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Vecna, Where is he now?
- Thread starter simonski
- Start date
wingsandsword
Legend
This is actually coming up in my campaign tonight, in like about 3 hours (my party is visiting Sigil, and being a bunch of big PS fans who didn't like Die, Vecna, Die or Faction War, they're curious about how I'm treating it.)
Now, inspired by the good work of the fellows at Planewalker and some past events of a Planescape game our group did about 6 years ago (which my current campaign is a loose sequel to), here is how I'm going to describe it, if anyone is interested.
Vecna somehow managed to escape the Demiplane of Dread, nobody's quite sure how, except that it involved him divesting himself of his divinity and becoming "just" an Epic Level Lich. When he escaped, he fled to Sigil, and used his magic to build a palace to himself in the rubble of the Doomguard's Armory. Then cultists and clerics of his started arriving, the ones who stayed faithful through the loss of his ability to grant spells (but I use the old rule about still being able to get 1st and 2nd level through raw Faith, so his clerics and blackguards weren't helpless). They then started to worship him as a god and were trying to perform some ritual to elevate Vecna to godhood within Sigil itself, taking advantage of the chaos of the aftermath of the Faction War to hope that he couldn't be stopped before he completed his goal. However, the Lady of course took grave exception to this and Mazed Vecna and demolished his palace and flayed his followers well before they could complete the ritual. Vecna's pretty bright, and if he could escape Ravenloft, he could escape the Mazes, so he found his way out, regained his divinity as a demigod (with a few remaining clerics and blackguards) quietly, slinking back to Greyhawk.
Now, in a prior campaign, it was established that "actually" in our campaigns that the Lady of Pain derives her power from her bladed headdress, it is a Greater Artifact (along with the entire city of Sigil) called the "Crown of Blades", and it gives it's wearer all the powers of an overdeity, but only within Sigil and for control of its Portals, it's curse it that the wearer can never leave Sigil after wearing the Crown, and it's method of destruction (along with the City itself) is to be worn by an actual deity (why the Lady prohibits all gods within Sigil, and utterly refuses to be worshipped as one, by becoming a god she'd lose all power).
Now, none of the characters in my current game know that (just the players), and virtually nobody in the setting knows that (certainly no NPC that's going to show up in the game). It's just that Vecna trying to achieve godhood inside Sigil itself is an inside reference to an old campaign we ran.
Now, inspired by the good work of the fellows at Planewalker and some past events of a Planescape game our group did about 6 years ago (which my current campaign is a loose sequel to), here is how I'm going to describe it, if anyone is interested.
Vecna somehow managed to escape the Demiplane of Dread, nobody's quite sure how, except that it involved him divesting himself of his divinity and becoming "just" an Epic Level Lich. When he escaped, he fled to Sigil, and used his magic to build a palace to himself in the rubble of the Doomguard's Armory. Then cultists and clerics of his started arriving, the ones who stayed faithful through the loss of his ability to grant spells (but I use the old rule about still being able to get 1st and 2nd level through raw Faith, so his clerics and blackguards weren't helpless). They then started to worship him as a god and were trying to perform some ritual to elevate Vecna to godhood within Sigil itself, taking advantage of the chaos of the aftermath of the Faction War to hope that he couldn't be stopped before he completed his goal. However, the Lady of course took grave exception to this and Mazed Vecna and demolished his palace and flayed his followers well before they could complete the ritual. Vecna's pretty bright, and if he could escape Ravenloft, he could escape the Mazes, so he found his way out, regained his divinity as a demigod (with a few remaining clerics and blackguards) quietly, slinking back to Greyhawk.
Now, in a prior campaign, it was established that "actually" in our campaigns that the Lady of Pain derives her power from her bladed headdress, it is a Greater Artifact (along with the entire city of Sigil) called the "Crown of Blades", and it gives it's wearer all the powers of an overdeity, but only within Sigil and for control of its Portals, it's curse it that the wearer can never leave Sigil after wearing the Crown, and it's method of destruction (along with the City itself) is to be worn by an actual deity (why the Lady prohibits all gods within Sigil, and utterly refuses to be worshipped as one, by becoming a god she'd lose all power).
