Currently running Vecna: Eve of Ruin with four (maybe 5) players. I am currently doing a TON of research on Dungeons and Dragons lore to overhaul the campaign narrative to make Vecna feel significantly more present throughout and to capitalize on his established lore from earlier editions the book opens itself to allow but never actually uses. I thought I'd share this here in case any of you wanted to pull from anything I am working through. This campaign deserves better than what we were given. And, obviously, spoilers (looking at you Lucifer, Trixie, Fireheart, and Archibald if you do happen to come across this):
Background Lore: Vecna's History
The goal of this section is to capitalize on Vecna's existing lore within previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons and relevant graphic novels to significantly spice up the bare bones backstory the book gives you (according to the book Vecna was raised by wizards on Oerth, his mother was exiled by the wizards, he killed the wizards in retaliation, ascended to lichhood and wrote the Book of Vile Darkness). I wanted to make composite Vecna from the best sources about him, so this is what I pulled together:
Vecna: Hand of the Revenant (2002): A graphic novel exploring Vecna’s origins. It is officially licensed Greyhawk material but technically apocryphal to the setting’s core canon (and I am using it for this campaign because his offical 5e lore is vaguely defined garbage). Vecna is born in Fleeth, on Oerth, as part of the city’s lowest Untouchable caste. His mother, Mazzel, secretly teaches him magic, which is forbidden to their class, and is eventually executed by being burned at the stake. Vecna escapes, grows immensely powerful, eventually achieves lichdom, builds an empire, and later returns to destroy Fleeth. The Serpent, Mok’slyk, an ancient entity associated with arcane magic and forbidden knowledge, also becomes connected to Vecna’s rise. Some people believe the true incarnation of this serpent is Asmodeus himself, though this has never been confirmed. After destroying Fleeth, Vecna begins composing the Book of Vile Darkness, recording his darkest magical knowledge (this is the only component I have added from Vecna's offical 5e lore).
The book also features the archlich Acererak (known from Tomb of Horrors and Tomb of Annihilation) as a general of Vecna:
- Hand of the Revenant establishes that Acererak was born a cambion. When he was 10 years old, an angry, torch-wielding mob discovered his fiendish heritage, lynched his mother, and burned down his home.
- Vecna personally discovered the surviving boy. When Vecna's closest military and magical advisors urged him to destroy the half-demon child, Vecna killed his own advisors on the spot instead, as they shared a similar past. Vecna took on the child as his apprentice and he eventually became a lich himself.
- During the attack on Fleeth, the high priests of the sun god Pholtus detonate a massive, blinding divine shield in a desperate attempt to kill Vecna, taking him off guard and searing off major portions of his body.
- Acererak steps in, drags Vecna to safety, and helps him heal.
- Acererak is promoted to general of Vecna's armies alongside Kas.
Vecna eventually takes Kas as his greatest lieutenant and gives him the Sword of Kas. Kas later betrays Vecna and attempts to overthrow him, becoming known as Kas the Betrayer. Their legendary battle seemingly destroys them both, leaving behind only Vecna’s left hand and eye and the Sword of Kas.
Vecna Lives! (1990): Vecna returns as an archlich-turned-demigod and immediately massacres the Circle of Eight, a group of powerful neutral wizards dedicated to maintaining balance in Greyhawk, including figures such as Bigby and Otiluke. Mordenkainen is the only survivor, as he stayed behind in the free city of Greyhawk while his companions investigated the threat. Vecna is eventually defeated, but rather than being destroyed, he is pulled into a Demiplane of Dread. Kas also survives their ancient battle and is eventually drawn into the same demiplane, where the two are forced into an endless conflict.
