1 Milllion Undead (in a small space)

[Scaramanga]

Spoilers . . .
I have a question about a lich.

A few days ago I picked up The Bonegarden from my FLGS and am still busy reading and reading about all these nightmares locked into a single forcefield-contained cemetery. And then there's this thing I think may be a Spelljamming ship . . .

Has anyone else read this? So far, I think it's pretty cool. One of more original adventures I've seen in awhile.

Anyway, I guess my question is this: What exactly does a lich's phylactery contain? His soul? His essence? How does this work? Can the phylactery be a place? How about a person? Is there a spell that makes a phylactery? What would its market value be?

I'm sure there's probably a "complete guide" out there somewhere with information on liches, but I don't own it. Thanks for the help!

 

[herald]

Spoilers . . .
I have a question about a lich.

A few days ago I picked up The Bonegarden from my FLGS and am still busy reading and reading about all these nightmares locked into a single forcefield-contained cemetery. And then there's this thing I think may be a Spelljamming ship . . .

Has anyone else read this? So far, I think it's pretty cool. One of more original adventures I've seen in awhile.

Anyway, I guess my question is this: What exactly does a lich's phylactery contain? His soul? His essence? How does this work? Can the phylactery be a place? How about a person? Is there a spell that makes a phylactery? What would its market value be?

I'm sure there's probably a "complete guide" out there somewhere with information on liches, but I don't own it. Thanks for the help!

From the SRD:

THE LICH’S PHYLACTERY
An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death.
Each lich must make its own phylactery, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.
The most common form of phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40.
Other forms of phylacteries can exist, such as rings, amulets, or similar items.

Of course your ideas may differant.

 

[RangerWickett]

In my latest game, a lich had a cave as his phylactery. It proved rather hard to destroy, but it would've been possible to suck his soul out of the cave and destroy the soul. So he turned the cave into a dungeon full of traps and monsters.

 

[Scaramanga]

Lich's phylactery

So . . . this Bonegarden joint gets me to thinking (and there are lots of undead in here to think about; more than I've ever seen in one place, actually, outside of Ravenloft), could a lich have a living being as its phylactery?

What do you think? How would it work?

Hmmm . . .

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'm not sure how it would work. I could envision a construct as a philactery.. That'd be mean, but a living thing? How indeed would one lich go about making himself a living phylactery?

Would the "vessal" know about it? A rat bastard thing to do could be to make a child be a lich's phylactery. If you don't destroy the phylactery, the lich keeps coming back

AR

 

[Scaramanga]

Lich

A rat bastard thing to do could be to make a child be a lich's phylactery. If you don't destroy the phylactery, the lich keeps coming back

Ah, I like it! Very devious.

In the Bonegarden, the lich's phylactery is apparently the entire cemetery, which is one mile in diameter. God knows how THAT can be destroyed.

At any rate, I like the innocent-person-as-phylactery idea.

 

[eryndel]

As a general rule, I wouldn't allow a lich to have a living phylactery. However, breaking the rules is where the interesting storytelling comes in. Imagine this:
A lich decides to research the process of creating a living phylactery. He comes upon hints or legends of the procedure which involve someone of his own blood. The lich then proceeds to woo a woman to serve as mother to this child. Assuming the appropriate guise (through shapechange or what have you.) and a properly worded wish to actually conceive a child. Now, more needs to be done. Perhaps the child must be born in a properly sanctified or consecrated space, the mother must imbibe special mixtures, and part of the lich must be kept with the child (probably imbedded in the flesh, a wound that festers and never heals). What would the abilities be of this child? What happens if the phylactery dies? Does the lich need to repeat this procedure if the phylactery dies, or does the child have the ability to pass this state to his/her children?

There's a lot of fun ways to go with this.

 

[Dogbrain]

Here's a nasty twist.

The lich began as a Good aligned priest of a powerful cult ("cult" used in the technical sense of "worship or veneration specific to an individual within a religion", not in the pejorative sense) within the main culture's dominant religion. Over time, and so very slowly, he was corrupted by an evil force of--corruption! Since this is a force/deity of societal corrpution, it specializes in concealing its activities, even from other deities. Thus, its adherents appear benign to all forms of magical/divine/psionic/whatever detection unless specific and special measures are taken.

As age catches up to the now thoroughly debauched and corrupt Highest Hierarch, he turns to the lich's path. His final cunning stroke is his phylactery: He arranges to have the central great edifice of the cult "improved". This happens from time to time, especially at the behest of a wealthy and influential benefactor, who foots the bill. This Hierarch has managed to be remarkably fortunate in that regard. In his dwindling years, out of his great charity, he bequeaths nearly all his wealth and arcane items to this process.

So, at the end, he is entombed with much mourning and hullaballoo. After the funeral, he rises as a lich from his coffin and starts enlarging his secret power base. He may even be momentarily destroyed from time to time--no matter. His phylactery is very safe and very well concealed, and if it is destroyed, his revenge will be magnificent. If his phylactery is destroyed, it will destroy the link between his former Good divine patron and the mortal world.

This should be a deity without whom it would be pretty darn tough to get along, like the Grain Goddess in a world where grain will not grow without her specific blessing.

Clever goody-good-guys will figure out various ways around the problem, of course, but it's still fairly twisted.

(One work-around: Imprison the lich--tough, but theoretically possible.)

 

[Dogbrain]

Does the lich need to repeat this procedure if the phylactery dies, or does the child have the ability to pass this state to his/her children?

And the heirs of the child, with their unusual connections, eventually gained a throne. The "mark" is now the "royal mark", which identifies true claimants to that throne.

 

[DGFan]

So is The One Ring a phylactery for Sauron??