Head of Vecna. Advice needed.

[dna1]

K so. I have dropped a hint in my game that the head of vecna exists. The party has seen the hand of vecna on a powerful npc. And even managed to find 'the ear of vecna' which is a item i saw online somewhere and decided to drop that in as well.
The PC's are part of a secret assassins organization. One of the top dogs in the organization has the hand, they found the ear on a powerful enemy. And they have seen the head mentioned vaguely in some old tombs. They will be about 14th level when they find it.... The party is evil obviously, and there bosses is a powerful wizards council. The campaign is in the middle of a huge war. The PC's are playing a major role in its outcome..

Heres where I need help. I want my party to find it.
 I DO want it to be magical, and am creating its powers my self.
 I DONT want it to be already on someone.

What I would like is some viable ideas about how to insert this into my game.... I need a way to put this in that would be believable for my PC's to find it. Yet be.. hard enough to find that no one else has found it.
I am basing the major city they are in off of 'Ptolus', and using 'The Worlds Largest Dungeon' for some dungeon maps. refilling as needed.
It's like a giant city that tolerates monsters etc, and below it has ruins/dungeon that is super old, and has explorers go into it every day. I havent actually used any of the dungeon material yet, so this next session will be there first one so far.

I just dont want to be like "ya.. you guys find the head of vecna in a dungeon that like 10k people have went into before you...."

True they will be ALOT deeper then most.. They are 13th level. But even further down where they are going im planning on placing something like a small outpost that they will be trying to find as the mission for this session. Some circle magic goodness, big spell to win the war.. re-establishing lost communication type thing.

Sry for the long post... and input on ideas to drop this bad boy in would be appriciated.


http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20070401a
theres the basis for the idea... i dont want to use there adventure though

 Ptolus http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?ptolus

[The_Mad_Linguist]

I assume you've read the original Head of Vecna campaign story?

[dna1]

I have, and I realize that it matches up with what I said pretty well.
I guess what Im looking for is suggestions on how to have them discover it... I need to have them find it on there own. In such a way where they feel lucky to have discovered it.
And I dont really like the idea of having kas in there..

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Kas?  What?

[spoiler]

Many years ago (back when we all were still playing AD&D), I ran a game where I pitted two groups against each other.

Several members of Group One came up with the idea of luring Group Two into a trap. You remember the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna that were artifacts in the old D&D world where if you cut off your hand (or your eye) and replaced it with the Hand of Vecna (or the Eye) you'd get new awesome powers? Well, Group One thought up The Head of Vecna.

Group One spread rumors all over the countryside (even paying Bards to spread the word about this artifact rumored to exist nearby). They even went so far as to get a real head and place it under some weak traps to help with the illusion. Unfortunately, they forgot to let ALL the members of their group in on the secret plan (I suspect it was because they didn't want the Druid to get caught and tell the enemy about this trap of theirs, or maybe because they didn't want him messing with things).

The Druid in group One heard about this new artifact and went off in search of it himself (I believe to help prove himself to the party members...) Well, after much trial and tribulation, he found it; deactivated (or set off) all the traps; and took his "prize" off into the woods for examination. He discovered that it did not radiate magic (a well known trait of artifacts) and smiled gleefully.

I wasn't really worried since he was alone and I knew that there was no way he could CUT HIS OWN HEAD OFF. Alas I was mistaken as the Druid promptly summoned some carnivorous apes and instructed them to use his own scimitar and cut his head off (and of course quickly replacing it with the Head of Vecna...)

Some time later, Group one decided to find the Druid and to check on the trap. They found the headless body (and the two heads) and realized that they had erred in their plan (besides laughing at the character who had played the Druid)...The Head of Vecna still had BOTH eyes! They corrected this mistake and reset their traps and the Head for it's real intended victims...

Group Two, by this time, had heard of the powerful artifact and decided that it bore investigating since, if true, they could use it to destroy Group One. After much trial and tribulation, they found the resting place of The Head of Vecna! The were particularly impressed with the cunning traps surrounding the site (one almost missed his save against the weakest poison known to man). They recovered the Head and made off to a safe area.

Group Two actually CAME TO BLOWS (several rounds of fighting) against each other argueing over WHO WOULD GET THEIR HEAD CUT OFF! Several greedy players had to be hurt and restrained before it was decided who would be the recipient of the great powers bestowed by the Head... The magician was selected and one of them promptly cut his head off. As the player was lifting The Head of Vecna to emplace it on it's new body, another argument broke out and they spent several minutes shouting and yelling. Then, finally, they put the Head onto the character.

