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Book of Vile Darkness

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Wondrous Item, artifact (requires attunement)

The contents of this foul manuscript of ineffable wickedness are the meat and drink of those in evil’s
thrall. No mortal was meant to know the secrets it contains, knowledge so horrid that to even glimpse the
scrawled pages invites madness.

Most believe the lich-god Vecna authored the Book of Vile Darkness. He recorded in its pages every
diseased idea, every unhinged thought, and every example of blackest magic he came across or devised.
Vecna covered every vile topic he could, making the book a gruesome catalog of all mortal wrongs.

Other practitioners of evil have held the book and added their own input to its catalog of vile knowledge.
Their additions are clear, for the writers of later works stitched whatever they were writing into the tome
or, in some cases, made notations and additions to existing text. There are places where pages are
missing, torn, or covered so completely with ink, blood, and scratches that the original text can’t be
divined.

Nature can’t abide the book’s presence. Ordinary plants wither in its presence, animals are unwilling to
approach it, and the book gradually destroys whatever it touches. Even stone cracks and turns to powder
if the book rests on it long enough.

A creature attuned to the book must spend 80 hours reading and studying it to digest its contents and
reap its benefits. The creature can then freely modify the book’s contents, provided that those
modifications advance evil and expand the lore already contained within.

Whenever a non-evil creature attunes to the Book of Vile Darkness, that creature must make a DC 17
Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature’s alignment changes to neutral evil.

The Book of Vile Darkness remains with you only as long as you strive to work evil in the world. If you fail
to perform at least one evil act within the span of 10 days, or if you willingly perform a good act, the book
disappears. If you die while attuned to the book, an entity of great evil claims your soul. You can’t be You
can’t be restored to life by any means while your soul remains imprisoned.
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Random Properties. The Book of Vile Darkness has the following random properties:

▪ 3 minor beneficial properties

▪ 1 major beneficial property
▪ 3 minor detrimental properties
▪ 2 major detrimental properties

Adjusted Ability Scores. After you spend the requisite amount of time reading and studying the book, one
ability score of your choice increases by 2, to a maximum of 24. Another ability score of your choice
decreases by 2, to a minimum of 3. The book can’t adjust your ability scores again.

Mark of Darkness. After you spend the requisite amount of time reading and studying the book, you
acquire a physical disfigurement as a hideous sign of your devotion to vile darkness. An evil rune might
appear on your face, your eyes might become glossy black, or horns might sprout from your forehead. Or
you might become wizened and hideous, lose all facial features, gain a forked tongue, or some other
feature the DM chooses. The mark of darkness grants you advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks
made to interact with evil creatures and Charisma (Intimidation) checks made to interact with non-evil
creatures.

Command Evil. While you are attuned to the book and holding it, you can use an action to cast the
dominate monster spell on an evil target (save DC 18). You can’t use this property again until the next
dawn.

Dark Lore. You can reference the Book of Vile Darkness whenever you make an Intelligence check to recall
information about some aspect of evil, such as lore about demons. When you do so, double your
proficiency bonus on that check.

Dark Speech. While you carry the Book of Vile Darkness and are attuned to it, you can use an action to
recite words from its pages in a foul language known as Dark Speech. Each time you do so, you take 1d12
psychic damage, and each non-evil creature within 15 feet of you takes 3d6 psychic damage.
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Destroying the Book. The Book of Vile Darkness allows pages to be torn from it, but any evil lore contained
on those pages finds its way back into the book eventually, usually when a new author

If a solar tears the book in two, the book is destroyed for 1d100 years, after which it reforms in some dark
corner of the multiverse.

A creature attuned to the book for one hundred years can unearth a phrase hidden in the original text that,
when translated to Celestial and spoken aloud, destroys both the speaker and the book in a blinding flash
of radiance. However, as long as evil exists in the multiverse, the book reforms 1d10 × 100 years later.

If all evil in the multiverse is wiped out, the book turns to dust and is forever destroyed.

Vile Lore

The Book of Vile Darkness touches on every evil in the cosmos. A character can use the lore the book
contains to unearth terrible secrets no mortal should know. Among the contents a character might find
are the following, plus whatever else you choose:

▪ Vile Apotheosis. The book could hold a ritual that allows a character to become a lich or death
knight.
▪ True Names. The true names of any number of fiends might be in the book.
▪ Dark Magic. Several spells of horrific evil of the DM’s design and choosing could be in the book.
Spells could impose dreadful curses, disfigure others, require human sacrifice, afflict creatures
with crippling pain, spread vile plagues, and so on.

