##### Balancing Support, Agency, and Storytelling When designing the Splinter Cell, there were three factors I needed to balance: ***Party Support.*** While it is expected that the party will feel isolated from the rest of organization throughout their infiltration efforts, once they eventually discover and join the Splinter Cell, they will finally have allied NPCs that can provide story direction, information, and support both in and out of combat. ***Player Agency.*** Making the Splinter Cell too knowledgeable, have too much power or influence, or suggesting that they be introduced early on in the story runs the risk of depriving the players of their agency and forcing them to take a backseat in the narrative as the Splinter Cell railroads them in a specific direction and does most of the work. ***Storytelling.*** I designed this document to be both a resource for DMs and an engaging story-driven experience for the reader; as such, I felt it prudent to deliver some key information and revelations via in-game notes written by The Defector. It was also a high priority to make the world of the Hands of Vecna feel lived in and dynamic, rather than just a static setting whose status quo is only challenged by the party. On the other hand, I wanted to leave plenty of gaps for DMs to fill in, which provides both personalization and creative inspiration. To balance all three of these, I made sure to give the Splinter Cell the knowledge that they are somehow being watched through their faction insignias along with a way to counter it, but left the limitations and specific functionality of the Orb of Lies vague so that the DM can decide how they want it to work in their campaign. I gave The Defector a higher rank in the organization and several connections to other NPCs so that she can be story-relevant, but made her doubtful and cowardly and gave her few pre-existing allies within the Splinter Cell so that the party can sway others to their cause organically. And while I included plenty of notes where The Defector and Korag stumble upon key information about the organization, the DM is more than welcome to alter or remove some of these revelations in favor of having the PCs be the first ones to discover them. At the end of the day, I trust DMs to do what's right for their games, which includes making alterations or removals of certain "canon" elements to make it fit their setting better, spacing out the introduction of certain characters and story elements, and adding in extra details to flesh out the organization in their specific campaign settings. After all, this document isn't meant to be a standalone campaign concept: the Hands of Vecna serve first and foremost as a companion faction and storyline to a main quest that involves an anomalous threat.
##### Designing Adventurer Stat Blocks With the Hands of Vecna being a darker spin on the classic "Adventurer's Guild" trope for the higher tiers of play, my goal was to distill the class identities of its members down into a handful of features that are manageable for a DM to run both in and out of combat. To achieve this, I found it effective to list their out of combat features outside of the main combat block, which allowed me to give them a flavorful set of social and exploration abilities without concerns of making the main combat block too large or cluttered. Furthermore, creating mechanics that organically connect an NPC's primary class and their warlock pact was also a fun task, and doubled as a departure from the typical adventuring tropes that helps keep the document fresh and engaging.
##### Using Vecna Sparingly One of the reasons I tend to dislike official portrayals of Vecna (sorry, Eve of Ruin), whether modern or historic, is that he's too overtly present as a villain that can be directly defeated by the party. Yes, that's basically his whole schtick, and I've even [made stats for this explicit purpose](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjoJTguCOkJYNU_MKa0osyunoH2fU4DP/view), but when he's been defeated so many times by mere mortals, he starts to feel less like a BBEG and more like Team Rocket — especially when his motivations simply amount to a generic thirst for ultimate power. As a response to that, I made sure that Vecna's sole appearance in this document as a direct threat is The Overseer's mythic trait; having his first and only personal involvement be to possess the body of the organization's big bad and initiate her second phase is a great way to make him as fearsome as he should be. Furthermore, rather than just having him be a bland villain in search of multiversal domination (sorry, Eve of Ruin), I took inspiration from [The Magnus Archives](https://rustyquill.com/show/the-magnus-archives/) to help reinforce his status as an inscrutable god of secrets.
