Black Peaks

The Black Peaks are the highest mountains on Casiphon, made entirely of black basalt left over from the enormous volcanic eruptions during the Great Sundering. Only the highest peaks, some eight or ten miles high, are ever covered with snow. The rest are permanently heated by geothermal action, some hot enough to turn water instantly to steam. For this reason, snow and ice never form on the lower levels of the Black Peaks, whose forbidding black summits are visible for dozens of miles across Casiphon.   Natural wonder: the Smoking Fields   The dwarven hold of Nivelanum is built on the eastern foothills of the Black Peaks.  To the West of the hold is an enormous field, roughly sixteen miles in diameter, of black stone rent with deep chasms and craters, which constantly pour out smoke and steam, or send out geysers of boiling, sulpherous water high into the air.