D&D 5E Where Does The Multiversal Vecna: Eve of Ruin Visit?

Includes Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Eberron.

evernight.jpeg

Evernight rises above the molten ground in the Shadowfell.​

Dungeons & Dragons designer Amanda Hamon has revealed some of the locations that Vecna: Eve of Ruin visits.
  • Evernight, a Shadowfell version of Neverwinter
  • Spelljammer's Astra Sea
  • Eberron's Mournlands
  • Ravenloft's Death House
  • Dragonlance's Three Moons Vault
  • Greyhawk's tom of Acererak
  • The Nine Hells
GJSmc8PacAEGr2z.jpeg

A pair of adventurers outside the Three Moons Vault, a complex on Krynn where allies of Lord Soth await them. Art by Jedd Chevrier.

GJSnDyhacAAvKh_.jpeg

Over 30 new monsters from around the multiverse arrive in Vecna: Eve of Ruin. Here we see a deathwolf from Krynn and a hertilod from the Astral Sea. Art by Brian Valeza.

 

log in or register to remove this ad


log in or register to remove this ad

Jer

Legend
Supporter
I agree and it's great, but the one thing that they could do to benefit play is put out actual sandbox setting material. A book dedicated to a small area filled with adventure sites devoid of plot other than rumors to spur the party.

Starring town with a smattering of big and small spots for folks to explore and rumours about each. Lost Mines and Icespire sort of do this, but it would great to see a full product with DM sidebars on how to build and run.
I mean that's the Essentials Kit basically. Except for the DM sidebars. I think the Essentials Kit is one of the most useful products they've put out for 5e and I'd be happy to see them do more like it. If I could get a similar product for, say, Planescape or Spelljammer I'd be very happy.
 

BRayne

Adventurer
I am not sure, I just guessed Tiamat because Zariel's ending in DiA is left to the player, and Asmodeus is too overpowered to be a villain instead of the villain. The other Archdevils aren't as interesting as them imho, but they could work with the right plot.

Ostensibly there’s still a Dragonborn Tiamat worshipper in Avernus with the hand of Vecna
 


Gradine

🏳️‍⚧️ (she/her) 🇵🇸
Keith Baker doesn't want to create a canonical explanation for the nature of the setting, he wants it to be up to individual GMs to decide. That's probably why he stopped writing the series. There is some discussion of possible big reveals in Exploring Eberron.
I always got the impression that any lore questions or reveals in his novels would not only not be canonical to the core setting but also not fully consistent even between his different series. Like, the answer of what caused the Mourning might be different between the Dreaming Dark books and the Thorn of Breland series, for instance.
 

vecna00

Speculation Specialist Wizard
I always got the impression that any lore questions or reveals in his novels would not only not be canonical to the core setting but also not fully consistent even between his different series. Like, the answer of what caused the Mourning might be different between the Dreaming Dark books and the Thorn of Breland series, for instance.
As someone who loves canonical explanations for things, I am frustrated by this but also admire him greatly for that decision.
 

None of the other locations listed are particularly "iconic" about 5e, and to say each one is iconic even to a specific edition is a little bit of a stretch too honestly. When I think Ravenloft, first and foremost thing I think about is, you know, the castle? Where Strahd is? And since he's already shown up in promotional material so much I figured we'd run into him on his home turf, instead of maybe seeing him skulking around a cramped basement dungeon for levels 1-3. Heck, The Amber Temple would've made more sense since this adventure looks to have references to the dark powers, of which Vecna almost certainly was and actually might still be in some way.

You can argue it's iconic for Ravenloft, but I wouldn't, it's an incredibly recent "innovation" (emphasis on the "no") to the setting. And it's certainly not the only innovative thing 5e has done story-wise; I wholeheartedly think calling most of the 5e adventures disappointments is a touch narrow-minded. If your only concern is what they do or don't do that's entirely original and unique to them; Consider that the "lore" of D&D is, was, and always will be fluid, on top of the fact that every edition iterates on the ones before it by taking the good stuff and rolling it forward while leaving the old and undesirable tidbits in the past where they well belong. In terms of 1:1 recreations of things in 5e, the only things we've gotten that were just straight-up reprints was Tales from the Yawning Portal and, besides some details here and there, Ravenloft itself through Curse of Strahd. Every other book has looked to change things up, take an iconic dungeon and make something new with homages to the original inspiration, or just trudged into totally original tettitory from cover to cover.
I don't recall Vecna ever be a Dark Power? I know he was a dark lord for a while, until he busted out and tried to usurp the Lady of Pain. Actually, on that note, I'm curious. You guys think they'll call back to Die, Vecna! Die! ?
 

Hmpf, the astral Sea is the least interesting part of spelljammer. It seems they have no Idea of what to do with the setting.
The Astral Dominion concept in Spelljammer 5E is straight from 4E's version of the Astral Sea, so I pretty much just imported the 4E Astral Sea into 5E but made the 4E Astral Dominions into outposts of the Outer Planes in the Astral Plane instead of being outright replacements for them like in 4E.

I've also split the Astral Plane into the Astral Sea and the Deep Astral, with the latter being more like the pre-4E Astral Plane.
 



Remove ads

Remove ads

Top