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Rise of Vecna

From

Scott McClintock, Marc Altfuldisch, Kathleen Harrington

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$9.99

Academy of Adventure

Imagine a world where Tiamat was summoned successfully. Where the Princes of Elemental Evil tread unfettered. Where Demogorgon prowls the Underdark with the Wand of Orcus, leaving an army of undead in his wake. Where the storm giants have been cast to the bottom of the Ordning. Where Baldur's Gate has been banished to the Nine Hells. . . .

Imagine a world where good has lost and evil prevailed.

The Sword Coast has been divvied up by the Zhentarim, the mountain giants of Grudd Haug, the Cult of the Dragon, and many other sinister factions. But above them all looms the Archlich Vecna, who has orchestrated or exploited a series of ever-escalating calamities to conquer the very Realms themselves.

Will your players rise to the challenge? Or, will they too, fall before the might of Vecna?

Adventure Awaits

This adventure is designed to take players from 3rd to 10th level. As they tread the dark paths of the Doomed Forgotten Realms their journey will take them through multiple dungeon delves, they will discover familiar locations now changed forever, and little by little, the darkest of plots will be unraveled:

Exterminate a gang of mephits amidst the streets of Mirabar!
Take a nightmarish trek through an underground highway haunted by the fiendish Dem'ghot'nec, He Who Wears the Flesh of the Dead!
Make a cross-continental journey along the Sword Coast, witnessing firsthand the ravages of a world without heroes!
Race through the streets of Helm's Hold in an infernal vehicle, before facing off against the dread purple worm, Gigantus!
Assault a tribe of slime-worshipping bullywugs laired within Thornhold, before braving the keep's trap-riddled catacombs in hopes of making an unlikely ally!
Infiltrate Grudd Haug, the mountain giant capital, to steal a magical conchshell from the monstrous Chief Guh!
Battle the infamous Krakolich amidst the ruins of the Maelstrom, with the fate of the Realms hanging in the balance!

Tread the Darkest Path

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Reviews (7)

Discussions (49)

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Adam S May 17, 2023 2:39 am UTC

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You've indicated in some of the other comments that there were some typos in the PDF (for example ...regarding the number of shroudstones. Do you intend to update the PDF?

Scott M May 19, 2023 2:57 pm UTC

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Hi Adam!

We do. Our layout guru should be finishing up teaching soon and I believe will try to do the corrections sometime there after. The number of typos are relatively minimal overall but if you would like a list of corrections feel free to email me at smcclintock@wcupa.edu and I can email them to you.

Fingers crossed!
--Scott

Bryan B April 13, 2023 2:54 am UTC

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Since I've purchased this (and intend to get Fall as well), am I allowed to have this printed and bound? Or is there a hardcover format available?

Scott M April 30, 2023 6:25 pm UTC

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Hey Bryan!

Sorry that I missed this. Yes, you are definitely allowed to have them printed and bound. We do intended to get bundle all four titles together and have them print on demand but the timeline is currently unclear and unfortunately out of my hands.

Thanks for your support, mate :)

Bryan B May 04, 2023 2:39 am UTC

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I love the concept of this. Running it at a local pub, but starting with Academy first. 3 players at my table have never played, so they're in for a treat!

Steven O May 09, 2023 10:22 pm UTC

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Bryan, that is how my table was too. AoA does a great job of showing them what they can do in D&D. The twist ending is *chef's kiss* and their characters were traumatized (in a fun way). Still are!

Bryan B June 07, 2023 4:25 pm UTC

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In the player interactions, they made really good friends with the Iconics. One was even attempting to court Mailee....
That REALLY helped me set the tone

Tamara Patricia H March 17, 2023 8:33 am UTC

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I start to prepare the end of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 right now in Foundry, and I just realized that Bawling Stipper/The Battlerager is missing some typical dwarven traits (like Dwarven Resilience ... or Darkvision). Is that intended?

