I think it was actually more interesting to have the 'choose your own powers for the rod, here are some examples' approach, since the powers in later editions feel relatively mundane. I mean, they can all be replicated using regular spells that characters get. Possibly the only thing that makes this a legendary artifact is the number of powers it has, and only once it's assembled.
agreed. I mean, being able to give it whatever abilities I want.. that can get pretty "sick" in power.. but then again.. I could also choose to make it super mundane in abilities as well (gotta remember as a DM I'd still have to deal with what the players do with it haha)
I'm hoping that the team at WotC borrow from the Legendary Item template they have been building within the system in its latter lifecycle (popularized by the legendary items in Critical Roles first campaign). It seems only natural to reverse engineer the "Awakening" evolution of those items into the separate parts of the Rod itself.
I mean, you still can though. There's no reason you can't decide the powers of the segments if you want it to be more or less impactful, personally I just appreciate having a default recommendation for abilities just in case I need to grab a piece of loot in a hurry. I will say though, I don't care what system I'm running, the smallest piece is always just a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver. In my current game it can cast knock a number of times per day equal to the users proficiency bonus and requires attunement, they have no idea its part of a set yet.
If you are looking for a magic item with built-in quests, the Rod of Seven Parts is your go-to. My favourite artifact from AD&D. Thanks for this video.
AD&D was loaded with fun little items, that was always one thing that I missed about 5E was the lack of "the DM needs to fill this in using THESE tables" (I mean, we still did that.. but still...)
The Rod of Seven Parts and the fragments will be the McGuffin of the campaign. Each fragment is found in a different world. Vecna's faction will be one of many in search of the fragments.
It is much more interesting to assign powers to the pieces rather than give them very commonplace and easily obtained spell effect. Making it customizable takes it from just being 'that named item' to an artifact believable important to the story/world it's being used in. I really love the history bits of your videos. It really shows how the game has changed over the years and introduces ideas or builds and set ups that players or DMs might not be familiar with otherwise. As to the idea of a Lawful Vecna? That would still make an incredible villain. There have been a few novels unrelated to D&D that address how oppressive an evil force law and order can be when unchecked.
aye, the history is rich with.. well.. history and inspiration. It's a major thing to try to step into if one is new to the game, but for me having been in it for so long, it's fun to make connection points with the lore, especially with iconic items like the rod of seven parts.
Im very excited for this adventure. Aarakocra seems like it could be a very powerful AND themeatic choice in this campaign given their connection to the rod and the Wind Dukes. Ranger - Horizon Walker would work well.
ooo, good find in fizbans. Which reminds me of the little tidbit about dragons so ancient and powerful that they have some awareness of their own multiplicity through the multiverse. The dragon sight. And I note that there are 7 settings for the seven parts. If I remember right the outlands might be the remains of 'the first world' as the hub of reality, and that world seems to be shattered. So possibly the rod and the first world shattered in the same conflict and Vecnas intent is to destroy the multiverse and resurrect the first world.
Seeing the cover to The Rod of Seven Parts instantly filled me with nostalgia. I always wanted to play in that campaign, but couldn't find anyone (I trusted) to run it at the time. I guess I may finally get my chance. It may be a nice parting gift to D&D for me & my group for awhile, knocking this bad boy out of the park. It may be my turn to run it for someone else; always a bridesmaid...
The feline interjection at 1:17, 😺😅. Great retrospective on a classic D&D trope from the dawn of the hobby. Kudos! I like the AD&D notion of DM-chosen powers for the classic artifacts. I mean, the artifacts specific powers aren't as important as the idea that assembling it is difficult, brings great power, and great risk. A classic fantasy trope distilled.
heh yeah, that would be Tango... he likes to interrupt.. You are also 1000% spot on for DM-chosen artifact powers! I still do that today for artifacts. I'll look at what the book says then 90% of the time I'll toss it out and put my own in.
