Vecna: Eve of Ruin is an epic road trip through a cursed multiverse
Over the past decade, Wizards of the Coast has released a series of comprehensive campaign books for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, each adapted for low- to mid-level characters. At most, these products peak around level 13, allowing fans to find their own way to the game’s level 20 limit.
Next month the publisher will raise the stakes Vecna: Eve of Ruinsan adventure that begins at level 10 and goes to level 20. But it’s more than just a series of high-level encounters. It’s a celebration of everything that’s happened and the chance for the franchise’s most devoted fans to take a well-deserved victory lap.
In a recent briefing, Wizards shared a few highlights Eve of the ruins. The whirlwind tour contained a surprising number of spoilers, but before we get anywhere close to that, let’s cover the big picture.
What is a Vecna?
Image: Wizards of the Coast
Stranger things The fans’ ears probably perked up when they saw that players would be taking on Vecna, but they had to temper their enthusiasm a bit. Wizards isn’t sneaking a way to get Max out of the intensive care unit in Hawkins, Indiana. That’s Netflix’s problem. Instead, it reintroduces the original Vecna, a powerful undead villain from Dungeons & Dragons lore.
“The first mention of Vecna dates all the way back to 1976,” says senior game designer Amanda Hamon, referring to Eldritch sorcery, a supplement to First Edition D&D that Brian Blume wrote with the game’s co-creator Gary Gygax. “(Blume) mentions Vecna’s hand and eye as artifacts. There is only one line about Vecna himself: it says that he is a lich of great power and evil (…) who can only influence people who have attracted his hand and eye.
Hamon added that even Gygax himself reportedly no longer knew anything about the lich Blume had added. It was one of those open-ended bits of lore that was purposefully added in the margins so that players at home had a starting point for their own adventures. And it was largely due to the work of those adventurers at home, like with the kids in it Stranger things, that the legend of Vecna began to grow. Only later, in the second and third editions, would developers shape the character by turning him into a divine nemesis that looms over the entire multiverse of the game.
Where do we fall?
(Ed. remark: The following contains spoilers for Vecna: Eve of Ruins.)
Wizards said Vecna’s evil plan was in motion Eve of the ruins has to do with collecting secrets and using them as magical fuel to somehow bring about the destruction of the multiverse. To defeat him, players must collect the scattered pieces of The Rod of Seven Parts, an ancient artifact previously used in times gone by to banish Vecna. And while the road to finding the various pieces of this particular MacGuffin is long and winding (256 pages long, in fact), the journey will be at least partially familiar if you’ve spent the past decade furiously rolling a dice at playing D&D.
That’s right, kids, we’re going on a road trip.
First, players are taken to Sigil, the City of Doors, to get to know the whole situation. Players likely visited that location in the 5th edition adventure called Spin of the Wheel of Fortunewhich was published in the three-volume set Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. Expect Sigil to serve as the hub world, opening paths to all the other dimensions players must visit in their quest to reassemble The Rod of Seven Parts.
One of those places will definitely be Ravenloft, Hamon confirmed. Devoted players likely visited the mist-shrouded realm during Curse of Strahd or in a homebrew campaign based on Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Either way, there they will encounter the latest incarnation of the vampire Strahd von Zarovich, who must be negotiated with or eliminated before proceeding.
Also on the docket is a trip to the Astral Sea, home to the beloved Spelljammer setting that last took center stage in 2022. Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, another renowned three-volume set for 5th edition. There, players will face the horrifying prospect of navigating a spaceship that finds itself in the side of a dying god, as well as an entire cast of characters who previously crewed the ship.
Dragonlance fans are also in for a treat, as another aspect of the adventure takes them to the world of Krynn, which players also visited in 2022 with Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Here they get the opportunity to team up with a group of lycanthropes who are fighting against Lord Soth and his minions.
“This is one of the most intense fights,” Hamon said, “(since it’s against) a character who just doesn’t give up.”
Another chapter in it Eve of the ruins takes characters to Greyhawk’s Isle of Serpents. There they have to deal with a subordinate of Acererak, the magical engineer behind the legendary Tomb of horrors — yet another location from D&D history updated for 5th edition in Stories from the gaping portal. But instead of being put through that particular meat grinder, players will explore an entirely new dungeon called the Tomb of Wayward Souls.
What about the major overhaul of D&D?
“This adventure is meant to be as off-the-rails, as high as we can,” Hamon said. “(Especially because) it’s a potentially multiverse-ending storyline.” Of course, this is not the end of the fifth edition. The most popular version of D&D ever made is getting a reboot later this year thanks to a newly revised version Player’s Handbook (2024) And Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024). These two books are expected to be released in September and November respectively.
But won’t that work? Vecna: Eve of Ruins Outdated just a few months after release? Absolutely not, Hamon assured.
“We all hope (Vecna: Eve of Ruins) is very indicative of this adventure moving into the future,” she said, “a high-level adventure that people can play for many years to come. With the remastered core books coming out, it was a good time to show that we can make an adventure of this magnitude, and that it will be good for the previous version of the rules and also (for) many years to come.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin, like all new books for D&D these days, has a pretty complicated set of release dates. Those who buy straight from wizards will spend a little more for their pre-order, but they’ll receive their digital content two weeks early – on May 7 – plus a free low-level introductory adventure titled Nest of the Eldritch Eye. The edition op local game stores is also scheduled for May 7 and offers the opportunity to receive the book with a special alternative art cover Hydro74. Otherwise, you can find the book for sale online at places including Amazonwhere the wide release is scheduled for May 21st.