Re: Vecna, Kas, and the powers of his Sword

Date: Thu, 12 Aug 99 13:38PM PDT
From: "Nathanael. D. Wentz" Add To Address Book Add
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Vecna, Kas, and the powers of his Sword

As for the question of why Vecna didn't have -stoneskin-.... He did, it just didn't help him. This segues into my explanation of what I feel the powers of the Sword to be.

Wounding short sword +6 of sharpness

Sword Primary Abilities: detects magic, good, and invisible creatures in a 10' radius

Sword Extraordinary Abilities: All hits roll on the "critical" chart; sever targeted limb on rolls of 15-20; ignores opponent's armor; heal 1/day

Minor Benign Powers: detect magic, good, and invisible creatures within 60' when held and commanded;

Major Benign Powers: spell turning at will; regenerate x hp/rd (x equals an average of the wielder's constitution and level, divided by 10); haste (self only) at will;

Minor Malevolent Effects: possessor cannot own any other magical weapons;

Major Malevolent Effects: voluntarily touching the blade, scabbard, or hilt of the Sword results in permanent madness; any creature of less than 11 levels or hit dice who attempts to hold the Sword is blasted out of existence; creatures of less than 15 levels or hit dice who attempt to hold the Sword are stricken dead (no saving throw) and, if raised, are permanently insane; simply grasping the Sword requires mental combat with the Sword, failure equals complete submission; creatures of insufficient power (must have more than 100 hit points, STR, CON, and DEX must total more than 50) cannot use any of the extraordinary or major powers, attempting to do so results in immediate death; creatures of sufficient power to wield it must feed the Sword at least one human sacrifice per day or risk the Sword's wrath; If the wielder is killed while holding the Sword, he immediately withers and is reanimated as an undead guardian and slave of the Sword

Prime Powers: Instant death to one creature/month, no saving throw (this is effective against all but the most fantastically powerful creatures, DM's discretion);

Side Effects: The Sword cannot be more than 1" distant from its possessor; all creatures except for the owner that view the Sword must save vs spell or be stricken with fear; creatures killed by the Sword turn to dust;

As is quite obvious, I make artifacts very powerful indeed. It doesn't worry me, because no PC that will ever play in a campaign of mine can even pick up an artifact (especially Greater Artifacts, which list the Sword of Kas among their number) and survive. As such, I don't even know why I have them, except to explain things like the downfall of Vecna.

As for the "rebound" effect that killed Vecna.... I'm not especially fond of it, myself, but Vecna is simply too powerful to be killed in many other ways. I think that Vecna's last spell (as portrayed by me) was powerful enough to destroy himself, even if he had been at full strength and had all of his magical defenses in place. Venca just seemed to be the kind of guy that would focus on killing others before they killed him, instead of utilizing as many protective spells as he could have. Of course, it still wouldn't have saved him. The Sword of Kas would go through -stoneskin- in the same way a white-hot ingot of steel travelling at twice the speed of sound would go through the chest of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man.

-- Nathanael D. Wentz, whose 29th level ninja/wizard has the hand and eye of Vecna, and wields the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords in his left and the Sword of Kas in his right
______________________________________________

"Et quacunque viam dederit fortuna sequamur."

Re: The final combat of Vecna and Kas

Date: Thu, 12 Aug 99 12:26PM PDT
From: Chris Anderson Add To Address Book Add To Junk Mail Blocker
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] The final combat of Vecna and Kas (my version)

Ok, we've seen the stories. Now, I'm curious -- what powers has everyone given to Kas's sword? I don't have my listing at work, and I don't remember all of the details, but the gist was:

Highly intelligent CE +6 shortsword of Wounding.

Minor powers: regenerate 3hp/rnd, speed (attack 1st, add an additional attack/round), immunity to fire/acid, haste at will

Major Powers: Bestow magic resistance of 75%, Paralyze on touch, raise str/dex/con to 25 for 1 turn 1/day.

