Hiding a Lich's Phylactery

[Longcat]

...or, more specifically, a Dry Lich's 5 canopic jars, which serve exactly the same purpose. As long as one of them still exists, the Dry Lich can return from the dead.

Now, where can I hide those? They're the size of vases (tiny, afair, although I'm AFB right now). The setting is Forgotten Realms, in the year 1374 (assume that 4e timeline does not happen). Standard Planescape cosmology is used.

Now, where can I reasonably hide my jars as a level 13 character, with access to 6th level spells and the Walker in the Waste class abilities?

Here are my ideas for now:
1: Inside a Sand Golem that wanders the deserts in Anauroch, Shadow of the Colossus style.
2: Private Manor in Sigil

[Feytalist]

This thread might have some ideas for you. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209974)

[Yuki Akuma]

1. Stash each into a portable hole, one per jar.

2. Throw a bag of holding into each portable hole.

3. Make sure you have a way of casting Plane Shift without a spellbook.

4. ???

5. Profit!

[drakir_nosslin]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156654) has been discussed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131730) a few times (http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/197874-devious-phylactery-hiding-places.html), perhaps you can find some help (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/277649-3-5-challenge-best-way-hide-protect-item.html) in another thread (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/175922-where-would-you-hide-your-phylactery.html)? :smallsmile:

[Longcat]

Wow, thanks guys, didn't know the topic was this popular.

@Yuki Akuma: I'm a cleric, so no spellbooks necessary ;)

[Golden Ladybug]

Well, I haven't read all the threads suggested, but inside the Tarrasque has always been a favourite of mine. Put it into something that'll keep it from being dissolved by its Stomach Acids, chuck it in its mouth and walk away, whistling innocently.

[Longcat]

Well, I haven't read all the threads suggested, but inside the Tarrasque has always been a favourite of mine. Put it into something that'll keep it from being dissolved by its Stomach Acids, chuck it in its mouth and walk away, whistling innocently.

While I could take on the Tarrasque, it would cost me considerable resources and time to do it as a Level 13 character.

[silver spectre]

1) Permanent shrink item on each jar (should be about the size of a large pebble now).

2) Permanent nondetection on each jar.

3)Encase each jar in ordinary stone so that it has no room to move.

4)Cover that stone with a very durable material like adamantine or its equivelant.

5) Cover that with ordinary stone again

6) Haunt shift shadows, ghosts, allips, or other tasty undead. Order them to gaurd the stone at all costs if you ocntrol them.

6) Kill and animate a couple of dozen bullette (or other burrowing creatures) zombies.

7) Place a covered jar inside five of the zombies and place an ordinary rock of similar size and weight in all of the rest of the zombies (even better if you also place a permanent non-detection on those stones as well).

8) Transport zombies to various areas and tell them to dig for an hour or a given distance and stop, then gaurd the stone.



Alternately, you can cover the jars in something fireproof (like red dragon bone) and transport them to the planets molten core or drop them in an active volcano...

[Fouredged Sword]

One goes on the bottom of the ocean.

One goes into a far plane (preferably into the far relms, just be ready to planeshift out of there imidiatly.

One is made of rivitine and encased in 40-50 layers of rivintine (paper thin layers a cheep by the pound). Lets see someone cast desentigrate 50 times to destroy it. Keep that one on you. You are likely to revive and run away with it before they can throw out enough slots to break into it.

One goes into the big T

One goes to the negative energy plane.

One goes to the heart of the plane of fire.

There are lots of good options.

Keep each wraped in a rivintine scroll of wish so you can wish to have any of the copies that have been discovered with you after you rivive. Any of them that are still safe stay put, any that aren't come to you to be re hidden.

[gkathellar]

From the last thread.


Your phylactery should be a gold piece. One gold piece, standard unit of currency. Is there a way to fool detect magic I'm forgetting? If so, use that, ward it against scrying, and install a contingency to teleport it back to you in case anyone tries to melt it down or something.

Now buy something with it in a major city. Bam, no one is ever, ever tracking down your phylactery. Not even you.

