So where is her phylactery? What is it?
Given the power of Erandis' enemies and the length of time she's survived, I think she's suffered defeats before. My thought is that her phylactery is unlike that of any other lich. Knowing the danger her daughter was in, and having invested the entire future of her line in Erandis, I believe that her mother did something quite special. She infused the phylactery with magics that would shield it from any form of divination. She hid it so well that no-one knows where it is... including Erandis.
Normally, this would be impossible; a lich regenerates close to its phylactery. But we're talking about some of the most accomplished necromancers the world has known, and a mother determined to protect her child. As such, I'm running it that when Vol reconstitutes, she appears at a randomly determined location - thus giving her a chance to rebuild her strength before her enemies can strike again. The secret of her phylactery can't even be plucked from her mind, because SHE doesn't know where or what it is.
A sideline to this is that if she decides she just wants to end it all, well, she can't. She can't end her own existence unless she is able to find and destroy her own phylactery. So that's a possible odd change if you want to do something different with her.
The fact that Erandis reconstitutes is an important element of her value as a recurring villain. Her initial statistics may not seem impressive. But first you have my comments in this thread. Second is the fact that if you kill her, unless you find her phylactery, she'll just come back. She's the Queen of Death, and she can afford to be cavalier about it. Those stats shown are intended to be a starting point, her power when you first encounter her. But as she comes closer and closer to attaining her true potential, her power may grow exponentially - making her a challenging foe for even epic parties. You may be able to beat her, but unless you can utterly destroy her, it's just an inconvenience.
So where in the world is Erandis Vol's phylactery? Only the DM can decide. One idea I rather like is that it's some sort of Khyber shard that has, in the interim, been found and incorporated into the body of a warforged. So yes, your character is Erandis Vol's phylactery - as long as you live, she cannot be killed. If she wants to die and figures this out, she may be constantly trying to kill you - or, alternately, if YOU find it out first, you'll have to decide if you're willing to sacrfice yourself to fight her, or if you'll try to find some other way.
Having it being found and used in the construction of a warforged however, that is epic win!
How, you ask? Well, House Cannith didn't find Giant or Quori made schemas during their jungle raids in Xen'drik, they found Vol's original phylactery. On duplicating it tens of thousands of times during the war, complete genocide of the warforged race is required to end her life. That comes nicely full-circle given the circumstances of the start of the lichdom, don't you think?
It also serves as a potential hook for granting the Mark of Death to the warforged in the future.
So where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
Sorry, couldn't resist :D
Her Phylactery is another elven bloodline. The House of Vol was wiped out, but many of its allies, and the Phiarlanns, left Aerenal. I made it so that Erandis's mother bound her daughter's soul to the blood of an allied family of elves that ended up settling in the Lhazar Principalities. So there's a sort of corallary to the Kalashtar: Like Taratai being wiped out, if you want to kill Erandis for good, you have the wipe out an entire bloodline. I also thought it fit with the idea that the concept of the "divinity within" started with the practices and teachings of the Line of Vol.
I hadn't thought of the idea that Erandis didn't know about this though, so she was always sure to keep a young elven child of the bloodline in her court with her at all times, just in case any do-gooders destroyed her. She banked on them not being able to kill an innocent child (let alone commit genocide on an entire elven population).
One of the more gruesome aspects of this idea, though, was that instead of materializing a new body next to her phylactery, a member of the bloodline BECOMES Erandis, dying and physically transforming into her new body.
I assume, for some reason, that Vol's Phylacrity is a Syberis shard, which is in turn incorporated into a powerful arcane device hidden in the sub-cellar workshop under her base of opporations of favorite retreat. I see her using her own phylacrity as a power source for animating high end undead.
If only a guess, I would put it next to the Tarrasque, at the south of Xen´drik. Maybe the phylactery is what produces the odd effect that keeps the Tarrasque dormant :D
One of the more gruesome aspects of this idea, though, was that instead of materializing a new body next to her phylactery, a member of the bloodline BECOMES Erandis, dying and physically transforming into her new body.
I like this. Nice work.
One of the more gruesome aspects of this idea, though, was that instead of materializing a new body next to her phylactery, a member of the bloodline BECOMES Erandis, dying and physically transforming into her new body.
It also would explain why you could have varying images and pictures/descriptions of Vol throughout the ages. Sometimes she would incarnate within a mature Scion of the Progeniture Bloodline. Other times someone very young. I'm assuming that considering Vol's own physical/mental architecture it would almost always be a female Scion.