It also has a greater AD&D write up in the Book of Artifacts (page 91-92) than the DMG, with each piece having a set order, size, and power, as well as as the various resonant effects, but no mentioning of the words of power I really like one of the suggested methods of destruction: Find Miska the Wolf-Spider, and then force them, and the rod into the Plane of Concordant Opposition
expanded ideas for seven parts. intelligence is a possibility after so many segments are assembled correctly. Completed Rod could grant celestial power, but just enough for the culmination of the quest.
The thing I remember most about The Rod of Seven parts is that one time Jim Darkmagic stuffed one of the parts up his keister to hide it. I hope it was heavily washed afterwards.
It sounds like I’ve seen this before in Dragon Ball Z, the Dragon Ball all seven of them you bring them all together and you summon a wish dragon grant you a wish that’s what it sounds like to me
I always liked the rod of 7 parts, way back in the early days of playing, and have used that concept for crafting magic items for my PCs. I implement their back stories and item concepts from 5e back ground items that seem like flavor into the item design. One character had the piece of a battle flag she carried that, through crafting and story telling, became a sheath of protection +1 which was part of a long sword she carried. It came to me when the party visited a smith and had the sword silvered and over the course of the campaign she kept adding things to the sword. Eventually it developed into a +3 defender with a few extra powers like spare the dying, cure wounds, and dimension door. I did this for every PC, and in later campaigns the magic items could show up at some point as pieces of the whole. I’d sit down with the PC to determine what may have happened to the item. The long sword was broken into parts due to the power of the item and it had a twist as to who could use it.
I've always liked doing that too. I had a DM that I got that idea from.. eh... back in the early 90's.. It was a sword that my character used, but it had been broken apart, my character's quest was to search for the remaining pieces. While he and I have not played together since the mid-90's, we still keep in touch, and I still ask annually if my character has ever found the other two parts.. after 30 years.. he still tells me.. "no." *sigh* I think it's the longest "downtime" I've ever experienced.
@@gamemasters I have a similar story, my DM was mid to late 80s and we were looking for the rod. In the 90s and beyond, I used it as part of the story telling since I had matured as a DM and story teller. When I started asking back story questions and saw how invested the players were in portions of the story, I began using it to develop artifacts and personalized magic items. Fast forward to a few years ago and I sat at a table full of forever DMs, we each took turns running games. When it was my turn, I began taking the world I created and filling in table mechanics with each person’s style of DMing and collaborating different crafting/success/failure systems. We each brought something to expand our ideas. It has been fantastic.
When the announcer was listing the appearances of the rod he missed out on the age of worms adventure path that was published in dungeon and dragon magazine respectively... This was some early work by the people who would eventually form Paizo and although the scenario was designed to theoretically be in any world it was intended to be grayhawk. The campaign had a lot of callbacks to classic stuff... The rod of seven parts was there as was the hand of vecna and at one point you had the option to break into the Tomb of Horrors and use a talisman of the sphere to steal the sphere of annihilation from The devil's mouth in the tomb. You could then use the sphere to beat the living crap out of a nascent God that was trying to usher in the Apocalypse. Also there was a plot hook where at least one of your party members would wind up being a descendant of one of the wind dukes.
yes, indeed! There was A LOT more information about where the individual parts of the rod were found (or could be found) but I didn't want to include adventure elements and details in this overview.. mainly because otherwise, it would have been a 4 to 5 hour video haha.
It is an interesting one for sure. I may try to make it happen shortly after the Vecna adventure releases.. just to tie in with the hype. I think historical context is important to something like this.
oooh nice! I'm considering making a real world Rod of 7 parts. Can't be terribly difficult can it? I mean... it wouldn't have the magical powers... or... would it...
Interesting Good theory on Vecna and turning lawful. Can Vecna bend the will of the rod to let him wield it? This could be a good book too. If it is I’ll have to find it on the second hand market.
If the 1st segment is held by a powerful NPC. Prior to when players go to obtain the 7th segment, or shortly afterwards. The NPC with the 1st segment intervenes. If the 7th segement is possessed by another powerful NPC. Players may be faced with difficult decisions on how to proceed. Since, if their goals align they may seek ways to aid one another.
