The Hand of Vecna (SLASH'EM)
% The Hand of Vecna (SLASH'EM) 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | severed hand |
| Affiliation | chaotic |
| When carried | |
| When wielded | drain resistance |
| When invoked |
|
| Base price | 700 zm |
| Weight | 1 or 300, depending on variant |
The Hand of Vecna is an artifact that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. It is the disembodied severed hand of Vecna and one of the rewards for completing the Chaotic Quest.
Generation
The Hand of Vecna is only generated upon killing Vecna in a way that would normally leave a corpse (i.e. any method minus disintegration or digesting). Since Vecna is always generated in the Chaotic Quest, his Hand cannot be wished for and will always revert to its base item if left in bones.
Description
While carried, the Hand of Vecna provides cold resistance, half physical damage, and hungerless regeneration; while wielded, it additionally confers drain resistance. Invoking The Hand of Vecna has different effects dependent on your current luck: if invoked at -9 luck or lower, you take 5-24 damage, and otherwise you generate 4-7 tame non-lich undead, with a -3 penalty to luck and alignment record applied after.
Attempting to eat The Hand of Vecna (or any severed hand) will bring up a prompt asking if you are sure you want to do so. If a character eats The Hand of Vecna, they take 150-199 damage. You can also sacrifice The Hand of Vecna at an altar, with no other effect beyond destroying the item.
In Hack'EM, the hand of Vecna weighs 300 aum unless it is carried by a Necromancer.
Strategy
The Hand of Vecna is easily one of the most powerful artifacts in its appearances, and is generally considered worth the trouble of braving the Chaotic Quest and its nasty undead inhabitants: this includes various spellcasters such as master and arch-liches, ghoul mages, vampire mages (the latter of whom are even more dangerous in Hack'EM), and Vecna himself.
Eating the Hand of Vecna is a potentially fatal Bad Idea, and is generally only likely to happen by mistake; sacrificing it is similarly unwise unless you truly do not want the artifact, though doing so does not endanger you. Be mindful of the inventory letter you use for the item, and avoid speeding through text prompts where possible.
History
In SLASH 6, an ancestor of SLASH'EM, killing Vecna produces either the Hand of Vecna or the Eye of Vecna with an equal probability of each - the Hand's carry and invoke effects are carried over from this version.
Origin
The hand is an important artifact from Dungeons & Dragons. There too, is the severed hand of defeated Vecna. It's an original creation of D&D.
Messages
- You feel the hand scrabbling around inside of you!
- You took damage from eating The Hand of Vecna.
- You offer this evil thing to <your god>...
- You sacrificed The Hand of Vecna.