Dungeon Master's Guide , pg. 222

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Sword of Kas
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Weapon (longsword), artifact (requires attunement)

When Vecna grew in power, he appointed an evil and ruthless lieutenant, Kas the Bloody Handed, to act as
his bodyguard and right hand. This despicable villain served as advisor, warlord, and assassin. His
successes earned him Vecna’s admiration and a reward: a sword with as dark a pedigree as the man who
would wield it.

For a long time, Kas faithfully served the lich, but as Kas’s power grew, so did his hubris. His sword urged
him to supplant Vecna, so that they could rule the lich’s empire in Vecna’s stead. Legend says Vecna’s
destruction came at Kas’s hand, but Vecna also wrought his rebellious lieutenant’s doom, leaving only
Kas’s sword behind. The world was made brighter thereby.

The Sword of Kas is a magic, sentient longsword that grants a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made
with it. It scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20, and deals an extra 2d10 slashing damage to undead.

If the sword isn’t bathed in blood within 1 minute of being drawn from its scabbard, its wielder must make
a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. On a successful save, the wielder takes 3d6 psychic damage. On a failed
save, the wielder is dominated by the sword, as if by the dominate monster spell, and the sword demands
that it be bathed in blood. The spell effect ends when the sword’s demand is met.

Random Properties. The Sword of Kas has the following random properties:

▪ 1 minor beneficial property

▪ 1 major beneficial property
▪ 1 minor detrimental property
▪ 1 major detrimental property

Spirit of Kas. While the sword is on your person, you add a d10 to your initiative at the start of every
combat. In addition, when you use an action to attack with the sword, you can transfer some or all of its
attack bonus to your Armor Class instead. The adjusted bonuses remain in effect until the start of your
next turn.
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Spells. While the sword is on your person, you can use an action to cast one of the following spells (save
DC 18) from it: call lightning, divine word, or finger of death. Once you use the sword to cast a spell, you
can’t cast that spell again from it until the next dawn.

Sentience. The Sword of Kas is a sentient chaotic evil weapon with an Intelligence of 15, a Wisdom of 13,
and a Charisma of 16. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet.

The weapon communicates telepathically with its wielder and can speak, read, and understand Common.

Personality. The sword’s purpose is to bring ruin to Vecna. Killing Vecna’s worshipers, destroying the
lich’s works, and foiling his machinations all help to fulfill this goal.

The Sword of Kas also seeks to destroy anyone corrupted by the Eye and Hand of Vecna. The sword’s
obsession with those artifacts eventually becomes a fixation for its wielder.

Destroying the Sword. A creature attuned to both the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna can use the
wish property of those combined artifacts to unmake the Sword of Kas. The creature must cast the wish
spell and make a Charisma check contested by the Charisma check of the sword. The sword must be
within 30 feet of the creature, or the spell fails. If the sword wins the contest, nothing happens, and the
wish spell is wasted. If the sword loses the contest, it is destroyed.

Proficiency with a longsword allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you
make with it.

Dungeon Master's Guide , pg. 226

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Eye of Vecna
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Wondrous Item, artifact (requires attunement)

Seldom is the name of Vecna spoken except in a hushed voice. Vecna was, in his time, one of the
mightiest of all wizards. Through dark magic and conquest, he forged a terrible empire. For all his power,
Vecna couldn’t escape his own mortality. He began to fear death and take steps to prevent his end from
ever coming about.

Orcus, the demon prince of undeath, taught Vecna a ritual that would allow him to live on as a lich.
Beyond death, he became the greatest of all liches. Even though his body gradually withered and decayed,
Vecna continued to expand his evil dominion. So formidable and hideous was his temper that his subjects
feared to speak his name. He was the Whispered One, the Master of the Spider Throne, the Undying King,
and the Lord of the Rotted Tower.

Some say that Vecna’s lieutenant Kas coveted the Spider Throne for himself, or that the sword his lord
made for him seduced him into rebellion. Whatever the reason, Kas brought the Undying King’s rule to an
end in a terrible battle that left Vecna’s tower a heap of ash. Of Vecna, all that remained were one hand
and one eye, grisly artifacts that still seek to work the Whispered One’s will in the world.

The Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna might be found together or separately. The eye looks like a
bloodshot organ torn free from the socket. The hand is a mummified and shriveled left extremity.