The "Arms and Equipment Guide" version might also have a clue to how to stop Vecna. If the rod could cast an enhanced version of True Resurrection on Vecna, maybe the party could bring him back to life and then kill him permanently. Make for a heck of a battle.
@@gamemasters sadly my game group never got together consistently enough for any one of us to get it. But it’s deep, olde lore like this that people like me look for.
@@raymondhemphill146 I cannot promise that what I dive I to lore wise is what most would consider "conventional" as we homebrewed the crap out of almost everything, but when I do these videos, I try to keep it true to how the books presented it.
In the long long ago of the multiverse there were 3 overgods, or perhaps one god with three different faces. Ao, Tharizdun and the Lady of Pain. A creator, a destroyer and a neutral 3rd party. Tharizdun was called the mad god for a reason and he gazed out into the void across all of space and beyond the multiverse and saw a world on the edge of destruction. This world was inhabited b Obyrith, their world was dying as they had destroyed it and they offered Tharizdun a powerful crystal to that they could come to the multiverse which he ruled over. Tharizdun accepted the gift but being mad, not a moron when they asked him to cast it into the astral sea he instead threw it into the elemental chaos. The crystal was raw chaos and it tore holes through reality, creating the abyss. Whether the demons or the simple fact that the universe was inevitably going to be die motivated him was unknown but Tharizdun realized that the multiverse was broken and set out to destroy it so that it could be remade. The gods did not like this and so all divines, regardless of alignment set aside their differences to fight Tharizdun but, being an overgod, he was truly immortal, they could not slay him, but they could imprison him. Tharizdun was trapped in an enormous crystal within the ethereal which essentially a a prison in which he lives in a universe in which he won, the multiverse was destroyed. His legacy lives on though... (certainly reminds me of one module... a large crystal in the ethereal) Little is known of where the crystal he cast into the elemental chaos though one shard is the ruby in Asmodeus' rod. (Avernus tie in) Several magic artifacts of Tharizdun, exist with their means of destruction being to be taken to the ethereal and being placed into a completely happy dream (yes, dreams take place in the deep ethereal)... much like that Ravenloft place.... (hmm another 5e book tie in). Tharizdun has many names, among those being The Elder Elemental Eye (another 5e book tie in) and the most famous creature he created were the guardians of the Astral, the astral dreadnaughts.. Viewing the astral as somewhere mortals should not be able to travel and viewing it as unacceptable for mortals to reach the outer planes he created the astral dreadnaughts to guard the color pools to prevent mortals from passing through them (given spelljammer takes place in the astral we have another 5e book tie in) Beholders can reproduce a variety of ways, they can dream new varieties of themselves into existence... but an astral dreadnaught can also dream beholders into existence... both have one eye and there is someone else who has one eye as I recall. Tharizdun's prison can not be opened unless hundreds of stones across the multiverse are brought together to open it... pillars are ston are large stones, but still, stones. Mos importantly though, Tharizdun is right, the natural state of the universe is without worlds, a primordial soup of particles. The state of the multiverse is not what it should be and the Demons are a blight from beyond the e cosmos which has effected it. To fully destroy the multiverse, Vecna would have to destroy the overgods which is beyond his power.... but there is a chained god who wants to destroy it... ust saying.... if they stick with lore, and they decide to go a cosmic horror route.. we could see the return of the biggest Bad of D&D. ..
I have used this artifact in my campaign and it was awesome. Can I bring up one small quibble. The creators of the rod are not the Win Dukes of Aqua. They are the Wind Dukes of Aqaa. There is no U. That said, great vid. I love the old school ideas.
As with alot of the DnD things, I have been changing things here and there to fit into the world of Exandria where my players are and I think the original RoSP, being able to pick the powers of each part would be very interesting as it could be tailored to the players/setting of your campaign(s) and be a very slow burn thing that you only hint at through the journeys of your players. Im looking forward to seeing what this new RoSPs can do as one of my players is a cleric with her deity being the Platinum Dragon already so it could be an interesting way to add some slow burn baddies for the party to oppose later.
