Best place to hide a Phlactery. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Best place to hide a Phlactery. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
gamileo
02-28-06, 12:52 AM Recently in a game my DM introduced a new magic item. He still doesn't have a name for them, but they are gems that can capture animated creatures (ie anything that can move) inside a gem. Its a will save to be captured. So, anyway, he had a lich capture a demon in one who was beholden to the lich, and the demon was holding his phylactery. I thought that was relatively clever. Then unfortunately the last gem held a tarrasque... so we had to stop the game to clear up some insanity and back up. But then that got me thinking... if you could capture the tarrasque in some sort of gem like that, you could have the most perfect hiding place for your phlactery. Basically enchant the phylatery with resistance to acid, have a minion who is mind slaved to you swallow it, get swallowed by a Tarrasque, then use a bunch of magic to reduce the will save and SR of the T and put it inside one of these gems. Lich's can easily go above the CR 20 of the T so this shouldn't be too much of a plm. I know this is completely game breaking, but I thought it was cool.
tryco
02-28-06, 04:04 AM sounds good,

but wouldn't the acid in the tarrasque stomach destroy the artifact.
if you put a permanent spell of acid resistance on it,it would help.
Feor
02-28-06, 08:24 AM Now, I'm not exactly an authority on Liches, but I believe I may see one possible flaw in your grand scheme. When you destroy a lich, doesn't it reappear 1d10 days later at it's Phylactery?
Obsidianjaerc
02-28-06, 08:53 AM Indeed the lich is in a bit of a spot, because after reforming it needs to posses a corpse nearby that then gains turns into you gaining all your stats. There is nothing to guarentee that a wandering Tarrasque will be near corpses when you die and need to reform. On the other hand if you force fed it your phylactery, you could probably hold it in an underground crypt full of corpses or something similar.
gamileo
02-28-06, 08:53 AM if it is in a gem somewhere, then yeah it will appear somewhere near by. I never got the impression that the lich appears right on top of it.
Morka
02-28-06, 09:49 AM So the lich will reappear in a closed space which it'll share with... the Tarasque? Good luck, lichy lich! :rolleyes:
Obsidianjaerc
02-28-06, 09:49 AM Regardless of where the lich appears it is incorporeal until it possess a corpse, so any circumstances such as acid shouldn't be a problem. Unless its ghost touch acid. In which case your lich has bigger problems than being unable to reform :P
Kraleck
02-28-06, 10:21 AM But what about crushing damage when it swallows the phylactery whole. That is another big flaw you may not have compensation for.
Wyrd Bearer
02-28-06, 10:55 AM Indeed the lich is in a bit of a spot, because after reforming it needs to posses a corpse nearby that then gains turns into you gaining all your stats. There is nothing to guarentee that a wandering Tarrasque will be near corpses when you die and need to reform. On the other hand if you force fed it your phylactery, you could probably hold it in an underground crypt full of corpses or something similar.Technically, that's a house rule carried over from previous incarnations of D&D.An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death.I do remember when liches did have to have corpses nearby in order to reform, same for dracoliches (except they needed a reptilian corpse nearby). However, now it seems that not only does the lich just reform 1d10 days later, it doesn't even specify WHERE the dang thing reforms. I was looking through Libris Mortis on liches (because you know, the book is supposed to EXPAND upon the undead we know from the MM) but all I found there was that a lich cannot recreate a new phylactery if its destroyed, a phylactery cannot recreate a lich if its within an antimagic field and that apparently the phylactery cannot be built into a magic item, nor can it become a magic item (which is silly).

Personally, the phylactery inside the tarrasque seems a bit over the top. Basically, you're putting your phylactery inside a gigantic, regenerating creature's stomach, and then putting the creature inside some extra-dimensional space (or wherever it goes inside your DM's items). Now, you're banking on it being safe inside the creature, but think about it. If your lich is powerful enough to subdue the tarrasque, the adventurers sent to kill the lich are going to be strong enough to handle the tarrasque themselves. Once they slay the beast, even though it won't be obviously apparent, eventually, someone will notice an aura of powerful magic emenating from the gigantic corpse and then the lich will be in trouble.

My favorite way to hide a phylactery is to build the Tessalated Cavern. The lich spends his long eternity carving out a cavern underground. Then, he designs huge, sweeping mosaics of tiles of gold, jade, turqoise, copper, etc. that will cover the floor, the walls and the ceiling. Each individual tile is then enchanted to appear potently magical. The phylactery is then hidden as one of the tiles, so that when the magic-detecting PCs arrive, they are just completely overwhelmed by the riot of auras. Have the tarrasque waiting outside, if you wish, to try to prevent the PCs from getting there, but don't put your phylactery inside the bugger.

