Vecna the Archlich

D&D 2024 monster: Vecna the Archlich. Source: Vecna: Eve of Ruin. challenge rating 26, creature type Undead (Wizard), Medium size, speed 30 ft. On countless worlds, his name evokes tales of terror and cruelty: Vecna, the Undying King. Vecna, the Whispered One. Vecna, the Lord of the Rotted Tower. But Vecna had humble beginnings on the world of Oerth, where an order of wizards used him as a bootblack and scribe. He spent the better part of his childhood secretly educating himself in his masters' arts. Once Vecna learned all he could, he massacred the wizards. He then recorded his every foul thought and dream as he started to write his Book of Vile Darkness. Vecna forged a kingdom on Oerth, but he grew bored with it after several centuries. He started inflicting suffering on other worlds. In this adventure, Vecna has risen to godhood on Oerth, but he seeks to become the most powerful god in existence and bend the multiverse to his will. By the time the characters are involved, Vecna's master plan is almost complete. He has funneled a significant amount of his energy into weaving his ritual. Therefore, when the characters finally confront Vecna and try to save the multiverse, he is in his archlich form and not his divine form. On countless worlds, his name evokes tales of terror and cruelty. Vecna the Undying King. Vecna the Whispered One. Vecna the Lord of the Rotted Tower. Over more than a hundred thousand years, incandescent hatred carried him from the humblest of origins to a conqueror's throne, then to the realms that lie beyond life and death, and finally to godhood. Many have suffered his terrible wrath, but few can recount how a lowly scribe left an aeon-deep scar on the multiverse before ascending beyond the material altogether. Only a few fragments of Vecna's story have ever been unearthed. It is said that Vecna was born into a lowly caste on the world of Oerth, son of a hedge witch and a father he never knew. An order of wizards exiled Vecna's mother into...