How to stop a volcano from erupting?


Advice


Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?


Cheapy wrote:

Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?

Throw in a virgin.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Throw in a virgin.

Is it considered an Evil Act to Stop a Volcano from erupting?


Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:
Cheapy wrote:

Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?

Throw in a virgin.

Tried that. We used to have 10 characters, but throwing the Paladin in didn't help much.


a few Decanters of endless water on geyser pointed into the top?
Wish/Miracle
Summon something


A volcano won't blow if the pressure is vented. Start digging some holes with move earth and rock to mud and hope you release enough pressure in time.

Dark Archive

Cheapy wrote:

Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?

Some sort of divination / commune / commune with nature to ask the gods / nature spirits how to stop it would be the first step.

If it's being caused because of something supernatural, like a dragon waking up inside of it, or a gate to the elemental plane of pyroclaustic fury, then it's probably gonna require a very specific plot McGuffin to stop it.

If it's just ye olde magma build-up, the characters will still need divination to know that, and to understand how that works, since tectonics and vulcanology are a few centuries (or millenia) out of the PCs purview. But once they are clued in how it works, a sphere of annhilation (or similar tactic, such as summoning tons of thoqqua) to bore down into the sides of the expanding magma dome and pierce it from the sides, allowing the pressure build up to vent to the sides (perhaps into the sea?), instead of building up until it explodes, would be one solution. Once the pressurized lava dome is lanced like a boil, and the stuff building up has somewhere to vent to (important caveat, that. If there's a city at the base of the volcano, and you vent the lava into that valley, you've probably just made things worse for the people living there...), tremors and stuff should settle down.

Given how much damage lava does, thoqqua are your best bet (and advanced extra-large ones, if you can limited wish them up, or locate and call them with planar binding / planar ally), as a bulette or similar burrower would get cooked by the lava before it could do anything particularly useful. (Although, if you can call up elemental template bulettes or delvers from the plane of fire, using the templates in the Manual of the Planes or whatever, that's another option.) Summons won't last long enough to accomplish squat. Go with calling spells like planar ally / planar binding.

A sphere of annhilation goes a step further and doesn't require 'venting space,' since it can just be sent into the lava to 'eat it all up.'

A gateway into another plane could similarly get rid of the lava, if you can get down in there and create one... Note that this is an excellent way to piss off the inhabitants of said plane!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cheapy wrote:

Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?

*represses urge to fall down laughing*

Not even a fully realised Avatar can stop a volcano. You have two options.

1. Get the hell out of the way and save as many as you can.

2. Try to divert the effects. Use LOTS AND LOTS OF earth moving effects to make ramparts to divert lava, storm effects to try cool down the lava to rock and add to diversion.

3. If the eruption is pyroclastic.. forget defending and get the hell out of there. Step 2 assumes a relatively quiet eruption of lava flows.

4. Seek the favor of an associated elemental lord or diety.

Liberty's Edge

A wish or miracle should be able to quiet a volcano, but at level 14 you might not have easy access to such magic. A limited wish could do it, but you don't have a Wizard, and unless you've got awhile until the volcano actually blows you're Sorc doesn't have time to level up and get 7th level spells.

So its looks like its up to your Druid to save the day. Rather than prevent the volcano from exploding, it's going to be a lot easier for the druid to minimize the harm caused by the eruption.

Here's what he does:

Cast summon nature's ally VII to summon a greater earth elemental (or, if the DM allows it, a greater magma elemental).

If you go with the greater earth elemental cast protection from fire on it. That should make it immune to lava damage depending on your DM's ruling - the earth elemental entry says an earth elemental with immunity to fire can move harmlessly through lava and magma, and the lava effects entry says that immunity to fire counts as immunity to lava, so the protection from fire (which grants immunity to fire) should last its full duration because the DM shouldn't be rolling lava damage. However, protection from energy is ablative, and if the DM decides that the lava does damage like an attack then that PoE won't last long at 20d6/round. An average of 70 damage a round means that the PoE will be gone in 2 rounds, and even if you cast a resist fire it'll still take 40 points a round. Which would nix this plan.

Alternately, if your word mage has access to the energy immunity (body) word, then problem solved, since that grants flat out immunity.

If protection from fire lets the earth elemental swim in lava (which it should), or you can summon a magma elemental, the next step is to send the elemental towards the heart of the volcano and set it out in search of the point where pressure is building -- the focal point of the eruption. A commune with nature spell might assist in this, as you could talk to the mountain itself and learn its secrets.

The goal is for the earth elemental to burrow a channel to the surface of the mountain through the focal point, so that the pressure building underneath can be released without an explosion. Essentially it's no different than lancing a boil, except you're coming at it from the inside.

The druid can help on the outside by using combinations of transmute rock to mud and move earth spells to create a channel on the surface of the mountain to direct the lava flow in whatever direction you want. With four transmute rock to mud spells, you can create a channel that is 30' wide, 10' deep and 360' long, and then clear the whole thing with one move earth spell (90 minute casting time). That should be enough to aim the lava away from any settlements.

