Die Vecna Die!

[the Jester]

Can anyone post a rough summary of the plot of this module? I've been thinking of adapting it to my epic-level game (changing all the names and places to match my campaign, natch) but haven't been able to track it down. I'm thinking of tying it into the Dead Gods module somehow... (I did find a copy that was only about 45% complete... yugh, that doesn't help at all.)

Feel free to use

Spoiler

tags.

 

[diaglo]

bought it. but never even looked inside.

here is a link to amazon....a few people go into detail in their reviews..

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786916621/inktomi-bkasin-20/ref=nosim/102-2790330-3348152

 

[Liolel]

It strechs over three diferent tsr campaign settings (greyhawk, ravenloft, and planescape), and angered fans of at least two of them by breaking the cannon for those settings. Not only that but when it was written the designers for those settings were not consulted. Its sparked many message board agruments over whether its cannon or not.

Spoiler

The basic plot is that vecna is trying to become a god. He lures Iuz to ravenloft where vecna steals Iuz's power and escapes ravenloft and Vecna somehow enters sigil while he had the power of a god.

 

[SkidAce]

But if you are customizing it for your campaign it's a cool adventure.

How much detail do you want?

 

[evileeyore]

Hmmm, just a guess, but, I would say it roughly has to do with VECNA DIEING or BEING DIED!

Or atleast that would seem to be the premise...

 

[Wycen]

From memory, it goes something like this.

Vecna is trying to escape Ravenloft and has figured out how.

Meanwhile, Iuz is trying to find some Vecna punks to whack on.

Meanwhile, the players get involved somehow, (hopefully they have a previous experience with one of the gods).

Now, they head out to Tovag Barog, or that big stone henge like place in the Baklunki lands. Somehow they discover it is a portal leading to a hidden Vecna worshipper hideout, among other places, such as a plane of ghouls, undersea, etc.

Doing something specific that I can't remember, maybe just stepping through a door, they end up in Ravenloft, in Cavitus, the realm of Vecna. Eventually, they have to make their way into the citadel of Vecna, his actual halls and palace.

The forces of Iuz are still involved, maybe helping the players maybe hurting.

They make it into the palace of Vecna and discover they need relics of the old one to use against him, so you can get fingers, toes, scalps, the head of Vecna, etc.

Eventually, Vecna says, "Ha! Punks, I make you all my beyatches! And uses a secret word to enter Sigil and take over the Armory, or was it the Foundry? The place with sphere of annihilation.

The Lady of Pain is not pleased, and though she has ultimate power in Sigil, it is revealed that the Lady of Pain and Vecna, or at least Vecna's secret word, (provided by the serpent) are equally ancient powers and she can only make him feel great pain, not kill him or boot him out.

It is now up to the players to stop him.

If they stop him, he gets booted from Sigil. Ultimately, this event destroys and remakes the universe. Voila, you have moved from 2E to 3E. That is the official explanation behind the switch in editions.

 

[Darkness]

Folks, EN World is not the place to discuss sharing illegal pds. So don't. Thanks.

(Note - offending posts deleted.)

- Darkness

 

[Shemeska]

If they stop him, he gets booted from Sigil. Ultimately, this event destroys and remakes the universe. Voila, you have moved from 2E to 3E. That is the official explanation behind the switch in editions.

Ah but is it an official explanation of the switch between editions? Many of the changes in the planes described at the end of the module are utterly non existant in the 3e MotP cosmology. I'm tempted more and more to think this is just an idea created after the fact to give the module more credence, though I could be wrong.

And it's a good module, it just makes the fatal error of around a page or so of material that attempts to explain The Lady of Pain, and that re-invents what The Serpent was in the first place. Previous to DVD, it was only a personification of magic, a way that Vecna referred to that abstract concept and venerated it as. It wasn't really ever an overpower or even a sentient being, or one of the 'ancient brethren' that DVD tries to depict it as. As well, the module doesn't say that The Lady is powerless to stop Vecna, just that she could instantly, but would destroy the multiverse in the process.

Now we've already have some pretty bitter arguments on some other threads here already w/ regards to DVD's status in canon for Greyhawk / Ravenloft / Planescape etc, and I won't really rehash all of that. However I will say that Planewalker has been working on handling the module and its relationship to the setting in the next chapter released on the site. People who like DVD will be happy, so will those who abhor it. Most of the events are used as is, it's only the information that's revealed suddenly at the end of the module concerning The Lady and The Serpent that get manhandled. In any event there was no in character link to that information for any PCs or NPCs in the module, heck it wasn't even necessarily told to players playing in that module.

It happened, just not perhaps for the same reasons it may have initially claimed. There should be less people offended on both sides of the issue once we release it.

And it was the Armory in Sigil that Vecna and cult took over and rebuilt from its ruins that had sat there untouched after the Faction War battle at the site. And on a related note, those spheres of Annihilation there came up missing after Vecna's forcible expulsion from Sigil. However it happened, most people assume The Lady's hand was involved one way or another, but the end result was the same, Vecna got hurled back to the prime, hemmoraging a good chunk of his divinity in the process. (And Iuz ripped his way free again).

 

[jester47]

Basicly Iuz is tricked by vecna into thinking that he has found (using some old stone tablets) that he can destroy vecna and become a greater god. So Iuz marches on Tovag Barog. The players being high level and knowing somthing is up follow Iuz. After navigating the stone circle they find themselves in a reliquary of Vecna. From there there is a gate to the realm of ravenloft where they wander through vecna's citadel Cavitus. When they finally catch up to Iuz it is to watch the showdown. But its all a trap that vecna set for Iuz and Vecna Absorbs Iuz's power and becomes a powerful god cause Demigod + Demigod = bigger god. Vecna then makes a play for control of the multiverse.

Its interesting because the best part of the adventure is before they reach Planescape, and you could end it after Vecna Achieves god hood.

Aaron.

 

[wingsandsword]

Ah but is it an official explanation of the switch between editions? Many of the changes in the planes described at the end of the module are utterly non existant in the 3e MotP cosmology. I'm tempted more and more to think this is just an idea created after the fact to give the module more credence, though I could be wrong.

I think the idea that DVD was the explanation of the change in versions was that right before 3e came out, there was a series of ads run in gaming magazines (I remember seeing them in Knights of the Dinner Table) where they plugged several modules meant to be epic end-of-the-world modules that were supposed to help you move your campaign to 3e. Of those, IIRC, DVD was the only one set in an official setting, instead of a generic module.

Therefore, it was the last module produced in 2e, and advertised as changing the worlds around to make room for 3e.

Personally, I stopped paying attention to PS canon at "Faction War", as far as I'm concerned (strictly personally, and my gaming group) that never happened. It ruined the whole point of Planescape. I suspect they ended PS with Faction War because they were gearing up to move to 3e and it's discontinuation of official published settings.