D&D's Obelisk Plotline Was Supposed to Be Resolved in Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Chris Perkins has revealed that the obelisks scattered throughout various 5E adventures published by Wizards of the Coast was originally supposed to play a central role in the Vecna: Eve of Ruin adventure capping off Fifth Edition. Many Dungeons & Dragons adventures published for Fifth Edition featured mysterious black obelisks. These obelisks were revealed to be capable of time-travel and were tied to a mysterious group called the Weavers as well as the Netherese Empire. In Rime of the Frostmaiden, it was revealed that Vecna had obtained one of these obelisks and it was hinted that Vecna would use the obelisks in his plot to rewrite all of reality.

Vecna's possession of an obelisk was never followed up on, but it was apparently supposed to be a plot point in Vecna: Eve of Ruin. In a recent interview with Polygon, Perkins provided his vision for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. "The original plan, in my mind, was that we would actually culminate the story by going back in time to fight the Netherese Empire,” Perkins said. “It was always on our radar to bring Netheril back in some way. And this was the way I envisioned it happening, because the only way you could really fight Netheril again is to travel back in time."

“I was excited about the idea of a time travel adventure,” Perkins said later in the interview, “simply because it would feel very different from the other campaigns we had done up to that point. And I thought given time and attention, we could do some really fun things with Netheril and explore a style of magic that felt different from contemporary magic. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks would be sort of like the vibe I'd go for, where the magic is so weird it almost feels technological.”

Unfortunately, plans changed when Perkins' role at Wizards of the Coast shifted in his latter years with the company. “The reason it was dropped was that different people were in charge of the adventure design,” Perkins said. “I had rolled off a lot of my hands-on product work to help out with other parts of the business. And so, when I creatively walked away from the day-to-day adventure creation, we sort of lost the plot.”

Polygon has been periodically publishing interviews with Perkins, including an introspective on Rime of the Frostmaiden, and some insight on 5E's adventure design.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

to have the actual author say no it was just not pants but outline and he had been working on X years

Given a choice between what someone says and physical evidence, I go with the evidence every time. People are not honest, even with themselves.

Not that there aren’t some writers who go in for master plans, but it’s far from universal. There are many ways to create a story.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I thought College of Wizardry suggested the Serpent really does exist in some fashion. (I got rid of the book decades ago.)

WotC has treated the Weave as how magic works everywhere, not just the Forgotten Realms, but the Serpent is basically just a different metaphor for how magic works, which Vecna believes has an intelligence and personality attached to it.

No book has ever made full confirmation whenever Serpent is real or just figment of Vecna's imagination.

Where is this from?

Aj Picket discussed it in video about Astral Dreadnoughts

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The 2E Ravenloft adventures featuring Azalin, because of the setting specificity, although even there, is he doing something that any other powerful lich wouldn't do? Probably not

There is also some interesting stuff on Azalin in VGR, under a mist wanderer called Firan.

 

[darjr]

I wish we had this. I’m not commenting on what we got btw. Still, not getting this sucks.