The Dwarf High King Kurgan Ironbeard marched his throngs out to meet the orcs.

The Greenskin incursion at Grimspike Pass is an inversion.

The cause? On the other side of the Great Sea, a Slann Mage-Priest called Quex had realized the planet's continents had become slightly misaligned compared to the design documents left behind by the Precursors, and decided the time was right to re-align them. The dwarfs refer to it as the Time of Woe, as the dwarfholds were isolated and uncounted dwarfs died in cave-ins, fissures opening beneath their feet or entire sections of holds falling apart.

In the backstory, the ancient Dwarf Empire was destroyed by a series of earthquakes that tore through the World's Edge Mountains.

Because one private didn't check the body, the Multiverse was forever changed. Which, as it turns out, led to the fabric of existence being marred so much that temporal rifts began opening across all of the Multiverse (at various points in spacetime, no less) these rifts were revealed to be the causes of some key events that led to the Kamigawa and Mirrodin blocks, and finally culminated in permanently warping the very nature of all Planeswalkers Sparks both currently held and from that point forward. This leads to the Cabal finding Jeska and saving her life by transforming her into Phage the Untouchable, kicking off the apocalyptic events of the entire Onslaught Cycle.

Magic: The Gathering: Lamar, a barbarian sentry from Judgment who sees Jeska knocking Kamahl's friend Balthor unconscious, and, believing she's killed him, rushes to tell Kamahl, who attacks Jeska in a fit of rage, mortally wounding her.

And even then, countless people end up dead thanks to Gromph's decision. It also turns the party's quest from escaping the Underdark into stopping the demon lords by any means necessary. But it's thanks to interference from the Chaotic Evil Lolth that Gromph summoned all of the demon lords instead, causing them to wreak havoc across the Underdark, including to the City of Spiders that Gromph's sister rules. Granted, Vizeran DeVir mentions that Gromph trying to summon a demon lord of the Nine Hells was an incredibly stupid move, all on its own.

In Dungeons & Dragons: Fifth Edition adventure Out of the Abyss, the drow Gromph Baenre serves as this for the party.No Real Life Examples, Please! Aside from being prone to misuse, it is likely to invite Flame Wars. See also Interrupted Cooldown Hug, Endangering News Broadcast, Tragic Mistake, and Small Role, Big Impact.

Also compare Chekhov's Gunman, in which a seemingly insignificant character becomes more important later on. The Troublemaker may become this in extreme circumstances.Ĭompare Nice Job Breaking It, Hero for when the heroes cause doom, and Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds for a different type of unwilling doom bringer. In the worst cases, more in the know characters will chew them out for bumbling in and screwing things up, trusting them little better than they would a traitor. They may also end up as the Idiot Houdini. Other times, they're simply blundering in like a wrench in some particularly highly valued machine, so it can be caused by The Load or The Millstone. If they're being specifically manipulated but do not realize, they're an Unwitting Pawn. Someone unintentionally plays a small and/or unlikely but crucial role in some horrible development (usually this action serves as the catalyst).Īn Unwitting Instigator of Doom can be basically complicit with the villain, but in that case, they're generally seeing only a small portion of the picture.

Bubble boy cast