The life, rebirth, and death of Vecna

Hallowe’en is nearly upon us and we all know what that means… spoopy D&D adventures!

The Vecna Trilogy

 
There’s a few of these adventures out there that kind of build on each other and are then retroactively dubbed a trilogy (or hexad). I particularly enjoy this set because the modules do have some great ideas and – hey – it’s Vecna!
 
They are various levels of flawed though. In Vecna Lives, players get to play as the legendary circle of eight (Tenser, Bigby, Otto) only to have Vecna kill every single one of them. Matt Colville talks about it on his channel here. The “sequel”, Vecna Reborn, is as railroady as 2e gets. And the third installment, Die Vecna Die!, involves a pun where a book about illithids is called “mind kampf”.

Adventure Overview

Just to get everyone on the same page, here’s what happens in the trilogy:
 
Vecna Lives

• Mordenkainen divines some “great danger” and sends the Circle of Eight to investigate.
• It’s a warlord possessed by the eye of vecna and the hand of vecna and he kills everybody.
• The heroes, followers of the Circle of Eight, search for their masters, along with a (secret) avatar of Vecna.
• Avatar of Vecna kills the possessed warlord, teleports to Tovag Baragu – a mystical site filled with portals.
• The heroes pursue, find Vecna trying to open a portal to the past in order to summon his ancient followers into modern day.
• Vecna banishes the heroes through a different portal and into Cavitius, his personal prison demi-plane.
• They find Kas the Bloody Handed there, give him the sword of Kas, which he uses to teleport everybody back to Tovag Baragu. Then he GTFO.
• The heroes summon Iuz, the Greyhawk demi-god of Deceit, to fight Vecna.
• As both demi-gods are locked in combat, the heroes shove them through a random portal. Good riddance!

 
Vecna Reborn

• Adventurers get swept up by the mists of Ravenloft and end up in the Burning Peaks, a domain of dread that’s split into two. One side holds Vecna imprisoned in a copy of Cavitius, while the side that the heroes find themselves in is ruled by Kas.
• The adventurers find that the cult of Vecna is preparing a ritual involving a pregnant woman.
• To find out about the ritual, the adventurers need to read a book that’s in the temple of Vecna, in Cavitius.
• The heroes journey to Cavitius and are surprised to learn that the ritual involves freeing Vecna through the child.
• The heroes make their way back to Kas’ realm.
• There is a big fight and the ritual is prevented!

 
Die, Vecna, Die!

• Vecna cultists start opening the portals at Tovag Baragu again.
• Iuz figures this out and attacks their temple with a small army, grabs the eye of vecna from it, and enters Cavitius (the one in Ravenloft) through one of the portals.
• Adventurers pursue Iuz, for some reason, with the hand of vecna.
• Everybody meets up in Vecna’s throne room, where Iuz and Vecna duke it out.
• Vecna beats Iuz, absorbs his power, and teleports everybody out of the domains of dread and into Sigil.
• Vecna is now a god and in Sigil – which will rip apart the entire multiverse. No one can stop him except for… the heroes! Because they still have the hand of vecna which makes them immune to his wards.
• The heroes enter the new god’s makeshift temple and kill him dead.
• The End

 
In short, it’s a brilliantly convoluted mess marked by a distinct lack of player agency 🙂

What’s Good?

Joseph Mandola does these great “Condensation in Action” posts over at Against the Wicked City where he cuts the chaff from published adventures. This is going to be a pale imitation of those (ain’t no one got time for that) but let’s look at the good bits of these three modules.

Vecna Lives

Circle of Eight vs Vecna. I have to admit that playing as the named wizards from all those spells like Bigby’s Big Ole Hand and Drawmij’s Magnificent Self-Portrait and then having an epic fight with Vecna himself sounds pretty awesome.
 
Banishing Vecna. The climax of Vecna summoning his hordes of days-gone-by and being shoved into one of his own portals works well too.
 
Citadel Cavitius. A city within a giant skull, in the middle of a deadly desert of ash. Vecna created it as a prison and it has about a thousand of his defeated enemies. Death is no escape from this place. It’s a bit bland but will get expanded later.
 