(And on the off-chance that an adventurer get a hold of it, they'll fall into a moral crisis: give up a gold piece? Unthinkable!)

[kestrel404]

Create a Simulacrum (via scroll), hand it one of the Canopic jars, planeshift it to Sigil and have it break one of the auto-maze rules (like attacking one of the lady's servants). Then have it hide out in the maze forever. With a bunch of shapesand and a scroll of Permanent Image, the simulacrum can just find a nice out-of-the-way dead-end in the maze, wall itself in, permanent image the shapesand to look like just another wall in the maze, and hunker down unto eternity.

Make a permanent non-detection spell (anti-scrying, etc) on one of the jars, find an empty patch of desert (preferably with the map-as-a-dartboard method, then burn the map), dig a 1012 ft hole, make a shapesand alcove, and bury the jar.

Do the same thing with a random patch of sky. Use permanent images to conceal the jar. A permanent levitation spell or immovable rod should be enough to hold it in place. Do this at a height of 22 thousand feet. Remind your GM that detect magic and similar detection spells have ranges measured in feet, while anyone standing on the ground directly below the jar would still be over a mile away from a tiny object.

Hide one in the elemental plane of earth. Bribe an earth elemental to keep it on his mantle as a conversation piece.

Make a magic trap of Magic Aura that creates a non-magic aura on itself and anything on the trap once every couple of days. Put the trap in the a display case of a museum. Disguise it as an ancient, priceless vase from a long-forgotten empire. Acquire several more of the same kind. Put them all on the trap. Have the museum pay rent for the collection of priceless vases to a local orphanage.

Seal one inside of an adamantine jar. Get swallowed by one of those giant sand worms. Soverign glue the adamantine jar to the inside of the worm's stomach. Dimension door out of the worm.

Disguise one as an evil box covered in profane writing. Keep it under the seat of your evil-looking throne.

[Fouredged Sword]

For a normal litch I liked to make a holy book of palor that is locked in a chest labed "Dangerous items, do not open". The chest is a self resetting trap that makes the aura look good.

The party will never guess that the your philancrty is glowing holy book of exalted spells. They will be half way back to the kingdom to give the book to the nearest church of palor when you rez in the middle of the night and planeshift away with your book.

[silver spectre]

We had a lich party member that did something I thought was pretty smart. She used a +1 adamantine undead bane dagger as her phylactery.

She gave it to the party ranger, who eventually sold it.
As a minor magical weapon with a niche power, it is still likely wandering around the realm in some adventurer's store of backup weapons.

It's too valuable to be destroyed, not potent enough to attract attention, and made of tough material.

Besides, what lich in its right mind would make an anti undead weapon let alone use it as its phylactery...???

[Arcane_Secrets]

Well, I haven't read all the threads suggested, but inside the Tarrasque has always been a favourite of mine. Put it into something that'll keep it from being dissolved by its Stomach Acids, chuck it in its mouth and walk away, whistling innocently.

If you were going to hide something in a tarrasque, wouldn't it be a better idea (although a lot harder in execution) to hide it somewhere in its body where you don't have to worry about...excretion? That way, even if an enemy figures out that you've hidden it in the tarrasque, the most obvious location isn't where the phylactery actually is and they've got to dig through the entire corpse.

[Aneurin]

You bury the phylactery three feet to the left of the enormous and stupidly over protected tower, which at the very top, contains an equally stupidly protected 2gp copper amulet. That sits on a pedestal neatly covering a Symbol of Death set to go off if anyone looks at it, and set to trigger the only mechanical traps in the tower that no-one will be expecting by this point. Ward that amulet against magic as best you can, yadda, yadda, all the make it hard to find tricks. Let anyone daft enough to go hunting all but kill themselves to destroy... a worthless amulet.

A magic mouth trap set up on the amulet when it's destroyed would be entertaining, if it then says "Ha ha. Suckers." ...and sets off a Disintegrate trap.

I mean, honestly? Who'd go looking three feet to the left of the insanely warded and over-protected tower for the lich's most valuable item that's kept in a cheap wooden box.

