[Need help with plot] What manner of defenses may protect holy relics?

[Githyanki Pirate]

Fellow roleplayers, I need your advice. Just in case: I'm DMing a Pathfinder game. 6 PCs (2 aasimars, inquisitor & oracle, elf wizard, gnome alchemist, human magus and tiefling rogue) + 1 tagalong DMNPC (human fighter). But my question has nothing to do with game mechanics.

I need to come up with an idea for the defenses of certain holy relics. Evil baron (and his Master) tricks PCs to get those relics for him. PCs are cursed and they believe that baron will be able to help them, but he can do so only if he will have those relics (baron of course just wants to defile the relics to complete huge evil ritual). Share with me, please, what manner of defenses may protect the relics? Those defenses should be easier to overcome for undead. Intelligent undead. Or in our case semi-undead.

To elaborate (short backstory, some details):

PCs pissed off one really powerful lich. He transformed them into semi-undead forms (it's a sort of disease/curse, so the characters corrupt and rot very slowly looking more and more like zombies as time passes, technically they are not undead, their condition is reversible, but if they won't do anything about it they'll slowly become true undead). Then lich hurled PCs in another world. You see, lich is looking for a poweful divine artifact, which was broken and shards were hidden in different worlds. Lich located one shard and tries to break enchantments which protect it. In order to do that his minions have to perform a series of dark rituals and as a final touch - defile relics of a saint. For various reasons it's really hard to get those relics. Lich decided to make PCs his clueless pawns and sent them to that world, where they'll do his bidding without knowing that (at least he planned it like that and so far everything goes just as planned).

Basically PCs believed that they're true undead already, disguised themselves and looked for help. Step-by-step they were lead to the baron in question (they haven't noticed that the whole thing was a set up). Now they think that they are really lucky to find this helpful open-minded noble, who is ready to help planewalkers in peril.

Most of this was improvised, because I wasn't ready for my players to piss off the lich and I didn't want him to kill the party. I decided that instead of killing them lich would just put them in a really uncomfortable situation with a pretty low chances of survival. But now I can't come up with the reason how being “undead” makes PCs just the right tool for the job of getting a holy relic for the minions of the lich... And it's bad. There's still time to do some retcon of plans and goals behind the scenes though, so all ideas on the matter are welcome.

Thank you in advance and if you have any questions I'll be ready to give more info.

 

[Quickleaf]

Explain this curse of "undeath" more? Your description sounds like it's a wasting disease more than undeath. Are their souls held in phylacteries in the lich's grasp? Has a minor gateway been forged between each of the PCs and the Negative Energy Plane?

It also sounds a bit like the Animuses from Greyhawk....

Animuses retain all skills and powers that they possessed in life (unless a deity forbids it) and also attain other powers from their transformation. All animuses possess immense strength, and can spread fear by their touch. They also gain the power to command undead, and can paralyze by gazing into a target's eyes. An animus can also mentally dominate living creatures and implant suggestions into their minds.

Among the most important powers of an animus is its regeneration powers. An animus can only be destroyed totally by being cremated or dissolved in acid.

Unique among undead, animuses are affected by disease. However, as the animus is already dead, no disease can be fatal or terminal to an animus.

One of the obvious ideas is to make the relics guarded by undead monsters which are to kill any living thing which approaches and spell traps with finger of death or power word kill - which curiously the PCs are immune to due to their "condition."

You could steal from the Dragon Age: Origins video game with the quest into Andraste's shrine if you're familiar with it. Good puzzles and riddles there.

Maybe if the PCs prove themselves, the guardians or the relics themselves can reveal that they are being duped by the Baron?

 

[Niccodaemus]

Places undead can tread where others can not:

The bottom of the sea
Rooms filled with poisonous gas


If they are "mechanically" undead, does that mean they do not make noise? How about a room with traps triggered by sound?

really... it all depends on how far you are taking this undead thing.

 

[Githyanki Pirate]

Explain this curse of "undeath" more? Your description sounds like it's a wasting disease more than undeath. Are their souls held in phylacteries in the lich's grasp? Has a minor gateway been forged between each of the PCs and the Negative Energy Plane?

Basically I was inspired by Edgar Alan Poes "Loss of Breath".

Behold me then safely ensconced in my private boudoir, a fearful instance of the ill consequences attending upon irascibility-alive, with the qualifications of the dead-dead, with the propensities of the living-an anomaly on the face of the earth-being very calm, yet breathless.

Yes! breathless. I am serious in asserting that my breath was entirely gone. I could not have stirred with it a feather if my life had been at issue, or sullied even the delicacy of a mirror...

If you've read it or decide to read it you'll get what I mean. But I'll try my best to explain the basic idea behind this curse.

I didn't want to make PCs true undead, because honestly I can't imagine a way to reverse such condition relatively quickly and it bestows more disadvantages and limitations upon my players than necessary. The idea with phylacteries seems a bit too far-stretched. It's an ultimate control mechanism for the lich. "Ho-ho-ho, guys, I have your souls! Now do my bidding or I shall destroy them!"

