Three Players died to this?!

[@drmadjdsadjadi]

Nothing is more satisfying to watch than to have the party TPK themselves ON PURPOSE.

[@syncringe1885]

It became tragic when they blamed the DM for being tricked by party 1..

[@No_OneO_N]

@@syncringe1885imagine blaming the DM for your own stupidity and blunder

[@carmeltabby]

I heard the shorter version of the story and didn't realize the druid was from Group One in the first place. That makes it more hilarious. Kudos to the DM for holding his composure as long as he did.

[@taintwasher3703]

Think that is just a mistake on the part of whoever wrote the story

[@hitotsudaketsukinoko]

If you mean from the short, he did mention where the Druid was from (Group One).

[@Finn_Mertens_]

@@taintwasher3703you bring shame to Rick and Morty with your false statement. The Druid was in fact from group one, but was not informed by the rest of their party about the trap

[@gorrazin7983]

Wait until the parties learn about "The Body of Vecna"

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

Actually a better trap

[@MouseGoat]

I love that you could have the "The Body of Vecna" in the game and the players be like "oh no! we not falling for that _again_ " XD

[@NaoyaYami]

Not even the whole body. Just Heart of Vecna and such.

[@4-art-ver469]

I hear it's missing a hand XD

[@jacobrispoli4351]

@@4-art-ver469 And a head now too!!

[@benjaminoechsli1941]

Druid: _examines head_ Head: _does not give "Artifact" vibes_ Druid: "It's real!" _commits seppuku_

[@bejammin2000]

In 2e, Artifacts didn't give off magical resonance.

[@Drave_Jr.]

@@bejammin2000 OP noted that this version still had that as part of it.

[@aboi6638]

​@@Drave_Jr.Said that NOT radiating magic is a well known trait of artefacts

[@GalagaHero]

You know that seppuku is killing oneself with disembowelment and not decapitation, right? Decapitation was more of a mercy killing during seppuku, whereas seppuku itself was a ritual.

[@yutahkotomi1195]

​@@aboi6638 It's actually really easy to misunderstand that sentence to mean _radiating_ magic *is* the trait and the head didn't do that so the druid really ought to have noticed.

[@matthewniemann5540]

I'm just sitting there thinking, my party meticulously studies and identifies any magic item given to them. Who would kill 2 people without checking to see if the head is even real?

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

It's my impression that in older editions of D&D really truly powerful magical items, on the level of artifacts, don't reveal anything when you cast detect magic (or similar). I may be totally wrong here.

[@AshenAlpha]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant that's only in super early editions as far as I'm aware. After a certain time it got to where you needed a certain skill/proficiency to detect ancient items / extremely powerful items, but you could still do it

[@AliceRinGameLand]

@@AshenAlpha they did say years ago. So it was probably an early edition

[@AshenAlpha]

@@AliceRinGameLand tru

[@einkar4219]

I even try to identify items that aren't magical at all

[@-arcademaster101-]

I love the image of group one checking on the head, seeing it disappear, and then the dm (holding back laughter and probably tears) tell group one that not just one but two people from group two decapitated themselves over it

[@michaelphillips7207]

Three actually

[@potatoheadpokemario1931]

​@@michaelphillips7207Pretty sure the Druid was from their group but was afraid he could be a blabbermouth

[@bigdadbeefsticks]

​@@michaelphillips7207It was only two. The druid was apart of group 1, and they had already found his body and reset the trap.

[@MrJeanz-tl6qx]

party gets teased with head and dies

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Oh my god

[@SkyEcho751]

I don't get what the plan was. I mean it's the head of Vecna, even if putting the head on a new body did work, it would likely just transform the target into Vecna's new body. Those players must have been rolling Natural 1's on both Wisdom and Intelligence IRL.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

This is my favourite implication, like getting a brain transplant wouldn't just change entirely who you are? Hilarious

[@tylermurray2191]

HA! Yes thank you, I'm just sitting here thinking that no you will die if you CUT OFF YOUR HEAD. And even if the DM allowed such a thing. You are not telling me that there is not a DC 45 wis/con/int check just to ensure that you the player an keep control of your own body. Like even in the game world that's ridiculous

[@KimBaack]

I expected them to turn part Kuitoa magic fish people that can make gods

[@Ando1428]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant someone send this to mat mercer.