I think Miska the Wolf Spider is still alive, but is still alive "trapped in a fortress of Order" in Pandemonium. His children the spiderfiends search for the rod of Law to use as a key to release him? So I guess thats another power?
I absolutely love that an artifact of chaos can't even keep its own story straight! I hope their new version uses some established lore, and some stuff made up from whole cloth. Either way, it does seem like the rods true primary power is being a first-class, grade-A MacGuffin....
@@gamemasters Anything that happened after OD&D or AD&D 1e is usually news to me. I've read through the core books for 2e and 5e once for each, and that's about it. Anything from supplements, novelizations, third party, etc. is largely unknown to me. I never even saw the movies until the most recent one got made free on Prime (I did not care for it).
it would be interesting to know if there are any....."reactions" with other artifacts? like, can the axe of the dwarvish lords break it? can it change the alignment of someone thats using an alignment changing artifact, etc?
ooof... indeed! As best I can recall, there never been anything like that published (tho there might be something in a dragon magazine article that I've never read - or possibly a paragraph in an older edition that I've long since forgotten).
It was rumoured that Ahiriman (one of the Primordial Serpents of Law) has been guiding Vecna's actions as Mok'slyk. The gist of the Die Vecna Die and Vecna lives is that Ahiriman man wanted the Mutliverse remade to his liking and used Vecna to achieve this goal. But a plucky band of adventurers thwarted his schemes but the Multiverse was remade, a step closer to Ahiriman achieving his goal of undoing the Rule of 3 to ultimately reachieving the Rule of 1 to govern the cosmos. This is how DnD went from 2E to 3Ex. This story was abandoned with the jump to 4E with ots awful Dawn War creation myth. I like to think that this adventure is the catalyst for DnD to go from 5E to 6E...an homage to its past as a nod to us old timer Players. We have the most disposable income after all d~_^b.
nah.. I don't subscribe to that, otherwise, when it breaks apart all 7 parts would just appear at one's feet (if it really wants to be found). Remember, the rod is not sentient, it has a certain amount of mechanics involved and it is those mechanics that make it move randomly in both distance as well as direction.
Check out the Vecna Even of Ruin cover reveal here : ua-cam.com/video/Cg7KpDa9EJM/v-deo.html
I enjoy the historic approach to these kind of videos. It is fun to see the evolution of the game and its changes the random bits of lore.
it was a fun research. I had forgotten quite a bit so getting my memory sparked was cool for me too.
I think it was actually more interesting to have the 'choose your own powers for the rod, here are some examples' approach, since the powers in later editions feel relatively mundane. I mean, they can all be replicated using regular spells that characters get. Possibly the only thing that makes this a legendary artifact is the number of powers it has, and only once it's assembled.
agreed. I mean, being able to give it whatever abilities I want.. that can get pretty "sick" in power.. but then again.. I could also choose to make it super mundane in abilities as well (gotta remember as a DM I'd still have to deal with what the players do with it haha)
Seems like that was a approach more common in earlier editions, because the Eye of Vecna was similarly customizable
I'm hoping that the team at WotC borrow from the Legendary Item template they have been building within the system in its latter lifecycle (popularized by the legendary items in Critical Roles first campaign). It seems only natural to reverse engineer the "Awakening" evolution of those items into the separate parts of the Rod itself.
I mean, you still can though. There's no reason you can't decide the powers of the segments if you want it to be more or less impactful, personally I just appreciate having a default recommendation for abilities just in case I need to grab a piece of loot in a hurry. I will say though, I don't care what system I'm running, the smallest piece is always just a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver. In my current game it can cast knock a number of times per day equal to the users proficiency bonus and requires attunement, they have no idea its part of a set yet.
If you are looking for a magic item with built-in quests, the Rod of Seven Parts is your go-to. My favourite artifact from AD&D. Thanks for this video.
AD&D was loaded with fun little items, that was always one thing that I missed about 5E was the lack of "the DM needs to fill this in using THESE tables" (I mean, we still did that.. but still...)
The Rod of Seven Parts and the fragments will be the McGuffin of the campaign. Each fragment is found in a different world. Vecna's faction will be one of many in search of the fragments.
exactly what I'm thinking too.
