In Planescape Torment, there is a secret item called the Shriveled Pebble. Here is its description:
SHRIVELED PEBBLE Weight: 0
This tiny pebble looks like it was chipped from a larger piece. The edges of it are jagged, like teeth, and the texture of it makes the small stone seem more like a withered seed than a stone. It has a faint reddish color about it, as if it was once stained with blood.
However, that's not what it really is, because it's an unidentified item. Here's its real description:
EYE OF VECNA (Cursed Artifact) Special: Doubles all 1st Level Mage Spells Doubles all 2nd Level Mage Spells +35% Resistance to Magic +4 Save vs. Death Magic -3 to Wisdom -3 to Intelligence Weight: 0
Many tales are told of the arch-lich Vecna.
It is said that Vecna was one of the Planes' mightiest sorcerers, able to draw life from dust and send it back again, extinguish lives with a glance, and make the earth shudder beneath his touch. He was said to be so powerful that when the end of his life drew near, death refused to take him into its kingdom.
And so Vecna died, yet lived on.
Abandoned by death, Vecna became the master of a vast kingdom on a prime world called Oerth. Neither kind nor just, Lord Vecna's rule was one of great horror and suffering, and it is said his reach was so great that even the Powers of Oerth feared to cross him for fearing of drawing his eye.
Yet, while Vecna's gaze traveled ever outward in search of new conquests, he failed to see his own end when it came for him... in the form of his lieutenant, Kas.
As was fitting for Vecna's left hand servant, the arch-lich had fashioned a terrible weapon for his lieutenant as a symbol of his authority. Vecna made this weapon with such skill it is said that part of the sorcerer entered the blade, and it was this sliver of Vecna that gave the blade its life and its treacherous nature. Where once there was lifeless steel, there became thought, intent, and, perhaps most horrible of all, a voice.
The sword whispered treacheries to the ambitious Kas, night upon night, month upon month, year upon year, until one night, the remains of Kas' discipline was seduced by the rippling edge of the blade. Convinced by his blade that he was Vecna's superior, Kas confronted his dread master upon his Dessicated Throne, and the two of them fought a terrible battle.
During the battle, Kas was killed, but before he fell, his blade had dismembered his former master, scattering his remains so that no one may draw them together again. And so it has come to pass that pieces of Vecna have made their way across the Planes... one of these is the Eye of Vecna. It carries with it a bloody, violent history, so much so that many scholars refuse to speak of its treacheries, for fear the eye will come to them, seeking to add another victim to its bloody chronology.
The Eye of Vecna was instrumental in the extermination of the House of Hyeric, once the ruling dynasty in Nyrond. It is said to have been behind the sundering of the Conclave of Tyssis-on-the-Sea, which led to the three-cycle war that poisoned the seas of Malhatai and left the oceanic world barren of life. On the ashen Plane of Ghalentir, it possessed the gentle father of Sasaran, a babe with the potential to lead his suffering people from their shadowed lands to the Gates of Paradise... had not the eye drove Sasaran's father to murder his son as he lay sleeping in his crib. All these kingdoms, all these futures, the Eye of Vecna laid waste.
The Eye's powers are said to shift with each new owner, but one thing is certain: no good ever comes from whoever has the misfortune to possess it. It is destined to betray its wearer at a critical moment, failing him when he needs its power the most.
In Baldur's Gate 2, the description of the Robe of Vecna says that it's not nearly as powerful as the Hand or the Eye of Vecna. However, although the Eye of Vecna does seem to be really powerful, it's nowhere near as powerful as the robe.
Am I the only one who marvels at the amazing descriptions of spells and items from torment? Lord, we need more games like that!
in the BG realm is there a meeting with vecna? or just the items o_O as i had no idea the robe existed until i stumbled across it and heard about it in this thread?
Did you know, that the way the game currently behaves, if you cast Spell-sequencer-type-spells through Nahal's Reckless Dweomer as a Wild Mage you'll do so successfully? Your next spell, however, always seems to result in a wild surge. This can be exploited, of course, by casting magic missiles or the like on an item on the ground before using the sequencer or other spells... That part at the very least seems buggy to me.
You can actually bluff your way into the Bridgefort crusader camp, provided you've got high Charisma (I did it with a 19 Cha, you can probably pull it off with an 18 though). Choose the right dialogue option and the officer will hold the party in custody (together with Dorn), with only one crusader guarding you.
And if you try breaking out of your cage? The guard reveals that he knows who you are - he was a miner from Nashkel. He then proceed to walk off, pretending to not recognize you at all.
In my prior SoD playthrough I actually talked to him and learned about his past so I always felt kind of bad when I had to kill him. I had him charmed and placed in a remote corner of the map so that he won't get killed off when I eventually confront the camp
In the original Icewind Dale, immunity to normal weapons only protected you from a nonmagical weapon's base damage. On-hit effects still worked.