[@PeterDivine]

IKR? I mean, good grief, at least go for like the Heart of Vecna or something, romantic enough to be believable but deadly enough to be lethal. Then again, with enemies this stupid, you could just walk up to them and suggest that stabbing your neck repeatedly gives you more holes to breathe through....

[@josephmetayer4512]

I once attacked my party with a group of undead pirates, one of which had a peg head. One party member later commented, "Jeez, I'm glad that guy was undead. Imagine how hard it would have been to kill him if he was a living peg-headed pirate."

[@Bluecho4]

As an aside, I now know what my next zombie miniature kitbash will be. Pirate zombie with a peg-head!

[@AlcadeIJ]

Being able to hear the whole story of this one has made me laugh even harder than I did the first time in the shorts. When you laughed I couldn't breathe.

[@A_real_Wizard]

Group 2 sounds like fun people to play with... Infighting, yelling, ooc arguing, greed and stupidity.

[@Acranify]

Lets say that it would actually work, i immagine with an artifact like that the pc would (more then likely) be taken over by the new head and be turned into an npc for the dm.. so i do not know what they was thinking xD

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

They got a little ahead of themselves.

[@NathanCotrill]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant is there a button to like a comment twice?

[@gecko2.617]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant no, no they just ran head first into their problems 😋

[@darrellwillis4871]

@@gecko2.617 They're headed for disaster after doing that.

[@gecko2.617]

@@darrellwillis4871 I guess they fell head over heels for that... 🤣

[@universalperson]

Dragon Magazine, an official D&D magazine referenced this story in one of their issues in a profile on Vecna saying, essentially "Vecna's head might exist".

[@KraftLawrence1]

"In February 1997, the story "Agent of Evil!!" in Knights of the Dinner Table issue #5 featured the adventurers discovering the Hand of Vectra and vying for the opportunity to cut their own hands off. There is a more direct reference at the end, when one of the characters say that they have also heard of the Head of Vectra, and suggests they go looking for it." I remember reading about that a LOOONG time ago.

[@HaniiPuppy]

The lesson should have been: When chasing after new artefacts ... don't lose your head.

[@joshuahill1934]

"Unless you know what you're doing." Me, a troll fighter with Detect Magic: "Uh, no magic? Head of Vecna, lie? Or hiding? Well, try anyway." *cuts head off and places it on* "..." *Regrows head* "HEAD OF VECNA IS LIE!!!!" *Proceeds to mimic a barbarian and start smashing things*

[@bergmanoswell879]

Or just hit it with a non-magical axe as an intermediate test.

[@paulolucero9864]

It's like group one knew _exactly_ who they’re dealing with lol.

[@johnpaullogan1365]

and that was monty python's flying circus

[@demi-femme4821]

Unfortunately, the Druid was equally as stupid as them.

[@ThePCguy17]

What would be even funnier is if a wandering necromancer or really just any character with a means of resurrecting themselves upon their own death happened upon this, figured out the trick, and then stole it. Not because it's useful, but because the great Head of Vecna going missing and showing up in his collection is going to bait at least one noob who tries to kill him into making exactly the same mistake he did, just probably without the backup plan.

[@ProjectEchoshadow]

Spy v Spy is all I hear whenever two groups go against each other

[@doctorteethomega]

The Head of Vecna gag is as almost as old as the Gazebo story, but still a classic. Once a payer in my game was at a fancy dinner with some bad guys, and knocked out the leader by throwing his steak like a shuriken. True story.

[@Ocerkin]

i mean... if they fell for this they were already brainless, so there was no loss in the end

[@jbizzle4922]

I don't even play D&D and these stories are some of the funniest shit I've ever heard.

[@michaeltalley2283]

I remember doing this, ah such memories when I did this again in a Pathfinder game XD

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

As a player? Brutal!