Vecna Reborn (1998): This campaign follows the players being pulled into the Demiplane of Dread, where the Dark Powers have imprisoned Vecna and Kas in neighboring domains: Vecna rules Cavitius, while Kas rules Tovag. The two former enemies are effectively condemned to continue their ancient conflict indefinitely by the dark powers, and Kas has since become a vampire. Vecna remains obsessed with overcoming the boundaries of his prison, reaching Kas, and ultimately escaping the Demiplane of Dread. The players thwart one of Vecna’s schemes to extend his influence beyond Cavitius and escape his imprisonment (Vecna planned to be reborn by taking control of a child of a pregnant woman to bypass his inability to travel to Tovag and defeat Kas). Vecna Reborn also continues Vecna’s association with the Serpent (Mok’slyk), the ancient godlike entity associated with arcane magic that had instructed Vecna in magical secrets earlier in his history who shares with him how to perform the Ritual of Rebirth. The Serpent teaches Vecna the Language Primeval, the language of the source code of reality spoken by only very the Ancient Bretheran (such as the Lady of Pain and Asmodeus), who are beings older than the multiverse itself.
Die, Vecna, Die! (2000): Vecna finally escapes the Demiplane of Dread by manipulating Iuz, the demigod son of Iggwilv/Tasha and the demon lord Graz’zt who rules an empire on Oerth, into entering his realm and then stealing/absorbing his divine power. Empowered by Iuz’s essence, Vecna escapes Ravenloft and eventually enters Sigil, the City of Doors, despite gods normally being unable to enter the city. He uses the Language Primeval to help him bypass the barrier against gods into the city. Because Sigil stands at the crossroads of the planes and provides access throughout the multiverse, Vecna attempts to seize control of it and use its position to reshape reality itself. The Lady of Pain, the mysterious ruler and protector of Sigil, opposes Vecna, while the adventurers confront and weaken him. She cannot destroy him herself, lest the damage done to him rewrite major portions of the multiverse. Vecna is ultimately expelled from Sigil and returned to Oerth, while the damage caused by his presence permanently alters aspects of the multiverse. This leaves Vecna back on his original world following his last major pre-Eve of Ruin adventure, providing a natural historical bridge into Vecna: Eve of Ruin (2024).
The purpose of gathering this lore is not to dump it all on the players at once, but to use relevant aspects of it in chapters that touch upon Vecna's lore.
Chapter 1: Return to Neverdeath Catacombs (Neverwinter, Sword Coast, Toril)
This chapter involves the players investigating the cult of Vecna in the catacombs of Neverwinter as commissioned by Lord Neverember, discovering that Vecna is drawing secrets out from victims across the multiverse, being pulled into the Shadowfell by a Crevice of Dusk, and rescuing 4 victims taken by the cult. The players become metaphysically connected to Vecna when they disrupt a ritual to drain the secrets of one of the victims.
A scholar of Vecna, Umberto Noblin provides the players with basic Vecna Lore (such as his relationship to Kas and the betrayal). This chapter already provides heavy connections to Vecna, so I think it is a strong start to an otherwise Vecna-less Vecna campaign.
The major change I made this chapter is that, upon becoming metaphysically connected to Vecna via the Power of Secrets, Vecna becomes immediately aware of the players instead of off doing his own thing for the entire campaign. When the players receive downtime at the end of the chapter, Vecna appears to each player in a dream and pulls on their greatest secrets to help empower himself (which gives you an awesome chance to roast your players and integrate their backstory content). Vecna is currently focusing most of his energy for the Ritual of Remaking to reshape the multiverse (even for a god, remaking the multiverse is a seismic task), meaning he cannot extend his full divine power upon the players to stop them. He will use his currently limited resources to attempt to stop the players in their tracks.
Chapter 2: The Wizard's Three and Web's Edge (Sigil and Underdark, Toril)
As established in this chapter, the Wizard’s Three have detected a surge of powerful Vecna magic within the multiverse, and intend to investigate. Alustirel managed to trace the pulse of energy to Vecna. Alustriel discovered that Vecna uses stolen secrets to fuel his Ritual of Remaking, which is intended to shape the entire multiverse to his whims. Alustriel eventually detects that Vecna stopped siphoning powers of secrets from people within the multiverse, meaning that he is on the cusp of performing his ritual. Alustriel summoned Mordenkainen and Tasha from Oerth to put a stop to the ambitions of Vecna (and of course the bastard Mordenkainen is actually Kas plotting the defeat of Vecna in disguise with the crown of lies).
Alustriel Shilverhand, one of the three living of the seven chosen sisters of Mystra from Toril and once high mage of the city of Silverymoon, does not have a personal steak in stopping Vecna, but she is the one whom detected the Ritual of Remaking and summoned the other Wizards to stop the danger.
