Help Me Bring This D&D Story Concept to Life

[Melkor]

Ok folks, I need to pick your collective brains for some ideas on how to bring this D&D plot to life, and make it work within the rules.

After my gaming group finishes our current 3.5 Iron Kingdoms campaign, we have decided to go back and "replay" our longest-running 1st Edition / 2nd Edition campaign using 3.5. The players are planning on making up the same characters, and the storyline will have some of the same themes to it, but there will also be several changes to the plot to make it worth doing again.

Now here's the part I need some input on:

On of the original characters was a Chaotic Good Elven Fighter/Magic User. During the original story, he found a Dagger that slowly changed his alignment to Chaotic Evil throughout the campaign....Unfortunately, we stopped playing before we really got to explore that subplot.

In thinking on what I want to do with the upcoming campaign, I had some really "neat" ideas that I wanted to tie in with this dagger. I want the character to find the dagger while exploring a tower dedicated to an evil god. The dagger will be at the bottom of a very deep shaft amongst the bones and equipment of the previous owner.

The dagger will actually be a Lich's phylactery for a lich who is entombed in a pyramid out the middle of the desert somewhere. I was thinking of using the possession rules in the Book of Vile Darkness to allow the spirit of the lich to possess the character at times, and lead him (and the rest of the party) to the pyramid where the body of the Lich is actually entombed - where they somehow end up freeing the lich, and reuniting him with his dagger.

I just haven't figured out how the lich would have been entombed in such a way where he would need to be reunited with the Phylactery to "re-animate" so to speak, and why he would want to be "reunited" with his shriveled corpse if he could just possess a new body.

Any thoughts or ideas on the matter ?

 

[Andre]

As a player I hate characters being possessed and such, so a slightly different idea:

The lich is trapped inside the tomb. It can't get out on its own - it needs others to drop the wards that keep it trapped. Dropping the wards requires a number of items, which over time became scattered.

The dagger is not its phylactery, but a highly intelligent item the lich created. The dagger is attempting to aid the lich and will try to mislead the PC's to achieve its aim.

The dagger may or may not corrupt the possessor, but using its powers should be both very rewarding and very risky. Perhaps the dagger offers to tell its owner where great treasure lies, and how to bypass many of the traps guarding said treasure. Unknown to the owner, however, in the treasure hoard is one of the items needed to free its creator. The dagger starts out with minor challenges, leading the owner to more and more dangerous treasures until it has recovered all the items needed. Then it tells its owner about this lost tomb somewhere in the desert rumored to possess the entire treasury of an ancient ruler...

(One option is to have the dagger insist that its wielder destroy each item as it's found. Unknown to the wielder, destroying the item breaks one of the wards holding the lich in its tomb. As the lich is slowly freed, bit by bit, other things could begin to happen in the campaign world - demons appearing, magical storms in the desert, the dead crawling out of their graves and marching into the desert, and so on.)

Some of the items may be in dungeons and the like. A few should still be guarded by those who know their purpose. This will give the party the opportunity to learn what's really happening, if they're of a mind to investigate such things.

In the meantime, if the descendants of those who trapped the lich learn of what the party is doing, you can bet they'll take steps to stop them. If these folks are evil, assassins may begin to track the party. If good, paladins could be after them. Either way, I'd suggest trying to confuse the issue as much as possible, though smart players should figure it out.