Still, you did have a clever thought. If you really want a phylactery that is impossible to find, put it in a bag of holding and then drop the bag into a portable hole. Wherever in the multiverse the phylactery ends up, I doubt the PCs will be able to locate it easily. And since you'd be an eternal lich, with aeons of time to perfect transportation spells, if you do have to reform by your phylactery, you'll be able to get back to your plane of choice.
Purple Yin
02-28-06, 11:19 AM you run the risk that a random beholder or outsider or some such will come across it and break it, just to see whats inside.

Cast genesis, shove the phylactery in the new demiplane. fill the demiplane with corpses. build the only portal into the plane into the chest of a golem. place the golem in a second demi-plane made by genesis. hide the portal to that plane and have a very obscure key to operate it (like-only intelegent undead can use it).

sorted. If they kill the golem, the portal is lost too. double redundancy-perfect.
obrysii
03-02-06, 09:10 AM Aside from Genesis, the best solution I can think of is to encase it in a thick block of Obdurium, magically reenforce the Obdurium, and proof it against transmutation. Then shapechange into a Xorn, and shift it down into a mountain. Then cast all of your various nondetection spells on it.
Wyrd Bearer
03-02-06, 10:49 AM Obdurium, what is that? I do not see it in any of the lists of special materials.
steventirey1985
03-02-06, 11:02 AM I think the only books its in is the Stronghold Builders Guide. Obdurium is stronger than adamantine. Hardness 30 for obdsurium, compared to 20 for adamantine. (It's also twice as expensive)
laughingduelist
03-02-06, 09:17 PM trap the tarrasque with a magic jar or some some similar spell. Then make the gem used in the spell the liche's phylactery. If the PCs destroy the gem, they release the tarrasque.
speeblefreak
03-02-06, 10:30 PM 1. Make your phylactery.
2. Find a creature with lots of body fat and a low likelihood of having magic. A hill giant should work.
3. Slit open the hill giant's leg/stomch/buttock/other fatty place, hide you phylactery inside and heal the wound.
4. Cast genesis.
5. Take the hill giant and a hired spellcaster to your demiplane.
6. Have the hired spellcaster imprison the hill giant.
7. Use mindrape to scour the hireling's mind completely blank.
8. Imprison soul on the hireling.
9. Bury the gem containing the hireling's soul on the demiplane.
10. Leave the demiplane and never look back.
11. (Only possible if you can finish your phylactery before becoming undead) Use mindrape to erase from your own mind all knowledge of the demiplane and the steps you took to hide the phylactery.

Kudos to the adventuring party capable of finding that phylactery.
Balthazar_II
03-03-06, 04:15 AM I've never gone into this, but I hope this idea is logical / feasible / makes at least some sense.

1) Take the phylactery and place it in a bag of holding.
2) Make the bag of holding permanently acid resistant.
3) Stick that bag of holding inside a creature which is extremely resistant to magic, but not resistant to what you can cast.
4) Cast temporal stasis on the creature.
5) Cast a spell or do something, to remove all magical auras and evidence of any magical tamperings.
6) Erase all memories from the creature.
7) Use magic jar to trap the creature's soul, then put the jar someplace nobody will ever find it (such as five kilometres below the surface of the earth).
8) Shove the creature (with the bag holding the phylactery) through a portal to a plane which no adventurer would ever want to go to.
9) Go there yourself, find another portal, and repeat step 8. Do this as many times as necessary.
10) When you have sent the creature through enough portals, permanently seal or destroy each one as you return through it.
11) When you finally return to the original plane, after sealing or destroying the portal, you should be powerful enough to raise a massive army of zombies and undead. Upon getting tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of undead, slaughter most or all beings which would try to track down the phylactery to destroy it.