[@michaeltalley2283]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant it was pretty funny too the second time

[@koathekid8255]

@@michaeltalley2283 hey satan👋

[@michaeltalley2283]

@@koathekid8255 hi hi

[@GMWorkshop]

Easily the best video on the internet.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

I paid $450 for this paid comment and it was worth it

[@juliusnebulus7303]

​@@ZacSpeaksGianttoo bad you didn't meet me before. I would've done it for only half the price.

[@valerixcrim3716]

Everything hurts, I have laughed myself into a sweat, at one point I was laughing so hard my spine cracked and popped. Wow and thank you.

[@mobgabriel1767]

"the supreme art of war is to defeat a enemy without fighting"

[@Armorlord04]

Truly one of the classics. I'll have to see if you've covered Old Man Henderson.

[@ssalamander2134]

AT LEAST IDENTIFY YOUR ARTIFACTS! THEY GENERALLY HAVE REALLY BAD SIDE EFFECTS ANYWAY

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

NO THINK JUST CHOP

[@Krokmaniak]

In early editions strong artifacts were impossible to identify. As it was said in story when you check the artifact and it shows nothing it's either powerful artifact or nothing at all

[@vederianl9723]

5th edition has made it way to easy to avoid curses. You just cast Identify. Last time I played 2nd edition the act of holding the cursed item long enough to Identify it set off the curse.

[@benry007]

@@vederianl9723 Most curses are not revealed by identify in 5e.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

@@benry007 On top of that, they usually require Attunement for the curse to even manifest.

[@SymbioteMullet]

classic story. heard about this one literally 2 decades ago or more

[@ShugoAWay]

Wait till they find the nutz of vecna

[@Delmworks]

I should put this in my campaign…with the dead party members included, as the players waltz into the crime scene

[@hmasterchaos8700]

I think the thing that confuses me is the Druid, he checked to see if the Head Of Vechna had any magic. Found it had no magic but still decided to cut his heas off did he think it was so powerful it showed no signs of magic?

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

So in some editions of D&D 'artifact' level magic items sometimes didn't show anything under detect magic

[@hmasterchaos8700]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant cool

[@wayfareangel]

My mom killed a bunch of rival tables at a competitive DnD event with this trick years and years ago.

[@g3ar75]

Your mom is a legend

[@enigmagenesis7341]

Like your previous Gazebo story, this was also famously featured in the legendary comic/magazine Knights Of The Dinner Table years ago.

[@Fhaolan]

Yeah, but the stories predate Knights of the Dinner Table as well. These stories started going about in the *early* days of D&D, I remember hearing them near the end of the 70's, when the AD&D 1e DMG was published. The hand and eye had previously appeared years earlier in the old Greyhawk supplement for the original D&D, and fanzine/magazines for D&D was in full swing so stories like these got disseminated out into the wild despite the lack of Internet.

[@evilallensmithee]

Back in ‘04 or ‘05 a DM told me of a game where he just added the head as a spits-and-giggles and purposely gave it the wrong missing eye.

[@Spymaster001]

Welp that one way to tpk

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Group one almost tpk'd group 2 without even making a single attack

[@PKDoesStuff]

Oh no. I think i might have been one of the players in Group 2. I definitely played in a 3.5e game (joined mid-campaign) where we were after the Head. Multiple party members were non-Good-aligned, so when we finally encountered the supposed Head several of us had to make will saves to resist the temptation of the power we believed it was likely to bestow. A few people failed the saves, leading to the first round of party infighting. My character had also failed the save, but as a rogue-type knew i wouldn't stand up to the rest of the team in open combat, so i agreed to cut off my roommate's character's (barbarian) head to give him the power, with the plan of stealing the head for myself after he'd willingly let himself be decapitated. When it all didn't work (for now-obvious reasons), we had to cart his body to the nearest temple that could resurrect him. Of course we were broke, so "nearest" actually meant "cheapest", which meant we found the clerics of the god of alcohol, and the drinking party of a "resurrection" spell was actually "reincarnation." DM had my roommate roll percentile dice and looked in the index of the monster manual, and that's how our party ended up traveling with a telepathic psedodragon barbarian.

