upon returning his attention to that direction, he was met with an unnatural figure before him, bathed in black robes that appeared to be on fire.

His heart lurched at the sight, panic taking hold, and he stumbled back. The figure appeared unperturbed by his janky movements, and Romeo struggled to discern whether or not there was in fact anything underneath the robe. Watching it carefully, he regained his composure and stood up properly, blearily blinking back the tears caused by the smoky air.

Despite being on fire, the robes didn’t seem to be affected by this status; the flames neither worsened or ate away at the fabric, nor did whatever beneath the robes seem to be in pain. As if noticing Romeo’s subtle examination of it, it proceeded to draw out an arm from within the folds of the cloak, and raised a fiercely blistered hand up before the courser, peeling palm facing upwards to the ceiling of the cavern.

It wants something… But what exactly, Romeo was unsure. He had heard no tales of demon gatekeepers or ominous wardens of the dungeons, nor did he know what could possibly be an acceptable offering to such an entity to pay for his entry. He doubted bartering was on the table either. Regardless, he had to find something to give - he didn’t like his chances of getting round this thing empty-handed, and turning back now at a potentially miniscule hurdle was hardly a good look for him either.

He turned back to his pack and rifled through the contents, mind slowly turning over the various items he had and whether or not they could work to appease the flaming robe. Frustration building again, he finally settled on a spare parchment sheet. Not the most exciting (or even the most useful to an entity permanently on fire), but he decided his rations and herbal forages too important to offer up, and imagined that whatever he did offer would get burnt up anyway.

With the parchment in his mouth, he slowly stepped towards the figure, concentrating on its outstretched arm. Once within reach, he slowly placed the parchment down on the thing’s gnarled hand. Surprisingly, it didn’t immediately burst into flames, only once Romeo had returned a few paces backwards did the entity’s hand retreat as if to examine the offering, and then promptly immolate entirely, leaving only the scent of charred fabric in its stead.

Well, this is certainly going to have repercussions of some kind, now or later, he frowned. He took a deep breath to compose himself, and stepped forward onto the paved pathway.