Using Artifacts in the Forgotten Realms

[Donp]

Greetings. I'm running a high-level Forgotten Realms game (currently, level 20) and I am very interested in using Artifacts, as I think they are really cool and would spice up the game. However, the Artifacts I have access to are based on the core D&D setting, and need to be adjusted for FR use. I'm hoping someone here can help me with that, I'm sure there are some FR fans here.

The first Artifacts I would like to mention are The Hand of Vecna and The Eye of Vecna. These Artifacts are really cool and would be perfect for a character in my game who is self-centred and lusts for power and knowledge, especially of the arcane variety. However Vecna doesn't exist in the Forgotten Realms to my knowledge. I'm wondering where to go with this, as I really like the lore around the Vecna items, especially the fact that these body parts of someone who was once mortal yet managed to become a god. That is especially interesting as the Evil character I mentioned also has attaining godhood as a primary (although far off) goal.

So I would be very interested in any help you guys could give me on using these items in the FR setting.

A second Artifact I am quite fond of is The Sword of Kas. I found the stats and info for that in a free preview on the WotC site. I like the connection this Artifact has to the other two -- this sword was the one used to cut off Vecna's hand and eye. Any help in porting this over to FR would be great, and bonus points if you somehow manage to tie it to the other two Artifacts.

I would also be interested in your take on my idea of turning a weapon of one of the characters into an Artifact. The character is a Lawful Good Warlord and the idea was to have his warhammer become an Artifact somehow connected to Tyr, as the character is destined to become a sort of "Chosen of Tyr". Any thoughts on that would be appreciated, but perhaps more on that later.

I would also be very interested if someone knows of any great "Good" Artifacts for the FR setting, most of the other PCs are Good and I would like to look into the possibility of them attaining Artifacts at some point.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dalzig]

An easy way to handle Vecna is to say that he died during the Spellplague. Perhaps there is still some small cult devoted to Vecna's tenets who can provide information to the party.

 

[Tale]

Vecna's hand and eye came about during his period as a lich, before his godhood. Simply make these artifacts the property of Lich Vecna, as opposed to god Vecna.

 

[Donp]

The reason that I need to convert Vecna to somebody else is that Vecna doesn't exist in the Forgotten Realms.

He is a Greyhawk character.

Also, to clarify, the campaign is set in the 3rd edition Campaign setting world, i.e. 1372 DR. We are using the 4th edition rules though.

 

[Caliban]

A) The Hand and Eye were in Greyhawk, but were tossed into the Astral Sea as a result of a failed attempt by a group of heroes to destroy them. Eventually they ended up in the Forgotten Realms. Their current goal is to manipulate their wielder into finding a way open a portal to Greyhawk (either to allow Vecna access to the Realms, or to return to Greyhawk and continue working towards Vecna's nefarious goals).

B) Pick a Forgotten Realms god or major NPC and make it part of their lore (Shar, Cyric, one of the Gods that died during the Time of Troubles, one of the Chosen after Mystra died, etc.)

 

[Tale]

He is a Greyhawk character.

He's also a PoL character and a Planescape character.

He can be a FR character if you wish. Or some equivalent. Such as creating a Lich named Vecna who does the same thing. Such as the Bane in PoL that's not the Bane of FR, but he does exactly the same things so he might as well have the same name.

 

[Donp]

He's also a PoL character and a Planescape character.

He can be a FR character if you wish. Or some equivalent. Such as creating a Lich named Vecna who does the same thing. Such as the Bane in PoL that's not the Bane of FR, but he does exactly the same things so he might as well have the same name.

What would you recommend?

 

[Tale]

What would you recommend?

That's really a salt to taste question. You seem wary to fool with anything established, so you might not want to create your own lesser god to fill the role. It wouldn't be hard to simply have him be a powerful Lich.

Although! If you don't name him Vecna, you have the advantage of possibly tricking your players. muahahaha

 

[Donp]

That's really a salt to taste question. You seem wary to fool with anything established, so you might not want to create your own lesser god to fill the role. It wouldn't be hard to simply have him be a powerful Lich.

Although! If you don't name him Vecna, you have the advantage of possibly tricking your players. muahahaha

Emphasis mine.

Yes, I was thinking about that, however that might be difficult as my players know a lot about both the Forgotten Realms and D&D, a lot more than me in fact, as they have all played D&D for many years, while I have not.

Regarding Vecna, we were actually all of us laughing at the extremely funny "Head of Vecna" story last session, that's a really great story, I don't know if you've heard it.

Any ideas for hiding the fact that this is actually the famous Artifact?

And any ideas on the "Good" artifact front?

 

[Donp]

Just wondering if someone knows any "Good" Artifacts, or has any cool ideas for Artifacts suitable for Epic level good aligned heroes?