[Prime Mover]

What about the apartment building sized objects that were seen floating over the island prior too revelations in the novels I believe?

[Crimsondude]

According to Lacrima, a "mago-historian" from Tir Tairngire, the eruption that formed Crater Lake occured on 3454 BC. This date has no real significance that I know of. That would be 341 years before the date given by Ehran for the end of the previous age of magic and the sinking of Atlantis (resulting from the explosion of the Theran orichalcuml pillars IIRC). However, the Tir Tairngire Peace Force cordonned off Crater Lake about one week after Lacrima released his findings.

Also, Crater Lake started turning from a Domain into a Mana Ebb around the time of Dunkelzahn's death.

I'm curious which resources you're using for these two bits of information.

The first one (Lacrima) is from the TT sourcebook. The ebb is, IIRC, from Street Magic.

[Grinder]

If only there was a metaplot campaign about something like that. But the rumormill says we don't deal in metaplot anymore.

Can you blame the rumormill for saying that? The advertising text of the upcoming books doesn't give away the impression that metaplot will get much attention in the near future.

NEW DAWN: DAWN OF THE ARTIFACTS 4 (Adventure)

One more artifact. One more chance for a big payday. One more run to distant lands and high seas, racing against time and the wealthy, ruthless powers who want the artifact for themselves. At the end of this, if you succeed, four powerful artifacts will be gathered together, and they will be poised to shake the world.

To finish the quest for the artifacts, runners will have to travel to Hong Kong, track down the mobile city of Karavan, penetrate the corp enclave of Neo-Tokyo, and survive an assault on the high seas. The final adventure in the Dawn of the Artifacts series, New Dawn brings the story of the gathering of the artifacts to a rollicking conclusion while setting the stage for the changes the Sixth World will experience once the true power of these artifacts is tapped and unleashed.

ARTIFACTS UNBOUND (Campaign)

Four artifacts have been found. Some of the most powerful people in the Sixth World have been after them, and many people have died in the globetrotting hunt to bring these objects together. Now that they have been recovered, their powers can be unleashed—or the artifacts can be scattered, lost again until another generation summons the courage and the knowledge to dredge them up.

Artifacts Unbound concludes the Dawn of the Artifacts campaign that makes gamemasters and players free to determine the events of the campaign. Filled with adventure seeds, basic setting information, and NPC statistics, Artifacts Unbound lets gamemasters select the elements that would work best in their campaign and design a thrilling story for their game. Easy to use and flexible, this book can be used with players who have gone through the entire Dawn of the Artifacts campaign, or with players just learning about the artifacts and their effect on the Sixth World.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES (Deep Shadows)

War rages in Central America, spies race here and there across the globe, and tales continue to spread of four powerful artifacts and the feats accomplished by those who manage to get their hands on them. To many, the world is becoming more disordered and unpredictable—but there are those who look underneath the surface chaos and see order, or even a plan. They see people and organizations who pull the strings and make the world shake, and they wonder if they can find out what these people are up to before it’s too late.

Conspiracy Theories is a deep dive into the underbelly of the Sixth World, a place filled with crackpot theories and insane ideas that would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that some of them are most assuredly true. If the want to stay alive, shadowrunners need to know this information so they can stay a step ahead of the forces that may be massing against them behind the scenes. If they want to prosper, they really need to know this data, because any runner worth a damn knows that manipulating people based on what they believe is true is a great way to make a few nuyen.

Bringing together plot elements from War!, Spy Games, and the Dawn of the Artifacts series, Conspiracy Theories adds a twisted element to Shadowrun games.

STREET LEGENDS (Setting)

Swap Bullets between shots, or Shots between bullets

At the end of a run, you’ve either got a good story to tell, or you’re dead. Live long enough, and you’ll get enough stories to fill a book, and some of them will be killer. There is a certain class of people out on the streets that runners love to talk about, the people at the center of the stories swapped late at night over a round of wiper fluid hooch. Some of them are good, some of them are lucky, and some of them are among the most powerful creatures of the Sixth World. All of them, in their own way, are legends.

