The Head of Vecna

Taken from http://home.hiwaay.net/~srberry/gurps/Vecna.html

Mark Steuer, who has the office next-door to mine, recounts this tale:

Many years ago (back when we all were still play­ing D & D), I ran a game where I pit­ted two groups against each other.

Several mem­bers of Group One came up with the idea of luring Group Two into a trap. You remem­ber the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna that were arti­facts in the old D&D world where if you cut off your hand (or your eye) and repla­ced it with the Hand of Vecna (or the Eye) you’d get new awe­some powers? Well, Group One thought up The Head of Vecna.

Group One spread rumors all over the coun­try­side (even pay­ing Bards to spread the word about this arti­fact rumo­red to exist nearby). They even went so far as to get a real head and place it under some weak traps to help with the illu­sion. Unfor­t­u­na­tely, they for­got to let ALL the mem­bers of their group in on the secret plan (I sus­pect it was because they didn’t want the Druid to get caught and tell the enemy about this trap of theirs, or maybe because they didn’t want him mis­sing with things).

The Druid in group One heard about this new arti­fact and went off in search of it him­self (I believe to help prove him­self to the party mem­bers…) Well, after much trial and tri­bu­la­tion, he found it; deac­tiva­ted (or set off) all the traps; and took his “prize” off into the woods for exami­na­tion. He dis­co­vered that it did not radiate magic (a well known trait of arti­facts) and smi­led gleefully.

I wasn’t really worried since he was alone and I knew that there was no way he could CUT HIS OWN HEAD OFF. Alas I was mis­ta­ken as the Druid promptly sum­mo­ned some car­ni­vor­ous apes and instruc­ted them to use his own sci­mitar and cut his head off (and of course quickly repla­c­ing it with the Head of Vecna…)

Some time later, Group one deci­ded to find the Druid and to check on the trap. They found the head­less body (and the two heads) and rea­li­zed that they had erred in their plan (besi­des laug­hing at the cha­rac­ter who had played the Druid)…The Head of Vecna still had BOTH eyes! They cor­rec­ted this mis­take and reset their traps and the Headfor it’s real inten­ded victims…

Group Two, by this time, had heard of the power­ful arti­fact and deci­ded that it bore inves­ti­ga­ting since, if true, they could use it to des­troy Group One. After much trial and tri­bu­la­tion, they found the res­ting place of The Head of Vecna! The were par­ti­cu­larly impres­sed with the cun­ning traps sur­roun­ding the site (one almost mis­sed his save against the weakest poi­son known to man). They reco­vered the Head and made off to a safe area.

Group Two actually CAME TO BLOWS (several rounds of fight­ing) against each other argueing over WHO WOULD GET THEIR HEAD CUT OFF! Several greedy play­ers had to be hurt and res­trai­ned before it was deci­ded who would be the reci­pi­ent of the great powers bes­towed by the Head… The magi­cian was selec­ted and one of them promptly cut his head off. As the player was lif­ting The Head of Vecna to emplace it on it’s new body, ano­ther argu­ment broke out and they spent several minu­tes shouting and yel­ling. Then, finally, they put the Head onto the character.

Well, of course, the Head sim­ply fell off the life­l­ess body. All mem­bers of Group Two began yel­ling and screa­ming at each other (and at me) and then, on their own, deci­ded that they had let too much time pass bet­ween cut­ting off the head of a hope­ful reci­pi­ent and put the Head of Vecna onto the body.

SO THEY DID IT AGAIN!… [kil­ling ano­ther PC]

In clo­sing, it should be said that I never even cra­cked a smile as all this was going on. After the second PC was slaugh­te­red, I had to give in (my side was hurting)…

And Group Two bla­med ME [Mark] for all of that…