Adventures: The Lich [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adventures: The Lich [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Absynthe_minded21
10-08-07, 04:53 AM I thought long and hard about the lich and decided that everytime I've faced one in the past his soulbox (pardon my wording, but I can never recall the proper name) was either close at hand, or hidden away in some terrible place that the PCs had to battle their way into. I asked myself why? Why not let the players hide the soul box and have the Lich come seek it out himself.

My lich "lost" his soulbox to a green dragon and the kick off adventure involves the players slaying the dragon, finding the box, and selling it to a merchant. (Any lich worthy of the title takes the extra effort to mask the magical nature of his life force.)

After a side adventure (Night Hag using trolls to hunt humans for sport and betting on the oucome FTW!) The lich's minions (vampires in my case, for their information gathering skills) begin turning up in local towns seeking something.

With his minions defeated the lich himself comes looking. Every great villian needs an awesome lair, and a way to travel in style. My lich's home is a fortress sized undead tortoise, entered and exited through the beast's mouth. With his existance endangered and sublty failed his fortress comes ravaging across the country side ("recruiting" new troops along the way of course) until the PCs face and temporairly defeat him. However, without the soul his return is inevitable.

How do you find a lich's stored soul when you don't know where to look? Ask another lich! How do you find a second lich? (Assuming they don't grow on trees of course) Ask a night hag. (My adventure steered the PCs towards betting with the hag, if they survived the hunt she had to shut down the operation, or at the very least move it.)

After some persuasion the hag points the PCs towards a second lich known as the librarian (because he collects and keeps a vast library of rare tomes) located in an underground goblin city called Undertown. He of course agrees to research the box for the PCs, provided they will bring him three rare books. Two from some acient ruins, and the third from a rival wizard here in Undertown.

With the knowledge and last known location of the soulbox found ("You mean we had the box and sold it!?") the players have to track down the item (which has changed hands more then once and moved a considerable distance from it's original location since people are fleeing an unstoppable army of undead) and convince the current owner (who has also discovered it's true nature and plots to use it to control the lich and rule the suddenly created new kingdom)

In the end the PCs wrest control of the box away, destroy it, defeat the unstoppable evil and save the world. Or at least the parts that haven't yet been burned to the ground and raised as zombies.

There you have it. One dragon, Two liches, a goblin city, and a frantic race against time to undo a series of events the PCs themselves set into motion. Tell me what you think. -21
taradusis
10-08-07, 03:24 PM Well,traditionally a phylactry was a box with a scroll containing the lich's true name or a secret that could restore/destroy him.Logically a lich wouldn't rat out another lich,he might be on the PC hit list next?Makes more sense to send Pcs on wild goose chases or inform the other lich he's got a serious bunch of lich hunters on his track?A night hag who survives by trading Larvae to liches would be careful about client confidentiality as well.A green dragon would want to manipulate the PCs also if given the chance.So the problem with this scenario is it's too easily derailed?RANDOM THOUGHTS.
Absynthe_minded21
10-08-07, 04:34 PM Liches don't care about other liches and knowing the location of one lich's (thank you) phylactry doesn't help the PCs to slay another. Particularly when this one is not only helping them, but a functioning member of (albeit evil) society. And why help another, and therefor potentially rival, lich? If anything the librarian is hoping the PCs and their lich will kill each other off.

The Night Hag might be unwilling to devulge information on her clients, but she also has a gambling problem and with a little luck the PCs can win the information off of her.

As for the green dragon, it's dead, first adventure, even if it attempts to manipulate the PCs for awhile they will eventually kill it and the entire chain of events doesn't begin until they do.
Zicka
10-08-07, 10:18 PM I like it, seems fairly well done, but name the lich
Zousha_Omenohu
10-08-07, 11:00 PM Personally I always wondered why liches would keep their phylacteries so close to them. It just seems like shortsighted planning to me. I know that if I were to become a lich, I'd hide my phylactery by building it into the foundation of my abode. That way the only way they'd be able to completely destroy me is by tearing down the place, and until they have access to highly powered spells, they're not likely to tear down a tower or something to get to the foundation where the phylactery is kept. Or better yet, build several decoy phylacteries into the foundation to throw them, along with a fairly obvious one nearby to make them think that it's a cakewalk. Or even better than that! Make a large number of decoy phylacteries and build them into the foundations of a number of buildings, each on a different plane, and live in one building that does not house your true phylactery. It'd drive even an epic character nuts!:evillaugh
Old_School_Overlord
10-09-07, 06:08 PM Have you ever had say, a couple of thousand $$$ on you in cash? the urge to constantly check on it is very strong. Now imagine it was Your Life. I can imagine Liches start off with it burried under their house, but then start worrying about it being stolen by dwarves or something, soon it becomes an obsession.

