Vecna Lives: A Brutal First Appearance | D&D Walkthroughs
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- Patreon: / dmitall
Vecna Lives (and so do we)! We finally have a new episode out! In it, we discuss the rise of D&D's most famous lich. One that ascended from a myth to an icon. We discuss Vecna Lives, a 98 page adventure that helped transform Vecna from a pair of magic items into an actual character. Sorry for all the recent delays to our episodes. We actually have been working on multiple episodes at a time during our hiatus, and we have several that are almost complete. So hopefully we can finally get back to a regular schedule for the new year.
Music: Descent into Undermountain - The Hand of Bane (Title Music), Order of the Griffon (Credit Music)
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
5:49 The Circle of Eight
15:10 Kron Hills
22:44 Tovag Baragu
31:00 Conclusions
35:00 Spoiler-Free
Video Game footage Brain Dead 13 (SuperAwesome), Fellowship of the Ring (Fair Play Gaming), Valheim (Valheimgamer.com, Reddit: Arayshio), Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (nexusmods.com Silz), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (skyrimnodamage.blogspot.com), Monster Hunter World (Trophygamers), Fable III (fable.fandom.com), World of Warcraft (wowpedia.fandom.com, Twitter: Peachtree_5, wowhead, Reddit: skywalker69), Temple of Elemental Evil (Circle of Eight, co8.org), Lego Lord of the Rings, Link: The Faces of Evil (GameGrumps), Black & White (sys01 Gaming), Kingdom Hearts (Reverof Enola), Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (xGarbett), Spider-Man: Web of Fire, Talespire, Mega Man 2, Eternal Darkness
Wizards of the Coast Images: Eldritch Wizardry (0e), Monster Manual 2, Fate of Istus (1e), Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium, Manual of the Planes, Book of Artifacts, City of Greyhawk, Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins, Die Vecna Die, Vecna Reborn, Iuz the Evil (2e), Dieties & Demigods, , Vecna: The Hand of the Revenant, Living Greyhawk Gazeteer (3e), Open Graves (4e), Princes of the Apocalypse (5e), Icons of the Realms WizKids Figure, Dragon Magazine, Spellfire Card Game
Wikimedia Commons: Hill of Tara Burial Mound (geograph.ie, Matthrew Chadwick), Stonehenge (Sanjay Nair), D&D Game (Moroboshi), Clapperboard 02 Film (Mattbr)
Public Domain: The Human Monster, The Ghoul
Other Footage: Vecna's Skull (Runescape), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Clouds (eRobb3) - Hry
one of the most brutal railroads in d&d history.
Old school dnd youtube is filled to the brim with guys in messy rooms ranting into 15 year old webcams. Your content is so high quality it looks like a Marvel movie by comparison.
Love your work, keep it up!
Most accurate depiction of this channel that I could have imagined!
pleb detected.
Marvel movies have less soul :)
Had to laugh when it Said "either it allows a magic user to cast Various Bigby's hand spells or it is a +2 backscratcher. So far not sure which." I remember how funny those little cartoons were. My favorite was one where a fighter in armor got scared when he saw a rust monster and jumped in to a companions arms in fear.
Same; my favorite one-panel _Dragon_ cartoon is of a caster _wishing_ for "a staff of untold might" and then behind him you see a portal opening with a crew of dudes in shades & suits emerging, armed with briefcases. The original MiBs? We may never know...
Don't forget "Pencils and Paychecks"
Those were the days. Loved the art in the old PHB too.
@@TheFatalT "One false move, and the familiar gets it!"
There was one in I think Dragon magazine that showed a wizard(?) reading a scroll and his thought bubble read, "This is a scroll of Learning Disability. As you read this, you will smowly beget confused as your brain disappears into an aridzoba frost. Snurdly-doo! Xert! Xert! Xert!"
My roommate in college ran Vecna Lives! for us as a semester long campaign. Every week for about 5 months. He set it up wonderfully, telling us that we were all playing the Circle and making the opening "scene" the entire first night session and that "there's some henchmen on the back table that we might use if we need to send them on a side quest." After the 3rd member of the Circle died from Vecna (I was one of the first two to die), I figured out what was going on and started jumping up and down with excitement. It was a much better way to start this adventure than the short intro scenario the book give. Part of it by him talking it up as us playing Bigby, Tensor, et. al. for a couple weeks before we started.
