That wonderful stuff: Lava

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

The short answer is that it would be entirely reasonable to say that anyone close to molten lava/magma should take about half the damage that they'd take from actually falling in. I'm not enough of an expert to give actual ranges in yards and such, but the whole idea of "jumping from plate to plate, over rivers of hot lava" is 100% ridiculous -- not only jumping over lava, but just getting close enough to try it is a death sentence.

I always laugh a bit at the end of The Return of the King movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, specifically the Mount Doom parts - all that red-orange hot lava would have radiated like any other red-orange hot surface, such as the heating elements in a toaster oven or broiler. Frodo and Sam would have been nicely grilled by the time the eagles got to them, and the eagles would have at least been singed. And this is not even counting the hot fumes emitted.

And as long as I am grouching, gold is denser than lava - the ring would have sunk. Flesh is less dense than lava - Gollum would have floated (while burning to a crisp, of course).

Luke