Much like there's the BAT coming up eventually, I figure that every game should have a looming apocalyptic event that could totally wipe out everything the players hold dear. Oh, it's not today, probably not even soon. It may not even happen at all, but it's there. Waiting. Because sometimes, we just want to watch the (game) world burn. What's yours?
Mine:
Centuries ago, a monster lived in the woods. A horrible creature called Ulagu, that resembled a giant yellow jacket bigger than a house. At the time it was unstoppable, attacking villages and carrying off children to feed to its monstrous brood. However, one clever warrior managed to track it back to its lair, a cave in the Nantahala Gorge. The cave was filled with yellow jackets of various sizes and, smart enough to know that going in there would be suicide, he instead piled up dry wood outside the mouth of the cave and started a fire. The smoke filled the cave, and he kept the bonfire going for a day and a half. Only the smallest of Ulagu's brood managed to escape the cave to plague us to this day, but the creature itself and the worst of its kind were trapped within the cave. The warrior then collapsed the cave entrance, sealing it off forever just in case the beast survived.
Unfortunately, it did. It took centuries, but it managed to dig another passage out of the cave. It also never stopped spawning more of its kind. There are now countless yellow jackets filling the caves underneath that mountain, leading to the odd and as-yet scientifically unexplained "rumbling mountain" phenomenon. Before it could escape, though, the Nantahala Gorge was flooded to create a new lake. Pure luck kept the creature from escaping almost a century ago. After that, it reversed course and is now digging straight up.
The tunnels are now choked with so many spirit yellow jackets that it's practically a solid mass. When Ulagu bursts out of the mountain peak, they will explode out in a cloud miles high and quickly sweeping across the landscape. Were Harry there, he would no doubt call it a "Beecano" despite the fact they're technically wasps (it just sounds better). Quadrillions of supernaturally aggressive and hateful wasps will spread across the land stinging pretty much everything to death for hundreds of miles. Better get some bug spray.
Ummm...
that actually happens once a year where I come from...except it's Shad Flies, and instead of carrying people off, the Shads fly around obscuring traffic then die on the streets causing car accidents from the slippery mess their corpses make on the ground. Also, they smell like dead fish which, I think, is their supernatural power.
Ummm...
that actually happens once a year where I come from...except it's Shad Flies, and instead of carrying people off, the Shads fly around obscuring traffic then die on the streets causing car accidents from the slippery mess their corpses make on the ground. Also, they smell like dead fish which, I think, is their supernatural power.
We have something similar here in Australia. Cicadas burst out of the ground after living beneath the soil for over 10 years, in great swarms that make an incredible racket with their singing. For weeks there are cicada husks from when they sprouted wings littering trees, fly screen and things. They about the size of a cig lighter and they tend to die in droves, although not as numerous as those Shad flies, they tend to dominate an area at a time.
Niiiice power! How many refresh would you say that's worth? :)
All of it. It's not so much a power as an event, like a hurricane. The thing is, it's been trapped down there, immortal and always spawning more immortal yellow jackets and it's reached critical mass. Had it been free to move and its spawn free to escape, it'd be nowhere near this bad. It's even trapped under the mountain on the Nevernever side of things. There's actually a few nasty rituals that can summon some of its brood, which function just like normal yellow jackets except be affected by spirit stuff.