Yeah! Go team lich! :invasion: :ayyyy!:
tryco
03-03-06, 07:15 AM 1) build the phylactery.
2) go to a huge city.
3) go to the place where a the **** and garbage is stored.
4) place a spell on it, so there is no evil aura on it.
5) put it 6 ft. under.
6) place a trap on it, so it kills anybody who comes close.
7) leave it.

who would look in a huge pile of things you don't want to be near.
Molitor
03-03-06, 12:34 PM I would put it 'inside' a mundane planet on the outer reaches of the universe. Liches don't breathe, they possess darkvision, are immune cold, and they can also survive the presure. If you mask the location from scry, anyone wishing to destroy you would have to expend huge ammounts of resources not to mention time..........measured in lightyears by the way. With Greater Teleport you could use this new place as a base of operations.
malignor
03-03-06, 02:00 PM - make the phylactery a hollow statue.
- have a small phylactery-looking box inside the statue holding a gem, and give it a magical aura that suggests it as warded. Give the gem a magical aura too, such that it seems like the phylactery.
- cover the statue with Symbols (death, insanity, etc.). They activate only when someone attempts to break or pass through the statue.
- Find a plane that has the following properties...
1. cold enough to do lethal cold damage to all inhabitants on a per round basis
2. negative energy dominant
3. possesses vast solid objects (planets, hundred mile large glaciers, etc)
- turn ethereal to get deep into a vast solid object... a few dozen miles should be good. Find or make an air pocket and make a small room.
- fill the room with Symbols and constructs, and some mindless undead.
- trap the room with poisoned slashing/piercing traps, fill the room with a deadly (but chemically stable) gas
- put the statue in that room.
- make multiple false/decoy containers & coffins, including illusions, all of which are traps. Also make many other statues, also made to appear the same as your phylactery. Put these in the room too.
- have a few dozen Arcane Marks around that same plane, preferrably near some portal or safe area. Makes for easier teleportation.
shiruken_ravenheart
03-03-06, 02:20 PM I think I found another problem with your plan.

1. The Phylact is a acid resist and whatnot
2. Tarasque swallows the Phlact
3. Plylact comes out of the other end of the Tarasque. :yuck: :eek:

