How to make a really big bang..., what caused the Dunkelzahn Rift? Options

[Method]

So I'm planning a campaign for my old group later this year and the general consensus is they want a merc campaign. I'm thinking of pitting the team against a serious terrorist organization that is in the process of staging a major attack. In trying to come up with some ultimate magical weapon I started thinking about the ol' Dunkelzahn Rift in Washington DC.

First, I should say that I have Portfolio, Target:Wastelands and YotC. I've just been too lazy to dig them out of storage. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) I figured I'd ask here first and those of you with far more Canon-fu than I can point me in the right direction (I'm looking at you Ancient History).

So, has there been any allusions to what might have caused the Rift in the canon material? If so, what books should I be looking in? Can anybody think of some other doomsday-style magical attack that might fit my needs?

[Ancient History]

Well, a massive ritual sacrifice might do the trick. Mind you, it would have to be a willing sacrifice, and you'd need a lot of people, at least some of whom were magicians. It would be the equivalent of fifty people walking into a crowded mall or concert, taking out their hidden knives and cutting their own throats at once, opening a temporary astral gateway to a (probably random, but possibly a specific) plane and letting loose a bunch of free spirits or magical entities for a few seconds. If it went to the Elemental Plane of Fire, for example, the initial results might resemble an explosion.

[Prime Mover]

IIRC Dunkies rift was caused by the Big "D" himself to empower the "DragonHeart" to stop the bridge the enemy was building in the metaplanes. This is a short version of longer story arcs including a trilogy of novels and second Harlequin module and some other things.

[Method]

AH: Wow that was fast. Do you live around here? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

So if this terrorist group had a mass of fanatical followers that were willing to off themselves a ritual sacrifice could do the trick. I was considering some kind of suicide bomber tactic, so maybe that would work...

As far as opening an astral gateway is concerned- what if a powerful free spirt were involved in the plot?

PM: that all sounds familiar. Does it ever explain *how* he did it (besides the obvious "he's a dragon... he just does").

[Prime Mover]

Been awhile since read the plot, don't recall it being clearly explained.

[Ancient History]

AH: Wow that was fast. Do you live around here? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

Summat like that.

So if this terrorist group had a mass of fanatical followers that were willing to off themselves a ritual sacrifice could do the trick. I was considering some kind of suicide bomber tactic, so maybe that would work...

As far as opening an astral gateway is concerned- what if a powerful free spirt were involved in the plot?

Then you wouldn't need the fanatics.

PM: that all sounds familiar. Does it ever explain *how* he did it (besides the obvious "he's a dragon... he just does").

The intimation from the Dragonheart Trilogy is Dunkelzahn used a little trick from Earthdawn called sacrifice magic...it's a kind of blood magic that lets you do some really impressive things with the minor stipulation that you have to die to empower the effect.

[Lionhearted]

Essentially.. in Earthdawn you could be ressurected, but each time you was it took some of your lifeforce, when you hit zero.. you was dead, for good.
I would like to compare it to what Ramirez does in highlander 2, through focusing all his life-force into a single moment he can achieve near impossible powers, at the cost of his life.
Our D&D adapted ED group had a paladin whole sanctified an entire lake turning it into holy water using this kind of magic, not enough to completely drain him, but sure felt like a bitch.. for the horror inhabitating the lake aswell.

[Method]

Very interesting... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif)

Any other ideas, magical or otherwise? Orbital Cow Bombardment?

[CanRay]

Now let us never mention Highlander 2 ever again.

Ways to make a really big bang, without sacrifical magic, might be a Nuclear-Powered Weapon Focus like Winternight had.

But those seemed to have been... Less effective than expected apparently. Perhaps the magical theory behind them was flawed...

Or, even more sinsisterly, perhaps they had been replaced by something more... Conventional.

...

I can't believe I'm starting to think of a REGULAR Nuke as a Conventional weapon!!!

[Lionhearted]

while were at magical wasteproducts.. did the Ghost dance leave any trace? (aside from scorched land around the vulcanoes)

[Ancient History]

A Spike point, but those are unlikely to crop up again.

[Method]

...a Nuclear-Powered Weapon Focus like Winternight had.

Detailed in Threats 2 and System Failure I imagine? Two more books I'll have to dig out.

[Lionhearted]

ah then we have something to work with: Massive magical rituals that devastates entire cities does not rip open the fabrics of reality ^^

[Ancient History]

Much.

[CanRay]

Detailed in Threats 2 and System Failure I imagine? Two more books I'll have to dig out.

Pretty much, but they were only hinted at, and were plot elements more than anything else.

As for a big bang, why not just a good, ol' fashioned pile of explosives hidden in a forgotten tunnel. Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot would have worked, and it is great because it's simple.

Simple plans have the benefit of being SIMPLE. People constantly overthink things too much.

[Cabral]

I remember something about Loci ... Azzies maybe wanting to awaken one using massive amounts of blood sacrifice. Perhaps that's what AH was aluding to? I think it was just in the Dragonheart Trilogy and, along with minigun wielding Free Spirit possessed Cyberzombies, never appeared in "canon". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Daier Mune]

i havn't really looked into the lore surrounding the Cermak Blast in Chicago, but it sounds kind of like nuclear-based toxic magic.

does it have to be a magical something that tears reality a new one? what about large-scale firebug biodrone swarms?

[Method]

CanRay: I haven't ruled out something simple. Someone once posted the idea of using a small glob of plastic explosive taken from a larger charge as a ritual link for a massive lightning ball...

Lionhearted: interesting observation. Guess I'll have to read the rest of System Failure (I've been out of the loop for awhile).

Daier Mune: not necessarily magical. I guess it just needs to be complex enough to drive the plot for a multi-part campaign.

[Slymoon]

...
I would like to compare it to what Ramirez does in highlander BEEEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
...

odd ringing noise around here.

[Lionhearted]

Oh come on, that movie werent THAT bad (well it was a load of junk compared to the first one.. but still, seen far worse)

[CanRay]

odd ringing noise around here.

Sounds almost like the beeping of a bomb slowly ticking down.

Hey, look, it went off years ago at the Box Office!

[Daier Mune]

there's a short story by Philip K. Dick called Imposter. check it out. they made a movie based off of it, but like most movies based off of PKD's work, it blew. essentialy: nuclear device installed in artificial human who doesn't know they're human, triggered by the realization that they're not human.

[Grinder]

Essentially.. in Earthdawn you could be ressurected, but each time you was it took some of your lifeforce, when you hit zero.. you was dead, for good.
(...)
Our D&D adapted ED group had a paladin whole sanctified an entire lake turning it into holy water using this kind of magic, not enough to completely drain him, but sure felt like a bitch.. for the horror inhabitating the lake aswell.

Resurrection in ED is not that easy or common, maybe you mix it up with D&D-rules? Seeing that you converted ED over to D&D, that might be possible.

[Stahlseele]

QUOTE (Method @ Apr 18 2008, 11:47 PM)
AH: Wow that was fast. Do you live around here?

Summat like that.

he basically wrote the book on those things *g*

[CanRay]

Summat like that.
he basically wrote the book on those things *g*

And we'd literally be prying his deck for his cold, dead hands, won't we?

(System Failure: Page 118).