[@ProjectEchoshadow]

But why wouldn’t they just take the remaining eye instead of the entire head⸮ What’s wrong with every single person involved

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

They let their greed go to their heads. The problem didn't last long, though.

[@darrellwillis4871]

The got ahead of themselves.

[@ProjectEchoshadow]

@@darrellwillis4871 aight imma head out

[@g3ar75]

The laughter I get from these puns are giving me a real headache, I'm guessing this was the dm's headcanon from the start

[@mogscugg2639]

Yeah, his name is Morte and he's a party member in the classic CRPG Planescape Torment.

[@totengunso4047]

Ahhh I remember reading this way back in the early 2000s

[@SkeletonLeiutenant]

3:01 My god! You'd think they were fighting about getting head, not a new head 😂

[@SEAkuaa]

I gotta respect the dm if I saw this I'd be giggling before the first group 2 death

[@ZJ-yx3cw]

They didn't tell the druid so he couldn't ruin the plan by being dumb, so in order to prove himself he went off and almost ruined the plan by being dumb

[@aro5523]

I laughed so hard I couldn't inhale for a minute 🤣🤣🤣

[@nicholaskehler9169]

This actually sounds like a brilliant strategy for Vecna. Assume Vecna has a form of immortality that doesn’t allow wounds to heal even though they won’t kill him. After a thousand years of immortality his body is in tatters from the minor scratches, scrapes, and burns you might experience as minor inconveniences but for him are permanent and can add up to serious trauma. Queue brainstorm by removing his eye and hand and bestowing them with some legendary power he prepares his trap. Spreading rumours of this ancient being having left behind pieces of himself that bestow great power when used to replace your own he hides these parts in foreboding dungeons and towers surrounded with traps he even slips adventurers clues when people are starting to forget them. After a few hundred years of keeping these legendary relics on the edge of people’s consciousness, he slips in the rumour of the ultimate prize ‘The Head of Vecna’ said to grant immortality to whoever possesses it. He then leads the adventurers on a perilous journey to the most dangerous ruin yet where he watches them make their way through terrifying but actually quite easy traps to the final chamber where he activates the device he rigged up which looks like a dresser with a crystal case like the one for the rose in beauty and the beast except it is designed so you can poke your head up through it and then activate it to cut your head off leaving it displayed in the case and dumping your body into a dungeon beneath. Because his immortality lets him survive anything he just can’t heal, his head while horribly disfigured from centuries without healing is still very much alive. The heroes arrive in the final chamber discovering the legendary head of Vecna just oozing with power after much discussion they cut off one of their heads and attach Verna’s, at which point Vecna uses his new intact body to brutally murder the remaining members. It is important to note that he used a delayed action enchantment so his head would have the same host bonding properties his hand and eye possess.

[@castrinecubique983]

for me, the most hilarious thing is that I've heard about super old lore (not DnD) in 70's sci-fi novels, where the head is indeed removed from a body to transplant it to another one... but the head is what makes the person, i.e. if you find the body of Vecna, you could try this, but putting Vecna's head on your body would give Vecna a new body, and kill you.

[@Dcard14itllbefin]

Like, duh, replacing the entire head would just replace you with the person in question? rofl

[@Dcard14itllbefin]

Hi

[@TheLegacyDan]

This is just a lovely story

[@viktord2025]

Have you read about Tucker's Kobolds yet?

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

That's a classic! I'll put it on the list

[@backonlazer791]

They really got a head of themselves 😂

[@tonyhakston536]

Wait… the CHARACTER who had played the druid?

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

That's right, they cut off the real person's head!

[@Junglehunter677]

You just gave me the best idea ever

[@tysondennis1016]

If any players get too powergamey, I will introduce the Head of Vecna to my campaign

[@Renaldo_Graham]

This reminds me of the "new" Hansel and greeley animated movie where the parents cut Hansel and green's heads off because they found a magic thread that can be used to heal any injury by sewing the injury and wanted to test it

[@ВасилийМорозов-л7х]

Reminds me of Lovecraft's Disinterment and Herbert West, with all of this head replacement and 'fresh body' problem.