But every now and then one of the men of the Progeniture Bloodline goes a little strange, seemingly disappearing overnight. And now his wife has called upon the adventurer's to determine just what has happened to him. Has he been kidnapped, has he fallen in with a bad crowd or even chosen to leave her for some floozy?
Imagine their surprise when they find him, dressed as a her (in bad drag) and raving about him being the wrong body, how is just doesn't fit right. A way to really mess with the players heads :P . Oh and the guy in drag happens to be a crazy-powerful necromancer now (something else new), using all Vol's nifty necromantic abilities with caked mascara and bad nail-polish :P .
I a member of the bloodline BECOMES Erandis, dying and physically transforming into her new body.
What if a PC gets a head-up to the fact that she is the next body of Erandis in the form of a mark of death (literally marked for death).
In such a case the PC will have a strong interest in keeping Erandis Vol safe from harm. at least until they destroy the phylactery.
Maybe that is the power of the mark of death : choice a target to become your resurrected body when you die.
Well I didn't have it as the Vol bloodline, since any bloodline that could carry the Mark of Death was eradicated by the Dragon/Elf alliance. So the family of elves wouldn't be able to manifest the Mark of Death.
Unless you mean that only the next vessel for Erandis is marked. That's pretty nifty. Though the mark wouldn't be able to function.
(Also, uh, Vol in drag? Uh, okay, whatever floats your boat. :P)
What if a PC gets a head-up to the fact that she is the next body of Erandis in the form of a mark of death (literally marked for death). In such a case the PC will have a strong interest in keeping Erandis Vol safe from harm. at least until they destroy the phylactery.
I'm with AR. I love the idea of a PC having a birthmark or sign that she discovers means she will be Erandis' next host; but I wouldn't actually make it the Mark of Death.
An interesting side effect is that while the PCs may end up wanting to keep Erandis safe until they can destroy the phylactery in order to protect their friend, if the Deathguard or Kaius has learned to recognize the symbol of a potential host, they could be hunting them down - so the PC could actually be targetted by "good guys" trying to eliminated her options.
Maybe you could treat this like a slow Mind Seed process.
Maybe when the Mark of Death appears on you, the transformation is already completed, you are Erandis. The firsts signs of transformation could be in the sudden appearance of green dragon scales, then a telepathic link to Erandis' mind which slowly gives you her personality and her knowledge.
Rekko
I would use the Mark as the first sign of the process just for coolness factor, and as Gilo said, literally being "marked for death".
In my campaign, the line of Vol were studying a manifest zone to Dolurrh on an island in the Lhazaar Principalities, in addition to the manifest zones to Mabar present on Aerenal. The power of the manifest zone was similar to the entrapping trait of Dolurrh, except that it doesn't transform anyone into a shade...it simply saps the will to leave. House Vol built a stronghold there, as well as facilities where they continued their investigations in the area of blood, spirituality, and everlasting life.
When the excrement hit the fan and the dragons and the elves teamed up to exterminate them, key members of House Vol fled to the stronghold, including the matriarch and the cause of the purge- her daughter Erandis. When the dragons and elves came after them, the matriarch used the power of the Mark of Death and of the manifest zone to activate a powerful eldritch machine within the main stronghold. This transformed Erandis into a lich, and the stronghold later known as Dreadhold became her phylactery.
Erandis allowed and even encouraged the dwarves of Kundarak to create their prison within the ancient stronghold. The manifest zone within Dreadhold is ideal for holding prisoners, as all who remain within without protection quickly lose any ambition to escape. The life-sapping tendancy of the place subtly energizes Lady Vol. No place on Eberron is as well protected as Dreadhold, as House Kundarak itself wards it with their greatest abjurations. Every nation on Khorvaire has an interest in keeping it secure. Vol secretly has complete control over the stronghold, and her use and manipulation of the most dangerous prisoners in the world is a weapon of enormous significance. Several of the prisoners are, ironically, there simply to keep them away from her clutches!
In order to destroy Vol, one would have to destroy Dreadhold entirely. Defeating the best protection House Kundarak has to offer, as well as the assistance offered by the other Dragonmarked Houses, the military might of the Five Nations, and the power of Erandis herself (naturally she is more powerful within the walls of her own phylactery)! Success means freeing hundreds of powerful and dangerous criminals.
And the hatred of the Five Nations and the Dragonmarked Houses.