Now, none of the characters in my current game know that (just the players), and virtually nobody in the setting knows that (certainly no NPC that's going to show up in the game). It's just that Vecna trying to achieve godhood inside Sigil itself is an inside reference to an old campaign we ran.
Shemeska said:
I am going to come on board as someone who found the module very entertaining, in a "grind-up the PCs, over the top, Jerry Bruckhiemer flick" kind of way. Golems made of eyes and hands, the skin of Vecna, adventures through time and space, etc.
In any event, Vecna is a lesser diety of Grayhawk. He presumbly has a lair somewhere that probably has transdiminsional qualities.
ivocaliban
First Post
Von Ether said:
Ha! Too true.
As for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer:
"[Vecna] recently became a lesser god after freeing himself from an extraplanar prison and now plots the destruction of all other gods so that he may take Oerth for himself."
In my campaign Vecna has learned from his mistakes (uncommon for deities, I know) and now takes a more subtle approach to control. He uses his vast knowledge to sow seeds of discontent with misinformation, playing allies against one another and corrupting those he can. His followers are more like the Scarlet Brotherhood in that they have infiltrated the power structures of several important nations (including Furyondy, Veluna, and Keoland) often serving as trusted advisors and wise men. In fact, in my campaign the Crusade against Iuz initiated by Furyondy was proposed and supported by a servant of Vecna who remains on the Noble Council.
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jester47
First Post
DVD works really well if you stop before the Sigil part. That is you stop in the scene where Vecna absorbs Iuz in the throne room.
Basicly, if the PCs win Vecna does not destory Iuz, but rather Iuz looses a lot of power and Vecna becomes a god. If the PCs loose, Iuz eats it and Vecna becomes a bigger god.
Leave off the PS stuff and it is a great module reminiscent of ToEE.
Aaron.
Basicly, if the PCs win Vecna does not destory Iuz, but rather Iuz looses a lot of power and Vecna becomes a god. If the PCs loose, Iuz eats it and Vecna becomes a bigger god.
Leave off the PS stuff and it is a great module reminiscent of ToEE.
Aaron.
foehammerx
First Post
Just an interesting related info here:
I actually got to ask Gary Gygax about the events of Vecna Lives.
Gary got angered and said that those events were garbage. I am quoting here "That was David "Zeb" Cooks (the author of the module) stab at me because of his sense of professional Jealosy." You see in the module Venca uses Time stop to kill the entire cricle of 8 in 3 rds. The circle of eight was consistant of almost all Garys charcters. This was after Gary left TSR and remember David Cook was "The Man" of second editon. So david killed the circle of eight to piss off Gygax. How LAME is that.
I actually got to ask Gary Gygax about the events of Vecna Lives.
Gary got angered and said that those events were garbage. I am quoting here "That was David "Zeb" Cooks (the author of the module) stab at me because of his sense of professional Jealosy." You see in the module Venca uses Time stop to kill the entire cricle of 8 in 3 rds. The circle of eight was consistant of almost all Garys charcters. This was after Gary left TSR and remember David Cook was "The Man" of second editon. So david killed the circle of eight to piss off Gygax. How LAME is that.
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Joël of the FoS
First Post
rounser said:
That's funny. Of about 60+ darklords, Vecna and Soth are the only well known dudes that were "borrowed" from other worlds.
But we brought them back in good shape
Joël
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I believe it is stated in the text of Die Vecna Die! somewhere that the reason Vecna could "escape" from Ravenloft was because he was never really captured. The mists or whatever didn't have the power to keep him there, it was only a wrong assumption on his part that kept him there.
How he got into Sigil was the whole Serpent and last word/dread word/secret word/origin of the universe junk.
How he got into Sigil was the whole Serpent and last word/dread word/secret word/origin of the universe junk.
Keeper of Secrets
First Post
Darkness said:
I'll bet Vecna is hip. I'll bet Vecna is so hip that he doesn't even mind being called 'square.'
