D&D General Artifact hunt campaign help

[Tyler Dunn]

I have an idea for a campaign. It revolves around the party hunting for the pieces of an artifact capable of weakening a super powerful lich bbeg enough that he could be destroyed, and the lich's phylactery in order to make said destruction permanent. The only problem is, I have no idea how to let the players know where the artifact pieces and the phylactery are. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[neogod22]

I have an idea for a campaign. It revolves around the party hunting for the pieces of an artifact capable of weakening a super powerful lich bbeg enough that he could be destroyed, and the lich's phylactery in order to make said destruction permanent. The only problem is, I have no idea how to let the players know where the artifact pieces and the phylactery are. Does anyone have any ideas?

So if the artifact is going to be the focus of the campaign, then the campaign should revolve around the story of the BBEG, the artifact, and the relationship between the two. The BBEG should come into the game early and be the reason why the characters are hunting the artifact, the artifact is the what, the where, and how is the campaign. The how, which is what you're asking should be in research and stories. Create the legend of this artifact, and maybe the hero that wielded it in the past. Have the characters retrace the hero's steps in hopes of figuring out where the artifact went, or why it was broken into pieces, and why it should or shouldn't be brought back together. Then once the players have it, you can figure out how it is to be used to destroy the lich's phylactory

 

[delphonso]

Yes, exactly.

I think for this I would go three ways

First, easiest, and least interesting; an NPC who wants the Lich dead tells the PCs where to go. Basically they're the central quest giver and the information is handwaved. This is just a mission based campaign ending with the big bad.

Second, sort of what neogod said, your party could be accompanied by a scarred and damaged old man. A hero who almost did the job before, managing to only survive. Great opportunities for twists, etc. The last artifact should be missing, requiring outside help to do what the hero couldn't.

Third, and most difficult to write, your party follows the life of the lich before lichdom, and understand how they made the choices they did, discovering the keys along the way. Great for making a sympathetic villain. There might even be a way to redeem this BBEG.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Easy: the party stumbles upon the first, least powerful part of the artifact in their very first adventure. It causes trouble for them until they learn what it is and accept the quest to stop the lich.

Each piece can lead you to the next-most-potent one. With no regard to your safety or the efficient use of your travel budget, of course.

The final piece can be in the hands of an ally of the lich or a recurring rival of the party or some other too-clever neredowell whos "letting the heroes collect the pieces for him."

 

[Quartz]

Story aside, have the PCs find the first part by 'accident' and let the first part point to the next part, then the combined point to the third part, and so on.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

This is exactly what the spell Legend Lore is for.

I will echo the 'finding the first part' advice.
After that, they can research, ask around, find rumours. Maybe a hag knows the location of one - maybe she was once an apprentice or maybe she taught the lich his first spell - but they must do something unsavory for her. People consider her an 'oracle'.
-they can do favours for a church and a powerful cleric can cast Divination or Contact other Plane. Or, if one of the PCs is strong enough, they can cast it themselves.

Having a riddle attached to the first item can give them clues to the rest. It might contain the number of items and a hint of where the other pieces are which will let them investigate things themselves.

 

[aco175]

Have you looked at Rod of Seven Parts adventure? It is the same thing.

You could have session 0 be a scene where the BBEG arrives at the new heroes hometown to kill all their parents and wipe out the town. Since every adventurer has no parents and no home to return to.

Another idea is to have the key to open the phylactery be the artifact the PCs need to assemble.