‘Vecna: Eve of Ruin’s Rogue’s Gallery Could Fuel a D&D Fanfiction Category For Years
Vecna: Eve of Ruin has enough cameos from “famous” NPCs to keep you in Ready Player One levels of fanfiction fuel for years.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin sets out to both celebrate the last 50 years of D&D and launch a new update of its most popular edition yet. This is perhaps why the adventure is so crammed full of “famous” characters from D&D past and present. As you might expect, most of them are villains. After all, D&D is a game where the players are meant to be the heroes.
Throw in too many powerful Wizards (and it’s always Wizards; they don’t call ’em Warlocks of the Coast), and you end up with the “why doesn’t Elminster solve the problem” question that has been a longtime meme/in-joke in D&D (since 2nd Edition at least). But Vecna: Eve of Ruin has a rogue’s gallery of cameos more packed than one of those mid-2010 era movies where celebrities played exaggerated themselves in weird situations like This Is The End.
We’re not here to judge that, though, at times, the court may be in session. We are here to talk about everyone who’s in the new adventure due out next week.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin – “Hey, remember this guy?”
It’s no secret that Vecna: Eve of Ruin features a lot of cameos. After all, the recurring, popular villains are in the promo. Several of the big splashy art pieces don’t feature Vecna, but 5E’s other big breakout villain, Strahd von Zarovich, whose success is as much a part of the adventure that features him as it is the concept of “vampire who is sad.”
Along with Strahd von Zarovich, who got a revamped new stat block, there are plenty of other infamous faces. We are about to list them. Considerable spoilers ahead. So be ye warned.
Alright. Now that you’re sure you want to have the plot thickened to the point where it spoils, let’s take a look at who else is in the game.
Starting with Kas, the Betrayer. He’s Vecna’s former right-hand man, which is a title with some trace of irony, considering that Kas is the one who cut off Vecna’s hand in the first place after he betrayed his boss. We’ll take a closer look at his stat block later, but for now, just know he packs a wallop at CR 23 (but still dies like a chump to anyone who is remotely prepared to deal with high level challenges).
We also have Lord Soth, whose stat block is identical to what it was in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Weirdly enough, he’s more of a threat than Kas, but also is only sort of in the adventure.
Acererak…’s work appears in the book. The other infamous archlich himself gets a write-up in the book, though he makes an appearance only in the death trap of a tomb he built and in the form of a “False Lich” named Rerak, who is pointedly not actually Acererak.
Miska the Wolf-Spider is a Demon Lord from the original adventure that debuted the Rod of Seven Parts, which is titled, weirdly enough, Rod of Seven Parts.
Miska was one of the champions of capital C Chaos, a Demon Lord who wasn’t killed but rather imprisoned in Pandemonium by the then-still whole Rod of Seven Parts, better known as the Rod of Law.
There are two archmages with stat blocks; the first is Alustriel Silverhand, better known as The Shining Lady, first introduced in 2nd Edition and a frequent star of D&D comics.
The second is Tasha the Witch, who is currently in her reformation era because she is also known as Iggwilv, a murderous witch-queen whose evil was known far and wide across Oerth.
Finally, for now, there’s Landro, a deep-cut reference to Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Landro is basically the Iron Giant in that it’s a Warforged Colossus with a lot of curiosity about the world around it.
Outside of that, there are plenty of new NPCs. But this is who rolled in for the big 50th-anniversary celebration adventure.