It is much more interesting to assign powers to the pieces rather than give them very commonplace and easily obtained spell effect. Making it customizable takes it from just being 'that named item' to an artifact believable important to the story/world it's being used in.
I really love the history bits of your videos. It really shows how the game has changed over the years and introduces ideas or builds and set ups that players or DMs might not be familiar with otherwise.
As to the idea of a Lawful Vecna? That would still make an incredible villain. There have been a few novels unrelated to D&D that address how oppressive an evil force law and order can be when unchecked.
aye, the history is rich with.. well.. history and inspiration. It's a major thing to try to step into if one is new to the game, but for me having been in it for so long, it's fun to make connection points with the lore, especially with iconic items like the rod of seven parts.
Im very excited for this adventure. Aarakocra seems like it could be a very powerful AND themeatic choice in this campaign given their connection to the rod and the Wind Dukes. Ranger - Horizon Walker would work well.
hmmm! I had not considered that before.. but... you may be on to something!
ooo, good find in fizbans. Which reminds me of the little tidbit about dragons so ancient and powerful that they have some awareness of their own multiplicity through the multiverse. The dragon sight. And I note that there are 7 settings for the seven parts. If I remember right the outlands might be the remains of 'the first world' as the hub of reality, and that world seems to be shattered. So possibly the rod and the first world shattered in the same conflict and Vecnas intent is to destroy the multiverse and resurrect the first world.
hmmm! that's.. a VERY interesting idea!
Wow, that's a bold narrative. Intriguing stuff!
Seeing the cover to The Rod of Seven Parts instantly filled me with nostalgia. I always wanted to play in that campaign, but couldn't find anyone (I trusted) to run it at the time. I guess I may finally get my chance. It may be a nice parting gift to D&D for me & my group for awhile, knocking this bad boy out of the park. It may be my turn to run it for someone else; always a bridesmaid...
I know the feeling. I am a forever DM myself..
The feline interjection at 1:17, 😺😅.
Great retrospective on a classic D&D trope from the dawn of the hobby. Kudos!
I like the AD&D notion of DM-chosen powers for the classic artifacts. I mean, the artifacts specific powers aren't as important as the idea that assembling it is difficult, brings great power, and great risk. A classic fantasy trope distilled.
heh yeah, that would be Tango... he likes to interrupt..
You are also 1000% spot on for DM-chosen artifact powers! I still do that today for artifacts. I'll look at what the book says then 90% of the time I'll toss it out and put my own in.
It also has a greater AD&D write up in the Book of Artifacts (page 91-92) than the DMG, with each piece having a set order, size, and power, as well as as the various resonant effects, but no mentioning of the words of power
I really like one of the suggested methods of destruction: Find Miska the Wolf-Spider, and then force them, and the rod into the Plane of Concordant Opposition
heh good find! I rather like the idea of simply handing the rod of seven parts directly over to the queen of chaos as a means of destruction.
The wind changed suddenly, in the space of a heartbeat.
hmm... elaborate?
@@gamemasters first line of the prologue of the book about this. I remembered it being a decent read.
Good information for new players :) Hope you’re well! Loving the Wizard beard
Thank you! It's a work in progress (the beard)
There is a mention to the rod of seven parts in the monster manual on the entry for aaracroka.
fantastic catch!
I am impressed by your expansive knowledge of the lore. Great video.
there was A LOT that I had forgotten, I did a massive amount of research for this video, had my memory jogged quite a bit while doing that.
expanded ideas for seven parts. intelligence is a possibility after so many segments are assembled correctly. Completed Rod could grant celestial power, but just enough for the culmination of the quest.
aye, boosting one's stats, specifically Intelligence could easily work! What celestial power would you grant to a player?
I think the obelisks are going to be the tuning point for vecna and probably a focus point for each one of the rod pieces.
oooh! That's a good prediction! I don't think I've seen that one pop up anywhere yet, so I can easily say that I heard it here first from @noid1978 !