It's a solution that asks the GM to be pretty flexible and forgiving of reality, but it's about the best possible solution for a party without access to wish - and stingy GM could just as easily rule that it's too big for wish to handle. I hope it helps.


Oh, it's supernatural. Not normal. So yes, it is a plot device. Move earth may be the best bet, although the first bard has access to the Catastrophe subdomains power...


Cheapy wrote:

Title says it all. We have a Bard focusing on weather (special archetype), a Sorcerer word caster, a Druid, 2 magi, a barbarian, a rogue, and a rogue / monk. Also, another Bard/ Sorcerer.

All level 14. Anything we can do?

It depends how geologically 'realistic' your GM is keeping things. Expect a great deal of heat and possibly some earth tremors and poisonous gases. Beyond that it depends on if your GM is throwing at you lava flows (which can possibly be diverted with very large trenches if you have long enough to prepare and gravity and space permit - building large barriers to try and block a flow in and of itself is probably only a temporary solution at best), ash falls and lava-bombs (in which case as soon as they start to fall it might be a good idea to get out) or pyroclastic flows (in which case your only hope is to divine well in advance that one's coming, and to evacuate the area of everything and everyone).

Of course your GM may have seeded some sort of major artifact somewhere of volcano calming (in which case you should go and find it) or have some organization/deranged individual causing the eruption (in which case it might be an idea to go and stop them).

Other than that, as a player I would recommend you read about the Icelandic town of Heimaey and the volcano of Eldfell (*wikipedia link*) and the series of attempts to protect the Sicilian town of Zafferana from the 1991-1993 eruption of Mount Etna (*vulcanology site link*). Note that the main thrust of the attempts to protect Zafferana consisted of a series of barriers erected over a period of months during a prolonged eruption where the lava pooled up behind each erected barrier, and then flowed over the top and continued onwards...

And maybe your PCs could look for gold or brass dragon allies which already come handily immune to fire (although they may require buffing against poison gases and will presumably require substantial financial 'gifts' for their assistance).

Scarab Sages

Mmm... might be able to use "Find the path" with source of the eruption. Depends on how flexible your dm is, and whether it's a prominent enough location to work :p

Liberty's Edge

Cheapy wrote:
Oh, it's supernatural. Not normal. So yes, it is a plot device. Move earth may be the best bet, although the first bard has access to the Catastrophe subdomains power...

Give Camazotz back the thingie that got stolen from him. ;p


Maybe you could have it think about baseball or something?

Liberty's Edge

Call in Avatar Roku.


Presuming this is a normal tabletop game, the eruption will have an anthropogenic source, and your group of adventurers should identify and defeat that source.

If you have a 14th level druid, why hasn't he wildshaped into earth elemental form, cast fire protection/resistance on himself, and earth-glided to the root of the volcano to investigate the source of the eruption?


When in doubt, I recommend sinking the continent.

Sure, it hurts local property values, but at least no one on a different landmass has to suffer the penalties for the eruption.

Alternately, if you have access to high level magic, find the point at which it will be erupting, and establish a spell across that which shunts the eruption to some other location. On another dimension or the keep of an enemy is usually a good choice. You are likely going to have to make this as a magic item though, so I hope someone took "Craft Wonderous Item"

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
brreitz wrote:
Call in Avatar Roku.

As noted before... he did not do quite that well. However a novitate Avatar with the assistance of two other benders had better luck. And they didn't stop the eruption, they diverted it. If it had been pyroclastic as Roku's eruption was they would not have fared as well.

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

How's your catalogue of Dungeon magazine? The Shackled City AP had a module dealing with the PCs trying to stop/mitigate the effects of a volcanic eruption, and that would be a good place to mine for ideas/hooks.

If I were running the game, I probably wouldn't allow the PCs to stop a volcano unless they were epic level (and maybe not even then).

There's also an episode of Super Friends on point, in which Superman stopped an erupting volcano by drilling down into the earth or something. He's Superman, he does s~~! like that.

Dark Archive

DungeonmasterCal wrote:
Maybe you could have it think about baseball or something?

Heh. I wish I'd thought of that first. :)


if somebody has control winds, then have them drop a tornado on top of the volcano blowing away from the area you are trying to protect. It should solve atleast the poisonous gas issue and possibly the direction the lava and ash erupt in.

Otherwise, tons of fire immune burrowing creatures.

this is starting to sound like this is all going to fall on the back of your druid.


A 14th level druid should be able to handle this issue. It's really what Druids are for. The first thing I thought was "Hey! Finally a use for Rampart!"

Early steps are, as I mentioned above, earthglide below the volcano and see if there's an unnatural cause. Fly over everything and get a topographic layout of the volcano, and also a sense of where an eruption will go if it goes anywhere. Get maps from the GM showing this topography, as it relates to nearby villages. Rampart the villages to divert lava. If the eruption does happen, wildshape air elemental and doublecast control winds to create a tornado, and hover just above ground so people aren't affected but falling debris is intercepted. Control Weather to dump rain on the volcano itself. Etc.

The druid should be solving this question for you. If he's not, he doesn't really know what his capabilities are.

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