WotC Vecna Eve of Ruin: Everything You Need To Know

WotC has posted a 19-minute video telling you 'everything you need to know' about Vecna: Eve Of Ruin.

• Starts at 10th level, goes to 20th.
• Classic villains and setting, famous characters, D&D's legacy.
• Vecna wants to become the supreme being of the multiverse.
• Vecna is a god of secrets and secrets and the power of secrets are a theme throughout the book.
• A mechanical subsystem for using the power of secrets during combat.
• Going back to Ravenloft, the Nine Hells, places where 5th Edition has been in the last 10 years.
• It would be a fun 'meta experience' for players to visit locations they remember lore about.
• Finding pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts, pieces throughout the multiverse.
• Each piece in one of seven distinct planes or settings.
• Allustriel Silverhand has noticed something is wrong, puts call out to Tasha and Mordenkainen, who come to her sanctum in Sigil.
• The (10th level) PCs are fated to confront Vecna.
• Lord Soth and Strahd show up. Tiamat is mentioned but doesn't appear 'on screen'.
• Twists, turns, spoilers.
• It's a 'love letter to D&D'.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, Shakespeare did it with Fallstaff, so it's something hallowed by the passage of time...

Did using Falstaff requiring messing with the narrative?

 

[Jer]

Cause they wanted to use her without using her Iggwilv or Zalbina versions.

There's a good question of "why" though. Why not use one of her other guises? Especially if this is a capstone sort of campaign that could involve the same characters who've already met her in that guise?

If they'd used Bigby or Fizban instead of Alustriel Silverhand I'd assume it was a way to get the title wizard characters of the named sourcebooks into the scenario as a nod to 5e's publication history and so it needs to be Tasha. (Has Alustriel Silverhand shown up in a 5e book that I'm not remembering?)

If they want to use Tasha just for the name recognition among players I could see that. You've been using the sourcebook with her name on it for years, now meet the woman behind the name. And if this is supposed to be a capstone campaign that can feed in from any previous campaign then you might have met her before in another guise so meeting an earlier version of her that doesn't know the PCs but the PCs know it's her might be more interesting than just having her make the wish and think "oh, not these jerks again".

(I actually really like this setup though. Three major epic-level wizards need to stop the ultimate threat and they work together to make a powerful wish to stop him and ... a bunch of 10th level PCs show up. For the players that has to be an "Oh crud" moment as they realize that they're the best bet that a group of the most powerful named wizards could come up with.)

 

[Voadam]

None of that stuff is straight time travel though, because time travel is a separate thing.

You need to watch Season 2 of Loki if you think the TVA has no straight time travel stuff.

 

[OB1]

(Has Alustriel Silverhand shown up in a 5e book that I'm not remembering?)

She had a pretty big NPC role in Tyranny of Dragons and a cameo in Out of the Abyss. Mentioned in the SCAG as well.

 

[pukunui]

She had a pretty big NPC role in Tyranny of Dragons and a cameo in Out of the Abyss. Mentioned in the SCAG as well.

You're thinking of her sister, Laeral Silverhand, who is now the Open Lord of Waterdeep. She gets stats in Dragon Heist.

Alustriel may have been mentioned in SCAG, but that's about it. I seem to recall something from Ed about it being time for Alustriel to take a back seat and let Laeral be the one out in the open for a while. It may have come from his Waterdeep novel about Laeral.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Not thinking about the MCU but instead of actual comics from Marvel, particular the X-Men titles. Maybe Vecna is looking to become something like a Dominion much like how the original Nathaniel Essex (now known as Enigma) has become one siphoning the efforts of his clones: Mr. Sinister, Dr. Stasis, Orbis Stellaris and Mother Righteous in their ascension attempts to become Dominions themselves. A bunch of the 5e adventures have obelisks of power, so maybe it's like the Essex clones gathering power.

A Dominion exists outside of time and space, and can do a lot with their powers possibly reshaping things to their liking, but are limited by the casuality that leads to their own creation. So maybe Vecna could rewrite much of the multiverse, but can't prevent the things that created him so some of the Multiverse like Oerth and his betrayal by Kas and other things must be the same.

 

[Kurotowa]

Tell that to 5e Spelljammer- Wizkids must've been annoyed that some of the minis they made ended up not as useful as planned and some ended up not included in the adventure at all, like the third Astral Elf royal that's included in the set box. I forget his name, he had adventure art and everything.

I wonder if we'd have gotten a good Spelljammer release if the Dragonlance lawsuit hadn't been resolved when it was...

Okay, fair, but Spelljammer is the proverbial exception that proves the rule. I don't think that book was anyone's ideal finished product. Something very clearly went wrong in its production, probably multiple somethings. And we're not going to find out until years down the line when dishing the inside dirt won't negatively impact anyone's career.

That's how these things go. Insiders quietly spread the word amongst themselves, and it only spills out into the public as a current event if things went very wrong and fingers are being pointed.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Okay, fair, but Spelljammer is the proverbial exception that proves the rule. I don't think that book was anyone's ideal finished product. Something very clearly went wrong in its production, probably multiple somethings. And we're not going to find out until years down the line when dishing the inside dirt won't negatively impact anyone's career.

That's how these things go. Insiders quietly spread the word amongst themselves, and it only spills out into the public as a current event if things went very wrong and fingers are being pointed.

I have a feeling that it's just a simple "Printing prices have suddenly skyrocketed, so the page count has to come down, so slash what we can. Unfortunately, we paid for that art, so the ship illustrations have to stay."

Because what's in there is fine - it's just that things are missing. Give the set 32 - 64 more pages, and it would have been a pretty complete product. You have to wonder if the free 1- 5 adventure on D&D Beyond was supposed to be originally in the product, as it would have made the adventure book more complete and have given us info on Realmspace as a sample system. Same for the free monsters on D&DB.

 

[Parmandur]

I have a feeling that it's just a simple "Printing prices have suddenly skyrocketed, so the page count has to come down, so slash what we can. Unfortunately, we paid for that art, so the ship illustrations have to stay."

Because what's in there is fine - it's just that things are missing. You have to wonder if the free 1- 5 adventure on D&D Beyond was supposed to be originally in the product, as it would have made the adventure book more complete and have given us info on Realmspace as a sample system. Same for the free monsters on D&DB.

No, the Beyond Adventure definitely wasn't part of the original plan because it has different writers and vibe, the book is designed to key off the end of Lost Mines of Phandelver.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You need to watch Season 2 of Loki if you think the TVA has no straight time travel stuff.

Fair enough, but travel through time and travel to an alternate reality are still different things.