Also, do you happen to have stats for the Demodragons, Scott? If so, where could I found your mailadress again?

And while I'm already here commenting: Especially my rp-heavy players loved the dwarven highway so far! Two of them already have 3 levels of madness (the fairy bard and the shifter fighter) and the player of the raven queen cleric keeps complaining about him actually making his saves, because he wants a Indefinite Madness as well xD. Meanwhile the tiefling artificer made every single con and wis save thus far. It's hilarious. After overcoming his existential crisis nothing seems to be able to shake him, hahaha.

Steven O March 19, 2023 9:24 pm UTC

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My players absolutely loved the chance to fight the Demodragons! I replaced the 10 bandits with the Demodragons for the ambush and it about killed them.

Tamara Patricia H March 27, 2023 11:07 am UTC

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As Scott seems to be busy, do you have any way to share your stats for Demodragons, Steven? Or any good suggestions where to start statwise? I think my players would love to get some payback as well (save for the bard maybe who tried to romance Halazar xD)

Rory C April 01, 2023 4:17 pm UTC

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Hey Tamara, I know Scott is pretty busy right now, I am lucky enough to have had some contact with him and can say that he has mentioned having a lot on.

As for the Demodragons, they are a faction from Part 1 The Academy of Adventure. They consist of
Dracon Killjoy (LE male Human Wizard)
Dreadbeard (CE male Dwarf Warlock)
Halazar Hisserin (NE female yuan-ti pureblood Rogue)

To round out the group Dracon has his zombie butler Potter with him.

Now you can either make up some sheets for them or make some Buffs/nerfs to
Apprentice Wizard orMage for Dracon
Warlock (Fiend/Archfey/Great Old One) for Dreadbeard
Spy or Assassin for Halazar Hisserin

I think that the dwarf was just an oversight i have noticed it with a few of the creatures but its not that big of a deal when you meet him unless the party is trying to recruit him to join you which would then be an easy fix.

You can email Scott here: smcclintock@wcupa.edu...See more

Scott M April 02, 2023 2:31 pm UTC

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Hey Tamara! I did stat them out when I ran the adventure but threw away the stats afterwards sadly (They were just scrawls on scratch paper). Dracon was a pretty straight forward mage but I reskinned some of the spells -- magic missile shot energy skulls. Hold person was the "rigor mortis" spell. Etc. I gave the zombie a bit more hp than normal and a reaction where it could intercept damage intended for Dracon. Halazar I just added some assassin skills to the yuan-ti stat block. Dreadbeard I had doing eldrich blasts but also lit some candles/incense in his beard to summon some smoke monsters (I did this because one of the players had gust of wind and I wanted them to have the chance to do something cool with it). If it's not too late feel free to email me and Id be more than happy to whip something up. It would actually be a big help to have the stat blocks play tested! We are prepping right now for Print on Demand, and I could probably sneak the stat blocks into that, as well as the revised...See more

Steven O April 04, 2023 4:47 pm UTC

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I see Scott and others have replied. Here are the character sheets I made for the Demodragons. Not saying they are the best, but you could use them as a start.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YdsHxG-XHgbVwNGXlDu4sfMc-DiEC9U_/

Tamara Patricia H April 04, 2023 5:22 pm UTC

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Thanks everyone! I already mailed Scott and got stats from him. I'm getting ready to playtest them with some friends on friday to see what might need some adjustments, especially for a 5 person party.

Sam S May 16, 2023 12:03 am UTC

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I made Dracon a Tooth of Vecna if that helps. I also added a female zombie named "Granger" and used the Demodragons in place of the Tooth of Vecna encounter in chapter 2. Halazar was a beefed up spy and DreadBeard was one of the Warlocks in Volo's scaled appropriately and made into a warlock of Vecna. They had been spying on the PCs (Halazar had been noticed) and confronted them at the door to the mines of Mirabar, with Dracon saying they were a counter-insurgency squad for the ministry of secrets. It was a good moment, and I think it sets up what happens when they get back to Mirabar since the dialog planted the seeds that they knew about the Silent Axes. The PCs turned Halazar (they had always been friendly with her) and she left after the fight to head South, back home to Chult. But I think I'll have her pop up again soon.