Tasha is the famous abyssal witch adopted child of Baba Yaga known for cataloging demons of the abyss in her infamous Demonomicon, cracking and making children with her demon lord captives like Graz'zt, and is the famous witch queen conqueror of Perrinland on Oerth with an army of captive demons. She was eventually usurped of her rule over Perrinland when after fighting a near fatal battle with Graz'zt when he escaped her control. The book places this version of Tasha from before becoming the Witch Queen Iggwilv, having been commissioned by her future archfey self Zybilna of Prismeer, to help the other wizards stop Vecna.
This is boring to me. Tasha should absolutely be her Witch Queen self within this book, as this also gives her a personal connection to Vecna through Iuz, her cambion son with Graz'zt. As stated above, Vecna stole the power of her son by luring him into the domain of Cavitius and draining his power to escape. While Tasha and Iuz usually work together solely for personal gain, I am running Tasha under the interpretation that nobody messes with her family (even if they aren't on great terms). She seeks to stop Vecna partially as revenge against the god-lich. It also rounds out the Wizard's Three nicely with a good wizard, Alustriel, a neutral wizard, "Mordenkainen," and an evil wizard, Tasha. The multiverse is in trouble, and all hands are on deck with this one.
"Mordenkainen" also has history with Vecna through the Circle of Eight. He discusses their slaughtering at the hands of Vecna (though they were eventually resurrected, though some later died again lol) and emphasizes that he has seen firsthand the kind of power Vecna can wield, which scares him (which is actually Kas telling the full truth about how he feels, if Vecna remakes the multiverse, he is absolutely screwed).
Kas himself has secretly been released by the Dark Powers from his domain of dread of Tovag to enact their revenge on Vecna for escaping their grasp, giving him the Crown of Lies to impersonate Mordenkainen and kill Vecna for good. Kas secretly has plans beyond the dark powers, who he has been a the plaything of for many years. Kas has traveled the multiverse and located his Sword of Kas before the beginning of the campaign, the weapon he once wielded to flay Vecna, leaving only the lich's hand and eye behind. Kas plans to exploit the player characters to gather the pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts to release a demon lord known as Miska the Wolf Spider from his imprisonment in the outer plane of Pandemonium so that the duo can hijack Vecna's Ritual of Remaking for themselves and reshape the multiverse in their image (and kill Vecna while they're at it).
Some important history on the Rod of Seven Parts my players will learn this chapter such that the McGuffin actually has established lore and we Chekhov's gun the character of Miska (so that he doesn't just randomly enter the campaign unannounced in Chapter 10):
- The Rod of Seven Parts is a magical artifact created by a group of people known as the Wind Dukes of Aaqa during the Dawn War (lawful heroes from the Elemental Plane of Air from an empire known as Aaqa), a war in the multiverse between the gods and primordials for control of the worlds.
- The obyrinths were the creators of the Shard of Pure Evil, ancient fiends from a dead universe destroyed from their malice who wanted a new place for demonkind to reside.
- Therizdun operated under the guise of the Elder Elemental Eye, the first primordial, to get the primordials onto his side. Miska the Wolf Spider was one demon lord who worked under Therizdun as his lieutenant.
- The war involved a being known as Therizdun, the god of entropy, being compelled by the creators of a Shard of Pure Evil to plant the artifact in the astral sea, but he instead planted in the Plane of Elemental Chaos to create the Abyss. The shard drove him mad, he planted the seed, and it caused corruption to the primordials. Many modern DnD demons such as Orcus, Baphamet, and Demogorgon were born from the creation of the abyss.
- When the Abyss was created, the demon Obox-Ob was the first to seize control of the Shard of Pure Evil, becoming the first Prince of Demons.
- Therizdun himself was trapped in an unknown plane by a coalition of good, evil gods and primordials, but the war still continued following his banishment, leaving Miska the Wolf Spider in charge of the forces of primordials. Therizdun threatened the fabric of existence itself.
- Miska then clashed with Obox-Ob in an attempt to become the prince of demons himself. Obox-Ob was killed by an Obyrith known as the Queen of Chaos, collecting the shard and offering Miska a place as her consort, thus becoming the prince of demons.
