Summon is a strong word "retain" may be more apropos.

AH,

So ka.

Hmm, I have some theories about what Dunklezahn/Lethe may be up to, although they came about because I needed an excuse to run a modified version of Harlequin's Back (one of my players wanted to go through it, but those events happened a bit too long ago to just run it). For reference if your one of my players, I would greatly prefer you not to read beyond this point, it may lessen surprises. Some of this may also contain a few more spoilers from the end of the Dragonheart Saga, so read on at your own risk.



First off, Thayla is not necessarily dead. She fell into the chasm yes, but the end implies she may not be dead as Dunklezahn/Lethe sends what's her name the free blood spirit off in search of her. My theory/personal plot: the spirit never did find Thayla as she searched the depths of the metaplanes, but she found something else, namely Ghostwalker imprisoned somewhere by Horrors. She reports back to Dunklezahn, and he sets about weakening the prison to set his brother free.

A further bit that I added to the theory solely for the purposes of running my modified Harlequins Back is that somehow while he was weakening the prison, somehow the Horrors caught Dunklezahn/Lethe himself, leaving the chasm once again undefended.

I'm planning a meta-campaign that will start before big D dies, and continues on through. I do plan on Lethe being a background player (in addition to the impact of his Will.) I cannot imagine D's spirit being content to vacation on some metaplane. I'm going to make him actively seek connection with the "real" world. It won't be a focus, but it will be a sub-plot.

BTW, I'm happy to close up the whole horrors episode. Not that it wasn't good, it was just too big, too overwhelming, to cataclysmic. The awakened world is scary enough as is, moving too fast for players to keep up with as is. Wait a couple more decades of game time, then they might be more appropriate.

About this idea that the big D killed himself to power some kind of artifact : I've heard this elsewhere, but I've never read anything that's convinced me that it's true. Possible, I know, but isn't assassination by the Azzies also as likely? I don't recall reading anything conclusive about the causeof death.
Someone help me out here. Ancient H?

Read the Dragonheart Saga. It answers all your questions. And you get an official Sixth World knowlege skill of 1 according to AH.

The Abstruse One

I did read Dragon heart. I just don't recall anything in it that confirmed how Dunkie died. What's in there that rules out an assassination? (It's been a while, I might have just forgot.) Spell it out for me.

I've done something very different in my campaign (you can see it here), but I have a lot of changes to the canon timeline (actually, after reading SoNA, I regret making some of them, but...). I also did not really like the whole Dunkelzahn dying in some spectacular fashion, I had him die peacefully at his lair (well, as far as anyone knows anyway). As for the whole Horror angle, no one in the game really knows about that yet, so I haven't bothered to address it.

When I do have wraiths or other malevolent creatures that could be Horrors, I intend to simply make them powerful, malevolent spirits or creatures, and not link them to any giant group -- instead, they will seem unconnected. I do like the idea of the Horrors, and of having a Horror behind much of the action in Aztechnology and Aztlan, so I will probably keep them, but make it very subtle -- something I've generally done with all supernatural aspects of Shadowrun really.

The Abstruse One

Do I have to drag out quotes? Dog, it's fairly implicit in the Dragonheart Saga that Dunkie cacked off to bring the Dragonheart into being. Check the sections where Harlequin's talkign about it.

Was the Aztlan sourcebook written before or after the election was decided?
That has the whole thing leading up to Big D killing himself, and completely explains it. I knew what happened when I read The Dragon Heart Trilogy, because I'd just finished reading the Aztlan sourcebook. As soon as he blew up, I knew why. It was part of the plot before the election was officially decided, obviously.

I haven't managed to acquire and read the trilogy. My question is not why did he die, but why right then? Was there additional power garnered by him blowing up right then and there? Or did Thayla happen to topple over at just the wrong moment and it was all a coincidence?

Thalya wasn't gone yet, but the reason why was that Ryan Mercury, who was sent to Aztlan to spy around, noticed that Aztechnology/Aztlan had a locus. Basically, it's a power focus on crack. When Far Scholar found this out, he put his plan into motion.

I'm just guessing, but I think at this point in the dicussion, spoiler tags are pointless, ne?

Oh, and the Aztlan book was written LONG before the Dragonheart Triolgy. It was even before the Harlequin's Back adventures, and I believe in 2054 or 2055. Not exactly sure though...

The Abstruse One

Aztlan was written after Harlequin's Back (since it refers to it) and before Dunkelzahn dies.

No, before, as it was one of the things that sparked Laughing Man to action.

EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't see who I was arguing against. AH would definately know better than I would

The Abstruse One

You could just look at the numbers on the books...

Never mind, keep arguing.

If I remember correctly, the Big D complained about the laughing mans actions in the shadow talk.

Harley refers distinctly to elements of Harlequin's Back in the Aztlan SB, especially concerning blood magic. Thus, things fall in the following order:

Harlequin's Back

House of the Sun

Worlds Without End

Aztlan

Portfolio of a Dragon

I'll read it again, but I'm still not convinced....
For example: Dunkie might have prepared the dragonheart as a contingency in case he died, like a lot of other things. So sure, his death powered the heart, but was it suicide on D's part? What about all the indications that an elaborate explosive was used? Was it an assassination attempt that he was anticipating? I know of lots of people who are said to have 'given their lives' for something, but that doesn't mean they deliberately killed themselves to do it. I'm not ruling it out, I'm just saying that there might be other interpretations.

erm...



Not too much of the story there, was there?

Thanks, Nath. Where'd you get the insider info?
Everybody's theories and interpretations are great, too.