Tamara Patricia H May 16, 2023 5:30 am UTC

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I already ran it in chapter 3 with the stats Scott gave me (although I beefed them up a little and kept the tooth of Vecna. That fireball at the beginning of the fight scared my party, hehe)
But I really like how you did it. If I ever run this AP again, I might do it like you did.

But either way, they loved to finally get a chance to beat up the Demodragons :D Dracon managed to escape after witnessing how they cut down Halazar and Dreadbeard. Halazar survived thanks to the bard who dragged her away from the fighter and gave her a healing potion. But poor Halazar still lost an arm.
Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do with Halazar and Dracon. The evil Mind of one of my players suggested that Halazar could get her dead arm reattached, and it slowly corrupts her and turns her undead (yuan-ti turned dhampir will turn reborn will end up a zombie if nothing changes?)
Maybe the two of them flee Mirabar themselves because after that spectacular failur...See more

Sam S March 07, 2023 7:49 pm UTC

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My group is just about to graduate from the Academy and land in Mirabar. I'm pretty excited but I have a some questions about Mirabar in general.

1. What else is in Mirabar? Are there taverns, homes, stores, etc? Or are most of the buildings abandoned?
2. Are the AAOs of Mirabar mostly followers of Vecna? It says in area 1 that the guy there can repeat what's in the introduction. Does that mean he's a supporter of Vecna?
3. It says that money is worthless in Mirabar. Is the intention that it's hard to get equipment in Mirabar? Could they buy mundane gear anywhere (e.g. clockwork king)? Or do they have to barter?

Thanks for any responses. I love the campaign!

Scott M March 09, 2023 11:19 pm UTC

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Hey Sam,

Great question! We had a lot of extra lore on Mirabar in the earlier iterations of the adventure but feedback from playtesters was that it was too much "storytelling". More generally though we were going for a 1984 vibe so if you're looking for inspiration I would check out that classic.

In all honesty I would encourage you to go with whatever sounds coolest to you and that you think your players would enjoy the most. However, my initial intentions were:

1) There are taverns, although less so than normal. Most are similar to the Gem and Goblet. There are homes, although many of them are kind apartment complexes where people can spy on one another more easily (1984ish). There are stores but they focus on necessities and are mostly barter driven. There are lots of abandoned buildings.

2) The AAOs at least pay lip service to Vecna. Again, lorewise I would have lots of rites of allegience, similar to those given to Big Brother in 1984....See more

Tamara Patricia H March 10, 2023 9:49 am UTC

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Gods ... I just realized Vecnas clergy basically recreated the Stasi (Ministry for State Security in East Germany from 1950 to 1990) in Faerun.

Steven O March 12, 2023 8:07 am UTC

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You are in for some fun! :-D

A funny side-effect of your #3. My players assumed that gold was no longer worth anything in the "new world," only gems and barter. Which led to them tossing away some gold as worthless. Only to find out later that it was mostly only Mirabar where gems so valuable, because Mayor Maroo is hoarding gems (and cats) and he controlled the food. You can't eat gold, after all!

Steven O March 12, 2023 8:14 am UTC

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That and the story of the Dwarfholds echoes First They Came, by Martin Niemöller. So, yeah. Nazis too. Scott et al have really given us a dystopia that could be any regime of terror, past, present, or fictional. At our table there was some catharsis of fighting back against stuff the players see is going on right now as well.

Steven O February 11, 2023 12:09 am UTC

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Hmm, I feel that something got left out in Xantharl's Castle. How do the players get from B15 Inkblot to B16 Sanitarium. From the context I think they are in straitjackets.

I am guessing something happens with the inkblot, they end up in straitjackets and are taken there?

