EXCERPT As research for this project was nearing completion in 2010, southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, meltwater from the volcano’s glacial icecap causing severe local flooding, and the eruption plume covering northern Europe, causing catastrophic disruption of air traffic. To those of a Lovecraftian bent, such stark hydroplutonic revenge merely confirms the moral lesson of all good horror stories: protagonists must avoid digging up the pest; those who expose occult conspiracies mysteriously disappear (or worse).…