The Library of Vecna

[On Puget Sound]

I like the secret for secret exchange, and I wouldn't even require a memory wipe. But it has to be a secret that isn't already in there, and.... dude, this is Vecna. Everything is in there. The secret must also be of comparable value and importance; your grandmother's chicken soup recipe is not going to get you the existence and whereabouts of an unknown royal heir.

One way around this, of course, is to bring into existence an important secret that did not exist before. Start a conspiracy, invent a spell or ritual, corrupt someone in a high position, commit a crime and get away with it ... you now have a new secret to pay the library with.

 

[Nifft]

Spam reported (just in case it's still there).

- - -

There are two prices to the Library of Vecna.

The first one is a dangerous secret: it is your True Name, or that of someone else whose True Name is not yet on record. If you offer someone else's Name, you must discover that name yourself, or bodily bring that person along (willing or unconscious). One Name per visitor, no exceptions.

The second secret is even more dangerous: that the secrets for sale in Vecna's Library are incomplete. The truth and utility of each and every available secret hinges on other, deeper, unavailable secrets.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mort]

Spam reported (just in case it's still there).

- - -

The second secret is even Yomore dangerous: that the secrets for sale in Vecna's Library are incomplete. The truth and utility of each and every available secret hinges on other, deeper, unavailable secrets.

Cheers, -- N

You have to be careful here though. If the players recognize that the secrets are incomplete, then they are essentially useless and you have

1) grumbling players as they realize they've been duped; but more importantly

2) players who will not go back and get more potentially troubling secrets thereby not getting as much mischief out of them as Vecna craves.

It just seems that Vecna's interests (obtaining secrets, sowing doscord, etc.)are best served by "playing it straight" here.

Also I'm not a big fan of the having the players feel cheated. I'm a bigger fan of the players accidentaly causing much more trouble than they fixed with the knowledge they've gained.

 

[The Shaman]

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

One must first possess the Library Card of Vecna . . .

 

[Nifft]

It just seems that Vecna's interests (obtaining secrets, sowing doscord, etc.)are best served by "playing it straight" here.

What, and give up the chance to spring a campaign-climax divine-scale Xanatos Gambit?

Also I'm not a big fan of the having the players feel cheated. I'm a bigger fan of the players accidentaly causing much more trouble than they fixed with the knowledge they've gained.

IMHO, if they make a deal with a very well known evil, it's okay to cheat them.

Evil is bad. Evil cheats. If the PCs wind up deciding to smite the evil for cheating them, that's fine by me. It's just one more excellent reason to go a-smiting.

Now, if this were the ONLY library, it would be a different story: then I'd feel like I was both railroading and cheating the PCs, and that would not be okay. But if they CHOOSE to go to the Library of Vecna, they can't expect it to be a fluffy bunny wonderland of honorable intent.

- - -

Ooo, but on the fluffy bunny front: all the librarians are Awakened rabbits who walk upright. All of them wear a waistcoat and a monocle. Their non-monocled eye is sewn shut, and each one is missing a forepaw ("for luck, don't you know").

Cheers, -- N

 

[Alzrius]

For ideas on what's to be found in Vecna's library, check out Steve Miller's article "The Secret Library of Vecna," in Dragon #272.

 

[humble minion]

I'm sort of thinking that just cos Vecna's portfolio is secrets, doesn't mean he has to give complete information.

The game (while veering wildly off-track on occasion) is a Savage Tide campaign. Those who have read/played the adventure path will know that Vecna almost certainly would have a barrow to push when it comes to the campaign denouement. And with his interest in secrets he almost certainly knows about Demogorgon's plans, in general terms at least. Maybe Vecna will release just enough to lead the PCs acting according to his interests?

Probably the first secret that the PC will give to the library is 'I have been to the Library of Vecna.' Surely that's worth a bit of blackmail material down the line a bit? PC is a wizard, so Vecna's cult will probably be interested in recruiting him at some point in future.

 

[darjr]

Crudely scratched in common upon the finely crafted door is 'The library of Vecna', but it is a poor translation, for it is the severed shattered mind of Vecna itself. Cut free and mad, waiting.

Like the eye, you must stab out your mind to replace it with the crazed essence of the lich itself, like the hand you must cut your sanity away until it is a bloody stump ready to be taken over and driven like nightmares before the insane.

You will have the knowledge of Vecna, powerful secret dangerous knowledge. And your friends will be in deadly danger. The price for the library of Vecna is your very mind, your sanity, the very thing that is you.

The library only lets in ONE, vanishing, it leaves the victim mad and powerful and dangerous and ready for your questions.

Ask carefully.

 

[vagabundo]

"I will know everything you see with your eyes and do with your left hand for one year and a day.", your friend and confidant, Vecna.

 

[M.L. Martin]

For ideas on what's to be found in Vecna's library, check out Steve Miller's article "The Secret Library of Vecna," in Dragon #272.

Good article, but it should be noted that it deals with Vecna's library when he was a demigod and darklord in Ravenloft, so it may not be quite as impressive as the one envisioned for a more 3E/4E full-powered Vecna.