Steven O February 16, 2023 4:37 am UTC

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Scott M got back to me via email since I was time crunched...here is what he passed along...

*************SPOILER (obvs)
The idea behind the Sanitarium is that the character are "waking up" up from their hallucinations. They are being told that they are just "normal" peeps who have been hallucinating that they are heroes from some kind of crazy Vecna-ruled world. You could transition to it in one of two ways:

1) After the Inkblot is over you just say, "Everything goes black. . . When you wake up you find yourself in a padded room... blah blah blah"

or

2) Right after the inkblot jarringly say, "You suddenly jolt yourself awake from your fever dream regarding XXX... You are in a padded room.... blah blah blah"

Steven O March 19, 2023 9:22 pm UTC

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FYI, for any DMs out there. I went full meta when the "doctor" came in. Not only are they in straitjackets but I described their characters as looking just like the players themselves and that this whole adventure was just a game and a shared delusion. Not sure that is for every table, but they loved it!

Richard G February 05, 2023 5:49 pm UTC

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While an excellent adventure I do feel like enough was going on at Grudd Haug that we could have used a map.

Miranda M February 10, 2023 10:20 pm UTC

Came here to say this, I agree.

Scott M February 10, 2023 10:58 pm UTC

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Fair point :) No promises but will look into the possibility of getting one made and added when we go POD. At this point the creation of it shouldn't be a huge deal but inserting it may or may not be a nightmare for our layout guy. Although, thinking it through, I guess it would be easy enough to put into the map pack, even if we don't embed it within the actual pdf.

Might be a bit because Im a teacher in the midst of battle season but I've added this request to the queue!

Richard G February 14, 2023 4:54 am UTC

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For what it's worth I'd be fine with it just being in the map pack, thank you.

Francesco Valvo - February 04, 2023 9:32 pm UTC

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Any update about the PoD?

Scott M February 05, 2023 12:23 am UTC

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Hey Francesco -- unfortunately not. It's all in the hands of our layout guru who is currently juggling a few other projects as well as teaching fulltime. Most of us are teachers so I imagine we should be able to make it happen, worst case, early summer. Although that said Id love to see it earlier than that and will do everything I can on my end to make that happen.

Francesco Valvo - February 05, 2023 10:11 pm UTC

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Thanks for your quick reply, even if it broke my hopes... I will start this campaign in less than one month. So I suppose for the first chapters I will need to get by without the hardcover.

Travis P January 27, 2023 4:33 pm UTC

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How much time has passed between the end of Academy of Adventure and the beginning of Rise of Vecna?

Steven O January 27, 2023 9:30 pm UTC

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I think you have some choice.

Option 1:
If you are going to follow the timeline from the Doomed Forgotten Realms Sword Coast Gazette (p. 8) and if you play it like AoA is (mostly) true memories of the flesh that was used to create the AoAs, you can make it happen prior to 1485DR safely, since none of the failed campaigns has happened yet. You can make it later too, since the earlier failures might not have been noticed by people on the Sword Coast, especially by callow youths going to school. There may be dark rumors though...

You would have to set it up to make AoA happen later than 1490, since things will be happening on the Sword Coast that would be harder to ignore. Maybe they are going to the AoA in response to, say, the rise of Tiamat of Vecna's ascendancy. But there are a LOT of big changes happening during this time that anyone on the Sword Coast would be aware of, including the existence of Vecna, so the dark ending of AoA wouldn't come as such a surprise.

I...See more

Scott M February 05, 2023 12:57 am UTC

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Perfect answer. 10 out of 10 :)

Francesco Valvo - January 27, 2023 2:33 pm UTC

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Appendix D mentions seven Shroudstone of the Ancients, but the adventure claims that there are only three such gemstones...