In our case lich doesn't want to control them or keep on a leash. He doesn't even care much about them. He just wants to teach PCs a lesson. Put them in a skin of undead for a while. If they'll eventually turn into true undead... Serves them right. If they wiggle their way out of it... Good for them. That'll teach them not to mess with the wrong lich. If meanwhile they unconsciously help to further his goals... Hilarious. If not, meh, who cares? Lich has enough minions and eternal undeath ahead of him to work on getting his precious McGuffin. For him PCs are just playthings. Simply killing or enthralling them seemed to boring and easy.

So, lich made characters to appear like undead, feel like undead and be sort of "invisible" to non-intelligent undead, but at the same time they cannot be detected by spells like "detect undead" and though they may be hurt by positive energy they cannot be turned. In the beginning nothing gives them away except unusually pale skin and inability to digest any food except raw meat. They don't know it yet (probably baron will tell them that), but with time they are going to gain more and more undead features. Rot, body parts falling off, speech disorder, hunger for human flesh - stuff which will make their situation more and more horrible and difficult to disguise. This will also give them motivation to think fast and choose their alliances (for example if they go to any temple of a good aligned deity and genuinely ask for help the plot will go in a completely different direction). They don't know yet that their condition is more a magical disease of sorts than anything else.

To sum up: yes, they have a magical wasting disease as you've put it. If left alone it'll turn them into true undead (right now mechanically they have some undead traits, but I'm keeping it all behind the DM's screen). They don't know it yet, in fact they believe that it's a curse and they're undead already.

I agree that I should somehow tie their bodies and souls to Negative Energy Plane. It seems logical and makes me wonder why I haven't thought about it in the first place.

Maybe if the PCs prove themselves, the guardians or the relics themselves can reveal that they are being duped by the Baron?

Thank you for your input, I really like this idea too! The only thing that makes me hesitate to use it straight away is the fact that it will make it pretty clear to the the players who is who. I thought about arranging few encounters with paladins, who oppose the baron and maybe even guard the relics... If PCs will be smart about it, won't simply fight them, and won't fully trust barons words that local paladins are just zealous fanatics then they'll be able to interact with them and doubt barons honesty even more. It's one thing when information is revealed by a guy dressed in full-plate, but it's completely another matter when revealed by an angel or relics themselves. Anyway I'm going to think more about it!

If they are "mechanically" undead, does that mean they do not make noise? How about a room with traps triggered by sound?
really... it all depends on how far you are taking this undead thing.

They are corporeal, so technically they do make noise. I have to look more into this. And I'm trying to keep "this undead thing" as loose as possible, see my explanation above if you're interested. And I liked your suggestion of hostile environments. Thanks!

 

[Niccodaemus]

In many editions of D&D, all undead are silent. (I'm not versed in all editions)

 

[Grogg of the North]

Perhaps the relic is guarded by an order of holy knights. The PCs are able to get deep into their temple because they don't set off any traps and alarms set to activate for living intruders. However, when they retrieve the relic they set off the alarms and have to fight their way out.

Their first clue that something is up could be when they are subjected to a cleric's energy channeling (I think that's Pathfinder's equivalent of turn undead) and nothing happens.

Perhaps the knights have had to deal with theft attempts that they suspected the baron orchestrated before. This could also provide another clue that all is not as it seems. "Servants of the wicked baron, surrender and return the shroud of our saint! Return to your master and tell him that he will never defile our temple!"

Speaking of positive/negative energy, how do the PC's heal magically?

 

[fba827]

One possibility is to switch your perspective on this. They can't get it because they are undead, but rather, they can get it because they are still (partially) human(/elf/gnome/whatever)! Sure, they are partially undead too, which allows the lich to control/influence them, but the fact that they are still part human allows them to bypass traps that are in place to stop (full) undead.
This would explain why the lich needs the PCs to do it in the first place and not one of his minion undead types.

So the protection vs undead would keep a full undead out, but the PCs (only partially undead) can still get in, maybe with some minor penalty to attacks or something.

As a more general answer, a holy relic probably has protections against people teleporting into (and out of) the chamber where it is kept. Possibly also protections against scrying and divination type stuff. It's probably warded against devils, undead, or maybe more generally warded against 'evil' ?

and if you do open it up to alignment wards as being possible in your campaign, then maybe the wards are all against evil. So it is no longer a matter of being undead or not. but rather the PCs can do it because they are not evil.

 

[Soraios]

Presumably the PCs' souls, alignment, and personalities are still intact. So perhaps the relics' defenses are keyed to keeping away evil. Repulsion effects, for instance, or maybe riddles or tests of character that evil creatures would fail.

Perhaps the defenses of the relics include good supernatural beings that can tell the difference between "true undead" and the PCs.

What if the relics themselves supress the PCs' undead state while they are near?

Nice improvisation, by the way, to save the campaign.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Simple, the artifact kills any living thing that touches it. Since your PCs are not "alive" they can take it!

 

[Starfox]

A good church would focus its defenses against evil - at least in a game like 3.5 where this is tactically sound. To ward out the good, it would make very sure that prospective robbers knew they are doing a bad thing by stealing these relics. At the same time, relics are like nuclear waste - its nasty to have around, but who knows if we'll find a good use for ti in the next 500 years? You don't want to make the totally inaccessible except to the agents of evil. So diverse trials based on ethics and/or knowledge of the religions credo would actually make sense here.