-Uken
KoboldMenace
03-03-06, 10:02 PM How about inside an iron golem (if they are hollow in your game. If not I suppose you could use a hollow animated statue)? When the lich makes the iron golem he could put a door in its chest that only opens from the inside. The would allow him to leave after he reformed in the iron golem ( by the RAW lich may not respawn where his phylactery is located but I think it is a good idea, I am using it from now on) and give PCs a subtle hint where the phylactery may be hidden.
Nialo
03-04-06, 12:29 AM The safest route is probably using the Genesis spell found in the epic handbook, and creating a pocket plane to store the phylactery in, as I believe you can bar entrance to the plane if you so desire.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
gamileo 02-28-06, 12:52 AM	Recently in a game my DM introduced a new magic item. He still doesn't have a name for them, but they are gems that can capture animated creatures (ie anything that can move) inside a gem. Its a will save to be captured. So, anyway, he had a lich capture a demon in one who was beholden to the lich, and the demon was holding his phylactery. I thought that was relatively clever. Then unfortunately the last gem held a tarrasque... so we had to stop the game to clear up some insanity and back up. But then that got me thinking... if you could capture the tarrasque in some sort of gem like that, you could have the most perfect hiding place for your phlactery. Basically enchant the phylatery with resistance to acid, have a minion who is mind slaved to you swallow it, get swallowed by a Tarrasque, then use a bunch of magic to reduce the will save and SR of the T and put it inside one of these gems. Lich's can easily go above the CR 20 of the T so this shouldn't be too much of a plm. I know this is completely game breaking, but I thought it was cool.
tryco 02-28-06, 04:04 AM	sounds good, but wouldn't the acid in the tarrasque stomach destroy the artifact. if you put a permanent spell of acid resistance on it,it would help.
Feor 02-28-06, 08:24 AM	Now, I'm not exactly an authority on Liches, but I believe I may see one possible flaw in your grand scheme. When you destroy a lich, doesn't it reappear 1d10 days later at it's Phylactery?
Obsidianjaerc 02-28-06, 08:53 AM	Indeed the lich is in a bit of a spot, because after reforming it needs to posses a corpse nearby that then gains turns into you gaining all your stats. There is nothing to guarentee that a wandering Tarrasque will be near corpses when you die and need to reform. On the other hand if you force fed it your phylactery, you could probably hold it in an underground crypt full of corpses or something similar.
gamileo 02-28-06, 08:53 AM	if it is in a gem somewhere, then yeah it will appear somewhere near by. I never got the impression that the lich appears right on top of it.
Morka 02-28-06, 09:49 AM	So the lich will reappear in a closed space which it'll share with... the Tarasque? Good luck, lichy lich! :rolleyes:
Obsidianjaerc 02-28-06, 09:49 AM	Regardless of where the lich appears it is incorporeal until it possess a corpse, so any circumstances such as acid shouldn't be a problem. Unless its ghost touch acid. In which case your lich has bigger problems than being unable to reform :P
Kraleck 02-28-06, 10:21 AM	But what about crushing damage when it swallows the phylactery whole. That is another big flaw you may not have compensation for.
Wyrd Bearer 02-28-06, 10:55 AM	Indeed the lich is in a bit of a spot, because after reforming it needs to posses a corpse nearby that then gains turns into you gaining all your stats. There is nothing to guarentee that a wandering Tarrasque will be near corpses when you die and need to reform. On the other hand if you force fed it your phylactery, you could probably hold it in an underground crypt full of corpses or something similar.Technically, that's a house rule carried over from previous incarnations of D&D.An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death.I do remember when liches did have to have corpses nearby in order to reform, same for dracoliches (except they needed a reptilian corpse nearby). However, now it seems that not only does the lich just reform 1d10 days later, it doesn't even specify WHERE the dang thing reforms. I was looking through Libris Mortis on liches (because you know, the book is supposed to EXPAND upon the undead we know from the MM) but all I found there was that a lich cannot recreate a new phylactery if its destroyed, a phylactery cannot recreate a lich if its within an antimagic field and that apparently the phylactery cannot be built into a magic item, nor can it become a magic item (which is silly). Personally, the phylactery inside the tarrasque seems a bit over the top. Basically, you're putting your phylactery inside a gigantic, regenerating creature's stomach, and then putting the creature inside some extra-dimensional space (or wherever it goes inside your DM's items). Now, you're banking on it being safe inside the creature, but think about it. If your lich is powerful enough to subdue the tarrasque, the adventurers sent to kill the lich are going to be strong enough to handle the tarrasque themselves. Once they slay the beast, even though it won't be obviously apparent, eventually, someone will notice an aura of powerful magic emenating from the gigantic corpse and then the lich will be in trouble. My favorite way to hide a phylactery is to build the Tessalated Cavern. The lich spends his long eternity carving out a cavern underground. Then, he designs huge, sweeping mosaics of tiles of gold, jade, turqoise, copper, etc. that will cover the floor, the walls and the ceiling. Each individual tile is then enchanted to appear potently magical. The phylactery is then hidden as one of the tiles, so that when the magic-detecting PCs arrive, they are just completely overwhelmed by the riot of auras. Have the tarrasque waiting outside, if you wish, to try to prevent the PCs from getting there, but don't put your phylactery inside the bugger. Still, you did have a clever thought. If you really want a phylactery that is impossible to find, put it in a bag of holding and then drop the bag into a portable hole. Wherever in the multiverse the phylactery ends up, I doubt the PCs will be able to locate it easily. And since you'd be an eternal lich, with aeons of time to perfect transportation spells, if you do have to reform by your phylactery, you'll be able to get back to your plane of choice.