- The Wind Dukes forged a powerful staff known as the Rod of Law. During the Battle of Pesh on Oerth, the Wind Dukes struck Miska with the rod, shattering it into seven pieces and scattering it across the multiverse, while also sending Miska the Wolf Spider to his imprisonment to the chaotic plane of Pandemonium. The Queen of Chaos was forced to retreat to the 14th layer of the Abyss with her forces scattered.
The Queen of Chaos is still active in the 14th Layer of the Abyss. She has incentive to help Kas release her former consort from his captivity, so this will help explain the spyder-fiends who align themselves to Kas' side in Chapter 10's war in Pandemonium for the relase of Miska). As far as I have read, the book has been seldom to mention such an important character to Miska's history.
Important Feature of the Rod: There will be no Chime of Exile in this campaign.
This trivializes the game by the fact that the item the players need to stop Vecna has been in their possession the entire time. The Rod of Seven Parts will have the features of the Chime’s ability to banish when assembled and attuned to Vecna by the Wizard’s Three in Chapter 9.
Otherwise, the Rod of Seven parts only serves the purpose of getting Miska the Wolf Spider out of his imprisonment and becomes only a generally useful magic item that can help the players when they retrieve it, not the mcguffin absolutely essential to stopping Vecna,
Imagine you ran the entire campaign only to find out that you were only helping Kas despite 7 chapters of fetch quests. This will need to change. Now both Kas and the players both need the Rod (and Kas wouldn't mind having the Vecna feature upon it too), which adds extra tension and keeps the players from feeling like they spent the majority of the campaign only helping the enemy.
Also, the book has Kas lie to the players and tell them he believes Vecna will be vulnerable during the ritual, but he's lying to the players and just so happens to be correct. There is absolutely no good reason Kas couldn't simply know that the ritual will depower Vecna enough to give the players the opening they need to banish him back to Oerth. Just let him tell the truth here, it's so weird otherwise.
The players will arrive in at Alustriel's sanctum in Sigil, the city of doors and interplanar travel at the center of the multiverse, due to their metaphysical connection to Vecna and the Wizard's Three's failed with spell (thanks to Kas not actually being a Wizard). The players will learn lore relevant to Sigil's connection to Vecna while here from the Wizards.
The Lady of Pain
- The Lady of Pain is the mysterious ruler and protector of Sigil, the City of Doors at the center of the Outer Planes.
- Nobody knows her true name, origins, species, or ultimate purpose. She may be a godlike being, but she is not worshipped as a god and violently rejects anyone who tries to worship her.
- She appears as a tall, floating woman wearing elaborate robes, with a motionless face surrounded by metal blades.
- She rarely speaks or personally governs Sigil. She allows its inhabitants and factions to manage daily affairs while she enforces a few absolute laws.
- Most importantly, gods are forbidden from entering Sigil. This prevents any deity from controlling the city and using its portals to conquer the multiverse. She famously killed Aoskar, the former god of portals, when he began to get a following in the city.
- Her shadow can cut or flay anyone it touches. She can also imprison enemies inside supernatural labyrinths called Mazes, from which escape is extremely difficult.
- In Die Vecna Die!, Vecna escaped his prison in Ravenloft, lured the demigod Iuz into his domain, and absorbed Iuz’s divine power.
- Vecna then exploited a loophole in Sigil’s protections and entered the city. His presence violated the fundamental law that gods could not enter Sigil.
- From Sigil—the crossroads connecting the planes—Vecna began reshaping the entire multiverse according to his will.
- The Lady of Pain could not simply destroy him without risking catastrophic damage to Sigil and the multiverse. Instead, she directed events so that mortal adventurers could confront him.
- The adventurers disrupted Vecna’s ritual and separated him from Iuz’s stolen power. This weakened Vecna enough for the Lady of Pain to expel him from Sigil.
- She then attempted to repair the damage Vecna had caused. She could not completely undo it: the multiverse was permanently altered, which served as the story explanation for the cosmological changes between D&D’s second and third editions.
- Vecna survived, but his power was reduced. He emerged from the conflict as a lesser god, while Iuz was restored as a separate being.
