A review copy of the module was provided. Read more Roll20 Reviews and watch the video reviews on my YouTube channel.

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Designed by: Wizards of the Coast

Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye is a mini-adventure for 3rd level parties. It’s designed as a companion prologue to the full-length campaign book, Vecna: Eve of Ruin, but isn’t necessary to play or understand that campaign.

Nest of the Eldritch Eye was a pre-order incentive for Eve of Ruin on D&D Beyond, and now it’s available as a separate adventure on Roll20. It’s a solid little dungeon crawl bolstered by wonderful map art that looks awesome on the virtual tabletop.

Note: I’m reviewing this before tackling Vecna: Eve of Ruin!

The following is included in D&D Venca: Nest of the Eldritch Eye on Roll20 ($4.99):

    • Nest of the Eldritch Eye module
      • 1 5-ft battle map (fully colored and detailed)
      • 7 creatures and NPC statblocks with token art and player handouts
      • 5 magic items

vecna eye

Nest of the Eldritch Eye kicks off in the city of Neverwinter, with the party patrolling the streets as general guard duty.

They happen upon a screaming woman over a dead body, a scout and her brother. The man was investigating cult activity and recently murdered. The only clue is a eyeball held in the man’s hand.

It’s a neat hook, though I wish the sister was more fleshed out, and accompanied the party. Instead she rushes off to update Lord Neverember, leaving the party to investigate the murder.

The eye acts as a magic compass that leads down an alleyway, into a 16-room dungeon crawl through underwater sewage and crypts, and ultimately to the cult’s underground hideout.

The Neverwinter Catacombs aren’t my favorite low level dungeon crawl (that’s still probably the Redbrandt Hideout from Lost Mine of Phandelver), but it’s easily a Top 10 dungeon. It checks all the right boxes, with a good balance of combat, exploration, and role-playing opportunities, and a dungeon ecology that makes sense.

Players can craft a makeshift raft over deep sewer water before battling a water weird, help a ghost remember her past, and un-desecrate an altar (consecrate?) to eliminate a zombie infestation.

There are multiple points the party can find a secret door, or hidden nook, or otherwise decide which path to take to reach the final room.

The map itself is also some of the best map art I’ve ever seen. Huge shout-out to cartographer Marco Bernardini — this map is jaw-droppingly lovely, with full color and detail in every room.

Can we please, please, please get this quality of map art with all the WotC releases?

Please?

vecna nest eye dungeon

The adventure doesn’t quite stick the landing. The finale battle is fine, if a little easy (a cult fanatic isn’t a notable boss fight for 3rd level, but the shadows could make things really nasty). But the party had been encouraged to capture cultists alive rather than simply slay them. Yet the cultists don’t really have anything to say, or any details to reveal, or any plot threads to tie more directly into Eve of Ruin, other than “hey, these pesky Vecna cults are poppin’ up everywhere!”.

Vecna himself sort-of shows up at the very end with an oddly respectful tone and rewards the players with some magic charms. Hugely missed opportunity to saddle them with an interesting, main-quest-motivating curse a la Baldur’s Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights: Mask of the Betrayer, Tomb of Annihilation, etc.

As a prologue I’m disappointed. Nest of the Eldritch Eye doesn’t make me excited about an entire Vecna campaign, or do anything to excite me about a future story. On the other hand, it’s a very nice dungeon crawl, and easy to drop it into any existing campaign, whether you care about Eve of Ruin or not.

Pros:

  • Intriguing inciting incident
  • Excellently paced dungeon crawl
  • Gorgeous map art by Marco Bernardini

Cons:

  • Bare story is more of a drop-in encounter than a prologue adventure to Vecna: Eve of Ruin.

The Verdict: While lacking in story and undeserving of the “prequel/prologue” tag, Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye is a solid little dungeon crawl adventure and easy to drop in to any campaign.

A review copy of the module was provided. Read more Roll20 Reviews and watch the video reviews on my YouTube channel.

Support my video work via Patreon.