The thing I remember most about The Rod of Seven parts is that one time Jim Darkmagic stuffed one of the parts up his keister to hide it. I hope it was heavily washed afterwards.
wwwoooahhhhh! I hope it wasn't the 15" one!
It sounds like I’ve seen this before in Dragon Ball Z, the Dragon Ball all seven of them you bring them all together and you summon a wish dragon grant you a wish that’s what it sounds like to me
if it's similar to something in dragonball z, then it's likely dragonball z got the idea from this, since this was made back in the 1970's :)
I always liked the rod of 7 parts, way back in the early days of playing, and have used that concept for crafting magic items for my PCs. I implement their back stories and item concepts from 5e back ground items that seem like flavor into the item design.
One character had the piece of a battle flag she carried that, through crafting and story telling, became a sheath of protection +1 which was part of a long sword she carried. It came to me when the party visited a smith and had the sword silvered and over the course of the campaign she kept adding things to the sword. Eventually it developed into a +3 defender with a few extra powers like spare the dying, cure wounds, and dimension door.
I did this for every PC, and in later campaigns the magic items could show up at some point as pieces of the whole. I’d sit down with the PC to determine what may have happened to the item. The long sword was broken into parts due to the power of the item and it had a twist as to who could use it.
I've always liked doing that too. I had a DM that I got that idea from.. eh... back in the early 90's.. It was a sword that my character used, but it had been broken apart, my character's quest was to search for the remaining pieces. While he and I have not played together since the mid-90's, we still keep in touch, and I still ask annually if my character has ever found the other two parts.. after 30 years.. he still tells me.. "no." *sigh* I think it's the longest "downtime" I've ever experienced.
@@gamemasters I have a similar story, my DM was mid to late 80s and we were looking for the rod. In the 90s and beyond, I used it as part of the story telling since I had matured as a DM and story teller. When I started asking back story questions and saw how invested the players were in portions of the story, I began using it to develop artifacts and personalized magic items.
Fast forward to a few years ago and I sat at a table full of forever DMs, we each took turns running games. When it was my turn, I began taking the world I created and filling in table mechanics with each person’s style of DMing and collaborating different crafting/success/failure systems. We each brought something to expand our ideas. It has been fantastic.
When the announcer was listing the appearances of the rod he missed out on the age of worms adventure path that was published in dungeon and dragon magazine respectively... This was some early work by the people who would eventually form Paizo and although the scenario was designed to theoretically be in any world it was intended to be grayhawk. The campaign had a lot of callbacks to classic stuff... The rod of seven parts was there as was the hand of vecna and at one point you had the option to break into the Tomb of Horrors and use a talisman of the sphere to steal the sphere of annihilation from The devil's mouth in the tomb. You could then use the sphere to beat the living crap out of a nascent God that was trying to usher in the Apocalypse. Also there was a plot hook where at least one of your party members would wind up being a descendant of one of the wind dukes.
yes, indeed! There was A LOT more information about where the individual parts of the rod were found (or could be found) but I didn't want to include adventure elements and details in this overview.. mainly because otherwise, it would have been a 4 to 5 hour video haha.
I def want to hear more about that adventure!
It is an interesting one for sure. I may try to make it happen shortly after the Vecna adventure releases.. just to tie in with the hype. I think historical context is important to something like this.
I still have my Rod of Seven Parts Box with everything in it. :) - Tomes
oooh nice! I'm considering making a real world Rod of 7 parts. Can't be terribly difficult can it? I mean... it wouldn't have the magical powers... or... would it...
Interesting
Good theory on Vecna and turning lawful. Can Vecna bend the will of the rod to let him wield it?
This could be a good book too. If it is I’ll have to find it on the second hand market.
provided I get a review copy.. I'll let you know my genuine 2 cents on it!
If the 1st segment is held by a powerful NPC. Prior to when players go to obtain the 7th segment, or shortly afterwards. The NPC with the 1st segment intervenes.
If the 7th segement is possessed by another powerful NPC. Players may be faced with difficult decisions on how to proceed. Since, if their goals align they may seek ways to aid one another.
which is the neat thing about this specific artifact, there are soooooo many ways it could go sideways, sooooo much potential for an epic capaign!