Alternate idea - I recall somewhere reading a spell or something that allows you to divide phylacteries (although I can't remember where for the life of me), in which case divide as much as possible, protect from corrosion, find a convenient sea-side cliff and lob handfuls of them into the sea. Throw more down in fields that are being ploughed. Feed some more to a dragon... a Tarasque if you can find one.... bingo! No-one will ever find them all. Assuming that was a real spell, and not something I imagined.

[Daftendirekt]

Harry Potter has forever tainted the idea of hiding your phylactery(s). Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, Harry Potter rocks. But this entire thread just makes me think "HORCRUXES!"

Also, always love reading these threads, so many good ideas.

[kestrel404]

Harry Potter has forever tainted the idea of hiding your phylactery(s). Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, Harry Potter rocks. But this entire thread just makes me think "HORCRUXES!"

Also, always love reading these threads, so many good ideas.

Well, the best methods for hiding a phylactery in a system without other planes were pretty much covered in full by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

[NNescio]

Harry Potter has forever tainted the idea of hiding your phylactery(s). Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, Harry Potter rocks. But this entire thread just makes me think "HORCRUXES!"

Also, always love reading these threads, so many good ideas.

On a related note:

Soul Gems = Worst phylactery. Ever.

[BlueInc]

For a normal litch I liked to make a holy book of palor that is locked in a chest labed "Dangerous items, do not open". The chest is a self resetting trap that makes the aura look good.

The party will never guess that the your philancrty is glowing holy book of exalted spells. They will be half way back to the kingdom to give the book to the nearest church of palor when you rez in the middle of the night and planeshift away with your book.

This would be a pretty awesome adventure hook; the party is summoned to a local church of Pelor where a holy relic was being kept. All the priest can figure is that someone broke in a stole the book, but the vault looks like it was broken from the inside...

[flabort]

On a related note:

Soul Gems = Worst phylactery. Ever.

Hey! While their not likely to protect you, there's always the off chance some adventurer will be stupid enough not to crush the shiny gems.
In fact, more likely he'll sell them, given he doesn't yet suspect their magic.

So if you're a demilich, and fear being destroyed, use an illusion to make it look like you've still got a body. You should kick their arses anyways, but on the off chance they defeat you, they might think it's just a shiny gem to sell.

Also, you still have another normal phylactery, and soulgems give you an awesome ability. Not to mention I just used Trap the Soul on you right now.

[Piggy Knowles]

Have the jars as key components for traps that will set off a Locate City Bomb if removed or destroyed. Every time someone destroys one of your five canopic jars, they do the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb in a major city.

Bonus points if you combine it with Fell Drain, too, so that you can set off the Wightocalypse while you're at it. Because this way even if you go, you take the world down with you - and that's what I call going in style.

[NNescio]

Hey! While their not likely to protect you, there's always the off chance some adventurer will be stupid enough not to crush the shiny gems.
In fact, more likely he'll sell them, given he doesn't yet suspect their magic.

So if you're a demilich, and fear being destroyed, use an illusion to make it look like you've still got a body. You should kick their arses anyways, but on the off chance they defeat you, they might think it's just a shiny gem to sell.

Also, you still have another normal phylactery, and soulgems give you an awesome ability. Not to mention I just used Trap the Soul on you right now.

I was referring to Soul Gems from another work of fiction (note the capitalization). Specifically, the kind that the lich has to keep strictly within 100 metres from himself for his body to continue functioning. Or herself, as the case may be.

[Grollub]

Have the jars as key components for traps that will set off a Locate City Bomb if removed or destroyed. Every time someone destroys one of your five canopic jars, they do the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb in a major city.

Bonus points if you combine it with Fell Drain, too, so that you can set off the Wightocalypse while you're at it. Because this way even if you go, you take the world down with you - and that's what I call going in style.

+1 on this :smallamused:

[Calanon]

Nothing beats the old classic method of placing it in a Major negative energy plane :smallbiggrin: and placing the others in other plane (give the phylactery appropriate energy immunities), Nondetections as needed, and THERE YOU GO! By the time anyone is able to even finish the "campaign" to even find ONE of them there probably already dead (either you killed them, or the plane did)

[vampire2948]

Hide it in Sigil, don't annoy the Lady of Pain. Tada, you're immune to deities.