We were assigned a character to stretch our roleplaying and move us out of their norms and rp habits. And to make us think. We all sat (assiged) in a U shaped with the character who liked each other sitting closer together. So the person you sat next to you got along the best with and the person at the other end of the U you didn't really like. I ended up playing the paladin, taking the Sword of Kas, and walking away from making the rough decisions given by the gods in the last session. In the post game we were reading how the Sword was supposed to change behaviors and I had done many of the things it was suggesting. We also had some very lucky rolls during some fights (the pit with the vampire mist & an imp) and I'm surprised no one permanently died. It's such a memorable game that whenever any of the 10 of us get together we mention that game, now almost 30 years later.
These are games I play D&D for - Adventures that change our lives and give us great memories of excellent fun with friends. Even when it's stressful and our characters die.
Sounds like you had a great time
That sounds incredible !
They also had the Phallus of Vecna, where you had to chop off your own penis and replace it. The result was a REAL Boner, an actual Bone that replaced your penis and gave you a Permanent Boner. Needless to say Succubus and Undead Ladies LOVED the character who had that. That is a real Artifact too, I hear that Arkhan, a Dragonkin evil Paladin who got the Hand of Vecna on the Critical Roll also found and implanted the Phallus of Vecna upon him too. Wizards of the Coast had to make a new Arkhan miniature with the Phallas so you can buy this and see the little Vecna Phallus on the miniature. Google search it. Yes, this Phallus is said to have the power to Screw someone to Death or rather Undeath. It's an Esctastic way to go, but then you come back as a Sex Slave to the possessor of the Phallus of Vecna.
Note: This is hilarious, and if you don't find it hilarious, then honestly you are completely removed from the original Geist and Humor of the original era of DnD. You can use this idea if you wish in your game.
While DMing this campaign, I got around the beginning by starting the campaign with the party becoming bodyguards to Jallarzi (one of the Circle of the 8) while she investigated Osnabrolt, the gnome village with the sword of Kas. This allowed for the party to get to know Jallazi, and also made one of them get the Sword of Kas very early in the campaign, which was fun for roleplay and meant that the party had a real reason to be investigating the cult of Vecna later. When the circle of 8 ended up dying on a top-secret mission, the party was heartbroken because I had killed off an NPC they had gotten to know really well.
Oldtime players would have salivated at the chance to play the famed Circle of Eight. The shock and horror of getting ganked in the opening minutes of the adventure would have been jaw dropping. I can see the GM picking the characters sheets up, then handing out the new sheets for the minions of the now-late wizards. I'm sure the players would be shaking in their boots after watching those vaunted wizards drop like flies.
Yep, that's basically how I felt. "Oh fuuuu, what are we going to do now? How are we going to take the Circles' underlings and go fight Vecna?" It became an interesting investigative story.
Oh man, it's been so long since you guys last updated. I'm so glad you're still alive. I love your videos, its fun to learn about older editions and modules and see how game design has evolved and changed over the decades.
I ran Vecna Lives in high school. It was awesome, even though I didn't get past the opening act.
One of my players INSISTED on using his own DMPC, which was a character that could do everything everywhere any time any place and couldn't ever ever ever lose any fight anywhere. Well, one Time Stop later and there's his precious DMPC, lying on the ground with her neck snapped. Instant rage quit.
I begged him to play a pregen, but he refused. I have to admit snapping that character's neck with nothing he could do about it is my most fulfilling D&D moment in thirty years.
Sounds like a lot of players in high school.
Dad's back with cigarettes!
The Head of Vecna was never originally a prank, but a comic strip from Knights of the Dinner Table. The name is "Vectra" there due to copyright reasons. The head was later included as an item in Die, Vecna, Die as an homage/parody joke to the strip.
it was actually a prank from the author's home game. He was running a game with multiple party's playing on different days (at least 2 party's, maybe more). The groups were competing to achieve some overall goal first (that escapes me right now). One of the groups had an adventure where they cleared out a crypt. Afterwards they got the idea to take a severed head from the crypt and set traps in the crypt "protecting it". Then they spread rumors in the town of the legendary head of vecna being in the crypt. One of the other groups heard the rumor and went into the crypt to claim it...and one of them decapitated themselves to get it... The story was put in the comics, but Vecna was changed to vectra for copyright reasons. A lot of those KODT stories were inspired from actual games of DnD.