[@patrickdavis8271]

Wait until they realize that the head of Vecna was actually the Druid’s mangled remains of a head and the reason for it not working is that they had the wrong head. Lmao!

[@AaronWolfenbarger]

Never under ANY circumstances do you allow your head to be cut off unless youre a paladin and somehow you comitted a deed that is worthy of the headsmans axe.

[@johnpaullogan1365]

or your a drunk troll trying to impress a girl at a frat party

[@rachelmr24]

Honestly, this reads like some kind of fairytale or parable. I could imagine some wise old man telling this story to someone as a cautionary tale and then finishing it off with: When faced with power, do not be blinded by greed and use your head. Otherwise, you may lose it.

[@Gamerboy385]

Oh this channel is gonna go places

[@Zebulization]

Was this just a case of meta-gaming? A normal person would assume that placing the head on a body would simply resurect Vecna. The person themselves would be a dead severed head. If the players thought that this would allow one of them to replace their character with Vecna, then the foolishness makes sense.

[@dimitrisfromgreece7588]

this is a don't loose your head comment

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Don't get ahead of yourself

[@darcraven01]

honestly, the "head of vecna" seems a bit obvious as a fake. surely vecna would still be using his own head... but i could see fooling someone with the "heart of vecna" because as an undead lich he probably discarded his heart..

[@allaryin]

Just finished your reading of the gazebo story and my brain is like "I wonder if he's done the head of Vecna too?" and the algorithm immediately provided :P

[@tlotro625]

Moral of the story: don't lose your head over some rumors.

[@robertb7293]

Group two shouldn't have gotten ahead of themselves with that infighting. They could have been more level headed, but they really lost it.

[@CoralDaCreeper]

i kid u not i fell outta my chair after the third death i was laughing so damn hard 🤣🤣🤣

[@stargazer1998]

So no (magic) head? -Breaks skateboard- tears up character sheet

[@walgekaaren1783]

Could you use it as an elaborate death trap, there if triggered the victim will believe the Head of Vecna is real, and tries to remove his own,, to get those blessings. Its draw side is, that a lichlord would be able to overcome this hurdle or maybe even see through the lie. It would be cool, then such an artefact would really exist -- and then take over the unsuspecting player becoming the next Big Bad Evil Guy, the entire party has to defeat!

[@peterjackson773]

Oh my god. I laughed my @$$ off.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Thanks Peter, love your movies btw

[@johnpaullogan1365]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant i do wonder what powers the ass of vecna would give?

[@g3ar75]

​@@johnpaullogan1365poison cloud

[@BananaTheNinja]

I need context for the druid. Like was he just gone the day the head idea happened? Did everyone else just hate him? Was he just really in character? Because I'm trying to figure out why.

[@smnio5619]

the stomach of vecna

[@pete_nana]

Blaming a GM… who ever heard of such a thing?

[@gamingrat842]

Finally, the full post

[@emblemblade9245]

Wait until they find out about the balls of Vecna

[@badmann3115]

The eye had to come out of the head of vecna.... Just stand to reason. Anybody fancy a fetch quest????😂

[@the_alto_ii]

How am I not supposed to die of decapitation? That was my chosen method? Now I gotta pick a new plan. Haha you thought there would be more

[@comedycommanderares5248]

Well, im actually in a similar Situation (I mean two groups who are rivals and so on). I should suggest to my group, that we try to do something similar. Lets see how it will work

[@NaoyaYami]

Warhammer Fantasy has a kinda similar magic as well. Magic there is divided into Traditions by various magical Winds they are manipulations of (so a "fire" wind is used in casting spells of fire, etc.). There's a ritual belonging to Tradition of Metal which makes it possible to replace a body part with one made from gold (I admint, I don't completely remember if it was possible to replace it with other kinds of metal but I don't think so). Such replacements would often function much better than originals (Gold Lungs would work even without Oxygen, Gold limbs would not tire, etc.). Of course, being a dark fantasy world, it wasn't that hard to fail the ritual and it isn't hard to imagine what would happen to a mage that tried to replace their lungs or heart with it... Due to that, it was often viewed as a symbol of mastery over this Tradition to have a gold part (so experienced veterans would often sport some kind of gold finger and stuff).

