The intense power of a volcano is something that, I feel, is often underutilized in fantasy settings. That’s not to say it’s been ignored, though. Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series (which is awesome, by the way) uses volcanic eruptions to great (and horrible) effect a few books into the series. A volcano was the only power strong enough to destroy the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings series. Before the release of their Neverwinter Campaign setting, Wizards of the Coast even held an open submission contest for writers to send them adventures related to the eruption of Mt. Hotenow, which had a drastic effect on the Neverwinter region. Sure, a Red Dragon can breathe fire, but a volcano can turn the land for miles around into a mass of fire and smoke and ash and melted rock while blotting out the sun and turning the oceans black with ash. That’s something you can definitely use in your games.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will be provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “V” is for volcano, one of the most awesome and powerful forces in the natural world.
