The Library of Vecna

[humble minion]

Simon etc, keep out! Or I'll set Quenge on you!






So, the player of the wizard PC in my current game has decided he wants to consult the greatest libraries in the multiverse to research various current goings-on. I provided a list for him - the Great Repository from Necromancer's City of Brass boxed set, something on a ninja island fortress, the extraplanar hideout of a Sepulchravian arcane uber-society, etc etc. But for completeness I threw in a line about the library of Vecna, which is arguably the best of the lot and which is accessible through a relatively simple and well-known ritual - at a price which is much less simple and well-known. I thought the mere idea of poking around in Vecna's stuff (let alone paying any price that Vecna would ask) would be enough to send any sane PC running, but the PC has decided Vecna's library is the ideal one for him to check out.

So, any ideas? What is in Vecna's library? What is the price/deal to be paid for consulting it? How do you get there? Is this even the real thing, or some sort of trap for the ambitious and gullible? How much information is in there, and how much of it is reliable? And how in general do I deal with this without a) either squishing the PC like a bug, or b) making Vecna out to be a pushover, since he's not really the focus of the campaign and I don't want to get too sidetracked?

 

[Wycen]

The library of Vecna is a big trap. Once you get there, you have a choice, do Vecna a favor, or have your memory wiped (and who knows what really happens then).

 

[Mort]

So, any ideas? What is in Vecna's library?

Secrets - and they should be good secrets. Stuff that they players may not find anywhere else. But also secrets that people (and beings) want to keep quiet. The kind of secrets that the players really want to use, but know there might be some serious consequences for doing so.

What is the price/deal to be paid for consulting it?

Here you get to decide if you want to be blatant or subtle.

Blatant:
Each significant secret comes with a compensurate cost in maiming. Find the secret to a king's ransom - lose a hand. Find the secret to the wisdom of the famed monks - lose an eye, etc.

Every secret comes with an experience point cost (goes with the undead theme, though I was never a fan of undead xp loss).

Subtle:

Every secret gained must be paid by a secret from the character. When a secret is gleaned from a book (scroll, whatever) a book, scroll or passage in a book is written from the characters mind, and catalogued in the library.

Subtle and a bit mean:

For every secret gained not only is a secret from the character written down elsewhere in the library but the character loses the memory and experience of the secret from their mind (in other words secrets are not gained so much as traded)

How do you get there? Is this even the real thing, or some sort of trap for the ambitious and gullible?

Should be a bit of both. Vecna is a god of knowledge and secrets but a twisted and evil one. The whole theme should be great knowledge but is the cost worth it? Even better if/when the characters (players) don't realise the cost was too high until much later.

As for location - make it a secret that the characters have to find and a location that is difficult to find more than once. Perhaps a tower or pocket dimnension that appears only 500 years.

How much information is in there, and how much of it is reliable? And how in general do I deal with this without a) either squishing the PC like a bug, or b) making Vecna out to be a pushover, since he's not really the focus of the campaign and I don't want to get too sidetracked?

There should be quite a bit of information, with at least some things completely and totally relevant to the PCs interests. But again there should be some costs the PCs are reluctant to pay or better yet pay eagerly but really regret later.

thoughts?

 

[Dandu]

The consequence most likely to anger the player is not physical harm, or mental trauma, but loss of wealth and XP.

 

[jbear]

The price to get there via ritual: slicing off your hand? Taking out your eye?

 

[Nightson]

Secrets for secrets seems the most thematically appropriate option. Precious memories could also be bartered.

 

[humble minion]

The price to get there via ritual: slicing off your hand? Taking out your eye?

You see, that's the really annoying thing. The eye idea would work perfectly - except that I'd already chosen to go with the Great Repository as written up by Necromancer as one of the other libraries, and eye removal is the admission price for THAT one too! Don't really want to use it again.

I've been rereading the Vecna article from Dragon 348, and wondering somehow if the price for using Vecna's library is having Vecna KNOW you've used his library. Particularly for 'good' characters - the way he's written up, it seems like a lot of Vecna's cult is comprised of people who have been slowly corrupted and blackmailed over a period of time, by Vecna and his worshippers leveraging the secrets that they know.

I wonder if that would work.

 

[Dandu]

Question: What does the necromancer get out of the eye?

 

[Wicht]

I would think admission to the Library of Vecna would require the sacrifice of an eye.

That was seriously the first thing I thought of.

Spending any amount of time there on the other hand should cost in different, more spiritual ways - perhaps the loss of wisdom (sanity) unless a Will save is made each hour. The human mind can only stand so much before it starts to break.

 

[humble minion]

Question: What does the necromancer get out of the eye?

Sorry, haven't been clear.

I'm using the Great Repository in the City of Brass, which is a boxed set published by Necromancer Games! No in-game necromancers involved...

The shtick of the Great Repository is that nobody actually gets in to the library. You give an eye to the attendants, and they take it inside to use it to look at the books for you. Or if you're ambitious you can let them swap bodies with you for a while, but that's a risky move for quite a number of reasons...