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

[MonsterEnvy]

It that from WizKids?

yes

 

[pukunui]

Hey folks, just a gentle reminder that this is the enhancing the adventure thread, not the general adventure discussion thread. Please try to stick to discussing ways to improve the adventure and make it more fun to run / play.

 

[BeachRat88]

If I put my tinfoil hat on, I almost think that Vecna wants to be defeated. Maybe he knows he doesn't have enough power to complete this ritual and that he can only amass enough by being "banished" (freed?) back to Oerth. I seem to recall something in the lore (from around the time of his imprisonment in the DoD) about him not being able to achieve full god-hood until he gets back to Oerth. He escaped the DoD to Sigil and has seemingly been stuck in the Outlands/Pandemonium ever since. Maybe he's been playing chess while everyone else has been playing checkers. Maybe he's been manipulating events (and Kas, or rather, Kas and his Sword since the Sword is the real player) behind the scenes all along and now only needs a willing party to oblige him...

more tinfoil hat thoughts...

• Once Vecna achieved lich-hood, mortal timelines became irrelevant. Plots can unfold over centuries and/or millennia.
• Removing his hand and eye were part of the plan for his ascension. So was having his closest "friend" betray him. (He's a psychopath and sociopath after all.)
• Vecna created the Sword of Kas and imbued it with a sliver of his very essence. He gifted it to Kas, fully knowing that its malevolence, and the "betrayal", would ultimately twist, warp, and break Kas. But, that was what was required to complete the ritual.
• Kas, for his part, would be cursed to live forever, waging a futile war amongst the mists, feeding on the souls of the living, neither dead nor alive, believing that he betrayed his "friend" but also with the belief/insecurity that he was just a pawn and subservient to first Vecna and now his Sword.
• The hand, book and eye would then migrate throughout existence, slowly spreading his malevolence and influence, gradually building his reputation and therefore power.
• Vecna was sucked into the DoD during his attempt to ascend to godhood but managed to escape to Sigil and the Outlands. But while the gods have influence in Sigil, they have no power there, and so Vecna found himself in Pandemonium, the plane of chaos and sometimes, the plane of the banished.
• However, despite being imprisoned in Pandemonium, his hand, his eye, his book, and now his cult, are continuing to grow his influence, in the shadows, across the multiverse.
• Over the centuries, his power has grown and he looks for a way to return to Oerth, to finally, fully ascend to godhood...

 

[dave2008]

Hey folks, just a gentle reminder that this is the enhancing the adventure thread, not the general adventure discussion thread. Please try to stick to discussing ways to improve the adventure and make it more fun to run / play.

Well I only got the book a little over 24 hours ago! My main contribution will be upgraded statblocks for those who want them. However, I am slowly going through the adventure and will give my thoughts when I have them. I hope to weave some of that advice into my "Apostles of Ruin" pamphlet I'm working on as well.

On a quick glance I see some issues I would like to correct / enhance:

1. The rod is not vital, just nice to have. I would like to change that to make it absolutely essential.
2. First glance it seems too easy to find the pieces. If it was so easy why hasn't already been assembled. I am going to try to thinks of ways to make it more difficult to assemble the pieces. Maybe bring back the old requirement they have to be in order too.
3. Vecna is assumed to be weakened when they get to him. I would prefer something like Rise of Tiamat where the PCs action can work to reduce his power. With different power levels based on their success and failures.
4. Failure, in sum or part, must be an option. And there should be complications from those failures.
5. I don't like the premise: Vecna is going to remake the multiverse. If that was really his plan, he would have a lot more than a few adventures a breathing down is desiccated neck. I either need an explanation for why other gods are not trying to stop him, or a less ambitious goal that they would care about as much. Probably need both!
6. I really like @Paul Farquhar suggestion that Kas is basically being truthful and the real double agent is Tasha / Iggwilv.

 

[The Glen]

Well I only got the book a little over 24 hours ago! My main contribution will be upgraded statblocks for those who want them. However, I am slowly going through the adventure and will give my thoughts when I have them. I hope to weave some of that advice into my "Apostles of Ruin" pamphlet I'm working on as well.

