A small Lore question...

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

wjliii3

Dec 09, 2007 19:24:51
What happened with the LoP and Vecna in Sigil? Try as I might, all I can find out is Vecna showed up and started ruining ****, and then for some reason, he left.
#2

wjliii3

Dec 10, 2007 7:52:20
Yes, but what did he actually do?
#3

ripvanwormer

Dec 11, 2007 23:41:57
If you must use the Die, Vecna, Die! narrative, Vecna was attempting to use Sigil's status as a "keystone of the multiverse" to reshape reality in his own image.

Though legend suggests that the Lady of Pain once belonged to the Ancient Brethren, among whom the Serpent also numbers, she still faces a quandary with Vecna's presence. The longer Vecna remains, the more unsteady the celestial ring under Sigil becomes. Should that fulcrum finally collapse, so also will the current shape and order of the multiverse. In fact, permanent damage has already occurred. But, should the Lady loose the wards that prevent other gods entry, so that they might put a stop to Vecna's machinations, their very presence would bring down the multiverse that much sooner. In like manner, should the Lady reveal herself in her true form in all its aching majesty to do battle with the waxing god, the multiverse would come undone like a mobile whose strings are simultaneously severed. So, she waits.

The PCs are grafted with pieces of Vecna's original mortal body, and so are immune to Vecna's magic and godly senses. They destroy Vecna's physical form, which forces him to discorporate and fall back to Oerth (presumedly through a portal opened by the Lady of Pain for this purpose). The demigod Iuz (who Vecna has absorbed to empower his ascension to greater deity) takes the opportunity provided by Vecna's pain and confusion to escape, forcing Vecna down to the status of a lesser power (still an improvement from his previous demigodly state).

The exact changes that may have resulted from Vecna's exploit are hazy. The changes mentioned in the adventure itself don't seem to have happened (for example, no Outer Planes drift away, collide, or merge), which prevents us from interpreting the adventure's epilogue literally. It seems unsatisfying to use the adventure to justify things like Gruumsh's alignment changing, halflings no longer being hairy-footed, piercers becoming darkmantles, Faerun getting its own cosmology, or the Demiplane of Shadow expanding to become a full plane, and in any case these justifications would be unofficial. Your mileage may vary, I guess.
#4

ripvanwormer

Dec 14, 2007 16:16:41
How does Vecna enter Sigil anyway? Is it well explain or is it just the Serpent gave Vecna a mystic incantation that could brake he seals around Sigil?

1. He entered while he was in an "in-between" state, neither god nor demigod nor mortal but something in flux, and thus didn't trip the wards against deities.

2. He didn't enter via a portal (which the Lady of Pain could have blocked regardless of what state he was in), but via Ravenloft's Mists. Since the Mists of Ravenloft are themselves as enigmatic and outside-the-rules as the Lady of Pain is, one countered the other. It's kind of like the paradox of what happens when an unstoppable object rams into an unmovable object. Nothing can stop the Mists, but nothing can enter Sigil except through a portal. So what happens when the Mists try to enter Sigil?

He basically abused the rules of one game setting to break the rules of another one.
#5

ripvanwormer

Dec 15, 2007 17:08:11
It wasn't really a bargain. He used his leet magics to force the mists to do what he wanted, or something. It's part of abruptly moving from demigod to greater deity status while within the Demiplane of Dread while his domain was disintegrating, plus his special Serpent knowledge and junk.