Y'know…hmm. Another thing about lava as it's popularly portrayed is that it never loses heat, cools off, and hardens. Whereas, what strikes me upon looking at the occasional lava lake in Kīlauea is that even in a giant lake of lava it forms a thin crust of solid rock on its surface, because compared to it the air temperature is so cold that its surface freezes. And that's with a more-or-less straight connection down into the mantle! Any isolated pool of lava cut off from a heat source should have a solid crust that grows over time as the heat leaks away.There are several classic D&D adventures with pools or lakes of lava that act as dungeon exploration hazards. In reality, you'd notice the temperature getting too hot to be comfortable way before you got close enough to the lava for it to be dangerous.
This together suggests a two-for-one explanation: people don't feel convective heat from lava pools because they're enchanted not to transfer heat with their surroundings, which explains how they can persist as hot liquid rock indefinitely rather than rapidly freezing out.
Statistics: Posted by Philadelphus — 27 Mar 2024 18:41