To attune to the eye, you must gouge out your own eye and press the artifact into the empty socket. The
eye grafts itself to your head and remains there until you die. Once in place, the eye transforms into a
golden eye with a slit for a pupil, much like that of a cat. If the eye is ever removed, you die.

Random Properties. The Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna each have the following random properties:

▪ 1 minor beneficial property

▪ 1 major beneficial property
▪ 1 minor detrimental property
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Properties of the Eye. Your alignment changes to neutral evil, and you gain the following benefits:

▪ You have truesight.

▪ You can use an action to see as if you were wearing a ring of X-ray vision. You can end this effect
as a bonus action.
▪ The eye has 8 charges. You can use an action and expend 1 or more charges to cast one of the
following spells (save DC 18) from it: clairvoyance (2 charges), crown of madness (1 charge),
disintegrate (4 charges), dominate monster (5 charges), or eyebite (4 charges). The eye regains 1d4
+ 4 expended charges daily at dawn. Each time you cast a spell from the eye, there is a 5 percent
chance that Vecna tears your soul from your body, devours it, and then takes control of the body
like a puppet. If that happens, you become an NPC under the DM’s control.

Destroying the Eye and Hand

If the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna are both attached to the same creature, and that creature is
slain by the Sword of Kas , both the eye and the hand burst into flame, turn to ash, and are destroyed
forever. Any other attempt to destroy the eye or hand seems to work, but the artifact reappears in one of
Vecna’s many hidden vaults, where it waits to be rediscovered.

Dungeon Master's Guide , pg. 224

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Hand of Vecna
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Wondrous Item, artifact (requires attunement)

Seldom is the name of Vecna spoken except in a hushed voice. Vecna was, in his time, one of the
mightiest of all wizards. Through dark magic and conquest, he forged a terrible empire. For all his power,
Vecna couldn’t escape his own mortality. He began to fear death and take steps to prevent his end from
ever coming about.

Orcus, the demon prince of undeath, taught Vecna a ritual that would allow him to live on as a lich.
Beyond death, he became the greatest of all liches. Even though his body gradually withered and decayed,
Vecna continued to expand his evil dominion. So formidable and hideous was his temper that his subjects
feared to speak his name. He was the Whispered One, the Master of the Spider Throne, the Undying King,
and the Lord of the Rotted Tower.

Some say that Vecna’s lieutenant Kas coveted the Spider Throne for himself, or that the sword his lord
made for him seduced him into rebellion. Whatever the reason, Kas brought the Undying King’s rule to an
end in a terrible battle that left Vecna’s tower a heap of ash. Of Vecna, all that remained were one hand
and one eye, grisly artifacts that still seek to work the Whispered One’s will in the world.

The Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna might be found together or separately. The eye looks like a
bloodshot organ torn free from the socket. The hand is a mummified and shriveled left extremity.

To attune to the eye, you must gouge out your own eye and press the artifact into the empty socket. The
eye grafts itself to your head and remains there until you die. Once in place, the eye transforms into a
golden eye with a slit for a pupil, much like that of a cat. If the eye is ever removed, you die.

Random Properties. The Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna each have the following random properties:

▪ 1 minor beneficial property

▪ 1 major beneficial property
▪ 1 minor detrimental property
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Properties of the Hand. Your alignment changes to neutral evil, and you gain the following benefits:

▪ Your Strength score becomes 20, unless it is already 20 or higher.

▪ Any melee spell attack you make with the hand, and any melee weapon attack made with a weapon
held by it, deals an extra 2d8 cold damage on a hit.
▪ The hand has 8 charges. You can use an action and expend 1 or more charges to cast one of the
following spells (save DC 18) from it: finger of death (5 charges), sleep (1 charge), slow (2 charges),
or teleport (3 charges). The hand regains 1d4 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn. Each time you
cast a spell from the hand, it casts the suggestion spell on you (save DC 18), demanding that you
commit an evil act. The hand might have a specific act in mind or leave it up to you.

Destroying the Eye and Hand

If the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna are both attached to the same creature, and that creature is
slain by the Sword of Kas , both the eye and the hand burst into flame, turn to ash, and are destroyed
forever. Any other attempt to destroy the eye or hand seems to work, but the artifact reappears in one of
Vecna’s many hidden vaults, where it waits to be rediscovered.

Dungeon Master's Guide , pg. 224