Street Legends profiles forty renowned figures in the Sixth World, including JackPoint stalwarts such as Haze, Kane and Puck; classic runners like Serrin Shamander and Tommy Talon; and powerful behind-the-scenes figures including Lugh Surehand, Nadja Daviar, and the great dragon Lofwyr. Learn about hunting vampires with Martin De Vries, breaking into impossible places with The Smiling Bandit, and trying to put a face to the elusive Hans Brackhaus.

Street Legends contains short fiction bringing these characters to life, as well as text describing each person and what makes them a legend. Also, each and every person profiled has complete game stats. Even the dragons.

[Crimsondude]

In twenty-two years there has hardly been a book that hasn't advanced the metaplot at least a bit (At the least, characters from Prime Runners have been used somewhat to advance plot points). Granted, those promos aren't great (The CT one doesn't even mention the cities covered), but I cannot fathom how this claim can be made with any seriousness.

Then again, I am in no hurry to be digging up/through the past. There's new stuff, new people, new plots to create; and two decades worth of existing metaplot that can never be fully followed up on for any number of reasons. I love the Tir. I want to do a writeup on the Tir with Critias really badly. So as far as Crater Lake goes, there's a lot of room to play with, especially after the events in Artifacts Unbound.

[Ancient History]

The first chapter in Harlequin's Gambit would have had the players break into Crater Lake to get the first kist. You'd have to ask Jen if she still has the draft, though.

[hobgoblin]

I could see both Conspiracy Theories and Urban Legends advance the metaplot while dropping various seeds and misdirections.

[Crimsondude]

Yes, that is the idea.

I can't believe I actually needed to post that.

[Grinder]

Yes, that is the idea.

That's cool - and as you've said, the advertising text for both books is not the best. It simply didn't give any hint of advancing metaplot.

[TheWanderingJewels]

Well the first one line I recognize from the Shadowland rumor mill in the old Tir file. As to the second, I've no clue on that one

[Crimsondude]

Street Magic, 120
Crater Lake
Rating -4 Mana Ebb

Observers claim that for a handful of years be- fore and after Crater Lake’s military containment, the lake was a powerful domain rich with magical power. That changed in 2057, approximately at the time of Dunkelzahn’s assassination and the decla- ration of a “state of emergency” within Tir Tairngire.

[CanRay]

One of my (Unwritten) character histories has the magician being a former T-Bird Smuggler Crewmember, who mentions "Alice's Looking Glass" route used through the Tir, which goes by Crater Lake and makes use of the Ebb there, skirting past the ebb enough that it doesn't affect the spirits/spells on the T-Bird, but does affect the watcher/spirits the Tir Security Forces might have going on.  Essentially, "If you could see yourself in the lake, you knew you were too close and had just hit the Wonderland of Pain."

I liken it to Star Wars's "Kessel Run". 

[hobgoblin]

I would suspect that the Tir forces have spirits in the area that can handle the ebb.

[Prime Mover]

Street Magic, 120
Crater Lake
Rating -4 Mana Ebb

Observers claim that for a handful of years be- fore and after Crater Lake’s military containment, the lake was a powerful domain rich with magical power. That changed in 2057, approximately at the time of Dunkelzahn’s assassination and the decla- ration of a “state of emergency” within Tir Tairngire.

This always led me to believe crater lake is tied to the "enemies bridge" in the meta planes.  Perhaps the physical location of it's terminus.  The mana ebb being caused by the Big D's sacrifice as part of the effort to keep the bridge from completing.

[TheWanderingJewels]

hmm.....sort like a bleed off from the area of the great ghost dance? Because that's is what caused the mana spike in the first place. Kinda more like the little brach off a lightning bolt?

this still doesn't state what happened to the floating structures above the lake tho.

perhaps and alternative theory is that the Tir managed to move the things and that caused the mana ebb

[CanRay]

I would suspect that the Tir forces have spirits in the area that can handle the ebb.

Yes and no.  The information that they "Have spirits that can handle it" with only having them around and obvious occasionally can provide just as much security as having them there all the time and not being obvious.

Don't forget, summoning powerful spirits is hard on a magician, and even the Tir is limited in magical resources.  Moreso now that they kicked the Princes out.