[Mockingbird]

Make a Tarrasque your Phylactery!
It works! (lols.)

[DonutBoy12321]

They're jars, huh? Make them closed, non-glass jars with a label on it of an unliked and rarely used herb. Hide each one in the back of the spice closet of a different king's royal kitchen, with three real jars of the herb closer to the front. Cast all of the nondetection stuff on it and such. No adventurer would ever think to check the spice cabinet.

[graeylin]

buy a handy haversack (or 5).
Put a jar in one (or each)
Put the haversacks across the world... sell one to a shop, put one on a dead skeleton, hang one in a tree, give one to an adventurer, etc.

After all, who ever has bought or found a haversack, and decided "I want to retrieve a lich's phylactery" while reaching inside?

Because unless you know what's in it... it's safe.

[Infernalbargain]

1. Stash each into a portable hole, one per jar.

2. Throw a bag of holding into each portable hole.

3. Make sure you have a way of casting Plane Shift without a spellbook.

4. ???

5. Profit!

How about sticking a spellbook with planeshift in it into the portable hole?

[Daftendirekt]

Hey! While their not likely to protect you, there's always the off chance some adventurer will be stupid enough not to crush the shiny gems.
In fact, more likely he'll sell them, given he doesn't yet suspect their magic.

Sell it? Eff that! Shove it in your forehead!

[Feytalist]

...I recall somewhere reading a spell or something that allows you to divide phylacteries...

The one I'm thinking of is Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery from Champions of Ruin. It's unfortunately an epic spell.

[Trekkin]

Given that you have five, I'd send at least one off into space. Put it in a box with an item of the appropriate teleportation spell to get back, add whatever abjurations will put your mind at ease, strap it to a golem that flies magically, and tell it to go as far away from everything as possible. Unfortunately, I can't recall how to shield such an assembly from divination. It'd be difficult to find anyway, and in all liklihood still more difficult to reach.

[Golden Ladybug]

If you were going to hide something in a tarrasque, wouldn't it be a better idea (although a lot harder in execution) to hide it somewhere in its body where you don't have to worry about...excretion? That way, even if an enemy figures out that you've hidden it in the tarrasque, the most obvious location isn't where the phylactery actually is and they've got to dig through the entire corpse.


While I could take on the Tarrasque, it would cost me considerable resources and time to do it as a Level 13 character.

Okay, new Tarrasque related plan. You've got the equivalent of five Phylacteries, so "dying" a few times to put them all in safe places shouldn't be too much of a hardship. This is the only one I think you'd actually risk dying, however.

Okay, go find the Big T. Awake or not, doesn't matter, but a Sleeping Tarrasque is a better idea. If awake, taunt him and try to look tasty. He eats you. Do not resist being eaten, go straight down his gullet. Once you reach the stomach, pull an Adamantine (just a thick enough to prevent being dissolved by Tarrasque stomach acid if you're on a limited budget) coffin containing the canoptic jar, as many scrolls of Teleportation as you feel paranoid enough to put in there and a few good books (reforming over 10 days must be boring, gotta have something to keep you occupied), and a spare divine focus. Make sure you can fit in there if you need to reform in there. Place it against the walls of the Tarrasque's Stomach, affix it there using a Immovable Rod, and either continue your journey through the Tarresque's disgestive system, plane shift out, or wait to be dissolved by the stomach acids and reform with your other jars. Thats one jar hidden.

For the other four, we've got to be more inventive. First off, you'll need to take advantage of that Plane Shifting to take yourself to the Elemental Plane of Water. Cast Air/Water Walk on yourself for convenience. Once again, you'll need to have some sort of container that can withstand great pressure for you to reform inside, with some different books for you to read in the unlucky event of your death, a spare Focus and the instructions for learning to play the Fiddle (got to keep occupied in your immortal life; learning to play an instrument could be fun). Then, drop the casket into the deeps, waving at it as it goes. If possible, find a large sea monster and get yourself eaten by it. Let it take you back to its lair, leave the casket to be...excreted. Then, Plane Shift yourself back to the Material Plane.

