D&D 5E Enhancing Vecna: Eve of Ruin *SPOILERS*

[dave2008]

I’ve been off work recently post-sinus surgery, so I’ve been re-reading EoR and thinking more about converting it into an Eberron-only campaign.

Firstly, Vol will replace Vecna. Her personal goal of reactivating her dragonmark and ascending to become a god of death works perfectly here.

I’ll replace the Vecna cultists with Emerald Claw agents.

I think I’ll drop the “Power of Secrets” mechanic and just make it so people are being kidnapped and sacrificed to power the ritual. No secrets necessary.

For the Wizards Three, I will most likely replace Alustriel with a Chamber dragon in disguise (e.g. Narcy of Xandrar from the Oracle of War series).

I can either replace Tasha with Sora Katra or have Tasha be the adopted human daughter of Sora Kell and just adapt her to Eberron that way. Another option might be to replace Tasha with a member of Aerenal’s Undying Court.

For Mordenkainen/Kas, I will use Mordakhesh instead, but I’m not sure if I’ll have him be open about his identity or keep the surprise twist. If I keep it, I’ll have him masquerading as Merrix d’Cannith or someone like that.

I’ll replace Miska the Wolf-Spider with Rak Tulkhesh. The Eberron book says Rak Tulkhesh is bound in a group of scattered dragonshards. How perfect is that? The Rod of Seven Parts can be made of dragonshards, and it was broken and scattered to keep Rak Tulkhesh imprisoned.

Reassembling the rod will enable Mordakhesh to free his master. I can make it so the rod is also needed to stop Vol, so it’s an opportunistic timing thing on Mordakhesh’s part. Perhaps he can even try to persuade the PCs that releasing Rak Tulkhesh will help them to defeat Vol.

So Alustriel’s sanctum can just be a fancy mansion in Skyway above Sharn.

I might have Sharn’s council ask the PCs to look into the kidnappings of the nobles. Instead of Evernight, the PCs can end up in the Mabaran version of the Amaranthine City.

Web’s Edge can be in Khyber somewhere, and I can replace Lolth with Sul Khatesh.

The wreck of the Lambent Zenith and the corpse of the dead god is trickier. I don’t want any Spelljammer or dead gods in my Eberron. This bit might have to take place in Xoriat (or in a Xoriat manifest zone) and maybe it’s a seafaring ship rather than a spacefaring one. Maybe the ship’s captain is a radiant idol.

The Mournland section can stay as it is.

The Death House section can be somewhere in Karrnath, and I can replace Strahd with Kaius.

The Dragonlance section can either be in the Eldeen Reaches or in Lamannia. Maybe Lord Soth could be a corrupted Pure Flame zealot or something.

I’m not sure what to do with the Nine Hells casino, but maybe that could be in a demiplane in Khyber? Tiamat is the Daughter of Khyber, so she can stay, I guess.

The part of Pandemomium where Miska is can be replaced with Rak Tulkhesh’s heart domain in Khyber. The part where Vecna is can be beneath Vol’s fortress on Farlnen.

That’s about as far as I’ve got so far.

That seems to map over really well - good luck!

 

[pukunui]

I have already introduced Nafas’ palace, the Censer of Dreams on the Infinite Staircase, in my campaign, so I could use that in place of Alustriel’s sanctum, and then the PCs can access the various rod part locations via Infinite Staircase doors rather than a convenient magic portal.

EDIT: while I’m thinking about it, the Iron Shadow could be the Mournland’s influence creeping into the Infinite Staircase. Any door that would have led to somewhere in Cyre has been infected by the Iron Shadow. This could force the PCs to go into the Mournland on foot.

 

[pukunui]

It’s tempting to put the Death House in Dread Metrol and replace Strahd with Queen Dannel (both are CR 15), but after re-reading this section of the adventure, I feel like that might be more trouble than it’s worth. I’m not sure it would even make sense to replace Strahd with Kaius in this instance.

I may just keep it as written and have Barovia be a little slice of Ravenloft tucked away in a remote corner of Karrnath. Strahd can be Strahd ir’Zarov instead.

The priests of Osybus can be part of the Emerald Claw perhaps, and the Ulmist Inquisitor can be from the Church of the Silver Flame instead.

 

[pukunui]

OK for the Dragonlance section, I think I will make Three Moon Vault a fortress that the Silver Flame templars built during the Silver Crusade. Since Eberron has 12 moons, I’ll make it so the vault is tied to three of them: Barrakas (Irian), Sypheros (Mabar), and Olarune (Lamannia).

The fortress was designed to help stamp out lycanthropy.

Lord Soth will become a fallen Templar who became corrupted during the crusade. He’s now been tricked by the Wild Heart into using the vault’s power to forcibly transform shifters into lycanthropes (with help from Teremini, a Pure Flame zealot). The zealots think they are proving to the world that shifters are really lycanthropes and by exposing them they can reignite and then “finish” the crusade, but what they’re really doing is spreading lycanthropy to weaken the Wild Heart’s bonds.

The vault’s white moonlight mirrors will relate to Barrakas / Irian, the black ones to Sypheros / Mabar, and the red ones to Olarune / Lamannia (might change it to an orange color).

The Blue Flame Wardens will just become a tribe of shifters, some of whom have been turned into lycanthropes by the vault’s corrupted magic.


