Vecna Reborn

The first adventure that the I prepared for our current adventure was the 2nd edition module Vecna Reborn.  This module take place in the Burning Peaks region of Ravenloft.  Our group is very familiar with Ravenloft given my tendency over the 30+ years that we have been meeting.  Vecna Reborn concerns the attempt of an evil cult to bring about the rebirth of the lich god Vecna in the domain of his arch-foe Kas.  This act will free their master from his misty prison and allow him to gain vengeance upon his enemy at the same time.  A chance encounter on the road passing through the Burning Peaks between Cavitius and Tovag embroils the characters in the plot.


To learn more of the cult's mysterious plans, the characters explore a cache of ancient lore in Tor Gorak, the major city in Tovag.  Clues lead them to the heart of Cavitius, Vecna's own domain.  There, they must discover the secret way into the Shadowed Room, and ancient library that no longer exists in time or space yet can still be reached by using an arcane ritual.  Learning this secret brings the heroes into conflict with Vecna's priesthood and their powerful servants.   

Meanwhile, the cultists in Tor Gorak continue to set in motion the events required to free Vecna, including spreading a magical plague that devastates the entire domain.  The heroes must then return to this disease-ridden realm once they escape Citadel Cavitius, Vecna's stronghold.

With the knowledge gained in the Shadowed Room, the characters can find the cultists and stop their plans.  In the finale, the cult breaks into an asylum in Tor Gorak to kill one of the inmates as the final condition of their ritual.  If the heroes do not prevent this from happening, Vecna will be reborn outside of the domain borders that imprison him -- free to wreak vengeance upon Kas, Tovag, and possibly the rest of the multiverse.

As detailed in an earlier post the heroes having the pleasure of investigating this realm were 2nd edition characters that I morphed to 4th edition.  They started out at 7th level but more than halfway to 8th level.  I took all of the encounters and created new 4th edition encounters out of them, including some skill challenges.  I also had to create some of the monsters, human cultists, etc that were specified in the module.  One example is the Narek, a foul beast outside the library of Kas.  This beast had to have tentacles that could reach into the passageway.  Vocar was a high level cleric cultist, and Zarenival the Imp and Cochort the Invisible Stalker were also created from templates in 4E.

The group did not have to meet up with Jacairn or Haroln in Citadel Cavitius but they did eliminate Qoolarn and his ghoul followers.  The group escaped Cavitius with Valuriss but lost her in the Burning Peaks when they were transported to a distant land for an early look at the next adventure in the series I have planned.  Returning to Tor Gorak they cast a Cure Disease ritual on Loreword Banquo allowing him to continue studying the history of Tor Gorak and its ruler Kas.  Rushing to the Asylum they found pandemonium amongst the residents, healed Virianis and found Vocar leading the Ritual of Lorn Malison with Dast tied to his "throne".  They dispatched the cultists and Vocar thus saving Marit and her new born son(?)

The Episode where Dast was saved from the Daggers and the Mirror Dance were both Skill challenges that worked nicely in my opinion.  The other encounters turned into battles with the various cultists, monsters and the like.

I used various mapping tools and maps from several sources to create the layouts for the encounters.  Our resident programmer has created a homespun tool that we use to display, move and share the maps that are used for each encounter.  We have one member in North Carolina who joins us over Skype and can connect in to view the maps also.  This makes for easy movement and sharing of our DnD sessions.

I enjoyed turning this module into a 4E adventure and have started to work on another that we are using in out present campaign.  I have integrated some different modules and 4E adventures together to provide what I believe is a compelling story for the players.  I won't mention the names of the other modules as yet since the players do not know where they are as of yet.  I hope they are enjoying it as much as I am.