Making a vecna temple

[Skydude]

Hi i am trying to make a Vecna temple where my pcs will have their base
Its an evil campaign and i want to feel safe in there so i need some ideas
like what monsters will guard the place and what traps will they have or how will the main door open etc

thx for the help

[MrFahrenheit]

As a temple to the god of evil secrets, I've always imagined Vecna temples to focus more on seclusion and keeping things small, rather than a larger type that could house a lot of monsters. The more entities that know about it, the greater the risk its location could be compromised - that sort of thing. Something as simple as a nondescript house in the poorer part of town, or a ramshackle cabin in a ruins - depending on where your campaign will largely take place - with a surprisingly big (but still within reason) basement would serve IMHO.

[Corran]

Agreed about the secrecy part. But you could potentially work something out that satisfies secrecy while also being big and majestic. How about an underground pyramid, located somewhere under the middle of a dessert, or a swamp, or a similar desolated place (perhaps an inexplicably misty valley). Ofc now you have to figure out how the faithful get inside without provoking too much attention from unlikely but potential passers-by. Perhaps in one of the aforementioned locatons you can find a portal that allows access to the temple (which is located elsewhere, in a much more secret place, that allows for a big temple), and there is a riddle or a puzzle, or a ridiculously powerful guard that asks for the password (if you like cliches), and only if you guess correctly or if you know, the portal gets activated and allows you to teleport inside the temple.

ps: Whatever you end up doing, definitely go for some mist. You cant have mystery without some good old fashioned mist lurking about.:smalltongue:

[Falcon X]

If you can get your hands on the old module Die Vecna Die (or a good filetype search), it has two fully built Vecna bases.
The most important thing about Vecna bases is that they love their knowledge. Lots of little personal quarters where priests can study away. Maybe several relics or secret books. (a page or two from the Book of Vile Darkness would be great).
Monsters Die Vecna Die mentions defending the bases are: Vampires, Liches, The Eye (https://www.google.com/search?q=eye+of+vecna&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_hIXM3OvNAhXC8x4KHS8tC78Q_AUICCgB&biw=1280&bih=633#imgrc=t8cNjBDwYyrIkM%3A), The Hand, various races of acolytes, skeletons, hand-shaped iron golem, Ju-ju Zombies, Wight, death knight, and room specific creatures.
Room specific creatures are things like: He has a room where wind constantly buffets prisoners as part of a torture. There is an air elemental to facilitate this.

I always liked the idea of a monster like the library boss in Final Fantasy 5, where it opens to various pages that are inhabited by monster spirits. You have to defeat the monster that comes off the page, and it may flip between 5-6 different pages before you are done.

[VoxRationis]

i want to feel safe in there so i need some ideas

You want to feel safe in a temple dedicated to the evil god of secrets, lies, and manipulation? I am confused.

[Herobizkit]

Make it an inverted pyramid. Inverted pyramids are rad and don't make sense.

Also make sure there are lots of creeping claws and those big-eyed monsters that guard things (not beholders - it was a new one introduced in 5e's Phandelver)... ugh, brain...

[DMBlackhart]

One question to ask, and sorry if it has already been, is this; "Do you want enemies to be able to track them back to / break into their base".

If not, than it's simple, give them some planarly/impossibly hidden temple (deep underground, in a bubble under the sea, on the shadowfell, etc.), and give them a teleportation circle or make a resource they have to manage to travel out of and back to it.

That way you control the flow of the adventure and pace as well.

If you want enemies in, well... Vecna's not doing his job right.

[Skydude]

You want to feel safe in a temple dedicated to the evil god of secrets, lies, and manipulation? I am confused.

i want my players to feel safe in there if someone hunts them
its like a base of operations

[MrFahrenheit]

i want my players to feel safe in there if someone hunts them
its like a base of operations

Well hidden is important, but do you want to present a risk of being caught? If not, then def go for one of those interplanar style shindigs. If so, then hidden in plain sight is probably better.

The first rule of Vecna club is...