Well, of course, the Head simply fell off the lifeless body. All members of Group Two began yelling and screaming at each other (and at me) and then, on their own, decided that they had let too much time pass between cutting off the head of a hopeful recipient and put the Head of Vecna onto the body.

SO THEY DID IT AGAIN!... [killing another PC]

In closing, it should be said that I never even cracked a smile as all this was going on. After the second PC was slaughtered, I had to give in (my side was hurting)...

And Group Two blamed ME for all of that...

[/spoiler]

[dna1]

oh, yea iv read that one. thats not the one i had linked though....

[Gods_Trick]

  Yeah, thats the story I was thinking of when I saw the Head of Vecna? Do you intend this to be a real item? Or some Vecna vestige/high ego magic item that takes over?

  Either way, one opening plot hook might be a story of a so-so adventurer that survived raiding a keep/labotory of Vecna. S/he came back unrecognisable but bearing many new powers, and a rival group wanting that power had to resort to ambushing her outside the outpost. too many spells, teleports and fogs later they came back licking their wounds, certaain they had dealt some fatal blows but unable to find the body.

  You might have the PCs stumble upon a safe house with a corpse in it, the head recognisably that of Vecna's. Maybe the clues of a contingency that failed or AMF'ed and some notes to convince the group they just won the lottery for randomly finding artifacts.

[PhaedrusXY]

oh, yea iv read that one. thats not the one i had linked though....

Yeah, but it's a lot funnier than the one you linked to. And a lot older. Making it a real item is just kind of dumb, IMO. Making it a practical joke on the other hand? That's hilarious.

[archangel.arcanis]

If you are going to make it a real item you also need a way of a character to apply it and survive. Also for the dungeon portion of it I suggest that you play to Vecna's portfolio. Lots of headless zombies, riddles which require gaining secret knowledge to answer (god of secrets and all), something requiring magic to get through. Perhaps just for fun put a vampire's head in there and let the party assume it is Kas when it is just some poor fool who failed. Too bad you don't want the head on someone as I could see it being on an Ettin being freaking hilarious, with the two heads arguing and using powers it shouldn't have.

[dna1]

interesting idea lol. a ettin sporting the head would be rather funny.


ya thanks for the input. iv pretty much got it maped out now... about like you said, headless creatures traps etc

 

[Prime32]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

[archangel.arcanis]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

This has inspired me. Make the head actually that of Kas for his betrayal. Granting a bite attack and some other cool boosts associated with a vampire powerful enough to really hurt someone in the process of ascension.

[veekie]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

Possibly it's supposed to be a magic item he made, like a Darkskull?

[dna1]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

yea but what if he gets/got killed? his hand/eye were strong enough to become artifacts.. so what about his left over corpse? head... leg... ..... pinky toe?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

yea but what if he gets/got killed? his hand/eye were strong enough to become artifacts.. so what about his left over corpse? head... leg... ..... pinky toe?

Floats in the astral plane and then has a city built on it, if precedent holds.

[McPoyo]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

yea but what if he gets/got killed? his hand/eye were strong enough to become artifacts.. so what about his left over corpse? head... leg... ..... pinky toe?

Floats in the astral plane and then has a city built on it, if precedent holds.

Third "leg"?

[Bozwevial]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

yea but what if he gets/got killed? his hand/eye were strong enough to become artifacts.. so what about his left over corpse? head... leg... ..... pinky toe?

Floats in the astral plane and then has a city built on it, if precedent holds.

Third "leg"?

Where better to hold a Ravenloft campaign?

[McPoyo]

The reason you can find Vecna's hand and eye is because they were cut off during his ascension, and are missing from his deific body. He definitely still seems to have a head...

yea but what if he gets/got killed? his hand/eye were strong enough to become artifacts.. so what about his left over corpse? head... leg... ..... pinky toe?

Floats in the astral plane and then has a city built on it, if precedent holds.

Third "leg"?

Where better to hold a Ravenloft campaign?

If I had sig room, I would add that.

[karrella]

..after reading this and laughing my butt off for a while I decided to give one to my party. I said it identified as a relic and was magical. So far their only response was "Wow cool!!" LOL

[Gods_Trick]

Ravenloft: it happens on the giant decaying penis of a ascended demilich ... this explains a lot about the Dark Powers 

[dna1]

hahaha thats pretty funny....



so i put the 'head of vecna' in my game.
as a cursed item  one of my players, who is by far our greediest player, decided that HE would take the head. and so after some argueing. and paying one of the characters 23k to cut off his head and put vecnas on.
he died.  

good times