Fire Elementals, like all summons in IWD before EE, used nonmagical attacks. This meant that if a summoned Fire Elemental attacked an enemy with immunity to normal weapons, you'd get the "Weapon Ineffective" message despite the elemental dealing 1d4 fire damage.
- During the Shadow Thief mission to deal with Jaylos and Caehan, if you bluff them into thinking you're the contact and the real one shows up, there's some amusing dialogue and you have to fight both parties at once. People probably know that. What is less known is that if they can't detect any party members they will actually start fighting each other instead, so the contact saying "I will kill all of you!" is for real. Always amusing to see enemies killing each other.
- Wellyn's quest to retrieve Littleman is a nice 'aww' moment, but there's a hidden bad resolution. If you for some reason already have Littleman when you first encounter Wellyn, you can be pure evil and refuse to give it to him. This will apparently turn him into a revenant. This only works if you have Littleman during his initial talk, otherwise the option of denying him his bear is unavailable.
- During the Shadow Thief mission to deal with Jaylos and Caehan, if you bluff them into thinking you're the contact and the real one shows up, there's some amusing dialogue and you have to fight both parties at once. People probably know that. What is less known is that if they can't detect any party members they will actually start fighting each other instead, so the contact saying "I will kill all of you!" is for real. Always amusing to see enemies killing each other.
- Wellyn's quest to retrieve Littleman is a nice 'aww' moment, but there's a hidden bad resolution. If you for some reason already have Littleman when you first encounter Wellyn, you can be pure evil and refuse to give it to him. This will apparently turn him into a revenant. This only works if you have Littleman during his initial talk, otherwise the option of denying him his bear is unavailable.
I need to try that! And then reload and be nice...
- During the Shadow Thief mission to deal with Jaylos and Caehan, if you bluff them into thinking you're the contact and the real one shows up, there's some amusing dialogue and you have to fight both parties at once. People probably know that. What is less known is that if they can't detect any party members they will actually start fighting each other instead, so the contact saying "I will kill all of you!" is for real. Always amusing to see enemies killing each other.
- Wellyn's quest to retrieve Littleman is a nice 'aww' moment, but there's a hidden bad resolution. If you for some reason already have Littleman when you first encounter Wellyn, you can be pure evil and refuse to give it to him. This will apparently turn him into a revenant. This only works if you have Littleman during his initial talk, otherwise the option of denying him his bear is unavailable.
I need to try that! And then reload and be nice...
Unless the revenant gives more XP than handing over the bear, then what's the point of being nice.
The animation that you see over Gorion when the Armored Figure kills him is from Deathbringer Assault! Sure enough, if you look back at the combat text, it mentions Deathbringer Assault.
Actually, I thought that one was well-known, @OlvynChuru ... but maybe it isn't. Gorion is a pretty strong caster, so his chances against the Armored Figure and his crew should have been quite good, except that the Armored Figure always catches him with a "lucky" Deathbringer Assault. It'd have rather wrecked the plot if Gorion had won!
Comments
A Lich, like a lady, is more than his or her parts and should be treated as a person, with feelings!
Vecna is a lich god.
Same with Velsharoon from FR, I believe.
Makes that sapphire gem in Candlekeep look like chump change.
And if you try breaking out of your cage? The guard reveals that he knows who you are - he was a miner from Nashkel. He then proceed to walk off, pretending to not recognize you at all.
In my prior SoD playthrough I actually talked to him and learned about his past so I always felt kind of bad when I had to kill him. I had him charmed and placed in a remote corner of the map so that he won't get killed off when I eventually confront the camp
Fire Elementals, like all summons in IWD before EE, used nonmagical attacks. This meant that if a summoned Fire Elemental attacked an enemy with immunity to normal weapons, you'd get the "Weapon Ineffective" message despite the elemental dealing 1d4 fire damage.
- During the Shadow Thief mission to deal with Jaylos and Caehan, if you bluff them into thinking you're the contact and the real one shows up, there's some amusing dialogue and you have to fight both parties at once. People probably know that. What is less known is that if they can't detect any party members they will actually start fighting each other instead, so the contact saying "I will kill all of you!" is for real. Always amusing to see enemies killing each other.
- Wellyn's quest to retrieve Littleman is a nice 'aww' moment, but there's a hidden bad resolution. If you for some reason already have Littleman when you first encounter Wellyn, you can be pure evil and refuse to give it to him. This will apparently turn him into a revenant. This only works if you have Littleman during his initial talk, otherwise the option of denying him his bear is unavailable.
The animation that you see over Gorion when the Armored Figure kills him is from Deathbringer Assault! Sure enough, if you look back at the combat text, it mentions Deathbringer Assault.