How to accidently become a lich

[The_Magician]

I was writing this character background and got stuck in a part. I have this gnome who becomes a student for a MAster Alchemist. By the end of the background story, the Master Alchemist dies and the gnome leaves town for whatever (no need to get in details on that part here). Later one, the gnome would be helping a city getting rid of undeads at the cemetary. When he goes there, together with some others, he fight the undead and is shocked to his his Master there, who was searching for something in one of the graves, or whatever. His Master was the ones commanding the undeads and was now a lich.
Now, I tried to come up with a way for him to become a lich, but would like to have you guys searching for any flaws in this and helping me out.

Hypothesis : the Master Alchemist has in his room a Magic Jar from his former master, who unsuccessfully tried to become a lich, but for whatever reason didnt make it. After the Master Alchemist dies, he is lying on his bed, in his room, and his former master users his corpse to become a lich. Now, I know that one could ask why the heck the Master Alchemist would keep the Magic Jar from his master. Well, I doubt he wouldn't know what a Magic Jar is, so maybe he stopped his master from becoming a lich, but loved him so much he kept his ashes. Maybe his former master was someone with a good soul, like a father to him, but who got corrupted somewhere in his life, and was stopped from becoming a lich by his pupil, the master alchemist. Knowing that people do foolish things because of their feelings, I dont think it is hard to believe that the Master Alchemist decided to keep this Magic Jar in his room, not only to remind him of his former master, but to remind him to never allow himself to follow the same path. Another problem, though, is that he should be aware of the risk of leaving the magic jar in his room. But maybe he died of a heart attack, or even worse, he felt so guilty for ruining his master's plans, and that guilt would be generated by the strong love he had for his master, that unconsciously he decided to give his master a second chance.

What do you guys think? Can you think of better ideas? I want the becoming a lich to be incidental, so it becomes a shock to my character, and messes up with his psychological once he realises he has to stop his own master from causing all the evil he intends to. So, basically, he would be repeating what happened to the master alchemist and his former master.

 

[The Grackle]

He's an alchemist, right? You should say that the master was so intent on his work that he simply refused to die. He couldn't allow his experiment to go unfinished.

His phylactery could instead be his pelican(furnace) where he's boiling his chemicals. He has to go out to get components to continue his experiment, but these components have become more and more grisly since his transformation- thus the grave robbing.

If his equipment gets destroyed his bond w/the material plane gets broken, and he dies.

 

[Terwox]

Your story seems fine.
Your character's master kept the magic jar of his own master around.
You could also, perhaps, just have your previous master accidently touch the magic jar, and trigger it, while he was being absent-minded -- that way your character could still save him.
Or, if you wanted to be angsty, destroying the evil master's master would be hard because he keeps your master in his phylactery.
Let's label these people -- your master's master is the BBEG, and your master is simply your master.
So the BBEG is in your master's body as a lich, and your master is in the BBEG's old magic jar -- which is now his phylactery, in the angsty condition.
All sounds neat to me, and your story is fine as it is. Have fun w/ your character!

 

[Incenjucar]

You could always go for the Grandpa Diggers* method: Try and create something to bring out the best in someone, and accidentally do the opposite to yourself. In the comic, the guy ended up reversing himself almost completely: Went from alive to undead, good to evil, and instead of wanting nothing more than to protect his family (especially his granddaughters), he hated them more than anything "Grandpa Hates you now!", and tried to destroy them (or in one case, years later, take over her body so he could steal her soul's energy). Also, it gives you an excuse to have a lich with a thing for buxom vampire secretaries who he makes sit on his lap while giving status reports...

*Out of Gold Digger, a bizzare and heavily enjoyable comic with many many D&D-based aspects with amusing or clever twists.