Volcano Looming High

Frequently Asked Questions

Blighted Island cards

How does All Things Weaken interact with Heart of the Wildfire? When Wildfire places Presence, does it then destroy its own Presence?
No. All Things Weaken modifies how Presence destruction from Blight works, but doesn't change the source of the Blight, so Wildfire is still protected from Blight added due Spirit actions. This also applies to the portion which reads "...and 1 Presence in an adjacent land": if you choose Wildfire's Presence as the 1 Presence to destroy, it will survive if the Blight was added due to a Spirit Action.
While Volcano Looming High isn't protected from Blight added by Spirit Actions in general, it does have similar protection from Blight added by its Explosive Eruption Innate Power. In that one particular case, all of the above applies to Volcano Looming High as well.
Tags: Actions, Blight, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), All Things Weaken, 3 more...

General Play

When you return presence to your tracks, can you cover one of the leftmost solid-circle spaces that start the game without presence?
No, the leftmost spaces with solid circles cannot be covered by presence.
Similarly, "Bonus" spaces, which start uncovered, can never be covered.
Tags: Presence track, Bonus Spaces, Volcano Looming High, Fractured Days Split the Sky, 5 more...

Power Cards

If I have one Presence in a land, and I play Entwined Power on another Spirit who has one Presence there, do we have a Sacred Site?
You may target Powers as if you had a Sacred Site there, and they may target Powers as if they had a Sacred Site there. But for all other purposes, no, because Entwined Power only lets you use each others' Presence for targeting Powers - not for anything else, including resolving Powers.
For instance, Gift of Living Energy (a Minor Power) wouldn't count it towards "If you have at least 2 Sacred Sites...", nor would Fear of the Unseen (a Fear Card) treat it as a Sacred Site for scaring away Invaders.
Note that if you Entwine with River Surges in Sunlight, their River's Domain Special Rule only applies to them (read it as "counts as your Sacred Site"). So for targeting, they would treat any Wetland where either of you have Presence as a Sacred Site, but you would still need 2+ Presence as usual.
Tags: Sacred Sites, Presence, Entwined Power, River's Domain (River Surges in Sunlight), 6 more...
If an inland and Coastal land get Woven Together by the Fabric of Place, can Ocean leave their Presence inland during Time Passes?
No.
The joint land is Coastal, but the split when Weave Together the Fabric of Place expires is considered a move, and Ocean's Presence cannot move to an inland land.
(Discussion elsewhere) Tags: Weave Together the Fabric of Place, Ocean's Hungry Grasp, Volcano Looming High, Mountain Home (Volcano Looming High), 3 more...

Range and Targeting

When choosing Beasts to move with Flocking Red-Talons, which land do you measure Range from?
The target land. All text in land-targeting Powers is resolved in relation to the target land unless otherwise specified.
(Discussion elsewhere) Tags: Range, Flocking Red-Talons, Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands, Ravaged Undergrowth Slithers Back to Life, 8 more...

Setup

If a Spirit has multiple legal ways to set up on the island, can it choose the one it likes best?
Yes, when there are multiple choices that equally meet the setup conditions, the player gets to choose the one they like. For some Spirits, this will only happen on the thematic side or against specific Adversaries/Scenarios.
Tags: Spirit setup, Thunderspeaker, A Spread of Rampant Green, Ocean's Hungry Grasp, 10 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

How does Reach from the Infinite Darkness work with Presence from Spirits with restrictions on where they can move Presence?
Since Reach from the Infinite Darkness ignores these restrictions, Presence from those Spirits can be abducted without any issue. However, that Presence can only escape to lands that it could normally be moved to, whether Coastal lands (Ocean’s Hungry Grasp), Inland lands (Lure of the Deep Wilderness), or Mountains (Volcano Looming High). If Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine doesn’t have Presence or its Incarna in any legal lands, you must choose to let a different piece escape or lose the game.
Every Growth option has a way to add or move Presence or the Incarna into a new land, so this generally won't be a loss threat unless multiple such Spirits have their Presence abducted and Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine is unusually low on Presence.
Tags: Move, Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine, Reach from the Infinite Darkness (Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine), The Endless Dark (Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine), 7 more...
Can you get around the Serpent's presence limitation using Indomitable Claim? <i>(Add a Presence, even if target land is a type of land you can’t normally have Presence in)</i>
No. The Serpent's limit isn't a restriction based on land type, so Indomitable Claim doesn't help.
As of 2020, the only published Spirits for whom getting around land-type restrictions is relevant are Ocean's Hungry Grasp (base game, cannot normally have Presence in inland lands), Lure of the Deep Wilderness (Jagged Earth, cannot normally have Presence in coastal lands), and Volcano Looming High (Jagged Earth, can normally only have Presence in Mountains).
(Discussion elsewhere) Tags: Presence, Indomitable Claim, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, Ocean's Hungry Grasp, 2 more...
What does "-X Cost" mean on a growth option or power threshold?
It means you have to pay that much Energy to take that growth option or trigger that level of your power. (Branch & Claw rulebook, p. 15)
If you don't have the Energy, you can't take the option.
(Discussion elsewhere) Tags: Energy, Sharp Fangs behind the Leaves, Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, 2 more...
When Volcano uses Explosive Eruption, it deals damage both via destroying its Presence and the Innate Power. Does Badlands apply twice?
No, because the damage from destroying its Presence isn't a separate action.
The Special Rule says, "When your Presence is destroyed...", which means the damage is done as part of whatever action destroyed your Presence.
(If it were instead a triggered action, it would say "After your Presence is destroyed".)
Tags: Actions, Action Modifiers, Badlands, Explosive Eruption (Volcano Looming High), 2 more...
As Volcano, when destroying your own Presence for Explosive Eruption, can that Presence be saved (by, e.g., Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By)?
Yes, but not usefully. It doesn't count towards the eruption thresholds (because they check the # of Presence actually destroyed) or for Collapse In a Blast of Lava and Steam (because "destroy" gets replaced with "push" before the rule "when your Presence is destroyed, deal damage" kicks in).
Prior to the ruling that cancellation/replacement always happens before changes/additions, you could decide on the ordering, and apply Collapse In a Blast of Lava and Steam's damage before Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By's substitution. but this is no longer true.
Tags: Saved From Destruction, Action Modifiers, Presence, Destroy, 4 more...
If Finder of Paths Unseen causes Heart of the Wildfire to place Presence, destroying Invaders, does Finder need to pay for Responsibilities to the Dead? What if Finder destroys some of Volcano's Presence?
No for Wildfire. Yes for Volcano, assuming the damage from destroying Volcano's Presence destroys 1 or more Invaders/Dahan.
When placing Wildfire's Presence, Finder's action itself did not cause any destruction. It "directly triggers" the destruction (via Wildfire's special rule), but it did so by adding Presence, not by moving Dahan or Invaders. (Earlier printings of Wildfire incorrectly said "when" instead of "after" for the Special Rule; see the errata / clarifications on triggered actions.)
Collapse in a Blast of Lava and Steam is phrased as a modifier - when Volcano's Presence is destroyed, it modifies the current action to also do 1 Damage. If that action is Finder's, it's Finder dealing the damage. (This would have worked more thematically if Collapse in a Blast of Lava and Steam had been a triggered action, since then it would have been Volcano dealing the damage.)
(Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) Tags: Triggered Actions, Finder of Paths Unseen, Responsibilities to the Dead (Finder of Paths Unseen), Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), 3 more...