The complete story of Big D, The SoE competition Options

[Shadow]

I am working on the TSS competition to write a module in 10,000 words to bring back Big D. The winner gets a new copy of SoE. What I am looking for is the complete history of Big D's "death". I read the Dragon Heart trilogy, but alas I do not own DotSW. Can anyone help me out here with some research?

[ Spoiler ]

I know part of his spirit is trapped with Burnout, and I know part of his spirit is in the astral plane helping defend the earth form the Horrors (I think anyways). I don't know much else though. Like the current location of Burnout, or who would benefit from bringing him back etc...
[/spoilers}

[Lilt]

[ Spoiler ]

IMHO He's already back. Weren't there mentions in some books about strange astral drek happening around some of the DF facilities? or was that just the Children of the Dragon cult? Looking it up now.

[mfb]

not gonna bother with spoilers, if you don't know this stuff already it's a good time to learn.

as far as i know, D became a free spirit named Lethe (named so because he had no memory) upon his death, due to the machinations of the Dragon Heart he created. the Heart shunted him to the metaplanes. after much wacky hinjinx, he possessed Burnout and now guards some sort of metaplanar chasm. on the other side of the chasm are the Horrors, whom Burnout/D is keeping at bay by destroying any attempts to bridge the chasm.

[Ancient History]

Dunkie's amnesic post-mortem spirit attempted to possess the cyberzombie known as Burnout. The cybermantic rituals performed on Burnout prevented the spirit from leaving.

Now, Dunkie-Billy (aka Burnout; used to be a hermetic magician until he...you guessed it...took too much cyberware and burned out!) have been translated onto the metaplanes, where they use the Dragonheart to keep us safe from the nasty Horrors!

Yeah, Dunkie could be brought back. But it would be a bitch to do so, and then we'd be wide open to the Horrors again.

[booklord]

As I understand it old Dunkie simply sits there smashing any spike points that may appear. Since he's already taken out the big one there isn't much to stop him from taking a vacation and seeing what's going on back on Earth. You know he's got to be curious.

I just don't see how they'd be able to bring back his dragon body.

[mfb]

"dunk smash! rrrarrrr!"

[Dashifen]

Maybe he could "find" a new one. Ghostwalker seemed to have his stashed somewhere between DC and Denver when he came through the Dunk. Rift. Perhaps there are other dragon bodies laying around?

grasping at straws, I know

[Lilt]

As down-cycle hunting worked, I'm presuming Dragons must have some link to their physical bodies.

I do suspect Dillyzahnout could take trips back to the physical plane though... They'd probably be brief though and he'd not take them without good reason. As it happens I see no reason a powerful initiate physadept drake, such-as Ryan Munchcury, couldn't make a metaplane-call every once in a while to see how things are going.

[mfb]

as a free spirit, dunk probably gained the materialization power. if he can break out of burnout's body, he'll have no trouble forming an appropriate form in the physical plane.

[Lilt]

Y'see that's one thing about Lethe... He could never touch the physical plane.

[mfb]

ah. i got tired of the writing, and skipped from halfway through the first book to the last few pages of the last book, so i probably missed a detail or two.

[Shadow]

Wow. I obviously need to re-read those books. That was so not what I got out of them. I need to do it in a hurry to.

So Lethe was big D all along eh? Kinda weird but cool.

[kevyn668]

I understood it as Dunk's spirit is trapped in the physical body of Billy/Burnout which in turn is in the metaplanes. Harlequin used the same ritual he used in H's Back to take Burnout's physical body to the Astral.

Unless someone is theroizing that exposure to the Dragon Heart and the massive amounts of mana somehow transformed Billy/Burnout back into a spirit...

Hey Shadow, you gonna make Lucreto (whatever her name is) have a cameo at least?

Edit: Just read your last post. I think there was something about Dunk had to hurry with the last part so the ritual didn't work quite as well and he, well, lost his mind. Not sure, though.

[locomotiveman]

[Caine Hazen]

I assumed that Burnout got passed entierly over to the Astral plane...his whole physical being and that he was protecting the spot near the Foevea in Mexico from blood magicians ever using it again. Who knows maybe he just roams the astral looking for "bridges/spikes" and alerting Ryan and Assests Inc to potential threats

[danbot37]

what if those dragon bones dunkie asked to be found in his will were a way he could come back? Maybe they're imbued with some kind of old unknown earthdawnian (is that a word?) magic that once assembled would give him a body to return to. So maybe he planned on it.


curious question... I know its too late, but if he had come back before his term was up as pres, would be entitled to take back over? Or is it too late by then?

[Erebus]

So D would become a DracoLich!?!?