Steven O January 27, 2023 9:41 pm UTC

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I interpreted this as "fog of war" incomplete knowledge. There really are seven shroudstones. The resistance learned about only three of them and think that is the complete set. The description in Appendix D says that you have to place the seven shroudstones in "precise location(s) of power" and you have been mucking around and then destroying three of them. Perhaps destroying 3 of them is sufficient to allow Fall of Vecna to occur.

Scott M February 05, 2023 1:00 am UTC

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As much as I would love to hide behind Steven's excellent answer the seven is a typo. The shroudstones actually come from previous lore (the Vecna Lives adventure) although they arent given a name in that adventure. In Vecna Lives there are seven of them and that was what we went with originally. Later, down the road, we decided that three worked better for the plot and changed to that -- apparently forgetting to also update the appendix. Thanks for the head's up Francesco! Will be sure to fix and update the pdf when we do the POD.

Rory C January 21, 2023 5:49 pm UTC

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Loving part two as i read it.

Forgot to add in email that A10 Ministry of Secrets has a section but not shown anywhere on the map. I also took a screenshot of Helms Hold from the PDF and used that rather than doing TotM.

I am in the process of setting everything up and will run it soon but have also decided to ban clerics and paladins, I know there is part in there on how to get them going but i think it makes for a much better story with the gods forsaking the realm and adds an extra reason for them to bring back the divine.

I am lucky that i have a bunch of maps and look forward to making the underground highway and the other parts that dont have maps.

Scott M January 19, 2023 11:43 pm UTC

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Dimensions of Battle Maps (ColumnsxRows):

House of the Bright Blade: 40x40
Chauntea's Graveyard: 20x20
Tomb of Dem'Ghot'Nec: 20x20
Escape from the Goblet: 65x40
Xantharl's Keep (Both Levels): 30x40
The Old Dirty Dwarf: 44x35
Thornhold Keep: 56x68
Xanathar's Lair: 50x50
Maelstrom Level 1: 66x49
Maelstrom Level 2 : 61x46

George F January 09, 2023 3:04 am UTC

Which product is Volume one?

Francesco Valvo - January 11, 2023 7:23 am UTC

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https://www.dmsguild.com/product/380521/Academy-of-Adventure

George F January 11, 2023 12:22 pm UTC

Thanks

Scott M January 17, 2023 8:56 pm UTC

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Hey George! For what it's worth Volume one is entirely unnecessary to play and enjoy Volume two.

Travis M January 22, 2023 11:20 pm UTC

Would you say Volume one is worth playing on it's own? just from an entertainment standpoint. Or would you suggest going straight to two?

Rory C January 23, 2023 8:29 pm UTC

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I know many people dont like starting out at level 1 but this also gives them the chance to develop a bond with their character and also learn how they work. I have players who like to try something new each time so part one is really good as they are not then trying to figure out how a specific class or race works. The other plus side is the chances of death in part one are almost nil so players dont have to worry that much about it but may also be like i am not liking this race class combo and then have the chance to switch it up without it hurting the story too much.

Part one is also good for the fact of players are lead to believe one thing and if you are using the AAO part its a great way to totally twist things around on them. Personally I am going to be starting with part one when i run it.

Corey T January 07, 2023 6:16 pm UTC

Is there any chance you would consider applying this content to virtual table tops? such as roll 20 or foundry or fantasy grounds. Would be amazing to see and have.

Steven O January 16, 2023 6:05 pm UTC

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Because of a couple of factors I had to do a quickly set up and execute a session of our in-person on Roll20. The maps import perfectly (and you can get grid-less ones from Scott M as below...). I had to build a couple of extra maps (which I did quickly using Dungeon Alchemist) for parts where I would usually just draw on a battle map.

So from the user side, it worked out just fine without a formal Roll20 version. Of course if you are going to set up dynamic shadows and such, it would take more time.

Brian M January 02, 2023 1:54 pm UTC

Does this product (and part 3 too) include maps that can be used for roll20?