Purple Yin 02-28-06, 11:19 AM	you run the risk that a random beholder or outsider or some such will come across it and break it, just to see whats inside. Cast genesis, shove the phylactery in the new demiplane. fill the demiplane with corpses. build the only portal into the plane into the chest of a golem. place the golem in a second demi-plane made by genesis. hide the portal to that plane and have a very obscure key to operate it (like-only intelegent undead can use it). sorted. If they kill the golem, the portal is lost too. double redundancy-perfect.
obrysii 03-02-06, 09:10 AM	Aside from Genesis, the best solution I can think of is to encase it in a thick block of Obdurium, magically reenforce the Obdurium, and proof it against transmutation. Then shapechange into a Xorn, and shift it down into a mountain. Then cast all of your various nondetection spells on it.
Wyrd Bearer 03-02-06, 10:49 AM	Obdurium, what is that? I do not see it in any of the lists of special materials.
steventirey1985 03-02-06, 11:02 AM	I think the only books its in is the Stronghold Builders Guide. Obdurium is stronger than adamantine. Hardness 30 for obdsurium, compared to 20 for adamantine. (It's also twice as expensive)
laughingduelist 03-02-06, 09:17 PM	trap the tarrasque with a magic jar or some some similar spell. Then make the gem used in the spell the liche's phylactery. If the PCs destroy the gem, they release the tarrasque.
speeblefreak 03-02-06, 10:30 PM	1. Make your phylactery. 2. Find a creature with lots of body fat and a low likelihood of having magic. A hill giant should work. 3. Slit open the hill giant's leg/stomch/buttock/other fatty place, hide you phylactery inside and heal the wound. 4. Cast genesis. 5. Take the hill giant and a hired spellcaster to your demiplane. 6. Have the hired spellcaster imprison the hill giant. 7. Use mindrape to scour the hireling's mind completely blank. 8. Imprison soul on the hireling. 9. Bury the gem containing the hireling's soul on the demiplane. 10. Leave the demiplane and never look back. 11. (Only possible if you can finish your phylactery before becoming undead) Use mindrape to erase from your own mind all knowledge of the demiplane and the steps you took to hide the phylactery. Kudos to the adventuring party capable of finding that phylactery.
Balthazar_II 03-03-06, 04:15 AM	I've never gone into this, but I hope this idea is logical / feasible / makes at least some sense. 1) Take the phylactery and place it in a bag of holding. 2) Make the bag of holding permanently acid resistant. 3) Stick that bag of holding inside a creature which is extremely resistant to magic, but not resistant to what you can cast. 4) Cast temporal stasis on the creature. 5) Cast a spell or do something, to remove all magical auras and evidence of any magical tamperings. 6) Erase all memories from the creature. 7) Use magic jar to trap the creature's soul, then put the jar someplace nobody will ever find it (such as five kilometres below the surface of the earth). 8) Shove the creature (with the bag holding the phylactery) through a portal to a plane which no adventurer would ever want to go to. 9) Go there yourself, find another portal, and repeat step 8. Do this as many times as necessary. 10) When you have sent the creature through enough portals, permanently seal or destroy each one as you return through it. 11) When you finally return to the original plane, after sealing or destroying the portal, you should be powerful enough to raise a massive army of zombies and undead. Upon getting tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of undead, slaughter most or all beings which would try to track down the phylactery to destroy it. Yeah! Go team lich! :invasion: :ayyyy!:
tryco 03-03-06, 07:15 AM	1) build the phylactery. 2) go to a huge city. 3) go to the place where a the **** and garbage is stored. 4) place a spell on it, so there is no evil aura on it. 5) put it 6 ft. under. 6) place a trap on it, so it kills anybody who comes close. 7) leave it. who would look in a huge pile of things you don't want to be near.
Molitor 03-03-06, 12:34 PM	I would put it 'inside' a mundane planet on the outer reaches of the universe. Liches don't breathe, they possess darkvision, are immune cold, and they can also survive the presure. If you mask the location from scry, anyone wishing to destroy you would have to expend huge ammounts of resources not to mention time..........measured in lightyears by the way. With Greater Teleport you could use this new place as a base of operations.
malignor 03-03-06, 02:00 PM	- make the phylactery a hollow statue. - have a small phylactery-looking box inside the statue holding a gem, and give it a magical aura that suggests it as warded. Give the gem a magical aura too, such that it seems like the phylactery. - cover the statue with Symbols (death, insanity, etc.). They activate only when someone attempts to break or pass through the statue. - Find a plane that has the following properties... 1. cold enough to do lethal cold damage to all inhabitants on a per round basis 2. negative energy dominant 3. possesses vast solid objects (planets, hundred mile large glaciers, etc) - turn ethereal to get deep into a vast solid object... a few dozen miles should be good. Find or make an air pocket and make a small room. - fill the room with Symbols and constructs, and some mindless undead. - trap the room with poisoned slashing/piercing traps, fill the room with a deadly (but chemically stable) gas - put the statue in that room. - make multiple false/decoy containers & coffins, including illusions, all of which are traps. Also make many other statues, also made to appear the same as your phylactery. Put these in the room too. - have a few dozen Arcane Marks around that same plane, preferrably near some portal or safe area. Makes for easier teleportation.
shiruken_ravenheart 03-03-06, 02:20 PM	I think I found another problem with your plan. 1. The Phylact is a acid resist and whatnot 2. Tarasque swallows the Phlact 3. Plylact comes out of the other end of the Tarasque. :yuck: :eek: -Uken
KoboldMenace 03-03-06, 10:02 PM	How about inside an iron golem (if they are hollow in your game. If not I suppose you could use a hollow animated statue)? When the lich makes the iron golem he could put a door in its chest that only opens from the inside. The would allow him to leave after he reformed in the iron golem ( by the RAW lich may not respawn where his phylactery is located but I think it is a good idea, I am using it from now on) and give PCs a subtle hint where the phylactery may be hidden.
Nialo 03-04-06, 12:29 AM	The safest route is probably using the Genesis spell found in the epic handbook, and creating a pocket plane to store the phylactery in, as I believe you can bar entrance to the plane if you so desire.