As an aside, because I am making it so the Rod of Seven Parts contains pieces of Rak Tulkhesh’s soul, I think I’m going to have to think about how his warmongering influence is affecting the conflict in each adventure location.

By the way, Exploring Eberron describes Rak Tulkhesh’s heart domain, the Bitter Shield, as a crimson fortress around which fiends endlessly battle. Sounds just like what is going on outside Miska’s prison!

 

[pukunui]

For the Avernus casino – I think I’m going to have to make Avernus a Khyber demiplane connected to the Pit of Five Sorrows. There just isn’t anywhere on Eberron or on any of its planes that makes sense for this location.

This would mean that the PCs can talk to Tiamat while she’s still imprisoned. She’ll just be a sort of shadowy avatar thing.

 

[pukunui]

There seems to be a bit of an editing issue with the Avernus chapter.

Firstly, the intro says that the “characters must manipulate the Fiends in the casino’s highest ranks to enter the exclusive Ruby Sanctum”. That’s a bit of an oopsy because it should say Dragon’s Pride.

The Ruby Sanctum is where the rod piece is, but it doesn’t look like the PCs have any legitimate way of accessing it. Once they’re are in the Dragon’s Pride club, they are faced with the locked door to Windfall’s office, which is guarded by two pit fiends.

The book doesn’t say whether a PC holding a rod piece can sense that the last piece is through the locked door, but is probably safe to assume they can.

The book makes no allowance for PCs convincing the pit fiends to let them into Windfall’s office. It only talks about what happens if they open the door without the appropriate key. It also states that no one is in the office (because Windfall is in the sanctum).

I feel like something’s been cut for space here.

Anyway, I think a note for my Eberron conversion is that I will remove the tunnel from the sanctum to Tiamat’s lair. That shouldn’t be there since she is physically imprisoned in the Pit of Five Sorrows.

I will also have to come up with a different reason for her to approve of the PCs taking the final rod piece. Would she share the dragons’ view that Vol is an abomination and must be stopped? I imagine if Vol succeeded in becoming a god, a lot of dragons would suffer and die as she exacts her revenge.

 

[Shiroiken]

The book makes no allowance for PCs convincing the pit fiends to let them into Windfall’s office. It only talks about what happens if they open the door without the appropriate key. It also states that no one is in the office (because Windfall is in the sanctum).

I feel like something’s been cut for space here.

I think it was left open so the players can come up with their own plan. I assumed the players would try to talk their way past, since we have a Rogue with Reliable Talent and deception expertise, but they decided to use Dimension Door, Scrying, and Arcane Gate instead.

My biggest issue was the fact that Windfall was always in the Ruby Sanctum. I had her randomly leave to roam the casino, allowing the PCs the opportunity to wait for her to leave. Instead they had to deal with the ancient red dragon, while Windfall came running with reinforcements. They used Planeshift to escape, having already gotten a tuning fork for Sigil.

 

[pukunui]

I don't like the idea of removing the whole plot with Kas and Mordenkaien. I think it's a good twist.

I’ve been thinking about this as I get into the final chapters of the book.

I think it’s more than just a “good twist”. The relationship drama and the name recognition are a big part of it.

I am realizing that if I replace Vecna with Vol, I lose that. Vol is a decent substitute for Vecna, but as far as I can tell, she’s got no Kas equivalent. I’d have to make someone up to take his place.

I’m beginning to think that replacing Kas with Mordakhesh and Miska with Rak Tulkhesh may not work so well. In this instance, it may be easier for me to simply add Miska as a new fiendish overlord. That way I can use that chapter’s material more or less as written instead of having to cut most of it.

Perhaps I can make Kaius the Kas stand-in after all and say that he is Vol’s former protege and now enemy. (That seems to be implied already.) Then I can have someone who wants to take her place rather than just use her power.

Kaius even sounds a bit like Kas (just like how Mordakhesh is similar to Mordenkainen).

Perhaps the twist can be Kaius masquerading as Mordakhesh!


I think I’m still going to have to do some work in the final chapter, since getting to Vecna involves turning off three of his reality rewrites in the making. These instead would have to be “things Vol is planning to do once she becomes a god”. I suppose one could still be “punish Kaius” but I’m not sure about the other two.

(Just going by her backstory, they would probably be something along the lines of punishing Aerenal and the dragons for what they did to her. Or maybe not because Keith has implied that the mysterious Raven Queenish Queen of the Dead who rules over Dolurrh might be an ascended Vol already in a timey-wimey sort of thing, which implies that she isn’t all that interested in getting revenge on the living.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m beginning to think that replacing Kas with Mordakhesh and Miska with Rak Tulkhesh may not work so well. In this instance, it may be easier for me to simply add Miska as a new fiendish overlord. That way I can use that chapter’s material more or less as written instead of having to cut most of it.

Could you not use a villain the players have encountered in earlier adventures?

Or persuade one of your players to take on the role of Traitor?

 

[pukunui]

Could you not use a villain the players have encountered in earlier adventures?

That’s a possibility! I’ll have to think about that.

Or persuade one of your players to take on the role of Traitor?

I don’t think I want to do that. I generally don’t enjoy that sort of thing, and I don’t think it would go down well with this particular group.