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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder if the weird mention of the spell weavers in Phandalin & Below: The Shattered Obelisk would have play a bigger role. I would love to see stat blocks for them, they're my favourite D&D monsters that haven't gotten 5e stats.

That was my read from the interview. And yeah, they're super cool and deserve to come back.

 

[EthanSental]

Jor(ph)dan the ph is silent had hoped the Vecna line included the obelisks in the story as well and has some creative ways to include them.

 

[Zardnaar]

I wonder if the weird mention of the spell weavers in Phandalin & Below: The Shattered Obelisk would have play a bigger role. I would love to see stat blocks for them, they're my favourite D&D monsters that haven't gotten 5e stats.

I suspect so. There was a spell weaver subplot in 3E.

Give them reactions like a Marlith. Shield. CounterspellX2, absorb elements all same round.

 

[mearls]

Maybe I am a simple man with a simple mind, but we're missing the actual question:

Who thought it was a good idea to pull Perkins away from game design?

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe I am a simple man with a simple mind, but we're missing the actual question:

Who thought it was a good idea to pull Perkins away from game design?

Its wotc. Shotgun, foot, self inflicted

 

[mearls]

Having read the article, I see that Chris mentions the concept work done on Netherese dungeons. That was really cool stuff! Sad to hear it never got used.

 

[Reynard]

Who thought it was a good idea to pull Perkins away from game design?

Peter Principal at work?

 

[pukunui]

This article is very interesting. I had always suspected that 5e’s big-honking-adventure books were backdoor setting guides. Tyranny of Dragons and Princes of the Apocalypse don’t really fit the pattern, but they were the first two such adventure books for 5e. Starting with Out of the Abyss, which was pretty transparently built like “everything you need to know to run adventures in the Underdark” with the plot mostly being an excuse to tour the PCs around the major Underdark cities. Curse of Strahd was the Ravenloft (though limited to Barovia) source book; Tomb of Annihilation was the Chult sourcebook; Dragon Heist and Mad Mage were Waterdeep sourcebooks; Descent into Avernus was both a Baldur’s Gate and Nine Hells sourcebook… Storm King’s Thunder and Witchlight don’t fit the mold quite as cleanly, but the intent is clearly there with a lot of them.

Princes of the Apocalypse is very much a setting guide for the Dessarin Valley, which is comparable in size to Barovia, I'd wager. You could easily use it to run adventures in that area without using the main elemental cultist plot. (In fact, I have done that.)

Likewise Storm King's Thunder is very much a setting guide for the Sword Coast North / Savage Frontier. If anything, it's more a setting guide than an adventure.

 

[Von Ether]

This also explains why those campaign books all feel like they have paper thin plots to me. As Chris says here, they focused on the locations first and then came up with reasons for the players to need to go there after. That results in them all being “and then” stories, instead of “but/therefore” stories.

It's why I found Kobold's Empire of Ghouls campaign disappointing on a certain level as it became clear the arc was trying two serve to masters, provide an in-depth guide to the empire AND also give a tour of the Midgard's different regions. The concept kinda worked since the empire has a far reach but it was a bit more traveling about than needed.

 

[Zardnaar]

Princes of the Apocalypse is very much a setting guide for the Dessarin Valley, which is comparable in size to Barovia, I'd wager. You could easily use it to run adventures in that area without using the main elemental cultist plot. (In fact, I have done that.)

Likewise Storm King's Thunder is very much a setting guide for the Sword Coast North / Savage Frontier. If anything, it's more a setting guide than an adventure.

Both reference The North and Savage Frontier products.

Read all 4 recently and yeah they're all kinds similar format.

There's surprisingly little information for a lit if things often a blurb or mention once in some book.

Old FR products are very Adventures of Faerun. The regional supplements flesh things out.