It's simple, I see DM It All, I click.
For people who grew up gaming in the 80s with all the background and mentions of the Circle of Eight, and how epic they were....the beginning of this module was like a big kick in the nuts. Talk about jaw dropping. Very, very cleverly done.
DM It All Lives! Now let's hope the sequel video isn't Die DM It All Die
This was one of the most memorable modules (in a good way) I ever played with my group. For a long time before the modules even came out, Vecna was a ephemeral threat to the party the DM brought up in home adventures. And finally getting to face him was everything we wished for and more.
One after-adventure night got especially silly, after the topic of the "Head of Vecna" came up, as our group came up with various artifacts of Vecna one might find in a wizard shop and discussed their powers. Some I remember vaguely were the Anus of Vecna, the Rectum of Vecna, the Foreskin of Vecna and the Vagina of Vecna. Feel free to come up with your own.
One time one of my dms included a home brewed “appendix of vecna” and in a bizarre twist it was vecna’s appendix.
the only problem was outside of being an undying organ it was useless.
To me it seems like a great basis to build your own campain around and thats what most old modules/ advantures are prepraped stuff that DM can use .
YES! So glad to have you back for the holidays!
This sounds like solid bones for a good adventure. Gonna have to pick this up and see about working it.
He's back!
Welcome back captain
Thanks for this video! I really have a strange love for learning about older D&D and you really help to get into it all.
@@DM_Chromie I'm not sure, I think it's because I play 5e mainly but prefer learning about the older editions modules and lore. I really love the old school style.
Have you gone through the rabbit hole of "Greyhawk: the adventure begins" yet?
The impression: an adventure to read, not to play. Apparently the railroad and lack of player agency in this one is strong.
I love learning all this old school D&D and RPG history! So glad you guys are back.
You are back!
Thanks so much for outlining the story! Definitely a few issues for sure but also interesting. There’s something pretty funny about the idea of suplexing Vecna through a portal at the end. Can only imagine how salty he is especially with the Demi-Plane of dread in the next adventure. Glad to have you back and the production quality is amazing!
The fact you call the Rani (spelling?) tribe Romani inspired and not the more common racial slur (starts with a G) makes me so happy. It’s a little thing but thank you
There was a third part: the orb of the Lich. Many assumed it to be the eye, but it was actually a testicle. It is said that a somewhat not too smart Paladin once got the orb, plucked out an eye and replaced it with the orb, only to find out it wasn't an eye.
That whole "naming spells after the wizard who invented it" was another nod of the head to Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" stories, as the spells mentioned in those stories were similarly named. (Phandul's prismatic spray comes to mind).
There are a lot of elements of Vecna Lives that could have made for solid adventures in their own right, but were instead used as set dressing for the module's own rail-roady plot.
-The PCs being tasked with finding the Circle of Eight and retrieving their bodies/magical items. Maybe even having to fight their undead forms, animated by Vecna and bound to his will so no one could investigate his plans.
-Attempts to disrupt Vecna's magical working by using the portals to travel quickly to the four corners of the Greyhawk world. Venturing into trap and monster filled fortresses - dungeons each in their own right - to find and destroy the artifacts Vecna used to cut the people of Greyhawk off from the gods.
-A huge city build inside a colossal skull, on a border realm between Death and Ash, serving as the hell for Vecna's enemies? That's an entire campaign location unto itself. The PCs dealing with internal factional politics, getting jumped by crazed adventurers or competing cults, making forays into surrounding wastes to investigate smaller outposts, and generally looking for a way to escape their confinement.
I'm not sure why, but this reminds me of a game my friend ran. I wasn't in it but my best friend and roommate at the time was and he played a Paladin. They were trying to eradicate a cult of wererats and tracked down their nest/coven, to find that they were constructing a flesh golem. After a full team wipe, the DM was talking about how the inspiration struck him that the coven would find the Paladin's heart to be a great addition to the monster. So somewhere in the world was a Frankenstein Paladin, who undoubtedly turned on his lycanthropic masters..
