The Glow

A hellish brimstone landscape of smoldering fires, pools of superheated acid water, smoke and ash spans for as far as the eye can see in all directions. An enormous crater a hundred kilometers on a side is found in the middle of the Rocky Mountains where Yellowstone National Park used to be. This is the Yellowstone Caldera, which erupted during the Great Cataclysm.
The glow from the molten lava, diffused among the smoke and haze and flittering embers above give this place its name; for the glow on the horizon is as close as most intelligent species in North America ever get to this place.

Geography

An enormous cylindrical pit over a hundred kilometers across hundreds of meters deep. The floor is a sheet of rock cool enough to be solid, but floating on a sea of molten lava. It breaks, shifts and settles as it is slowly pushed and pulled by the chaotic forces below.
Half-submerged in the center of the caldera is a ley line nexus point that regularly forms a rift to the infernal plane of demons. super volcano A river flows in from the mountains to the north, creating a waterfall that sizzles and pops in a cloud of steam that rarely ever makes it to the near-molten floor. Periodic eruptions of magma spout up from time to time, scattering their red-hot vomit haphazardly across the basin. Numerous pillars of volcanic rock poke like misshapen phalluses into the ash-strewn sky, perpetually spurting their hellish and dripping contents.
To the southwest, magma leaks through a gap and meanders nearly to what was once the great salt lake, but is now an effluvial fan of volcanic rock. This stream of lava is known as the Phlegethon River. It closely follows a ley line and is the playground of salamanders, elementals and other entities attracted to the heat.

Fauna & Flora

Since it has been nearly four hundred years since the eruption, all manner of creatures have come to call this place home.
King of them all is a Flame Wind Dragon named FisKRAKroloss (emphasis added to aid in pronunciation). There is another Flame Wind that periodically visits named IgNEMikhal, which is a female hoping to get Fisk's attention.
There are also a prevalence of fire elementals and demons. An army of demons and elementals sally forth from the rift in the center every time it opens. Fiskrakroloss pays no heed to any but the most powerful of the demons, whom he slays as soon as possible. The dragon is not acting out of altruism, but out of self-preservation; for it knows that he can not allow the demons to rally under a competent or powerful leader that could rival his own power. What he does not know is that a diminutive demon named Berreruuk has successfully passed his attention and has established a headquarters of sorts in the magic rich area of western Montana and an observation post on the eastern rim of the caldera that is used to collect the arriving demons and send them his way. Barreruuk is a wily demon lord who has established his demons as a mercenary company on Rifts Earth. He advertises as Demon Barry's Mercenaries(it rhymes) as far away as the Federation of Magic and Atlantis.
Also present in the caldera, acting as the stormtroopers of Fiskrakroloss are a clan of Fire Giants and their underlings who make up the bulk of the forces he can bring to bear on interlopers and miscreants. There are even some fire warlocks who cavort with their fire elementals, undisturbed by the greater powers that call this place home.
Less beastly are the Cinderwing butterflies. They have somehow evolved to exist in and among the fire and ash of the caldera and the Phlegethon River. These butterflies have glowing wings of yellow and red. They are the only pollinators of the Flame Spout flower.

Natural Resources

Mineral rich, acidic water, magma and lava rock are just about the only resources found here, making it as undesireable a place on earth as any. However, there are several sources of precious stones and exotic metals that have heretofore gone undiscovered. Anyone with scientific knowledge in geology would be able to predict the presence of such materials.

Alternative Name(s)

Hell's Maw, Yellowstone Caldera, Hell on Earth, Valley of Fire, Gehenna

Type

Crater / Crater Lake / Caldera

Location under

North America

Owner/Ruler

Fiskrakroloss