They can't rest until they check on the phylactery, then they start needing to check all the time. Before long they have it with them at all times, for fear of it being destroyed when their back is turned.
JulesCARV
10-09-07, 06:35 PM I had an idea for a lich who, early in his undeath, designed a spell to teleport the phylactery, masked from divination, to a completely random location in the universe (so long as it wouldn't destroy the phylactery), into an isolated bit of vacuum deep in space. The lich decided that even he didn't want to know where it was: it was safer if he didn't know so that he couldn't let it slip in some mistake.

As undeath went on, though, everyone he cared about died. Everything began to feel muted and pointless. Even torturing kids to death failed to amuse him.

His melancholy mood dragged on, and finally he decided he wanted to truly die.

Now, he seeks his phylactery. He tries to search for it or divine its location (in spite of the safeguards making it difficult) himself, but he has so far not found it. In addition, he has recently taken up hiring adventurers to try to search for it as well.
Zousha_Omenohu
10-09-07, 10:31 PM Have you ever had say, a couple of thousand $$$ on you in cash? the urge to constantly check on it is very strong. Now imagine it was Your Life. I can imagine Liches start off with it burried under their house, but then start worrying about it being stolen by dwarves or something, soon it becomes an obsession.

They can't rest until they check on the phylactery, then they start needing to check all the time. Before long they have it with them at all times, for fear of it being destroyed when their back is turned.

