Rules for Destroying the Ozone Layer

[Rel]

How about a scenario where the disaster causes a new life form to come into being: A very small but vicious little bug that swarms over any living creature and shreds it to bits within seconds. But the catch is that these critters metabolism requires sunlight to function. They go dormant immediately in darkness and cannot survive in the underdark.

This sets up a scenario where those driven into the underdark by the disaster make quick forrays onto the surface at night to raid old cities and settlements for artifacts left behind by their ancestors. But if they get stuck on the surface at dawn...shred.

If you size the critters up to something larger, you get a situation like the movie Pitch Black (which isn't bad if you haven't seen it) but reversed.

This situation would make the caves near the surface very valuable as places safe from the "Daylight Bugs" but close enough to launch scavenging expeditions from. So underground warfare for these places would be fierce.

There would also be attempts to tunnel beneath larger surface cities for access to all the loot available there.

All these situations would be rife with adventure possibilites.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Ok, here's what I've come up with based on your ideas (but truly following none of them):

The magical explosion was at the proper force and angle to alter the rotational speed of the planet. Most of the force of the explosion, therefore, got shunted off to space at an angle.

The result is that it now takes almost 6 months for 1 planetary day. The earth is very hot on one side and very cold on the other all the time.

Underground, where before the temperature was constant all year round, now the temperature changes seasonally almost like it did above ground before the disaster. This is still a very slight temperature change compared to what's happening on the surface.

(At this point I use the term "day" as a measure of time, not a description of when the sun is up.)
Ten days after the sun goes down, there begins a fifteen-day window where the surface is habitable before it gets too cold for even Resist Cold magic to be effective.

You would think that this would be a perfect time to explore and loot the surface BUT
(to borrow the Pitch Black idea)
The strange magical energies of the explosion has created some nasty monsters - most notably HORDES of Gargantuan Vermin (perhaps even some from out of the Epic Handbook if I see the campaign going in that direction). These vermin hibernate through the hot and cold seasons (and do not age during this time) and come out to hunt during the Twilight Days. Competition is fierce for even the smallest scrap of food. Their primary food source is the creatures that come to the surface at this time for whatever reason. The vermin seem to be able to sense the presence of food at great distances and always charge to the fight. No kinds of magical nondetection or hiding seems to work, and experimentation is almost always fatal.

Still, the occasional raid brings back objects from the surface, which tend to be so valuable that raids still go on, despite the danger.

Of course, if the characters simply cure the rotation problem, the vermin will run rampant all the time.

I think this is a good idea. Thanks for your help!