Next up, take out a Globe. Spin the Globe, Blindfold yourself, and throw a dart at a place on the map. Do this five times. Then, find the place in the middle of those points, and mark it out with permanent marker.

Then go and bury a jar at the South Pole. Once again, coffin for you to reform in, scrolls of Teleport to get somewhere once you reform, a Rubix cube to puzzle over and some coloured pens and paper. Leave the globe in your lair, in a secret room.

Next up, we're gonna be taking a trip to a temple of Pelor. Use whatever methods to disguise yourself you have access to, and find yourself a priest who looks a bit distracted. Knock him out, take him to a back room somewhere, and cast Quest on him. Tell him he must go on a great Journey, protecting this jar from any and all dangers, keeping himself alive with all the strength in his body and mind. Tell him that whatever happens, the safety of this Jar is paramount, and that he must tell no one of its existence. Also, get him to hold a spare Focus for you as well. Send him on his way, after staging a public meeting somewhere, putting on some inspiring speech to make it seem like he's going on his own free will. I don't think you'd need any entertaining this time, he'd surely be good company.

Finally, with out last jar, we're gonna go back to our Lair, and make a secret room (the same place you'll put the globe) off from your ante-chamber. Put every possible defense on it you can, but leave a few details that make it obvious somethings there. Maybe try to crawl towards it as you "die".

After all that, put your Jar in a random room, on a shelf that is slightly too high for an Adventurer to reach. Put some interesting knick-knack in the room as well, so they'll take that and think nothing of the jar. Make sure you have a 10,000 piece puzzle and Monopoly on the shelf as well, maybe some self help books too (because living forever means that you have to learn to live with yourself). Keep your Focus in a different room this time.

[Qwertystop]

buy a handy haversack (or 5).
Put a jar in one (or each)
Put the haversacks across the world... sell one to a shop, put one on a dead skeleton, hang one in a tree, give one to an adventurer, etc.

After all, who ever has bought or found a haversack, and decided "I want to retrieve a lich's phylactery" while reaching inside?

Because unless you know what's in it... it's safe.

Actually, I think you could still just hold the bag upside-down, so everything would fall out.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Okay, new Tarrasque related plan. You've got the equivalent of five Phylacteries, so "dying" a few times to put them all in safe places shouldn't be too much of a hardship. This is the only one I think you'd actually risk dying, however.

Okay, go find the Big T. Awake or not, doesn't matter, but a Sleeping Tarrasque is a better idea. If awake, taunt him and try to look tasty. He eats you. Do not resist being eaten, go straight down his gullet. Once you reach the stomach, pull an Adamantine (just a thick enough to prevent being dissolved by Tarrasque stomach acid if you're on a limited budget) coffin containing the canoptic jar, as many scrolls of Teleportation as you feel paranoid enough to put in there and a few good books (reforming over 10 days must be boring, gotta have something to keep you occupied), and a spare divine focus. Make sure you can fit in there if you need to reform in there. Place it against the walls of the Tarrasque's Stomach, affix it there using a Immovable Rod, and either continue your journey through the Tarresque's disgestive system, plane shift out, or wait to be dissolved by the stomach acids and reform with your other jars. Thats one jar hidden.


I can't see any flaws in this element of the plan as rewritten. It's totally insane and I mean that in a complimentary way-since any PC that managed to figure out where the phylactery was in the first place would probably try and find some other way of dealing with the lich rather than try and get it.

[Drevius]

A sign sitting next to a fancy box that says "Phylactary, DO NOT TOUCH!" and have the sign be the actual phylactary. I swear my dm did this and drove me nuts.

[Jack_Simth]

Okay, new Tarrasque related plan. You've got the equivalent of five Phylacteries, so "dying" a few times to put them all in safe places shouldn't be too much of a hardship. This is the only one I think you'd actually risk dying, however.