If I had a couple thousand dollars in cash on me I'd take it to the bank first chance I got! It's not like it's drug money or anything.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Absynthe_minded21 10-08-07, 04:53 AM	I thought long and hard about the lich and decided that everytime I've faced one in the past his soulbox (pardon my wording, but I can never recall the proper name) was either close at hand, or hidden away in some terrible place that the PCs had to battle their way into. I asked myself why? Why not let the players hide the soul box and have the Lich come seek it out himself. My lich "lost" his soulbox to a green dragon and the kick off adventure involves the players slaying the dragon, finding the box, and selling it to a merchant. (Any lich worthy of the title takes the extra effort to mask the magical nature of his life force.) After a side adventure (Night Hag using trolls to hunt humans for sport and betting on the oucome FTW!) The lich's minions (vampires in my case, for their information gathering skills) begin turning up in local towns seeking something. With his minions defeated the lich himself comes looking. Every great villian needs an awesome lair, and a way to travel in style. My lich's home is a fortress sized undead tortoise, entered and exited through the beast's mouth. With his existance endangered and sublty failed his fortress comes ravaging across the country side ("recruiting" new troops along the way of course) until the PCs face and temporairly defeat him. However, without the soul his return is inevitable. How do you find a lich's stored soul when you don't know where to look? Ask another lich! How do you find a second lich? (Assuming they don't grow on trees of course) Ask a night hag. (My adventure steered the PCs towards betting with the hag, if they survived the hunt she had to shut down the operation, or at the very least move it.) After some persuasion the hag points the PCs towards a second lich known as the librarian (because he collects and keeps a vast library of rare tomes) located in an underground goblin city called Undertown. He of course agrees to research the box for the PCs, provided they will bring him three rare books. Two from some acient ruins, and the third from a rival wizard here in Undertown. With the knowledge and last known location of the soulbox found ("You mean we had the box and sold it!?") the players have to track down the item (which has changed hands more then once and moved a considerable distance from it's original location since people are fleeing an unstoppable army of undead) and convince the current owner (who has also discovered it's true nature and plots to use it to control the lich and rule the suddenly created new kingdom) In the end the PCs wrest control of the box away, destroy it, defeat the unstoppable evil and save the world. Or at least the parts that haven't yet been burned to the ground and raised as zombies. There you have it. One dragon, Two liches, a goblin city, and a frantic race against time to undo a series of events the PCs themselves set into motion. Tell me what you think. -21
taradusis 10-08-07, 03:24 PM	Well,traditionally a phylactry was a box with a scroll containing the lich's true name or a secret that could restore/destroy him.Logically a lich wouldn't rat out another lich,he might be on the PC hit list next?Makes more sense to send Pcs on wild goose chases or inform the other lich he's got a serious bunch of lich hunters on his track?A night hag who survives by trading Larvae to liches would be careful about client confidentiality as well.A green dragon would want to manipulate the PCs also if given the chance.So the problem with this scenario is it's too easily derailed?RANDOM THOUGHTS.
Absynthe_minded21 10-08-07, 04:34 PM	Liches don't care about other liches and knowing the location of one lich's (thank you) phylactry doesn't help the PCs to slay another. Particularly when this one is not only helping them, but a functioning member of (albeit evil) society. And why help another, and therefor potentially rival, lich? If anything the librarian is hoping the PCs and their lich will kill each other off. The Night Hag might be unwilling to devulge information on her clients, but she also has a gambling problem and with a little luck the PCs can win the information off of her. As for the green dragon, it's dead, first adventure, even if it attempts to manipulate the PCs for awhile they will eventually kill it and the entire chain of events doesn't begin until they do.
Zicka 10-08-07, 10:18 PM	I like it, seems fairly well done, but name the lich
Zousha_Omenohu 10-08-07, 11:00 PM	Personally I always wondered why liches would keep their phylacteries so close to them. It just seems like shortsighted planning to me. I know that if I were to become a lich, I'd hide my phylactery by building it into the foundation of my abode. That way the only way they'd be able to completely destroy me is by tearing down the place, and until they have access to highly powered spells, they're not likely to tear down a tower or something to get to the foundation where the phylactery is kept. Or better yet, build several decoy phylacteries into the foundation to throw them, along with a fairly obvious one nearby to make them think that it's a cakewalk. Or even better than that! Make a large number of decoy phylacteries and build them into the foundations of a number of buildings, each on a different plane, and live in one building that does not house your true phylactery. It'd drive even an epic character nuts!:evillaugh
Old_School_Overlord 10-09-07, 06:08 PM	Have you ever had say, a couple of thousand $$$ on you in cash? the urge to constantly check on it is very strong. Now imagine it was Your Life. I can imagine Liches start off with it burried under their house, but then start worrying about it being stolen by dwarves or something, soon it becomes an obsession. They can't rest until they check on the phylactery, then they start needing to check all the time. Before long they have it with them at all times, for fear of it being destroyed when their back is turned.
JulesCARV 10-09-07, 06:35 PM	I had an idea for a lich who, early in his undeath, designed a spell to teleport the phylactery, masked from divination, to a completely random location in the universe (so long as it wouldn't destroy the phylactery), into an isolated bit of vacuum deep in space. The lich decided that even he didn't want to know where it was: it was safer if he didn't know so that he couldn't let it slip in some mistake. As undeath went on, though, everyone he cared about died. Everything began to feel muted and pointless. Even torturing kids to death failed to amuse him. His melancholy mood dragged on, and finally he decided he wanted to truly die. Now, he seeks his phylactery. He tries to search for it or divine its location (in spite of the safeguards making it difficult) himself, but he has so far not found it. In addition, he has recently taken up hiring adventurers to try to search for it as well.
Zousha_Omenohu 10-09-07, 10:31 PM	Have you ever had say, a couple of thousand $$$ on you in cash? the urge to constantly check on it is very strong. Now imagine it was Your Life. I can imagine Liches start off with it burried under their house, but then start worrying about it being stolen by dwarves or something, soon it becomes an obsession. They can't rest until they check on the phylactery, then they start needing to check all the time. Before long they have it with them at all times, for fear of it being destroyed when their back is turned. If I had a couple thousand dollars in cash on me I'd take it to the bank first chance I got! It's not like it's drug money or anything.