The "Arms and Equipment Guide" version might also have a clue to how to stop Vecna. If the rod could cast an enhanced version of True Resurrection on Vecna, maybe the party could bring him back to life and then kill him permanently. Make for a heck of a battle.
heh yes indeed! I mean, Vecna is a lich afterall..
Great Gaming History and backstory presentation.
there was soo much stuff I had forgotten, was super fun to jog my memory while I was researching it!
This is a great video of D&D lore, thank you!
It was very fun to research and jogged my memory too. We used the rod back in the day and it was fun to revisit those memories:)
@@gamemasters sadly my game group never got together consistently enough for any one of us to get it. But it’s deep, olde lore like this that people like me look for.
@@raymondhemphill146 I cannot promise that what I dive I to lore wise is what most would consider "conventional" as we homebrewed the crap out of almost everything, but when I do these videos, I try to keep it true to how the books presented it.
In the long long ago of the multiverse there were 3 overgods, or perhaps one god with three different faces. Ao, Tharizdun and the Lady of Pain. A creator, a destroyer and a neutral 3rd party.
Tharizdun was called the mad god for a reason and he gazed out into the void across all of space and beyond the multiverse and saw a world on the edge of destruction. This world was inhabited b Obyrith, their world was dying as they had destroyed it and they offered Tharizdun a powerful crystal to that they could come to the multiverse which he ruled over. Tharizdun accepted the gift but being mad, not a moron when they asked him to cast it into the astral sea he instead threw it into the elemental chaos. The crystal was raw chaos and it tore holes through reality, creating the abyss.
Whether the demons or the simple fact that the universe was inevitably going to be die motivated him was unknown but Tharizdun realized that the multiverse was broken and set out to destroy it so that it could be remade. The gods did not like this and so all divines, regardless of alignment set aside their differences to fight Tharizdun but, being an overgod, he was truly immortal, they could not slay him, but they could imprison him.
Tharizdun was trapped in an enormous crystal within the ethereal which essentially a a prison in which he lives in a universe in which he won, the multiverse was destroyed. His legacy lives on though... (certainly reminds me of one module... a large crystal in the ethereal)
Little is known of where the crystal he cast into the elemental chaos though one shard is the ruby in Asmodeus' rod. (Avernus tie in)
Several magic artifacts of Tharizdun, exist with their means of destruction being to be taken to the ethereal and being placed into a completely happy dream (yes, dreams take place in the deep ethereal)... much like that Ravenloft place.... (hmm another 5e book tie in).
Tharizdun has many names, among those being The Elder Elemental Eye (another 5e book tie in) and the most famous creature he created were the guardians of the Astral, the astral dreadnaughts.. Viewing the astral as somewhere mortals should not be able to travel and viewing it as unacceptable for mortals to reach the outer planes he created the astral dreadnaughts to guard the color pools to prevent mortals from passing through them (given spelljammer takes place in the astral we have another 5e book tie in)
Beholders can reproduce a variety of ways, they can dream new varieties of themselves into existence... but an astral dreadnaught can also dream beholders into existence... both have one eye and there is someone else who has one eye as I recall.
Tharizdun's prison can not be opened unless hundreds of stones across the multiverse are brought together to open it... pillars are ston are large stones, but still, stones.
Mos importantly though, Tharizdun is right, the natural state of the universe is without worlds, a primordial soup of particles. The state of the multiverse is not what it should be and the Demons are a blight from beyond the e cosmos which has effected it.
To fully destroy the multiverse, Vecna would have to destroy the overgods which is beyond his power.... but there is a chained god who wants to destroy it... ust saying.... if they stick with lore, and they decide to go a cosmic horror route.. we could see the return of the biggest Bad of D&D. ..
I say.. they need to bring Venger back...
I have used this artifact in my campaign and it was awesome. Can I bring up one small quibble. The creators of the rod are not the Win Dukes of Aqua. They are the Wind Dukes of Aqaa. There is no U. That said, great vid. I love the old school ideas.
