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Jay R
2014-12-10, 12:46 PM
What treasures and traps should be found in Vecna's palace and tomb, abandoned 1,000 years ago? The PCs will be the first ones to enter it for a millennium, so there can't be much in the way of living monsters. They've recently faced many undead encounters, so there it shouldn't be focused on undead, but one or two encounters would be fine.

I intend it to be a trap-heavy, monster-light dungeon crawl.

They are following up on legends that are intended to lead them to the palace of the greatest wizard of antiquity. It's called the Palace Under the Hill, and legend says that it was the home of Merlin, or Gandalf, or Dallben, or Stephen Strange, etc. They should have no clue of the real original owner until they find a sarcophagus containing a corpse with only one eye and one hand.

What treasures should there be? Up until now, loot has been sparse, and this encounter is intended to reverse that somewhat. The game is 2E, but this isn't particularly a 2E question.

Any ideas?

ComaVision
2014-12-10, 12:55 PM
The classic Tomb of Horrors was for Acererak, the apprentice of Vecna. I'd use that as a starting point and amp it up a lot for Vecna.

LibraryOgre
2014-12-10, 01:13 PM
Well, some constructs would be obvious, and you may want to think about a more role-play oriented encounter... like a demon trapped in a circle. He's been trapped there for more than 1000 years, unable to get out, unable to influence the world, and is willing to promise a great many things to the first people to arrive who can free him.

You might also include some purpose-built rooms... an ancient alchemy with servitor spirits still carrying out their tasks, even though the tasks have long since ceased to have any meaning.

A room full of stasis-held clones, allowing him (or an apprentice) to easily recover from an malady, that were for some reason never used. That room may also serve as something of an "armory", having a few items of power, and inscrutable instructions on where other caches are hidden.

A library, preferably with one massive book chained to the desk (among all the other books and scrolls and such), and something trapped with "Turn Flesh to Prose" (which instantly polymorphs anyone who reads it into a book that is appropriate for their life... a friend of mine did this once and it is kinda awesome).

A shrine to the wizard himself.

If your elves are immortal, how about one that's been kept alive for the past thousand years by a ioun stone that removes the need to eat or drink, but he hasn't been able to get out, so he's just carved out a safe space in which he's gone slowly mad.

Jay R
2014-12-10, 04:00 PM
Thank you. Those are some very good ideas.

Any further ideas on what treasure items Vecna would have? I'd like to have some items that will be useful now, at 4th level, and more useful later on. One of them will be a Ring of Air Elemental Control, that appears to be merely an invisibility ring.

LibraryOgre
2014-12-10, 04:44 PM
Thank you. Those are some very good ideas.

Any further ideas on what treasure items Vecna would have? I'd like to have some items that will be useful now, at 4th level, and more useful later on. One of them will be a Ring of Air Elemental Control, that appears to be merely an invisibility ring.

The answer with Vecna is "Yes." Vecna is going to have darn near anything you want to put in there, if for no other reason than to keep it from other people... he becomes the god of secrets, after all.

One item you might want to toss in are the various Tomes, Librams, and Manuals of level improvement. They offer an interesting conundrum to lower-level characters... they're a relatively small boost to them (whoo, I'm 5th level by studying for a month, instead of 6th level by adventuring for a month!), but are extremely valuable to higher-level people, especially level-limited demihumans. Do we use it now? Do we offer it up for favors to someone more powerful? In the case of the neutral items, especially, how long can you keep it before someone simply takes it?

Mr Beer
2014-12-10, 05:03 PM
Who are Vecna's rivals and nemeses? Kas and Iuz spring to mind...maybe he has trophies relating to victories over these entities. Perhaps these trophies are still living in some manner.

Lord Torath
2014-12-10, 05:23 PM
After several millennia, his corpse is unlikely to have any eyes. Do you have the Head of Vecna as an "artifact" in your campaign? That's always good for a laugh.

Vecna should certainly have an extensive library of secrets, any one of which would drive you mad. MAD! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/ootscast.html). This would be a good place to leave a scroll or a spellbook with any new/unused spells you'd like to introduce.

Also, throw in an animated table that follows you around, just to be a convenient place to put something.

Perhaps have a vivisection-lab with the decayed and/or pickled remains of several victims.

Mr Beer
2014-12-10, 06:37 PM
Also, throw in an animated table that follows you around, just to be a convenient place to put something.

Perhaps have a vivisection-lab with the decayed and/or pickled remains of several victims.

So now I'm thinking that a bloodstained, instrument worn, animated vivisection table that follows you around and makes creepy whispered suggestions would be awesome. Perhaps it has a selection of scalpels, pincers, saws etc. that it occasionally selects from and hands to you, with a creaking skeletal metallic limb, at opportune moments?

EnglishKitsune
2014-12-11, 08:57 AM
If this is Vecna then my first idea for the first room is this. Note I'm not familiar with 2E so not sure if some of this would work.


"The Black Doors slam shut behind, leaving you in a round chamber 20ft in Diameter, a domed roof curves overhead, with a flash of purple light the floor spins, throwing you all to the ground, your friends are flung away into the dark, and large shadowy beasts spring from the floor!"