Scott M January 04, 2023 11:03 pm UTC

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Hey Brian! All of them have separate gridded battle maps that can be inserted into roll20. We hope to have gridless battle maps added to Volume 3 in the next few days with the others at some point after. If the gridded don't work for you and you need gridless before we get them up shoot me an email (address can be found below) and Ill be happy to help you out.

Nikki C December 19, 2022 2:03 pm UTC

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Is there somewhere we can sign up to be notified when vol 3 comes out

Scott M December 22, 2022 4:35 pm UTC

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Hi Nikki! Thanks for the inquiry.

It should be very soon. If you would like notification feel free to follow me on Twitter @vecna_risen or shoot me an email at smcclintock@wcupa.edu and Id be more than happy to shoot you an email when its out.

Scott M December 23, 2022 3:11 am UTC

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Actually good news! We just got our last art back and plan to release it January 2nd :)

Nikki C December 25, 2022 12:36 am UTC

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Awesome thanks for getting back

Steven O December 05, 2022 8:59 pm UTC

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Oh, two other questions...

What are the four pillars of light on the map near Citadel Adbar?

Why does the Clockwork King count his words on his fingers?

Scott M December 12, 2022 8:44 pm UTC

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So, this is an excellent question. And the answer is that I have no recollection! My best guess is that its an embellishment that our beloved map maker did on his own. That said, Im currently drafting up a Gazetteer for the Doomed Forgotten Realms Underdark and my newest goal is to work them in (To me they look more like sinkholes with some kind of steam escaping from them).

We were just trying to add some idiosyncrasies to the Clockwork King. Conceptually he is supposed to have a compulsion to count everything -- not just his words. But the idea of counting words on fingers was mainly to give a physical manifestation of something that otherwise the characters wouldnt be able to know.

Steven O December 15, 2022 12:37 am UTC

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Hahah, that is great. I love weird things that are never explained. I was imagining he had some OCD issues made worse by the trauma of the past ten years.

That is cool - I'll bet the Underdark is a mess!

Here is my plan... One of my player's characters rolled the "Timelost" secret in the Sword Coast Gazetteer. They know the location of the time-transporting obelisks (one of those four pillars of light). One of my other characters' secret was that a friend of theirs handed them a map and dropped dead on the spot. The map is to the key to using the pillars to time travel (adventure TBD).

At the end of the Doomed FR, they will have a chance to find that key and use the pillars to go back in time and perhaps prevent Vecna's Rise, perhaps by successfully completing the published adventures or whatever we decide. Of course there is no guarantee that traveling backwards in time will be free of side effects (allowing them to reroll new characters with some level of memory...See more

Scott M December 22, 2022 4:37 pm UTC

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That's pretty freaking epic. In hindsight I wish that we had leaned into the time travel angle with Fall of Vecna. You've definitely taken what we've provided and brought it up a notch (or two or three).

Thanks again for all of the support and happy holidays to you and your players!

Tamara Patricia H December 22, 2022 5:19 pm UTC

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Dear Gods, and now I'm sitting here, worried time travel will be the solution for this mess in FoV ^^" (I think it's ok as an alternative ending for RoV, but I was hoping it wouldn't come up as a main plot point. I just saw to many stories were it wasn't executed good ^^")

Steven O December 25, 2022 5:27 am UTC

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Thank you et al for creating this. It literally inspired me to get a group together and play again. :)

Steven O December 25, 2022 5:33 am UTC

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I agree that time travel shouldn't be the fall of Vecna. My players really want to fight him and end his existence! Only after we finish the next module will the time travel angle be offered to them.

Scott M December 25, 2022 9:00 pm UTC

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Makes me so happy to hear Steven! Made my Xmas :)

Scott M December 25, 2022 9:02 pm UTC

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Ha! Worry not Tamara. I think the time travel angle could play out pretty awesome but there is absolutely zero time travel in Volume 3. I think the tone, etc, is pretty similar to Rise of Vecna so if you liked that you should be happy with the sequel :)

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