Vecna: Eve of Ruin released in print last month and unfortunately Wizards has promoted the Hell out of it. They have spoiled most of the cool stuff that’s happening within the adventure if you follow the articles on D&D Beyond or watch YouTube. It’s annoying, truthfully, because it would have been awesome to keep things like the artifact they are going to be looking for a secret to be revealed by the DM. Or even the fact that there are a bunch of super duper cool NPCs from previous editions of the game showing up within the storyline. *sigh* Whatever.
I’m running this campaign every other Tuesday night at our local game store. I presently have five players, and that feels like the proper amount. Even though the adventure is intended to be played at 10th level, I started my playing characters off at 1st level and I’m moving them through a series of pre-adventures to fast level them for when the book actually releases. I already have the digital version of the adventure, and I’ve read the entire thing. I also have the prequel adventure that’s intended to be played at third level.
As usual, I read through campaigns and change them to meet my own preferences. The overall story remains basically the same, but if another DM runs the adventure or a player buys the book and reads it, they will notice that I changed the flow of the story significantly to the point that it only resembles the original writing of the adventure. I enjoy picking out the bits that I really like and adding in my own things.
Let’s go through my take on Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
CHOSEN OF THE GODS
I started off by making the characters “special.” They aren’t just heroes but instead they are something akin to Chosen in the Forgotten Realms. Each of their families interacted with one of the gods in mortal form during the world shaking Time of Troubles. This blessing (or in the case of one player a curse) carried through the family throughout generations, fully manifesting in the character.
So first of all, I wanted to make the characters very important since they have been selected as saviors of the Multiverse. The situation with the Wish spell still happens, but it’s for a whole different reason.
At an early age, the character discovered they were “special.” They had the innate magical ability to heal themself. Maybe they fell out of a tree and broke their leg. In the pain of the situation, they were able to will healing magic to mend their injury. The character kept this ability a secret, knowing that it made them different from the others around them. This power is a game mechanic (Feat) that resembles Healing Surge from Fourth Edition D&D allow the characters to heal 4d4+4 once per Long Rest.
RESURECTION MACHINE
Next, the characters all have a Feat called “Divine Tether” that basically allows them to resurrect if they are killed during the campaign. This ability is a blue ethereal chord attached to the middle of their shoulder blades and extending upward out of sight into another plane of existence. The tether is invisible unless someone can see invisible items or is peering into the Ethereal plane.
In Forgotten Realms, souls are believed to pass through the Shadowfell on their way to the Fugue Plane after the Spellplague. However, some souls may become trapped in the Shadowfell or the Border Ethereal as ghosts or other undead. These incorporeal undead may be visible to other creatures on the Material Plane if they choose. Other factors may also prevent a soul from traveling safely to the Fugue Plane, which can result in other forms of undead
When a character is killed in the campaign, they experience their soul being shunted into the Shadowfell along with every other soul that is moving on to their afterlife. They watch as the Raven Queen observes them, picking out interesting souls for her own purposes. As they move through the Shadowfell, their patron god plucks them out of the flow and drags them back to life by way of the Divine Tether. When the character resurrects, they must make the equivalent of a System Shock roll with percentile dice. Their chance of success is their level times 5. So a 10th level character has a 50% chance of success. If the roll is successful (below the target %) then they resurrect without penalty. If the roll is unsuccessful, (higher than the target %) then they will resurrect but must deduct “1” from a single Ability score of their choice. (For example, lowering their Strength from 15 to 14.) Additionally, death saving throws start at the standard “10” but as the story progresses it may turn into the Meat Grinder optional rules with death saving throws becoming “15.”
VECNA’S INFLUENCE
The book discusses the link that the characters have to Vecna. They have the opportunity to steal away secrets before Vecna can get them and convert them to powers and abilities to use against him. The characters are also tempted throughout the adventure by Vecna. Because players of the game are often hungry for power, the opportunity arises that they may give in to Vecna hoping that they can forsake him or break their oaths before the end of the story. Temptation is a dangerous thing.
The book offers some option for the “Power of Secrets” but I created a chart that contains custom powers that the characters can obtain by consuming secrets. These powers are rolled randomly on the chart.
Additionally, each player was given as handout called “Dark Secrets” that were selected at the beginning of the campaign. These secrets can be drawn out of the characters by the minions of Vecna (or Vecna himself!) during the campaign.
Lastly, the characters discovered with the help of Elminster that they have a “Black Cord” attached to the middle of their shoulder blades along with the blue one. Again, the Black Cord is not visible to the naked eye. Viewing it with an ability that allows invisible items to be seen or within the Ethereal plane reveals the Black Cord rising into the air and disappearing out of sight into another plane of existence. The link is a supernatural one to Vecna and it is the delivery system for the energy from the “Power of Secrets.”
THE WISH SPELL
The story as written has the characters transported by a Wish spell gone awry to the Wizards Three. This is an interesting plot point and I like it, but I changed that a bit too. When the characters were teleported by the spell, it happened at the will of Mystra, Goddess of Magic at the request of the patron gods of each character. Again, these characters aren’t just heroes in this story by dumb luck. It’s divine intervention.
Each character also discovered that they are marked by the legendary Azure Bonds. This curse was featured in the 380-page novel written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb published by TSR in 1988. The Azure Bonds are what grants the characters their Divine Tether ability. They are also bound to fight Vecna through these Bonds. If they decide to refuse to do as their patron god wishes, they will suffer the ill effects of the Azure Bonds. The curse manifested as dark blue scars streaking across their skin like Lichtenberg figures, featuring the symbol of their patron god at the center of the scar.
EVOLVING ITEMS
Each character also has an Evolving Item, detailed on my blog here. I used my own homebrew rules using the guidelines to create a magic item in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
And so that’s the main changes I made, although I have made a bunch of narrative changes as well. The characters haven’t been railroaded down a particular path but instead given multiple paths to follow through in-character choices. I am continuing to do this throughout the story, giving them some level of choice in how they wish to deal with the looming threat of Vecna and his terrible gambit to recreate the entire Multiverse.
Children of the Ampersand 