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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ccs" data-source="post: 8041589" data-attributes="member: 6803664">Gather around & let me tell you the story of Brian the Lich.... So we were playing 1e at the time (a campaign that ran summer '86- early '91) & my friend Brian made the mistake of assuming that anything he read was in effect within the game.Well, at some point he'd read an article in Dragon about the process of becoming a Lich.  Among other things it detailed this deadly potion that had to be brewed & drunk. Before this campaign had even begun Brian had decided that he wanted his next character to become a Lich.  He planned out what Lvs of Cleric/Wizard he wanted to be, what deity to be a cleric of, race, what he wanted his stats to be, what all components from the article he'd need....  Pretty much everything.Except for one key thing.He intentionally never said one word of this plan to me, the DM.He was an active player.  Right from lv.1 f I wasn't throwing a quest at the party, Brian was suggesting quests to get the items on his list.  Or he'd negotiate items as payment, spend resources acquiring/making them, etc etc etc.For awhile I didn't realize what he was up to.  He hadn't said anything & I hadn't read that article.  And he never once mentioned anything about Liches.Somewhere about a year into this campaign I acquired a "Best of Dragon" volume with this article reprinted in it.  And I noticed some of the odd things he'd been questing for....  So I payed much closer attention to what he said - both in & out of character.  And what he did in character.I decided to see how long he'd go with out telling his DM the evil plan.'86 faded into '87, into '88, turned in to '89.  We graduated High school.  Played all summer.  Started off to different Colleges, played over the holidays, 89 turned into '90.  We played every week through the summers & over holiday breaks.   90 turned into the end of winter break in '91....  All during this time?  Further accumulation of the odd stuff, built a fortress, eventually an Alignment shift, but never any mention of Liches, Lichdom, nor did his character ever do any research on the subject.  If he had?  He'd have found out how one becomes a Lich in my game.{I bet you can see where this is heading....}Now remember, we're playing 1e.To gain double digit Lvs of both Cleric & Magic User (wizard to you young 'uns)?  That is a HELL OF A LOT of XP.  Especially when it's being split between 3-4 other players.  100s & 100s & 100s of thousands of XP.And it takes TIME to play that much D&D.  Like YEARS.So our last game over winter break going into '91?  Brian has finally achieved his minimum desired lvs.His character retreats to his fortress, casts all the spells to activate his phylactery, seal his inner sanctum, etc etc etc.Lies down in bed & drinks his super-toxic killer potion fully expecting to wake up as a Lich.I reply with something along the lines of "Let me see your character sheet."He hands it over.I rip it up & declare the character permanently DEAD.The rest of the group almost dies laughing.The stunned look on Brians face?  Priceless.  A true Kodak moment.Even more priceless when he learned I'd had this potential ending in mind for nearly 4 years & all he had to do to avoid it was talk to me about his plan.  The lesson of this story:  There's no secrets from the DM.</blockquote>

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