Oddly enough, I'm aboat to start an Eberron campaign where one sub-plot is based around a Karrnathi medium seeking lichdom as a way to prevent possession by extra-planar spirits. I was actually going to have him try to bind the Quori spirit of a Kalashtar line as his phylactery.
Maybe the ritual he's seeking is a derrivitive of that used to create Erandis?
I'd like to make the phylactery something entirely not mundane and connected with Erandis's history. So what is it?
1. It is the bloodline of Erandis's green dragon father. What better way to protect your soul than to secure it to a line of dragons? Her soul, like that of a kalashatar quori spirit, is distributed among dozens or hundreds of green dragons. The influence of the Vol lines has gradually led these green dragons to become obsessed with necromancy and death.
2. It is in the bloodline of those elves who destroyed her family. The fact that the line of the Mark of Death was killed created a sympathetic resonance that actually allowed the line to survive in the blood of those who did the killing. Erandis cannot truly die until the bloodlines of all those elves who murdered her family have been destroyed.
3. Erandis's phylactery is actually the death of the Mark of Death. That is to say, the murder of the Vol line created a concept so powerful (the murder of an entire dragonmark) that the concept acts as a receptable for her soul. In other words, so long as the Mark of Death itself is dead (through non-existence), Erandis will be undead. Vol's soul is actually preserved within the Unexistance of the Mark. Only by restoring the Mark of Death can Vol be destroyed. Whenever Erandis is destroyed, she can reappear anywhere, because her line's mark is dead everywhere. She doesn't understand it, but she will be destroyed the moment she actually restores the mark of her family.
I'm with AR. I love the idea of a PC having a birthmark or sign that she discovers means she will be Erandis' next host; but I wouldn't actually make it the Mark of Death.
Maybe a PC targeted to be the next Erandis host could develop an affinity to the dead: she will be able to speak to the dead or see through dead eyes (Gravesight). A trait that may earn her a certain reputation (the Sharn inquisitive that solve cases by talking to corpses or seeing a room thorough the victims eyes, a Karrnathi girl that told the widower where her husband buried the familyheirloom).
Perhaps you could have her be like Koschei the deathless from Russian folklore, who kept his sole hidden away in a chest that was burried beneath the ground on an island that shows up only once every hundred years. Perhaps Vol keeps her phylactery hidden on it's own demiplane, that only she can access, and when ever she is destroyed she is sent there.
Weird idea: Vol's Phylactery is The Mourning.
She built it, discovered a ritual to make it diffuse (Harder to smash with a hammer that way) and worked out a way to apply it on a grand scale. (Also producing a lot of corpses for the Emerald Claw to gather.)
Now the Mournland is dead, and saps the life of those who dare wander it. The land and creatures are shaped by her suppressed guilt, twisted asperations and dreamless subconcious. (Which is, of course, beyond her control.)
The clues can be seen in the sky, great ribbons of mist forming letters of the unholy script required inside all phylacteries.
What happens when she dies? Either she reforms somewhere in Cyre or causes the Mourning to retract to one point where her phylactery recreates her. If you want to get really weird, she becomes the land, or reforms as a gigantic nation-sized lich, head in the clouds and with a reach that can grasp at the Ring of Siberys.
Perhaps the only way to kill her would be to end the mourning, either reclaiming Cyre piece by piece or reversing the original ritual. Either way, pretty epic work.
I'm with AR. I love the idea of a PC having a birthmark or sign that she discovers means she will be Erandis' next host; but I wouldn't actually make it the Mark of Death.Maybe a PC targeted to be the next Erandis host could develop an affinity to the dead: she will be able to speak to the dead or see through dead eyes (Gravesight). A trait that may earn her a certain reputation (the Sharn inquisitive that solve cases by talking to corpses or seeing a room thorough the victims eyes, a Karrnathi girl that told the widower where her husband buried the familyheirloom).
I could totally see a feat called "Marked for Death" that acts somewhat like a Dragonmark, but isn't a [Dragonmarked] feat.
Something like "Whenever you deal necrotic damage, you slide the target one square. You can also master and perform [list of rituals] as if you had the ritual caster feat".
I'm with AR. I love the idea of a PC having a birthmark or sign that she discovers means she will be Erandis' next host; but I wouldn't actually make it the Mark of Death.Maybe a PC targeted to be the next Erandis host could develop an affinity to the dead: she will be able to speak to the dead or see through dead eyes (Gravesight). A trait that may earn her a certain reputation (the Sharn inquisitive that solve cases by talking to corpses or seeing a room thorough the victims eyes, a Karrnathi girl that told the widower where her husband buried the familyheirloom).
