Well, let’s face it: the module is another of those annoying FASA hijack-the-player-characters scenarios that makes it seem that everyone knows where to find them and they have no hope of escaping the game master’s gauntlet. What fun is that?

I think it will be much more entertaining to let them run around trying to find a Great Dragon.

I can make sure they know the Macguffin is indeed worthy of destruction: if the “first one’s free, little boy” thing doesn’t convince them, then I’ve got a couple of other ones:

1. When Barry files the thing away in his house of memory (in the place where all the players in the world are, of course, because he wants to know how the guy relates to them all), when he “looks up”, he’ll notice that every one of the dragons he tracks (Dunkelzahn, Lofwyr, Hestaby, Ryumyo, Lung, the Fabulist) has changed position and is looking at the Macguffin.
2. Rikki will get to make a Magic roll against a rather high target number. Paul will undoubtedly have Rikki use karma to make sure of it, and he will get a feeling of “numinous anxiety” (I love that phrase!). I need to craft the dream that tells Rikki that you need a Great Dragon to take the thing out— why have the PC’s run all over the place looking for some obscure shaman when we have some perfectly good ones in the group?

Naturally, there will be lots of fun involved in selecting a Great Dragon. (Lofwyr is actually the best choice for convenience: he’ll send in some S-K minions who will treat the PC’s very well as they take them to Tir Tairngire. He won’t even screw them over much.)

Instead of “hand the Macguffin to the Great Dragon for destruction”, the PC’s will get to go on an astral quest to destroy it. (The Great Dragon is needed to oppose the forces behind it, creating an environment where the PC’s will be capable of dealing with the problem. To fight a mythic force, enlist another mythic force.)

The Astral Quest will be back to the world of Earthdawn: the fully loaded group of PC’s get to explore a site where a flying ship crashed into a Trollmount because a Horror stowed away and ate everyone. Lots of zombies and other nasties.