The Apocalypse!

[FishStampede]

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:

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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.

[Taran]

Ummm...

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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.

[Becq]

Niiiice power!  How many refresh would you say that's worth? 

[Jimmy]

Ummm...

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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.

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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.

[FishStampede]

Niiiice power!  How many refresh would you say that's worth? 

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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.

[admiralducksauce]

My main Denarian villain wants Harry Houdini's handcuff key so he can unlock the Gates of Hell. The PCs got to the key first, so they've got targets on their backs now.

[Jimmy]

My end game is a return of the Dreamtime, an aboriginal myth about creation, only full of giant serpents and frogmen and murderous eagles. Making it a kind of fae court similar to the Erlking's court, having been repressed for thousands of years (Aboriginal folk lore covers approx 40000years after all) by shamans now that the aborigine tribes have been decemated the old wards have slowly faded. Monsters playground follows.

[Sanctaphrax]

The current apocalyptic plan for my game is that the fey courts rip each other apart, messing up the natural balance. Meanwhile Nicodemus goes around stirring up as much trouble as possible. He's stolen a nuclear submarine, so that's quite a lot of trouble.

[FishStampede]

My main Denarian villain wants Harry Houdini's handcuff key so he can unlock the Gates of Hell. The PCs got to the key first, so they've got targets on their backs now.

I just want to say, Warehouse 13 is one of my favorite shows. Did you get the idea from there?

My end game is a return of the Dreamtime, an aboriginal myth about creation, only full of giant serpents and frogmen and murderous eagles. Making it a kind of fae court similar to the Erlking's court, having been repressed for thousands of years (Aboriginal folk lore covers approx 40000years after all) by shamans now that the aborigine tribes have been decemated the old wards have slowly faded. Monsters playground follows.

This one is also one of my favorites. I'm fond of tribal mythologies (as you can see with how I use Cherokee myth), and the Australians have a very, very interesting one. Most people don't quite realize it has a dark side too. ALL myths have a dark side. As Terry Pratchett put it, "Sooner or later, all the old stories are about blood."

[JDK002]

My main plot delves into the history of the Hohokom Indians that live here in Arizona before Phoenix was founded.  They were several thousands large and had, for the time, advances systems of irrigation and what not.  But by the time the eventual founders of Phoenix got here there were nothing but ruins of the civilization.  History has it they suffered a bad drought.

BUT, in the dresdenverse they fell victims of the summer court.  They performed a massive ritual that created a giant flash fire across a huge portion of the state.  With he intent that from the ashes l, new, more, and better life will flourish.  And now in the present time, summer is starting to make preparations to do it again.

[admiralducksauce]

I just want to say, Warehouse 13 is one of my favorite shows. Did you get the idea from there?
This one is also one of my favorites. I'm fond of tribal mythologies (as you can see with how I use Cherokee myth), and the Australians have a very, very interesting one. Most people don't quite realize it has a dark side too. ALL myths have a dark side. As Terry Pratchett put it, "Sooner or later, all the old stories are about blood."

I've never seen Warehouse 13 save maybe for their Eureka crossover, but I really liked that Lost Room miniseries that Syfy did (which dealt with weird artifacts, each with its own oddball power). One of my PCs is a thief specializing in magic items, so I try to have interesting artifacts show up now and then, and a key that can unlock anything matches up well with another PC's backstory (he used to be a Denarian host and Denarians are all about the/an/any apocalypse).

[zaczane]

my apocalypse is probably going to have the supernatural word be reveled to the humans ....all of them over live television
basic but still cool in its own right