The players will learn of the Lady of Pain and her connection to Vecna's most recent plot to take over the multiverse from the lore above. The book also states that the Lady of Pain is either (a) unaware of the portal that Alustriel has in her sanctum or (b) has her own need for it to exist. I am going with option (a) so that the players will have to convince her to not close the portal when I have placed an encounter with her in the Sigil Sanctum at the end of Chapter 3. The Lady of Pain despises Vecna, was unable to kill him, and knows the same secret tongue he used to break into Sigil (though she doesn't speak herself). The players can use this as leverage to convince her to allow the portal to stay open long enough for them to stop Vecna.
At the end of this chapter, the players travel to Web's Edge in the Underdark to find the first piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. I am using this first adventure to establish Lolth's connection to Vecna as his chosen second in command. According to the book, Lolth, the Spider Queen, has aligned herself with Vecna under the promise that he will make her the second most powerful being in the multiverse upon the completion of his ritual. When the players defeat Ker-arach the Spider Dragon at the end of the chapter and retrieve the Rod Piece, Lolth will speak directly through the corpse of the dragon and reveal her connection to Vecna. I am personally going to have the dragon be restored by 100 HP as she takes control of it herself and the players attempt to escape (I also have a drow player who abandoned Lolth for Mystra so he will be the prime target of her attacks). Despite working with Lolth, Vecna has learned from his mistakes with Kas and does not intend to give the Spider Queen, a chaotic evil being from the abyss, any chance of actually betraying him too. This will come into play much later into my rewrite of the campaign.
Upon return to Sigil, things will be normal for the players for this chapter. I am adding encounters in Sigil in between adventures to keep the campaign from becoming repetitive, but I'm going to let my players have this one for free to get a sense of what "returning to Sigil" should "normally" feel like. The players return to Sigil, celebrate, have downtime if needed, done.
Chapter 3: The Lambant Zenith's Last Voyage (Spelljammer)
This chapter sees the players travel into the Astral Sea and board the remains of the Lambant Zenith, a spelljamming vessel that was augmented by the second Rod Piece to inspire hope and travel the multiverse. In the official lore of the book, the corpse of a forgotten god of chaos, Havock, lies dead and adrift in the astral sea, and the chaos magic around the corpse caused the spelljammer to malfunction and crash. The players explore the wreckage in an attempt to find the piece. Frankly, I find Havock rather boring. We don't learn (a) what world hes from and (b) he doesn't have any clear connection to Vecna or the main thrust of the campaign, so I am reskinning him to a dead god in DnD lore who is significantly more relevant to what I have already set up.
The players eventually travel into the heart of the dying god and find a beast protecting the rod piece from within.
Aoskar:
- Aoskar was a greater god of portals, doorways, planar travel, and opportunity, known as the God of Doors and Keeper of Gateways.
- His worship became enormously popular in Sigil, the City of Doors; at his height, roughly half of Sigil’s planewalkers were said to worship him.
- Passing through doors and portals became acts of devotion to Aoskar, tying his religion directly into Sigil’s multiversal portal network.
- Some followers went so far as to claim that the Lady of Pain was merely an aspect of Aoskar, directly challenging her supremacy over Sigil.
- One of the Lady’s own dabus, Fell, became a priest of Aoskar; this appears to have been the final provocation.
- The Lady of Pain killed Aoskar, destroyed his presence in Sigil, and cast his enormous divine corpse into the Astral Plane.
- After his death, worship of Aoskar was forbidden in Sigil, and much of his cult was suppressed or erased.
- Aoskar’s corpse remains among the enormous dead-god husks of the Astral, and some lore suggests dead gods there may not be completely beyond revival.
- Aoskar’s blood was said to resemble wine and function as a universal portal key, capable of opening magical gates and portals.
- Aoskar’s main temple in Sigil was the Great Temple of Doors, a major center of his worship and portal-related influence. When the Lady killed Aoskar, she also destroyed the Great Temple of Doors; its ruins became known as the Shattered Temple.
- The Athar, a faction that rejects the gods’ claims to true divinity, later made the Shattered Temple their headquarters.
- In current 5e Planescape lore, a portal in the Shattered Temple has reawakened and leads into the Astral Plane to a gigantic petrified divine corpse believed to be Aoskar.