Hand and Eye of Vecna. Not to be confused with the magic items. These two transformed cultists are pretty dumb (their heads are literally a massive hand and eye) but for some reason have made it into Vecna canon and will keep popping up forevermore.
 

Look how silly!

 

Vecna Reborn

Burning Peaks. This module adds some nice details to the Domains of Dread description of The Burning Peaks.
 
Tovag. Tovag is a militaristic nation. It has one city called Tor Gorak. The city sports many barracks and a castle for when lord Kas is visiting from his fortress.
 
Bred for War. In Tovag all that matters is the unending war against the undead forces of Cavitius. Citizens receive payment for bearing children and people age at twice the normal rate. So we’re dealing with 9-year old child soldiers in adult bodies being sent to their deaths en-masse. Suitably horrific for a Ravenloft setting or highly problematic? You decide. I’m sure there’s a way to make this work but the module just has everybody act like ordinary adults.
 
Anti-intellectualism. Reading and writing are forbidden. Only war and the trades that support it are legal.
 
Daggers. Kas’ police-force acts as judge, jury, and executioner. They search endlessly for the sword of Kas, which is not actually in Tovag, and for secret Vecna cultists. They are based in Dagger Keep (The Sheath) in the city.
 
Citadel Cavitius. Shaped in the image of Vecna’s old prison-plane, but with some nice additions.
 
Undead Aristocracy. Multiple noble houses of various types of undead rule Cavitius: vampires, ghouls, death knights, etc. They have their own skeletal armies and plot against each other constantly. Ultimately Vecna has full control over all of them.
 
Huddled Masses. The living are ignored by the undead ruling class, as long as they don’t get in the way. Life has no value in Cavitius. Messing with an undead creature causes the Reavers, undead skeletal knights to come for you.
 
Magic Taboo. Magic is forbidden by Vecna and does not function anywhere in the city except for the Church of Vecna.
 
Church of Vecna. Located on the inner wall of the gargantuan skull that holds the city, right between the eyes. The priests of Vecna rule over the human population using a cadre of (mortal) enforcers called the Fingers of Vecna. The church partakes in ritual sacrifice on a daily basis. Inhabitants of Cavitius are mandated to observe at least one such sacrifice per month.
 
Eyes of Cavitius. The eyes of the skull are giant spheres of annihilation from which Vecna draws negative energy. Cool.
 
Hand and Eye of Vecna. These two silly golems are back but now they’re made of actual hands and eyes.
 
Burning Peaks. The two domains are separated by a mountain range filled with lava, acid, and ash. There are three paths that lead through the peaks. Each has a wooden fortress at its entrance manned by the armies of Tovag. The module went for the quantum-ogre approach of placing a Vecna war machine in whichever one the players take.
 
War Machine. Undead bodies and spirits mangled together in unholy ways, row upon row of skulls that chant evil rituals which hits everything with random destructive magic.

Die Vecna Die!

It’s German for “the Vecna the!”. What’s up with this Serpent that keeps whispering secrets to Vecna? I thought secrets were his whole deal? Is it Dendar? Whatever it is, it’s kinda superfluous so we won’t mention it further. This is an adventure of ups and downs: the plotting is atrocious but the keyed locations are brimming with inspiration.
 
Tovag Baragu. Some of the archways that make up the stone circle of Tovag Baragu have all been activated and lead to alternate-reality versions of the same location. Those locations lead to even different versions, and so on, forming a maze of Tovag Baragus. Many of the alternate realities are limited in size and stop existing anywhere from a few feet in, to hundreds of miles away. They are: undersea world (with sahuagin), mindflayer hellscape, prehistoric world, dissipating reality, grassy downs with an inn and stable, infinite ghoul graveyard, halfling archipelago, ice moon (with white dragon), entropic shadow realm, mountainous giant tribes (entry only), a village, and a realm encased-in-stone. The last one is where the cult has dug out a full temple to Vecna.
 

Tovag Baragu

 
Adytum. This underground temple of Vecna holds living quarters, training grounds and workshops for the cultists, as well as a whole slew of holy relics. The hand of vecna and the eye of vecna are held in highly guarded chambers, while lesser relics such as the teeth of vecna, the molars of vecna, the heart of vecna, and even a fake head of vecna are more easily accessible. In the heart of the temple stands a (one-way) portal to the Burning Peaks in the domains of dread.
 