I pronounce it how I see it and how we've stated it for years at our table.
Win Dukes are way cooler that Wind Dukes. "We are The Dukes of Win!"
The Rod of Seven Parts is the ultimate McGuffin. You can keep your players occupied for years trying to find these things!
yeah, I think we.. our characters from our campaign from the 80's are still searching for the last part...
As with alot of the DnD things, I have been changing things here and there to fit into the world of Exandria where my players are and I think the original RoSP, being able to pick the powers of each part would be very interesting as it could be tailored to the players/setting of your campaign(s) and be a very slow burn thing that you only hint at through the journeys of your players. Im looking forward to seeing what this new RoSPs can do as one of my players is a cleric with her deity being the Platinum Dragon already so it could be an interesting way to add some slow burn baddies for the party to oppose later.
it certainly has the possibility of becoming a long campaign macguffin item for sure.
I played this! I do play first edition though. It opened a portal to The abyss.
ack!!!! the abyss!!!!?????
I think Miska the Wolf Spider is still alive, but is still alive "trapped in a fortress of Order" in Pandemonium.
His children the spiderfiends search for the rod of Law to use as a key to release him?
So I guess thats another power?
possibly.. because we know too that Miska will be present in Vecna Eve of Ruin..
Thanks for this video guys
thank you for checking it out in my little corner of the youtubes!
I absolutely love that an artifact of chaos can't even keep its own story straight! I hope their new version uses some established lore, and some stuff made up from whole cloth. Either way, it does seem like the rods true primary power is being a first-class, grade-A MacGuffin....
oh, it's always been a macguffin.. even back in it's original version.
@@gamemasters Anything that happened after OD&D or AD&D 1e is usually news to me. I've read through the core books for 2e and 5e once for each, and that's about it. Anything from supplements, novelizations, third party, etc. is largely unknown to me. I never even saw the movies until the most recent one got made free on Prime (I did not care for it).
it would be interesting to know if there are any....."reactions" with other artifacts? like, can the axe of the dwarvish lords break it? can it change the alignment of someone thats using an alignment
changing artifact, etc?
ooof... indeed! As best I can recall, there never been anything like that published (tho there might be something in a dragon magazine article that I've never read - or possibly a paragraph in an older edition that I've long since forgotten).
Sounds like if Vecna gets the rod its lawful sweigh will lead him to a Thanos type role. This could be fun.
well... without giving away spoilers...
Thanks for posting!
thanks for watching!
It was rumoured that Ahiriman (one of the Primordial Serpents of Law) has been guiding Vecna's actions as Mok'slyk. The gist of the Die Vecna Die and Vecna lives is that Ahiriman man wanted the Mutliverse remade to his liking and used Vecna to achieve this goal. But a plucky band of adventurers thwarted his schemes but the Multiverse was remade, a step closer to Ahiriman achieving his goal of undoing the Rule of 3 to ultimately reachieving the Rule of 1 to govern the cosmos. This is how DnD went from 2E to 3Ex. This story was abandoned with the jump to 4E with ots awful Dawn War creation myth. I like to think that this adventure is the catalyst for DnD to go from 5E to 6E...an homage to its past as a nod to us old timer Players. We have the most disposable income after all d~_^b.
I'm sure that that's what Wotc's intent was for Vecna Eve of Ruin.. except.. it really didn't change anything at all.
Good stuff man, thanks 👍
it was fun remembering it all again!
It’s not going to teleport into the deep Earth as it wants to be found
nah.. I don't subscribe to that, otherwise, when it breaks apart all 7 parts would just appear at one's feet (if it really wants to be found). Remember, the rod is not sentient, it has a certain amount of mechanics involved and it is those mechanics that make it move randomly in both distance as well as direction.
Nice thx!
thanks for watching!
better hope vecna doesn't find out you have the rod!
Shhhhhh..... but vecna already knows... but I'll reveal that scandal in a couple of days... shhhhhh...
Gogo DC20 💜
I've made a couple of DC20 vids, one was an overview, the other showcased the Attributes :)
1:16 thank me later
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