Truth: Illusion spell warps the mind and makes them all attack their friends. There is a rune centered in the roof powering the spell, destroying it releases a blast of magic that destroys the floor and reveals stairs that lead into the tomb proper... Or does it?


This would set the theme for the entire tomb. What is real? What is Truth? Is that Truly a Magic Sword or is a Cursed stick? Make them slowly lose their minds with strange architecture and runes.


If they sleep in the dungeon, transport them to a nightmare dungeon, where they are pursued by their darkest fears, if they are caught and "killed" in the nightmare, they wake up, but they only count as a short rest, not a long one and take a -1 for exhaustion. If they sleep in the tomb again and "die" it goes to a -2.

However, if they leave the tomb. It changes, doors lead to different places, corridors turn and re-link in a different way, leaving them with the choice: Slowly grow mad and weaker the longer you stay? Or waste precious time, (and extra encounters) re-navigating to where you left off?

And lastly, sullen, tired, on the edge, they eventually find...
They find a body, it's in the hidden tomb, it doesn't have the hand, or the eye, but by this time I'd want them jumping at shadows, blasting fireballs at a dropped pin or kicked rock. By this time I'd want them to doubting everything, if not downright petty squabbling. (In Character only I'd hope.) Then I'd have the voice reveal itself as "Vecna" and says that one of them could inherit it's power. Only one however. If they refuse the Corpse animates and attacks as a powerful spell-caster/lich. If someone does decide to take the offer and "persuades" the others, the body crumbles to dust and they are forced into the coffin, losing their hand and eye, but becoming aware of the entire dungeon, it's hidden treasures and gaining the ability to trigger the traps and alter the layout.

As soon as a person enters the coffin, start rolling will checks, start low, but they get harder as time progresses, say 1 every in game minute. When they fail, they begin to feel jealous and paranoid, afraid of being left alone, as they cannot leave. The others should stay. Forever.

If any of you have played Portal 2, imagine when you plug Wheatley into the mainframe. this with evil magic and eldritch warping.

These are some ideas that I would use, and in fact might in some horror campaigns I'm planning.

Also, I do wonder if they are not sure who is in the tomb would you really want it to scream EVIL! It might give the game away a little. I would, for the pure psychological horror angle.

Kol Korran
2014-12-11, 10:34 AM
I'm not that familiar with Greyhawk (Blasphemy, I know) and it has been a looooong time since I played 2E, so I hope these ideas will be appropriate. Most of them are flavor ideas that you might be able to make the crunch for.

Some ideas for treasure:
1) The cursed cursing head: THe party finds a mummified head, that is somehow still... alive/ undead/ something in between? It belongs to an ancient enemy, (Or perhaps a group of enemies, the party may find others, but it is the only one whose magic still function). The head has a personality that may be difficult to deal with- he may be an egotistical, thinks he knows all, abusive and spiteful head, but he can also offers some magical benefits. In my campaign the head was cursed, but he could also deliver curses- He could shout at people the most foul language, disturbingly descriptive curses (Treat as bestow curse, but use "creative" curses :smalltongue:) Though if the party annoyed him enough, he might curse them. (At times he has all kinds of demands- "I want a hat!", "I want earings!", "I want another head to share the sack with me! A pretty head!", "Tell me jokes! You are all boring and useless!" and so on).

Thing is, you couldn't easily get rid of the head- impervious to hits, if you burn it it comes back a bit singed and gives you an itchy rash, if you drown it it comes back a big soggy and you can't dry your clothes, if you bury it it appears in the next treasure, chewing on that wand you've been wanting for so long and so on... I'll leave it up to you to decide what sort of an accomplishment the party needs to do to deal with it. The thing is to play it between amusing to a bit annoying but not overbearingly so.

2) Tome of secret riddles: You write questions in the tome, and sometime the tome responds in things like "One might know, but first- what is your..." and it asks for a secret of the PCs... exchange fo secrets, with someone who is obviously quite knowledgeable, (But not Omnipotent so). I suggest that the answers be given in sort of riddles (A bit like answers for the divination spell in 3.5e), and the party may give the requested info in riddles themselves...

3) Doppelganger's amulet/ cloak: If the wearer spends enough time with someone (1 hour?), talking, getting to know him/ her somehow, the amulet then enables the wearer to take on the characteristics- looks, but also mannerisms, voice and such for some time. If 2E has a similar spell, it either mimics it, or increases the efficiency somehow.

4) Another idea of "something" of mimicry- If you see someone casting a spell, you can cast the illusion of that spell.

5) Various items that help block divination/ thought reading/ telepathy.

6) Rings that enable short range telepathy only between ring bearers.

7) A scroll cases that decodes secret code of anything written inside. Another that codes them automatically?

8) Some fruits of drink that act as a truth serum after a bit of time (5-30 minutes) or just makes the imbiber far less restrained and guarded?

9) Some "illusion enhancer"- enables the caster to add some element to the illusion- sound, heat, smell, or such.