[Falcon X]

I have 2 temples I have used for Vecna in my game:

Temple 1: Middle of Waterdeep
A temple of my own design designed to be a minor temple inside a city or town. In my game, the leadership here had a map that showed where the other temples are, but it is heavily encoded.
- The door is unmarked and when you enter the building, it's just part of another set of apartments. In either one of the doors, or even in plain view, is a hole going downwards. It should clearly be labelled as a trash chute or something like it and actually function as one. If a person goes down this trash chute, it will still look completely normal, but there will now be a hidden door.
- The door should be unnoticable and the "key" should be equally difficult. Perhaps it takes some blood that seeps into the walls, or the finger of a skeleton with specific symbols drawn. It should explicitly be something that doesn't directly require a magical spell to get in so people can't find it with detect magic. You can have another, magical key afterwards if you desire.
- It should be warded multiple times over. A sensor that detects magic should be located INSIDE the door so that it is difficult to disable and will alert the leadership when magic is used outside.
- After you get past the first door, there is still a long corridor downwards to give distance.
- Inside the temple, corridors like a giant square. On the right side are personal studies and a dining hall.
- Right side should be a series of prisons and reliqueries. Might have some magical creatures or otherwise there.
- Far side is where leadership is quartered and the most important reliquery. Both should be warded with save or die spells and alarm spells. These are places that lesser acolytes can't go.
- The center, accessed from the far side, is where the main testing chamber and ritual chamber lie. The first room should be full of gore and the results of failed experiments. The final chamber is the actual temple with classic statues and sacrificial tables.

Temple 2: Die Vecna Die's multi-demensional temple.
- The temple starts outdoors. It is a place brimming with magical energy. It is a giant circle of archways (http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/images/f/f3/Tovagbaragu02.jpg), some of which are portals. Often they are inactive, but sometimes they are not. Active portals shimmer with energy (https://www.google.com/search?q=tovag+baragu&biw=1280&bih=633&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHn8ext-7NAhXM4iYKHcKbC8QQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=bOailwR3eG2zaM%3A )
- There are identical circular structures of arches just like this one on hundreds of demensions.
- To get in, you must select the right portal... then select the right one after that... then the right one after that. Some portals will lead to peaceful places, one leads to an elder ice dragon guardian, one leads to empty space, another leads to a ravenous swarm of wights, another leads to a world of halflings. The possibilities are endless. Point is, you are SAFE as long as you know the right combination.
- Once you get through the last portal, you get into the temple proper. It is underground somewhere. There are libraries, reliqueries, sleeping quarters, a worship site, storage, and other things. In the module, there is even a one-way portal to the demi-plane of dread.

[uraniumrooster]

You could look to some of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuaries from The Elder Scrolls games for inspiration. Rather than having it inhabited by monsters, you could have it inhabited with NPC priests and devotees of Vecna, who operated the small temple before the PCs arrived. Offer the players some quest hooks to recruit new NPC members to the cult and spread Vecna's influence, growing and improving their temple in the process.

From the Vecna Wikipedia Article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vecna): "Individual congregations are known as organs. Each organ is led by a Thought of Vecna. Lesser priests are known as Memories of Vecna.

Lay members of the cult consist of the Teeth, Fingers, Blood, and Spawn of Vecna. The Teeth of Vecna are made up of wizards, and specialize in arcane spellcasting and crafting magical items for the cult. The Fingers of Vecna consist mainly of thieves, who engage in various forms of subterfuge. The Blood of Vecna are mainly warriors charged with protection and enforcement of the cult and its goals. The Spawn of Vecna are the lowest in the cult hierarchy, and consist of the common people who honor the Lich Lord."

There's plenty of room there to come up with some fun NPC inhabitants. I'd start them off small, with just a few priests and guards, and have the party go out to recruit and build up the temple's membership. Maybe there's a rumor of a Necromancer's tower out in the wilderness, so the party could go attempt to recruit him to join the temple and provide some undead guardians. They could form an alliance with the local thieves' guild (or pull off a hostile takeover, and bring the thieves' guild directly under their control) and gain access to a fence inside the temple, and a few informants around town. If they were able to somehow earn the good will of the commonfolk (or bully them into submission), craftsmen could be recruited to build improvements and expand the temple. You could also use it to introduce conflict... maybe there's already a church of Lathander in the same town, and they're trying to locate and destroy the temple before the Cult of Vecna can spread too far into their turf.

And so on... it could make for a fun ongoing project for the players.