[Shadow]

[kevyn668]

Shadow:
Lucrecio was the blood spirit that was bound to Oscuro and subsequently freed by the blast that destroyed the Locus. She also was the one that found the displaced astral form of Talon.

To your two part question: Darke would qaulify. Assuming he lived or his successor if you choose that he did not. Other than that...one of the IEs? Ehran and Harlequin didn't HATE Dunk that much (per Post Mortem) but we don't know what the rest really think. I'd vote for Urdli. He's pretty much a dick in my book.

[Andvare]

[kevyn668]

[Kanada Ten]

I would use a secret human cabal -something similar to the Black Lodge. We also know there were down cycle hunters that Sirrurg is trying to eliminate as he finds them. Perhaps they would have the power and motivation you require. One such hunter held off Sirrurg for several minutes before the dragon downed the plane he was on.

[kevyn668]

[Kanada Ten]

I'm theorizing that he was a hunter and part of a larger group, but not a member of Black Lodge. I was just mentioning the Lodge because they have powerful mages.

This post has been edited by Kanada Ten: May 4 2004, 04:58 AM

[kevyn668]

Cool. Gotcha. :)

[Ancient History]

'sides, everyone knows that the Black Lodge hates /elves/.

[Abstruse]

The epilog of the last Dragonheart Trilogy book says pretty much that the Billy/Burnout/Lethe/Dunkelzahn gestalt entity is just roaming the metaplane the Enemy is trying to come through and absorbing any spikes with the Dragonheart to prevent the Enemy from building another bridge, thus giving mankind a chance to prepare.

However, a few of the nasty little buggers got through before the bridge was destroyed...

The Abstruse One

[Rock-Steady]

[FXcalibur]

Uh, spikes? Dragonheart? What's the dragonheart?

[northern lights]

i'd put my money on alachia. she was always a dumb bitch and dunkie highly favored the dwarves of throal, so she probably hated him all the more. however, she should be secretly financing another crusade to go and kill alamaise again. i for some reason always got the idea she was behing the down cycle hunting, just a suspicion.

[Lilt]

@FXcalibur
It's nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the metaplot that links Shadowrun to Earthdawn. You should probably just forget any stuff you hear about a scourge of hideous, terrifying, creatures called horrors that will be coming to destroy humanity in 3000 years or so. It's nothing important...





...yet.

[Dashifen]

[Abstruse]

You can get all three books for under $10 on eBay if you shop around. Someone posts the trilogy every other week it seems. But the Dragonheart was an incredibly powerful magical artifact that the Burnout/Billy/Dunk/Lethe hybrid is using to suck the mana out of the spikes, thus eliminating them.

[Pistons]

[Abstruse]

She was the only blood mage who was immune to Thayla's song (see Harlequin's Back for more info on that), so they used her to get to Thayla.

The Abstruse One

[JongWK]

Just use the dragon bones in Mars as a new host for Dunkie. I'm sure AH would love it. ;)

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Nah, there's a megacorp cloning dragons but using frog DNA for the missing bits down in Madagascar.

[Nath]

[Erebus]

[Shadow]

Thanks everyone who posted. If my module doesn't get published in TSS I will see if I can make it available to you all elsewhere. Now, everyone cross your fingers and wish me luck!

[kevyn668]

[Tal]

[Connor]

The sourcebook Portrait of a Dragon: Dunklezahn's Secrets has his will and covers the surrounding events.

Ancient History's site also has a copy of the will with his thoughts and knowledge on each of the bequests he has info or speculation on...

[Jason Farlander]

Theres also a copy of the will posted at http://www.srrpg.com



This post has been edited by Jason Farlander: May 7 2004, 03:04 AM

[Tal]

*Ponders* Didn't D's body get completely vaporised? How then do we get

[Jason Farlander]

Dunky wrote his Will in advance, and didn't get a chance to update it before his head a splode.

[Kanada Ten]

Plus, he doesn't want to make it look obvious that he knew anything. Master of misdirection, old Dunk. Nobody would think he planned on Nuking himself if he's donating his body to science.

[Nath]

[Connor]

Perhaps regardless of the time and circumstances of the ritual his "Heart" would always be able to be found at Lake Louise...?

[Erebus]

Perhaps the reason his body is missing is that it had a sustained spell on it to deliver the various parts of it to the appropriate parties upon his death.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

If he was so smart and prescient, then why were AF Mystic Crusaders able to steal it from his Lake Louise lair in the first place?

Hell, how did they even know to steal it?

[kevyn668]

They knew he'd been stockpiling orichalcum and wanted to buy it. When that failed they in runners/spec ops.

They succeeded b/c A) dramatic license B) A dragon's lair isn't as much of a threat when the dragon's not in it or C) some combination of the A and B.