[@argenthellion]

This shit would never fly in 5e as most players who aren't crazed-out muderhobos are usually way too careful about even spending spellslots, let alone doing anything even remotely risky. Were they to find the supposed Head of Vecna, a slurry of Arcana and History checks would insue, followed by at least one Detect Magic and one Identify spells being fired off (RITUALS of course because we can't have spellslots being spent out of combat). Not to mention that even if all checks fail, the group certainly has REVIVIFY ready unless they have access to level 5 spellslots... and then my players keep wondering why am I insisting on mediorce-to-low magic setting and restricting resources for higher level spells...

[@NickGreyden]

This is why I never left 3E/3.5/Pathfinder... It just got dumb. Hard enough to find tools that aren't specifically designed to murder in D&D and Lord knows they don't provide a lot of toolkits for roleplaying anything but a murder hobo. It is why my group has left a lot of that behind for other systems.

[@balijosu]

Next up: Midsection of Vecna.

[@demi-femme4821]

It'd be hilarious if Acererak did this with Vecna's actual head. It still wouldn't work, because the body is "dead" the instant it gets its head cut off, but Acererak would find it hilarious.

[@a_guy_in_orange7230]

But now Group 1 can double down, that head was a fake from group 1 yes, but a decoy fake. Start rumors that Group 1 is madly searching for the real head and next time shove a magical rock in the head to give off artifact vibes and get them a second time

[@HandilyHandled]

I don't understand the druid's line of thought. The second he dies his summons would disappear right? Therefore his adorable apes wouldn't be able to place the head onto his corpse... Also, all of their thoughts and memories are stored in their brain... so even if "The Head of Vecna" was real they wouldn't be their character anymore...

[@jesternario]

I love this story so much. Sadly will never get to use it, unless I have a really gullible group.

[@Suntaile]

None of them even thought of making a check to discover magic or anything? :D

[@CaptnJack]

Kinda llike Tomb of Horroes reaching your hand into the 'teleporter' to join the rest of the group...

[@Protectourbioshpere]

Well, that's no way to get ahead.

[@joshclark44]

"Back when we all played dnd"

[@Maddog3060]

What the floppy pancakes? Just... What? WHAT? U WOT M8 I laughed... But I also feel so tired...

[@Norinia]

Could have told them they need to stitch the head onto the body xD

[@AFLoneWolf]

"The weakest poison known to man." Hot sauce?

[@johnpaullogan1365]

soda

[@riverstyx7251]

*Head of Vecna Found in Countryside. 3 Dead, 7 (prides) Wounded* _While investigating the scene of the crime, a local shepherd offered his comments._ *”It’s clearly just a decaying head. I don’t get what all the fuss is about. I’ve seen prettier things come out of my sheep.”* *More at 5*

[@drcatspaw]

LUL this story was old when I was young. A classic.

[@DragonofNewAdventure]

Should have enchanted it with non rotting so it was detected as a magical artifact

[@blookyboy]

What would the head of vecna do if it was a real magic item

[@FiddlerForest]

This tale is older than 3rd Ed. I've heard it, slightly altered, from AD&D days. Too funny to not be real, but a very old folktale.

[@dragonsboon2316]

The balls of vecna

[@mr.werb15md90]

Group 1 were all fools! they should have befriended a hydra.

[@lordsrednuas]

Meanwhile I tried giving my players some sweet magical loot, and they destroyed it all,. breaking and cutting them into pieces. They haven't even sold any of the scraps (decent amount of gold in those finely diced amulets), and are quite poor so its not even a 'we dont need the money' situation. I guess the Medium Bad Evil Guy they looted the stuff from was more concerning than I thought. (They also diced the guy up and took some important body parts with them in a jar to try and prevent resurrections, they really dont want to uave to fight that particular member of the priest council again)

[@darrellwillis4871]

Is that a JoJo reference?! No, but for real... Either you're getting possessed by Vecna or Dying 😂

[@jesternario]

Hey! I know this story! It was in an episode of Knights of the Dinner Table!