Major Effects: alignment changes to that of sword, cause fear in all who see the wielder, holy water burns character, user ages 3-30 years whenever the "raise str/dex/con" power is used.

Anyone else?

--
Chris Anderson


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nathanael. D. Wentz [mailto:nwentz@mail.saintmail.net]
> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 1999 11:17 AM
> To: GREYTALK@mitvma.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] The final combat of Vecna and Kas (my version)
>
>
> Here's my version of the way it happened, in two parts. The first is in
> story form, the second in game terms.
>
> Vecna spun around as the door to his laboratory flew open.
> His gaze met Kas's for a split second, and then the battle was joined. Kas
> hurtled toward Vecna, his arm swinging the grey edge of the Sword forward as
> he closed on his master. Vecna, however, was not idle. Arcane energies
> spat and crackled in a nimbus of green fire about him as he loosed the fastest
> spell he knew.
> It wasn't fast enough. As the bolt of death sprang from Vecna's fingers, Kas
> plunged the Sword into his chest, the length of the blade shimmering with
> the black essence of the Sword's power. Kas, flaming, flew backwards across
> the room as fast as he had crossed it less than a second before. Even as he
> hit the wall behind him, Vecna was working a longer, but more deadly magic.
> Kas raised himself to his feet as Vecna uttered the last syllable of his
> final spell. Kas threw his arm out before him, his blackened fingers still
> clutching his weapon as the blast of magical energy reached him. The Sword
> blossomed with white flames, trying desperately to block the spell's effect.
> Vecna, seeing this, began to cast a spell of protection. Once again, he was
> too late. The sword was not wholly successful, however, as Vecna's power was
> too great for it to counter. The greater part of the spell's effects were
> turned, and even as Kas was blasted into his component atoms by the remnants
> of the spell, the magic rebounded from his blazing weapon, bathing the room
> in pale radiance. Vecna, too, was consumed in the ensuing explosion, a noiseless burst of light that flattened the castle and darkened the sky with
> upthrown debris. His hand and his eye slipped away in the streams of magic,
> and no evidence of the sword's passing was ever found.
>
> Ok, Kas first kicked in Vecna's door. Then he and Vecna rolled for initiative, which resulted in a tie of 1. Kas, wielding a magical sword of
> unrivaled power, had a weapon speed factor of 1, the time required for the
> casting of Vecna's spell, a lethal blaze of energy of his own devising, the
> mysteries of which were lost when he met his doom. Kas made his attack roll
> and scored a critical hit, as one of the powers of the Sword (IMC) is that
> all successful attacks are critical hits. Kas knew he had to kill Vecna
> before the lich could send his magics against him, and so had no time to use
> the spell turning power before. (Another one of the Sword's abilities, as I
> see it.) Kas's strike wounded Vecna grievously, as his blow was augmented by
> magics in the Sword. (Another power of the Sword is that upon the utterance
> of the command word, the next creature hit is instantly slain, no saving
> throw. Obviously, some things are too powerful for the sword to destroy so
> easily. This power is usable 1/month.) Vecna's first spell brought Kas down
> to less than a third of his hit points, and the final spell destroyed him
> completely, leaving nothing but a few teeth, fused together.
> The Sword, however, deflected much of the energy of the spell, which, no
> longer focused into a beam, blew the entire tower to kingdom come. The
> entire combat took less than 15 seconds, but saw the passing of two of the
> darkest villains ever to walk on the face of the oerth.
>
> As for the speed at which Vecna and Kas are operating, I'm assuming that
> both were magically augmented in that department. Kas, however, uses no
> spells or powers, relying the Sword to counter that end of things, while he
> was concentrating on the actual "stabbing to death" bit. Even so, they were
> not enough to survive a battle with Vecna, the most powerful spellcaster in
> recorded history.
>
> -- Nathanael D. Wentz, who admits a liking of flashy and noisy magical battles.