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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Githyanki Pirate" data-source="post: 5847916" data-attributes="member: 6690781">Basically I was inspired by Edgar Alan Poes "Loss of Breath". Behold me then safely ensconced in my private boudoir, a fearful instance of the ill consequences attending upon irascibility-alive, with the qualifications of the dead-dead, with the propensities of the living-an anomaly on the face of the earth-being very calm, yet breathless.Yes! breathless. I am serious in asserting that my breath was entirely gone. I could not have stirred with it a feather if my life had been at issue, or sullied even the delicacy of a mirror... If you've read it or decide to read it you'll get what I mean. But I'll try my best to explain the basic idea behind this curse. I didn't want to make PCs true undead, because honestly I can't imagine a way to reverse such condition relatively quickly and it bestows more disadvantages and limitations upon my players than necessary. The idea with phylacteries seems a bit too far-stretched. It's an ultimate control mechanism for the lich. "Ho-ho-ho, guys, I have your souls! Now do my bidding or I shall destroy them!" In our case lich doesn't want to control them or keep on a leash. He doesn't even care much about them. He just wants to teach PCs a lesson. Put them in a skin of undead for a while. If they'll eventually turn into true undead... Serves them right. If they wiggle their way out of it... Good for them. That'll teach them not to mess with the wrong lich. If meanwhile they unconsciously help to further his goals... Hilarious. If not, meh, who cares? Lich has enough minions and eternal undeath ahead of him to work on getting his precious McGuffin. For him PCs are just playthings. Simply killing or enthralling them seemed to boring and easy. So, lich made characters to appear like undead, feel like undead and be sort of "invisible" to non-intelligent undead, but at the same time they cannot be detected by spells like "detect undead" and though they may be hurt by positive energy they cannot be turned. In the beginning nothing gives them away except unusually pale skin and inability to digest any food except raw meat. They don't know it yet (probably baron will tell them that), but with time they are going to gain more and more undead features. Rot, body parts falling off, speech disorder, hunger for human flesh - stuff which will make their situation more and more horrible and difficult to disguise. This will also give them motivation to think fast and choose their alliances (for example if they go to any temple of a good aligned deity and genuinely ask for help the plot will go in a completely different direction). They don't know yet that their condition is more a magical disease of sorts than anything else. To sum up: yes, they have a magical wasting disease as you've put it. If left alone it'll turn them into true undead (right now mechanically they have some undead traits, but I'm keeping it all behind the DM's screen). They don't know it yet, in fact they believe that it's a curse and they're undead already. I agree that I should somehow tie their bodies and souls to Negative Energy Plane. It seems logical and makes me wonder why I haven't thought about it in the first place. Thank you for your input, I really like this idea too! The only thing that makes me hesitate to use it straight away is the fact that it will make it pretty clear to the the players who is who. I thought about arranging few encounters with paladins, who oppose the baron and maybe even guard the relics... If PCs will be smart about it, won't simply fight them, and won't fully trust barons words that local paladins are just zealous fanatics then they'll be able to interact with them and doubt barons honesty even more. It's one thing when information is revealed by a guy dressed in full-plate, but it's completely another matter when revealed by an angel or relics themselves. Anyway I'm going to think more about it!They are corporeal, so technically they do make noise. I have to look more into this. And I'm trying to keep "this undead thing" as loose as possible, see my explanation above if you're interested. And I liked your suggestion of hostile environments. Thanks!</blockquote>

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