A few months later I started a Ravenloft game, and was planning to start the campaign in the Frankenstein's monster domain (Mordheim?) When my (same) roommate said he wanted to play a Paladin, I quickly called the other DM and got all the data he had, down to where each slain combatant (PC or cultist) died and how, writing in the fact that the cult's nest had been sucked into the domain with all the wererats. Sure enough, the the PC's tracked down the evil cleric lycanthrope in Ravenloft (he wasn't suspicious because it's Ravenloft, evil clergy and lycanthropes are everywhere). As they entered the altar room, and I began drawing out the architecture on the map, the realization slowly began to sink in. There were also like 3 other players in the party who were in the previous game. So good times.
Love your videos. Please continue the Venda trilogy. Die Vecna Die is a classic.
THE BEST Channel of module reviews.
Early christmas present!
I was worried that you'd given up on this series. Happy to see I was wrong cause your series gets me interested in the older adventures that I want to grab up and adapt.
Nice that every time I think "this channel hasn't posted in a while, you drop something and it's always awesome
HE FINALLY RETURNS
Incredibly happy to have your content back with all its effort.
Vecna's balls that was a great episode! Thanks for your hard work, keep it up!
You have to cut off your own...
err...
And replace them with Vecna's....
Hmmm....
That's a definite NO, THANK YOU!!!
I remember reading and re-reading the 1E Dungeon Master's Guide, especially the magic item and artifact section... The Eye and Hand of Vecna were so cool. Thanks for all the background!
The legend returns!
Between you and JCS, the holidays have truly come for me.
Return of the King.
Great video as always ! Your stuff is always worth the wait.
THE LONG AWAITED RETURN
Brilliantly done, excited for the two followup videos ;D
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Welcome back
Great video!!! Your channel is my favorite when it comes to DnD stuff! I love the detail put into each and every one of your videos, thank you for making it.
8:58 When he describes the Ankheg coming out of the wall and grabbing a player to their death I IMMEDIATELY thought of the scene in the 80's movie 'Big Trouble in Little China' when the good guys are traveling down the sewer system and a huge ankheg-like creature grabs a guy and hauls him away for its dinner.
oh my god it feels like a decade, its great to see you return with more of the same amazing content! Thank you so much!
It's wonderful to see you upload again! Loved the drawings!
Another well made video!, Vecna is my favorite villain in D&D so thank you for covering this adventure! :)
I know these videos take more work then I can imagine, thanks! I really enjoy them!
Glad to see that, like Vecna, you have returned from the grave.
I like how Vecna and Kas would later become Domain Lords in the Ravenloft setting, both sharing the Burning Peaks Cluster to wage war with each other.
So happy this channel is back!
You are back with a new video, this is a real Christmas present. You have great videos about old dnd. And I hope you will please us with new videos and please do not abandon the channel.
Its great to have you back! Im looking forward to seeing what else you've been working on :D
And i agree with what you and some of the commenters have said: it seems like this module is full of great ideas that it just doesn't take full advantage off
Still i think it would be worth picking up for DMs looking for some inspiration so they can do their own thing with it
I certainly feel inspired by some of the stuff you talked about in this video ^^
Hey happy to see you guys back!
Glad you guys are back! Love your vids. Don't disappear like that again!
So happy to see my favorite dnd channel is back!
One of my DMs told his/my group of an adventure he played in where after going through a trap heavy dungeon reach the final room with the final treasure on a pillar behind a force field and after gaining the treasure, decided to leave a prank. They decapitated one of the monsters they previously defeated, pried out one eye and placed it on the pillar, leaving a sign identifying it as the head of Vecna.
Part of the group/party was left behind the main party and was trying to catch up (the players were busy on game day, and the DM ran a "make up" session) found the same dungeon, and eventually the head of Vecna.
And the legend of the head of Vecna spread far and wide.
Playerds HATE watching fights between the "important" NPCs. In these cases I recommend you go more with a You Are the Vessel route, and let two of the players take over the NPCs for the battle with the understanding that one of them will actually die. If they refuse to be vessels, a) just let two players who do want to, or even just 1 player and you DM the other, or b) keep in mind if the players say no, their characters just pissed off two powerful demi-gods.