I could totally see a feat called "Marked for Death" that acts somewhat like a Dragonmark, but isn't a [Dragonmarked] feat.
Something like "Whenever you deal necrotic damage, you slide the target one square. You can also master and perform [list of rituals] as if you had the ritual caster feat".
Its intersting that there is allready a feat by that name for the Revenant race.
A Revenant race could be the way to go for a PC wanting to play Erandis next host.
I love the bloodline phylactery idea, kudos on that.
Maybe instead of a birthmark, it's a straight lineage affair. I've had great results with a PC's mother turning out to be a vampire (in service to the Blood of Vol, no less); it's a great way of making things personal. Perhaps the PC finds that zir mother has disappeared and, in the course of tracking her down, discovers that she's become Erandis' new body. Further research reveals the reason for this, and what it would mean for the PC if the lich were slain now.
I don't know how you would go about making this idea work, but it just came to me. It doesn't seem like something that would work with Vol, but I wanted to put it out there. What if a pair of wizards decided to become liches, and used each other as phylacteries?
In order to destroy one lich, you'd have to destroy the other.
What if an entire order of wizards did this? They could form a circle so that as long as one survived they would all eventually reform. Since liches reform near the phylactery, each encounter would become harder and harder.
Perhaps one could attempt to capture such liches as grisgol while hunting down the rest.
In that case, using this in Eberron would mean that 12 liches would be successfully hunted down and captured. The last lich, the key to defeating them all, would be lost.
I'm with AR. I love the idea of a PC having a birthmark or sign that she discovers means she will be Erandis' next host; but I wouldn't actually make it the Mark of Death.Maybe a PC targeted to be the next Erandis host could develop an affinity to the dead: she will be able to speak to the dead or see through dead eyes (Gravesight). A trait that may earn her a certain reputation (the Sharn inquisitive that solve cases by talking to corpses or seeing a room thorough the victims eyes, a Karrnathi girl that told the widower where her husband buried the familyheirloom).
I could totally see a feat called "Marked for Death" that acts somewhat like a Dragonmark, but isn't a [Dragonmarked] feat.
Something like "Whenever you deal necrotic damage, you slide the target one square. You can also master and perform [list of rituals] as if you had the ritual caster feat".
Its intersting that there is allready a feat by that name for the Revenant race.
A Revenant race could be the way to go for a PC wanting to play Erandis next host.
Interesting thing is that I'm already on that page (so to say) Gilo! I've got a human wizard in my long-running Eberron campaign (been going since 2006). Early on in the game he died a somewhat gruesome death defending his allies. However he also had some obligations and duties left unfulfilled in the living world.
Said wizard travelled to Dollurh and was confronted by a spectre of himself constructed from Dragonmarks. This Living Prophecy asked Martin (the wizard) if he were willing to go back to the living world and complete his duties, even if there was a price. Martin agreed and bam, there he was back in the battlefield (the party was still fighting a Dragon at the time) and crankier than ever.
Time-skip several years and I've been RP'ing Martin and his somewhat unusual Necromantic powers. We've upgraded to 4e and I start reading the DDI article on Revenants. As a DM I had been torn on how to create a Mark of Death and not leave it feeling cheap or OP. The Revenant was the answer. Instead of being a series of feats or other oddities, the Revenant Race is literally the perfect was for incorporate the Mark of Death into my campaign. Martin has slowly been accruing Revenant Racial feats to represent his personal exploration and burgeoning understanding of the Mark of Death.
And of course Erandis has been patiently watching her Scion, sometimes through his eyes, sometimes through her scouts. She never grew up with the Mark of Death and now wishes to see how someone can learn to both understand and control it's power. She very much wants Martin alive and has been protecting him (he is still unaware, player and character wise). Through studying him maybe she can understand her own mark and the Phylactery her mother hid somewhere in the world.
Pjammagod, you know what they say about great minds...Xor'chylic can't have enough of them for breakfast. 
Erandis Vol's original phylactery was Cyre. The Mourning was the work of dragons seeking to exterminate her for good. The ritual took a full month of continuous chanting by 13 dragon mages, each using a Siberys dragonshard that was burned out and rendered useless in the process. It had to be timed precisely to coincide with a particular alignment of the moons and the planes which will not occur again for thousands of years.
Vol has since created another phylactery which she regards as a stopgap until she can acquire the proper components to repeat the ritual that created her first phylactery. However, this time, she's planning on casting it on Argonessen...