On a quick glance I see some issues I would like to correct / enhance:

1. The rod is not vital, just nice to have. I would like to change that to make it absolutely essential.
2. First glance it seems too easy to find the pieces. If it was so easy why hasn't already been assembled. I am going to try to thinks of ways to make it more difficult to assemble the pieces. Maybe bring back the old requirement they have to be in order too.
3. Vecna is assumed to be weakened when they get to him. I would prefer something like Rise of Tiamat where the PCs action can work to reduce his power. With different power levels based on their success and failures.
4. Failure, in sum or part, must be an option. And there should be complications from those failures.
5. I don't like the premise: Vecna is going to remake the multiverse. If that was really his plan, he would have a lot more than a few adventures a breathing down is desiccated neck. I either need an explanation for why other gods are not trying to stop him, or a less ambitious goal that they would care about as much. Probably need both!
6. I really like @Paul Farquhar suggestion that Kas is basically being truthful and the real double agent is Tasha / Iggwilv.

For me the traitor was the wife, as she was made up specifically for this adventure, Silverhand in lore is married to an Elf named the Tall Lord, and they've got 7 sons. She's an agent of Vecna, has the crown and is going to betray the wizards when the rod is assembled. The party has a change in the FR segment to find out more information about her as I moved it to the basement of Candlekeep. The party doesn't return until they have the rod, so they can't immediately confront her if they find evidence.

Kas appears in the Ravenloft segment, and spoils the traitor's big moment by eliminating the cultists and storming the sanctum with Tasha and her kids (she appears in the Greyhawk section, in the Wizards 3 she's replaced with Sora Katra from Eberron). I tried to connect as many of the characters together in the story so it's not a Scooby Do reveal, and to have many of them return later in the climax. If Vecna is defeated he's sent to Greyhawk by Iggwilv to face Iuz, back to Ravenloft by Kas or Skokie, Il if the party banishes him with the chime. It's an actual D&D canon location in the Immortal series of modules.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

For me the traitor was the wife, as she was made up specifically for this adventure, Silverhand in lore is married to an Elf named the Tall Lord, and they've got 7 sons. She's an agent of Vecna, has the crown and is going to betray the wizards when the rod is assembled. The party has a change in the FR segment to find out more information about her as I moved it to the basement of Candlekeep. The party doesn't return until they have the rod, so they can't immediately confront her if they find evidence.

Kas appears in the Ravenloft segment, and spoils the traitor's big moment by eliminating the cultists and storming the sanctum with Tasha and her kids (she appears in the Greyhawk section, in the Wizards 3 she's replaced with Sora Katra from Eberron). I tried to connect as many of the characters together in the story so it's not a Scooby Do reveal, and to have many of them return later in the climax. If Vecna is defeated he's sent to Greyhawk by Iggwilv to face Iuz, back to Ravenloft by Kas or Skokie, Il if the party banishes him with the chime. It's an actual D&D canon location in the Immortal series of modules.

Alustriel is mentioned to still have children on Faerun in the adventure (and in Lore has had many lovers). The Tall Elf husband is also explicitly dead in lore (and they had 12 Sons not 7).

 

[afroakuma]

Having gone through this module... I can appreciate wanting to enhance it, but I think I'd take it straight back to the drawing board, and I already know what I'd do...

 

[Clint_L]

For me, the most important enhancement will be making Vecna a proper spell caster again. If at any point he is making physical attacks, I'm playing him wrong.

 

[vecna00]

I don't like the premise: Vecna is going to remake the multiverse. If that was really his plan, he would have a lot more than a few adventures a breathing down is desiccated neck. I either need an explanation for why other gods are not trying to stop him, or a less ambitious goal that they would care about as much. Probably need both!

My thought process is that because he's the God of Secrets, he's able to keep secrets from others, including deities. But, no power is entirely fool proof, so the information leaks out to a few in the multiverse. Which is still pretty damn good, mind you!

 

[dave2008]

Having gone through this module... I can appreciate wanting to enhance it, but I think I'd take it straight back to the drawing board, and I already know what I'd do...

Then share! That is the point go this thread and being a part of a community,