Possible factions in Fiery Cave scenarios?

[Lord-Knightmare]

Hi everyone! How have all of you been?

Anyways, I resumed development of my UMC project (might actually finish the first episode this time) and I was wondering what sort of enemies that can be encountered in a "fiery" lava cavern.
Here's my list so far:
1. Bats (kinda banal)
2. Other cave critters like spiders, etc.
3. Unbound Elementals (that exist on their own and have no master)
4. Trolls (kinda obvious)
5. Undead (possibly?)
6. Dwarves (why is this faction everywhere?)
7. Drakes (Temperature of cavern is perfect for a Drake tribe to settle and build incubation chambers for new hatchlings and eggs)
However, I am looking to go beyond the usual selections and find something new. Anyone got suggestions? I'd love to read about them.

[Shiki]

Hi there,
adding this to the list:
2) Bears, Yetis
Bandits who have their hideout there (not too deep inside)

[Lord-Knightmare]

Bears, Yetis

Not sure how such furry beasts would settle in such a warm location.

Bandits who have their hideout there (not too deep inside)

Kinda makes sense. One bandit gang wonders deep into the caves and encamps there...However, considering the campaign, that might not be the case.
Thank you for suggesting anyways...

[Deciton_Reven]

I guess it depends. If you want cannon mainline there is only so much you can do. I don't really see many other choices (fire magi?). If you want to use other UMC factions though there are plenty. Anything demonic or mechanical can work easily. If you are willing to put in the time you can really put anything you want in there though. Figure out a play style and make/choose a faction around that. You can have a barbarian tribe (or mainline loyalist?) that worships the volcano, an ever generic bad but still plausible "fire" elves (or normal mainline elves?) that are more in tune to fire than earth, snakemen (or saurians and naga) that were drove deep below the earth long ago and need the magma's heat to survive because they're still cold blooded. As long as you can put a reason on something being there and it's fun to play, the audience probably won't mind.

[Shiki]

I forgot about the fiery part in your question, thought only about caves.
Maybe sth. like in HttT can work, some people (windsong?) searching for a magic item, or looking for a legendary forgotten dwarfish city. Or, there was a connecting tunnel, and later a volcano appeared, making it unusable for the people who build it.

[Poison]

1. Bats (kinda banal)
2. Other cave critters like spiders, etc.
3. Unbound Elementals (that exist on their own and have no master)
4. Trolls (kinda obvious)
5. Undead (possibly?)
6. Dwarves (why is this faction everywhere?)
7. Drakes (Temperature of cavern is perfect for a Drake tribe to settle and build incubation chambers for new hatchlings and eggs)
However, I am looking to go beyond the usual selections and find something new. Anyone got suggestions? I'd love to read about them.

You are going to put all of those there and you want more??

1. Bats (kinda banal)

I love bats, very sturdy, a real menace.

4. Trolls (kinda obvious)

Make sure to put Troll shamans (it only seems befitting), you could add a little story there too.

Other than that, either put dwarves + drakes or undead + drakes (but not all of them imho). Make some of the area of the drakes illuminated so it will be more plausible.

[Sapient]

The Era of Myths has Gargoyles.
And of course, you could use a dragon.

[Velensk]

--Dark Elves (by extension if you can find some deep variant of the dwarves they'd be a great fit)
--Imps/Daemons, something similar to a Balrog for bonus points
--Monstrous Salamander (a specific type of cave critter that should be there)
--Ancient Constructs, in particular golems or colossus of bronze would be appropriate
--Just about any aberration that wouldn't be opposed to lava could work
--Just about any kind of crystalline enemy
--Cultists
--The Nightmares faction would definitely work
--If the cave is of sufficient size, fire Jouten would work

And of course, it's not difficult to come up with your own imperial subterranean species if you wish though I assumed you were looking for something recognizable to most people.