I actually had an intruiging idea for Erandis's phylactery that ended up never being used in my games. Her Phylactery is another elven bloodline.
I was initially wondering if her phylactery was something such as the soil of the lands where she was born (tying her to the land, and reforming her there). But this is actually even more fitting. I really can't imagine people not using this.
It means that to kill Voll, you have to kill an entire bloodline (or find some ritual that purges the bloodline).
Gomez
It means that to kill Voll, you have to kill an entire bloodline (or find some ritual that purges the bloodline).
And to do so quick enough for Vol not to realize what is going on, and take the appropriate actions (like transfering it to a new one).
Of course, it would make it virtually impossible for the PCs to directly destroy Vol through physical conflict. Instead the PCs need to search for alternative sollutions such as helping Vol ascend (works great in a setting like Greyhawk were the gods are bound by various rules that actually limit the influence of a deity compared to the mortal - less certain about Eberron), bound her like one of the Lords of Dust or perhaps more rewarding for the method actors: convince her to drop her bitterness and sense of revenge and embrace true death.
Madfox, that's a pretty cool idea. Your suggestion to help her ascend makes even more sense in Eberron, since Eberron deities, if they do exists, probably have even MORE rules governing their actions. Like, say, complete and total non-interferance to the point where your existance is hard to proove.
Pjammagod, you know what they say about great minds...Xor'chylic can't have enough of them for breakfast.
Sorry I've already dedicated mine to Cthulu. All those tentacles... mmmm
*ahem*
Anywho, back on topic. It seems everybody likes the idea of Vol having a non-standard phylactery, because some gaudy bauble is just like so last century. I'm just wondering if people are choosing something non-standard because it's Eberron (the realm of the non-standard) or is it because of player/DM experience in regards to phylacteries (ie players ALWAYS find a way to smash it so the Liche is taken care of permanently)?
Personally, I think it's because of said lich. I doubt that any other lich in the setting would have a similarly complex phylactery.
Rekko
It is because Vol is hardly a regular lich, not only because of her highly active role in the setting, but more importantly, because of her highly unique origin story. Furthermore, she is the type of villain that you make the focus of a campaign at which point a standard phylactery is a bit too easy to dispose off. And if she is not the focus, it is doubtful the PCs are ever going to directly fight her in which case it does not matter 
To be honest, when I first came up with the idea for Vol's non-standard phylactery, it was entirely to throw a monkey-wrench at my players, so they coudn't just go trinket-hunting and destroy her permanently.
The only reason I wasn't able to use the idea in-game is because I never had the opportunity to introduce her as a big villain. (The party just ran into the Emerald Claw a few times as filler-encounters.)
About the idea that Vol's Phylactery being an elf bloodline, perhaps it was the Paelion bloodline specifically? The premise that the Phiarlan-Thuranni Schism was caused by Vol, directly or indirectly, is one of those BBEG long plots would be delicious.
About the idea that Vol's Phylactery being an elf bloodline, perhaps it was the Paelion bloodline specifically? The premise that the Phiarlan-Thuranni Schism was caused by Vol, directly or indirectly, is one of those BBEG long plots would be delicious.
A thought I had considered as well, especially viable as House Thuranni is already known to have ties to the Emerald Claw.
It would also add a hidden motive to House Phiarlain leaving Aerenal. As stated it was "They left because they didn't like how an entire dragonmark was wiped out, whether they were allies or not" but it could also be "they were allies with that dragonmarked line and know that if they stick around that connection will be revealed so they had to leave before the Undying Court found out."
Holy threadomancy Batman!
I've always liked the idea that Vol's Phylactery is her Dragonmark. The reason she can't use its "normal" abilities is because it's permanently active. When she's destroyed, the dragonmark flares up, instantly shadow-walking her away.
So really, it's really easy to kill Vol. All you need to do is remove her dragonmark. :D
Has it been offically stated how big her mark is/was?
I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be really powerful. Either Greater, Siberys, or unique due to her half-dragon nature. I can't remember if any of these were in a cannon source or forum discussion.
Has it been offically stated how big her mark is/was?
The precise quote on page 250 of the ECG is "Born of elf and dragon, her Mark of Death was unlike any other." As the person who wrote that line, the intent was that it's a step above Siberys - the ultimate manifestation of a dragonmark. How that plays into the acual size of the mark has never been stated. But it's not simply a least or lesser mark like a PC could develop; it's the perfect expression of that mark. Of course, the point is that she was killed before she could master it - which may mean that it had yet to grow to its full potential size.