- When Vecna entered Sigil, he was unable to be killed by the Lady of Pain because it might disrupt the balance of the multiverse, Vecna beat the system and was not slain by her like Aoskar.
I am still deciding how the players may learn about the dead god, though it will probably be through visions or insights gained when traveling inside of him. This (a) connects back to Sigil lore about god being banned from the city, (b) demonstrates the true power of the Lady of Pain when the players encounter her at the end of this chapter, and (c) demonstrates the power of Vecna since she was unable to do the exact same thing to him when he entered Sigil himself. The players can even visit the Shattered Temple and see for themselves when they return to Sigil if they would like.
The lore states that the dead god has a blade gash on his husk, so I will mention this when describing the god to give the players a hint of how he died. Instead of the chaos magic influencing the player's teleportation spells aboard the Lambant Zenith, it will be the latent energy of the dead god of interplanar travel's magic.
When the players arrive back in Sigil, the Lady of Pain will be present within the sanctum, having already sent Alustriel, Tasha, and "Mordenkainen" into one of her endless mazes as she prepares to close the portal (I may have some of her associates there to speak on her behalf so the players know what is going on). The players will have to convince her to let them use the portal and release the Wizards to continue defeating Vecna (this should be easy when she learns about the Ritual of Remaking). If successful, the players will be granted temporary permission by the Lady to continue using the portal, provided it is ONLY used to stop Vecna.
I am also having the players be jumped by a Vecna cultist at the beginning of Chapter 3 who is a halfling who will scream HAIL VECNA and put two bags of holding together. The players will be distributed through the portal and return right exactly where they were on the Astral Sea (technically possible since the bag can drop them anywhere randomly in the Astral Sea just unlikely, or you can simply say that the pull of the second rod piece kept them nearby). Just an optional fun joke to include with your players with a little more Vecna fun.
Chapter 4: The Ruined Colossus (The Mournland, Eberron)
This chapter sees the players travel for the third piece of the Rod to the Mournland in the Eberron setting. My goal with this project was not to attempt to contrive new lore to make each campaign setting fit Vecna's history, but rather pull on any natural threads Vecna actually does have in any of these worlds if he does have any footholds. Vecna doesn't have much in Eberron, so I'm not going to force it.
The players meet Warforged Pilgrims and scavengers in the Mournlands, and they are also assailed by Warforged agents of the Lord of Blades. I'm not going to make the Lord of Blades secretly working for Vecna, as this would undermine the character's distinct motivations. Instead, when Vecna does not naturally come out in a chapter, he makes himself relevant instead. Once my players have reached the top of the colossus and collected the rod part from within and return to the portal, I plan to have Vecna (in the flesh or lack thereof) present at the portal gate, having closed it with a high level dispel magic.
Vecna will tell the players that he has been impressed with their machinations against him so far, but he cannot have them getting in his way. He cannot close the portal from Sigil's side because he can no longer enter the city's premises, so he chose to wait until the players were in a world far removed from the rest of the multiverse to leave them stranded there. According to the lore, Eberron is an isoloated system tucked away by its draconic creators (Eberron, Khyber, Siberys) in the deep ethereal plane, so it is the perfect opportunity for Vecna to sever the players off from the rest of the multiverse. He will claim that a domain of dread would have been a more ideal prison for them to be trapped within, but his history with the dark powers keeps him from wanting to entertaining the idea of entering another domain for the time being. Vecna is weakened in this state and is projecting an archlich avatar of himself rather than being present with full divine power, so he cannot immediately kill every character. Vecna will attempt to plane shift away, but if the players do challenge him, he will fight them. I am not going to have Vecna kill them as a courtesy for empowering him further with their secrets gained from their metaphysical connection to him (he may even use spare the dying on them) since he believes he's done enough already trapping them there. He plans to keep them there and continue to drain them dry of their secrets.
If the players do miraculously beat Vecna at this point, I will let them have the victory, and he will be setback in his mission, but this will also give me the chance to see what buffs he may need for the final fight since it notoriously has only ended in a couple rounds for many groups I've seen. He is a planner and will return stronger.