Palace of Vecna. In the center of Cavitius stands Vecna’s fortress. The first floor of this palace is used as a training area for warriors and spellcasters, with the troops stationed in barracks on the second floor. The third floor is dedicated to opulent entertainment for the nobles morts, including a bathhouse and torture chambers. The fourth floor functions as a temple to Vecna. Above that are five towers. Four are living quarters for Vecna’s top lieutenants: powerful undead beings such as liches and death knights. The central, largest tower, holds the chambers of the Hand and the Eye (the golems), Vecna’s forbidden library, and finally the spider throne of Vecna himself.
 
Sigil. On second thought, let’s not go to Sigil. ‘Tis a silly place… Sigil is definitely a “good bit” but this adventure doesn’t do much with it.

What I’d change

• The Eye and Hand (the golems) are silly. In fact, Vecna’s whole schtick of naming anything and everything after his own body parts is pretty dumb. I do love the Voice of Vecna as a high priest though.
• The soldier breeding themes in Tovag are super icky. As I said, I’m sure it can be done well but I’m not touching it with a 10’ pole.
• It should have been the Circle of Eight what banished Vecna to Ravenloft. Combine the prologue and climax of Vecna Reborn into one sweet-ass combat scene. How do we railroad the players into throwing him into the portal? Should Kas play a role? Not sure.
• Iuz is out. No one likes his style.
• Vecna’s dark prison needs a bit of definition. In my version, as in Curse of Strahd, most of the realm is false – an elaborate illusion created by the Dark Powers to torment Vecna. Living inhabitants are soulless shells. The “Kas” that rules over Tovag doesn’t exist – his fortress is empty but all of his subjects believe he is real. The undead who plot and scheme against each other are real though. They are an extension of Vecna himself. He lets them quarrel just as one would entertain multiple ideas, weighing them against each other.
• There’s no real reason for Sigil. I’d rather have the final confrontation be somewhere that resonates with my players.

 
Of course, this leaves us with an adventure without a plot. Here’s how I’d rejig it:

Proposed Adventure Overview

1. Opener (fairly railroady). The adventurers are summoned to Tovag Baragu. The portals that have laid dormant for so many years are reactivating. One portal shows an ancient battle on a different world – the Circle of Eight are fighting none other than Vecna, god of secrets! The maimed god is using Tovag Baragu to summon his armies from the past. The Circle prevails and Vecna is defeated, his body tossed through a portal before it can reform. The eye of vecna and hand of vecna are separated once more, and scattered through time and space – into the player characters’ hands!
 
A second portal opens. It shows a similar scene, now in the future. Vecna appears and starts summoning vampires and gothic horrors. The PCs arrive behind him – holding the eye and hand, as well as the legendary sword of Kas, and engage in battle! Then the portal closes.
 
Now a third portal opens and shows another Tovag Baragu – the start of a journey into Ravenloft itself.
 
2. Road to Ravenloft (dungeon crawl). Characters go through the alternate realities trying to get to Ravenloft. They meet cultists on the way and learn that Vecna has started a ritual that cannot be stopped. In 13 days he will cause a Conjunction event, narrowing the boundaries between the domains of dread and the prime material plane. They also learn what they can do in Ravenloft to weaken Vecna’s entry to the prime.
 
3. Burning Peaks (sandbox). The characters have 13 days to gather allies, items, and information to disrupt Vecna’s ritual. Every step that’s successfully thwarted weakens him when he emerges in the material plane. Vecna’s ritual requires, among other deeds to be determined by the DM:

• Spilling the blood of an outsider
• Spreading a deadly plague
• The death of a king
• Destroying the sword of kas
• Reuniting with the hand of vecna and eye of vecna

 
His agents in Tovag and Cavitius are working hard to make sure all of these events come to pass.
 
4. Climax (railroady). The ritual completes, the borders between realms fade, and everybody ends up in Tovag Baragu once more. The heroes have a final battle versus the god-lich with bonuses based on what they’ve managed to accomplish in the Burning Peaks.
 
The end.
 
Could probably fit it in a one-shot. Maybe someone should write it for the DMsGuild.