10) Sanctum key- A key that can fits to any lock, but then opens up to some sort of an extradimensional place, that the party might be able to rest or store equipment in. The party may later learn it enables entry to other places, or that other people have similar keys, maybe even keyed into "their place", or maybe it originally belonged to someone else?

11) The ALL map: A piece of parchment that can automatically map up to a certain radius with all secrets knowm or to increasing radius with less and less info (No secret doors, traps, pits, and so on...) As this may be quite powerful, I suggest to reduce the initial radius, and later find ways to increase it, or the info on the map. Or... when the map scribes (It may take it 1-5 minutes), the party comes to slowly hear something else scribing, and glimpses of the words, amongst them their names, things they've done? Who is mapping THEM?

12) Grimoire of the undead/ Aberrations/ dragons/ some other group- If a certain kind of creature is called (From this group), a usefuyl entry on them comes up, might even show entries on specifically well known individuals? Or the grimoire (Similar to previous item themes I mentioned) may require an "article per article" to be written.

13) Roach/ spider/ bug cloak: The owner has some not very obvious symbols woven into the cloak. Up to several tiems a day, he can concentrate and release about 5-10 of these creatures, and lets them... scurry around, getting to different places. After abotu an hour they come back. Now... you can have the wearer either listen to them to absorb their information or.... eat them. (Yum! :smallbiggrin:)

14) Malfunctioned crystal ball- works only for short distances, and maybe only with sound or sight (Like the clairvoyance/ clairaudiance spell in 3.5) or for a limited time per day and so on. As the PCs gain level, they can fix it and improve on it.

15) Tarot cards of secrets (Think up a better name?): NOT the deck of many things!:smalltongue: Use either Tarot cards, or the lovely Harrow cards (from Pathfinder, Golarion. Quite pretty): Each day the holder can pull out 1-5 cards. Each card drawn either gives a benefit to the party at some point (A useful item for an encounter, useful secret, a reroll of a ice or such) The party holds these cards. Some other cards are against them (An extra monster, a secret of theirs known, fumbling of skill). They see some other ethereal hand takes it, and plays them at some time (The DM uses these cards). The third kind of card give some condition that can be useful or not (It is cloudy, all healing is average, or such... not sure) These cards stay on the table at all time.

At appropriate times the party might find others with such sets of cards? Or find whomever is palyign against them, unseen?

I hope these ideas help.

Some Ideas for rooms:
I'm not much into dungeons, but I've ran once a trap dungeon that went on quite well. A few stuff:11
1) The whole dungeon is a trap: While exploring the dungeon, though there were encounters and traps, there were quite a lot of features, that looked like dysfunctional traps or the like- Big gaping mouths that didn't shoot anything, the signs of trap doors that didn't open, Sarcophagus that had skeletons in them that (Gasp! :smalleek:) WEREN'T undead! and so on... This all changed when they got to the main treasure room. Upon taking their McGuffin, suddenly the room's door closed, and the party heard A LOT of stuff going out outside. By the time they opened the doors, some watr poured in- the entire dungeon was flooding, and now the traps were functional (Heads shooting energy boots, trap doors opening, skeletons reanimated, and so on) Suddenly the party were running for their lives, and the "simple traps" were a real hindrance! This was fun! Oh, and don't forget to block the original entrance, and have the party frantically try to think of a way to escape (I suggest finding and exploiting some dungeon weakness that wasn't in the original desing, but happened due to age. I don't imagine Vecna really giving thieves a running chance)

2) From the traps that were on the way: A prominent stage, upon which there was some chest. In order to get to the chest there were various traps (Like a line of lightning, or spear from the ceiling, or a necromatic effect). Finally when the chest was open, there were just three laughing skulls. Some traps are there just for the traps.

3) The old "Pit falls into a room with some ooze".

4) I suggest various Suggestion spell kind of traps- "Drink this black potion", "Run through the corridor", "Look deeper into the mirror" and so on? Messing with their mind?

5) Confusion effects- things that make the party act randomaly- either inside battle, or outside it, but a very tenous situation. 3.5/ PF have such spells of 4th level.

6) False knowledge/ false memory- A character "learns" (Through a book/ reading something/ maybe "remembering" something), that complicates interactions within the party- "John is from the same organization of my father's killers?/ The mage speaks to some demon entity at night, when he thinks he don't know!/ Did the cleric just called upn "evil god's name" to cast a curse on me?! The thief stole from me!" and so on... Might lead to some great roelplay. I did something similat with my party once, but I prepared all kinds of slips of paper with memory/ idea, and handed them to the players (They said it was a bit like "Who's line it is anyway" :smallbiggrin: . Worked lovely!

7) False knowledge about the dungeon- similar to with the party, but about the dungeon. When the rogue finds a trap he "remembers" that the area is fine. When the party "went north", they actualyl go west. When the cleric realizes in horror that THAT is the symbol of none other than VEC... St,. Cuthbert, in the old times used to have a different symbol you know?

I hope this helps.
Kol. :smallsmile:

Heartspan
2014-12-12, 07:56 AM
The head of vecna, right next to a tome that tells of all the "powers" it will grant