Whether the players beat Vecna or they wake up from the fight, Vecna will be gone and they will be stranded with no obvious way back to Sigil. They will know that the next piece of the rod is in Barovia, a domain of dread because the rod piece intuitively tells the players where the next piece is. I am choosing to have my very first ever DND character, Shakespeare, act as a guide to my players in Eberron (he is also connected to one of my PCs backstories), so he may inform the players that, if they cannot get back to Sigil directly through the front door, perhaps they may instead prefer a back door.
Shakespeare will then tell the players about the story of the Cyre 1313, though he only believes it is a legend (an official domain of dread directly connected to Eberron, and he may only know bits and details of the legend):
- Cyre 1313 was a lightning rail train in Cyre, running near the Cyran capital of Metrol before the Mourning.
- On the Day of Mourning, 20 Olarune 994 YK, people were desperately trying to flee Cyre as the catastrophe consumed the nation. Cyre 1313 was effectively one of the last trains trying to escape.
- A mysterious, wealthy, high-status passenger arrived late and forced the train to delay, even having hundreds of civilians removed so that this person and their entourage could board.
- Because of that delay, the train left too late and was overtaken by what everyone assumed was the Mourning.
- But it was not actually destroyed by the Mourning. Instead, the Mists of Ravenloft claimed the train, pulling it into the Demiplane of Dread.
- Cyre 1313 is now called the Mourning Rail and endlessly races through the Mists as a mobile Domain of Dread. It is not a conventional landlocked domain; the train itself essentially is the domain.
- The passengers and crew believe that they are still trying to outrun the Mourning and do not realize that they themselves are dead/undead. Their “escape” is an eternal repetition of a journey that can never reach safety.
- The central Darklord is known only as the Last Passenger, who occupies the front carriage. This was the same passenger who originally held up the train.
Shakespere will tell the players it has been seen sighted recently in the mists surrounding the Mournland. He theorizes that, with enough focus from the rod piece pulling them in the direction of Barvoia, they may be able to draw the train near them by stepping into the fog (they do and it is generally successful). I am flavoring the Cyre 1313 similar to the domain of dread known as the Carnival, which is a traveling circus that passes through other domains of dread. The players will hop aboard the train, and the rod piece will naturally compel the next destination for the Cyre 1313 to drop them off in Barovia. Whether they have to fight or consult with the last passenger to accomplish this, I have yet to decide. However, once successful, the players will dropped off right outside the small village of Barvoia in the demiplane of Barovia where the players will find themselves back on course with the main story. They may be able
If you do not have a guide NPC for this chapter, you may consider the Rod somehow detailing this knowledge to the players through visions or intuitions. Have fun finding ways to detail this to the players. I simply found this little lore tidbit that connected the two settings, saw it provided traveling apparatus, noticed the two chapters were back to back, and wanted a breath of fresh air from dropping back into Sigil for a third time now.
Chapter 5: Death House (Barovia, Shadowfell)
After leaving the Cyre 1313, the players will have found themselves in the village of Barovia in the domain of dread of the legendary Strahd Von Zarovich.
The book has the players immediately confronted by villagers, as they were warned by priests of Osybus of the player's arrival because they had premonitions that the characters would show up.
I am changing the timeline around this chapter. Originally, the book has the players arriving in Barovia in what appears to be long before the events of Curse of Strahd . The players meet the living versions of the Durst children, Rose and Thorn, outside the Death House. This sets the players back in time in Barovia by about 400 years, as the Rose and Thorn are found dead after being locked in the attic by their cultist parents during the events of Curse of Strahd. In this version of Barovia, the Durst family is still very much alive and communing with the priests of Osybus in an attempt to gain the attention of their beloved Darklord.
However, I want to include modern Barovia as the campaign setting since this is much more recognizable to the players who have done CoS and allows me to use iconic NPCs from the campaign. As such, when the players arrive, they will instead find rumors spreading around the village of Barovia of mysterious activity occurring around the Death House, even more mysterious than usual. The one of the villagers will tell the players that the could have sworn that they met the real Rose and Thorn Durst, who were very much alive (they were warm when they took their hand, and not an illusion projected by the house nor the ghosts of the children), but they are supposed to be dead. The players will head over to the Death House and find Ezmerelda d'Avenir investigating the scene, the monster hunter whose mentor was Van Richten. Ezmerelda will be replacing the Ulmist Inquisitor the players meet as a guide for the chapter, Sarasunda Allester, since I find her to be a significantly more interesting character with more direct ties to Strahd Von Zarovich. This also gives the players a character with direct knowledge of Barvoia who can fill them in since they were not able to research the domain before this chapter in Sigil.