This is a major peev I have. The point should be that the PC's should be able, one day to BE the important PC's
Some Ravenloft adventures did that too. I remember one sequence where the PCs are just standing there while a fight is happening, and a book lands at their feet that they are supposed to grab and flee with, that's it.
@@kilroy987 At least it's on brand for RL. You're supposed to feel hopeless and helpless. You're supposed to feel in over your head. It still sucks, though.
Finally! Loved this christmas gift! ^^
part of the incentive to avoid the famous npcs is so you dont have to railroad this much
Glad to have you back
Glad you're still making videos! Keep up the great work!
Glad to see more from this channel, great revisit to the module.
So glad to have another video from you guys!
the editing is superb!
Great to see another one of your excellent vids.
Glad to see you guys and back!! And with Vecna Lives no less!! Hinting at Vecna Reborn & Die Vecna Die?!? (Vecna Trilogy)🤞🏻 but honestly guys happy your back as you make great videos and look forward to more content to come.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone 🙏🏻
Finally DM it all is back !
Wonderfully done! Your videos are always so good.
Nice!! Good to see you guys again!
Your stuff it TOP NOTCH! Just found it last night and I’m glad to see you posted this three weeks ago. Your production quality is super high. I bet you just keep growing!!!! You could do walkthroughs of any old module and I’m sure it would get a ton of views!!!
FUCK YEAH! Super happy to see you guys! Was a little worried.
I was very amused that you brought up the 'myth'-story of the Head of Vecna. The story is quite humorous. :D
Legit thought this was a million + channel. Criminally underrated
Great content, you were missed. Glad you are back. Keep it up!
God I love this show. Every new video is like christmas
nice to have yo back
A new DM It All video! My day is made!
This channel is always worth the wait
Glad to have you back
Excellent bro, superb video. Cheers fella
Wooo wooo!!! I appreciate your guys focus on releasing quality content over quantity. Keep up the great work :D
yes your back! I was really sad when you hadn't uploaded for alittle while.
YEEEES! DM IT ALL IS BAAAACK!
Top-knotch D&D content creators back in to play! Great one! Not sure about how railroady it was aside from what you said. I think it is pretty big investigation though and the DM does not need to railroad guarantee the outcome simply. I love the head of Vecna! Sad, but True! I think it is hard to create these fights with supernatural higher beings when the players in lore should not be able to touch them normally. I like the design overall...
I will say, no, the intro fight is a good surprise, but that maybe its execution should be done differently and player expecation and culture should not devalue simply the psych and tragic deaths...That said, rediscovering information you as the player knows is yeah a little odd feeling and frustrating.
Love the Fantasy in some of this adventure! A lot of D&D is ripped off from everything else and is just a sad, bad joke of Fake, Bad Story. But the Eye and Hand of Vecna cultist-beasts are awesome! The Hand just crushes you! Scary and Fantasy! Unique!
Glad to see you guys are back.
Good to see you're still around, great video!
When you mentioned the other famous Lich I really thought you would mention Azalin. Played too much 2e ravenloft i guess
Well... This was worth the wait!
This module definitely had the bare 'bones' of a potentially epic adventure. This kind of thing can be the CONCLUSION to a campaign, and so I don't feel that using actual character is that bad a thing in that context. Thus, if introduced as part of a long running campaign, the DM can introduce the Circle of Eight early, perhaps having them be a spring board for quest giving and adventures along the way. THEN have them die 'off screen' will be more impactful and I think would encourage the PCs to investigate.
OH SHIT, FUCKING FINALLY. I need the NOURISHMENT these videos give me.
DM It All is back! I was worried you left us for good
WOHO! New one! thought mabye you where done.
Welcome back!
Sounds like this should have been a novel.
It could've been a great first Act to end with the Circle of 8 being annihilated. Would've been a great conclusion with two evils fighting.
DM it all uploads a video. That's a hit.
The king uploads again!
after vecna can you cover the old queen of the spiders? saw you mention it before in the temple of elemental evil.
Great video, as always!
Welcome back! =)