##### Sources of Inspiration Many of the ideas in this document were not conjured from thin air, but rather inspired by several pieces of media that I especially adore, as listed below. ***The Magnus Archives.*** [The Magnus Archives](https://rustyquill.com/show/the-magnus-archives/) is a horror fiction anthology podcast that inspired much of my depiction of Vecna, The Overseer, and the organization as a whole. It follows Jonathan Sims, the new head archivist of The Magnus Institute — an academic institution dedicated to researching the esoteric and paranormal — as he attempts to organize its archives and make sense of the supernatural encounters documented within. If you liked the themes present throughout in this document, I absolutely recommend listening to this podcast. ***The SCP Wiki.*** [The SCP Wiki](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/guide-for-newcomers) is a collaborative writing site that blends fantasy, horror, and science fiction. It is centered around the SCP Foundation, a secret organization that works to contain paranormal threats, protect the earth, and keep the existence of themselves ___ and the anomalous hidden from humanity. Many elements of the Hands of Vecna and its operations, even down to the use of the term "anomalous", are inspired by the content on this website. Many of the entries are self-contained, and there is no one canon to keep track of, so feel free to dive right in! ***Malevolent.*** [Malevolent](https://www.malevolent.ca/) is a Call of Cthulu-inspired horror fiction podcast that follows Arthur Lester, a private investigator in Arkham who has been thrust into a precarious situation involving supernatural forces beyond mortal comprehension. Lovecraftian lore is a huge influence on the elder evils and Great Old Ones in D&D lore, so Malevolent is a great podcast to listen to if you're looking for inspiration on otherworldly threats for the Hands of Vecna to contend with. ***The Elder Scrolls.*** [The Elder Scrolls](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page) is a series of action fantasy roleplaying games. For this document, the lore involving Hermaeus Mora and the Psijic Order from Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online inspired a lot my writing.
##### Using Pazuzu On page 31, it is described that a Benefactor named Typhon provided Rayla Sylvaranth with the location of the Orb of Lies she uses to protect her Splinter Cell from The Overseer's gaze. Typhon is supposedly a God of Health and Fertility, but if you didn't see the [link](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-Lwu-xmxJ_Kxqfr4uaeI#p11), here's the scoop: Typhon is actually a disguise used by Pazuzu, the Demon Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms. As Typhon, Pazuzu is known to provide aid to those in need in the form of blessings, intervention in dire combat scenarios, and information. In exchange, Pazuzu may require a creature to swear utter obedience for a week or more—and takes full advantage of this service. Over time, even the most innocent servants of Good will find that they have been corrupted into bitter, cruel souls that sow discord and destruction wherever they go. So, how does Pazuzu fit into the Hands of Vecna storyline? While a demon lord like him needs little justification to steal from Fraz-Urb'luu, why has he struck against an organization dedicated to The Whispered One? What are his plans with the organization and its Splinter Cell? One possibility is that Vecna uncovered a terrible secret about Pazuzu: he was the one who corrupted the angel Asmodeus, who now rules the Nine Hells, and has a secret alliance with him to find the Shard of Evil that lies at the bottom of the Abyss. In retaliation, by acting as The Benefactor of the Splinter Cell, and perhaps with the assistance of the cerebriliths described earlier in this chapter, he hopes to destroy Vecna's most powerful servants and seize the power of The Beholding for himself. In this scenario, Pazuzu serves as a secret villain to be discovered by the party when they join the Splinter Cell and thwarted before he can do any significant harm. Alternatively, perhaps Pazuzu is simply a bystander in the war between the Hands and the anomalous, and seeks personal gratification by corrupting the organization's few innocent members towards evil. In this scenario, Pazuzu can serve as a beneficial patron even if the party does discover his true nature — as long as he gets what he wants in the end. Depending on your campaign, perhaps The Benefactor is in fact a different malevolent entity altogether that opposes Vecna. Options include Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth; Fraz-Urb'luu, Prince of Deception; Iuz the Old; Kas the Betrayer; any of the Class X threats described later in this chapter; an elder evil or its servants; or perhaps even Vecna himself. One last option is to cut The Benefactor out of the narrative entirely — perhaps Rayla discovered the location of the Orb of Lies and stole it from Fraz-Urb'luu's fortress of Zoragmelok without any assistance from secret villains or extraplanar entities. This is an attractive choice for campaigns that already have enough villains, allowing the Splinter Cell plotline to be entirely focused on overthrowing the Inner Circle and The Overseer.