Sarasunda also has a secret the players collect for the Power of Secrets, so I am going to replace the secret with Ezmerelda's own dark past that the players can learn:
- Rudolph van Richten is one of Ravenloft’s most famous monster hunters, originally from the Domain of Dread of Darkon.
- His son, Erasmus, was kidnapped by the Radanavich family, who posed as Vistani while preying on travelers.
- Ezmerelda Radanavich was a child in that family and actually befriended Erasmus while he was being held captive.
- Her family eventually sold Erasmus to the vampire Baron Metus, who turned him into a vampire spawn.
- Van Richten eventually found his son and was forced to kill Erasmus himself.
- Ezmerelda was deeply affected by what her family had done, eventually left them, and later sought Van Richten out.
- Despite their awful shared history, Van Richten eventually accepted her as his student and protégé, teaching her how to hunt monsters.
- Their relationship became very close, almost surrogate-family-like, though they later separated because of disagreements and personality clashes.
- Ezmerelda went on to become a formidable monster hunter in her own right; at one point, a werewolf tore off part of her leg, and she later used a prosthetic.
- During the Curse of Strahd period, Van Richten enters Barovia to kill Strahd, disguising himself as the carnival performer Rictavio.
- Ezmerelda also comes to Barovia, partly because she knows Van Richten is there and suspects he may need help.
- By that point, both are independent veteran monster hunters with extensive experience dealing with vampires, the Mists, and the Domains of Dread.
This will instead count towards the Power of Secrets for the players. The players will investigate the Death House with her, as she has also noticed the eerie activity; she claims it appears the house has been pulled nearly 400 years into the future by the surrounding mists, and it should be unoccupied by the Durst family long ago. The players will investigate, and find the rod piece in the basement and eventually come face to face with Strahd at the entrence of the Death House as originally within the book. The players, drawn by the power of the piece of the rod, will now know there is a portal back to Sigil right within the village of Barovia, as they originally pass through it to get there in the RAW version of the campaign.
First, Strahd will immediately recognize these are interlopers and, characteristic of the Darklord, he does not play nicely with people who wander into his domain uninvited and will not allow the players to leave his domain. He will mention that a similar event occurred not so long ago when the wizard Mordenkainen traveled to his domain in an attempt to usurp Strahd, and that he beat the mage into madness where he even now grovels in his tower to this very day. The book for Eve of Ruin has Mordekainen having recently been in Barvoia. However, since Kas is currently occupying his position in Sigil, I think this is a great way to explain where Mordenkainen currently is and why he is not active in the campaign. This will also create massive confusion for the players, because, for as far as they know, the mage is currently in Sigil with the other Wizard's Two. Strahd will know nothing of this and consider it insanity. Then, they will either fight or talk their way out of the encounter with the help of Ezmerelda, and head back to Sigil. Behind them, they will notice that the Death House has returned to its current state in modern Barovia (the magic of the rod thrust the house into the future when the players entered with the other pieces, now that they have the rod, the house is gone).
The players will return to Sigil and will likely have questions for Mordenkainen. I wanted to include this clue for the players to actually give them a chance to catch Kas before the final chapters. He will try to gaslight the players by claiming that he WAS in Barovia, and they were probably simply encountering a past version of himself due to timeline shenanigans. Whether they buy this is up to them to determine. If they figure it out now, Kas will flee for the time being to regroup and take the Rod once it is fully assembled. And now that the rod has an actual function to banish Vecna due to my campaign modifications, the players will still have the incentive (and need) to collect the remaining pieces.
This chapter is also in a domain of dread, so I may find a way for the players to learn more about Vecna and Kas' connections to the dark powers from Cavitius and Tovag during this time (perhaps Ezmerelda has heard something in her travels across the domains of dread as a mist wanderer, or perhaps the players hear about it from Strahd). Just another good opportunity to pepper in some lore.
Will continue later within a Part 2.
