Devious Phylactery Hiding places.

[Eldragon]

So I have a basic adventure idea bouncing around my head, but I could use some help from the abstract thinkers on these boards with ways a Lich might hide his phylactery. I need utterly devious solutions designed to kill off any type of intruder.

The Players are very resourceful and know the game system very well, so I need ideas that cannot easily be defeated by a handful of 9th level spells.

The Synopsis:

A Lich, bored with his long immortal life and repentant for his evil ways wants to end his own evil existence. The Lich hires the PCs to find and destroy his phylactery, their reward? All of his worldly treasures. The Caveat: For some reason the Lich is unable to help or perform this task. i.e. He Magically altered his own memory as to the exact location. The Lich does know the general location (plane, city, perhaps dungeon).

Hopefully I can combine your ideas into a master solution that will torment the PCs for days on end.

 

[blargney the second]

On his goblin cohort!

 

[Eldragon]

On his goblin cohort!

I don't think this particular Lich has enough levels in Shadow Dancer for the "Hide in Plain Sight" ability.

ZING!

 

[XCorvis]

Someone (I forget who) had a good story about his lich hiding his phylactery inside the hilt of a magic sword from the lich's hoard. The PCs used it a bit, then sold it, and then the lich turned up later to scare the crap out of them.

The second thing I thought of was "what if the phylactery is a city?"

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

In the hoard of a great wyrm dragon, particularly a metallic.

As one of the PCs most valued possessions, especially if it is something they use a lot, but haven't gotten the full backstory on yet (so just where did this amulet of health +8 come from anway?)

Whatever it is, the lich, before we wiped his memory, tasked a minion with taking it somewhere he couldn't reach. So the minion used plane travelling to take it into the Realm of Dreams and placed into the dreams of (insert insane creepy thing here). Since the lich doesn't sleep as an undead, he can't get there.

Just some ideas.

 

[Henry]

The Phylactery has been placed in a Box of Nondetection and placed in the middle of a 1' x 1' hollow space in the middle of a stone wall with the use of a phase door spell. Said stone wall is at the bottom of an ocean trench under enormous pressure, and guarded by a Colossal Deep Sea Crustacean who is wearing an amulet which produces an antimagic field.

THEN there's the pirate fleet guarding the base at the small extinct volcano next to the trench...

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

As the heart of a specially designed construct that is designed to perfectly emulate a living being. If the PCs don't have very detailed backstories...then the living construct IS one of the PCs. If not one of the PCs, then one of their most trusted advisors or friends.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

The phylactery is a sealed box that was given to a paladin while the lich was in disguise. The disguised lich asked the paladin to vow to guard the box for all eternity. The paladin went on to become a saint of his faith and his burial site (with the box lying with him in his sacrophagus) became the sight of the holy cathedral of the campaign world's dominant LG religion.

 

[kelson]

perhaps it could be placed inside of something that the lich could not bear to see destroyed? Find something that he would be willing to keep on living to protect, something that he would fight and kill to protect. then make the PC's fight him anyway! perhaps it is somehow linked to the life of his last living decendent and he just cant bring himself to destroy his own genetic line?

 

[Anti-Sean]

Butch Coolidge (Ftr 6/Reaping Mauler 3): "You know what my father went through to get me that phylactery?... I don't wanna get into it right now... but he went through a lot."