Okay, go find the Big T. Awake or not, doesn't matter, but a Sleeping Tarrasque is a better idea. If awake, taunt him and try to look tasty. He eats you. Do not resist being eaten, go straight down his gullet. Once you reach the stomach, pull an Adamantine (just a thick enough to prevent being dissolved by Tarrasque stomach acid if you're on a limited budget) coffin containing the canoptic jar, as many scrolls of Teleportation as you feel paranoid enough to put in there and a few good books (reforming over 10 days must be boring, gotta have something to keep you occupied), and a spare divine focus. Make sure you can fit in there if you need to reform in there. Place it against the walls of the Tarrasque's Stomach, affix it there using a Immovable Rod, and either continue your journey through the Tarresque's disgestive system, plane shift out, or wait to be dissolved by the stomach acids and reform with your other jars. Thats one jar hidden.

A couple of things... (some of this applies to other methods, as well):
1) As a Cleric, he's got access to Word of Recall (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wordOfRecall.htm). Cleric-6, Verbal only. Designate a very familiar place when preparing the spell (note: You don't have to be in your sanctuary when preparing the spell). You don't need to have anything except your canopic jar (and entertainment) in the box. Scrolls of Teleportation are unneeded.
2) As a Cleric, he's got access to all Cleric spells. Which includes Summon Holy Symbol (Cleric-0, spell compendium). No real need to put a Divine Focus somewhere you don't plan to be often.
3) Mr. T's digestive juices can do 22 points of Acid damage on the ideal roll... which matters if you plan to leave it in there permanently. Acid deals full damage to objects. Adamantine is only hardness-20. You'll need to Magically Reinforce it, or find a way to give it Acid Resistance sufficient to make the difference (the bludgeoning damage deals half-damage, and with hardness-20, we can ignore that). You'll also need to find some way to protect the Immovable Rod from the same.

[Calanon]

The one I'm thinking of is Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery from Champions of Ruin. It's unfortunately an epic spell.

Once in a Forgotten Realms game i became a Lich (That is still my favorite character <3) and just made that same spell... except a 9th level spell...

It was completely reasonable and made sense to my DM (Just increased casting time to 10 minutes and made it so that you can only have a maximum of your caster level x your casting modifier in phylacterys)

Long story short: an epic level spell is just a 9th level spell that uses a higher spell slot :smallbiggrin:

[Golden Ladybug]

A couple of things... (some of this applies to other methods, as well):
1) As a Cleric, he's got access to Word of Recall (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wordOfRecall.htm). Cleric-6, Verbal only. Designate a very familiar place when preparing the spell (note: You don't have to be in your sanctuary when preparing the spell). You don't need to have anything except your canopic jar (and entertainment) in the box. Scrolls of Teleportation are unneeded.
2) As a Cleric, he's got access to all Cleric spells. Which includes Summon Holy Symbol (Cleric-0, spell compendium). No real need to put a Divine Focus somewhere you don't plan to be often.
3) Mr. T's digestive juices can do 22 points of Acid damage on the ideal roll... which matters if you plan to leave it in there permanently. Acid deals full damage to objects. Adamantine is only hardness-20. You'll need to Magically Reinforce it, or find a way to give it Acid Resistance sufficient to make the difference (the bludgeoning damage deals half-damage, and with hardness-20, we can ignore that). You'll also need to find some way to protect the Immovable Rod from the same.

Okay, simple enough. First we go find ourselves a skilled Armorsmith, or a Spellcaster known for enchanting armor. Present them with the Coffin in which you plan to reform inside the Tarrasque, and politely ask to have Acid Resistance imbued upon the metal. Get them to imbue Greater Acid Resistance on the Immovable (or, have a way of making it out of Adamantine as well, and use normal Acid Resistance).

Feel free to murder the Armorsmith or Spellcaster at this point, and take your gold back, sniggering all the while. Word of Recall (thanks for the tip) out of there, and avoid the city or town you had the enchanting done for a while. Proceed with the plan as before :smallwink:

[Aneurin]

...or, instead of going through fancy plans involving acid-resitant coffins and such, you could just cut a hole in the wall of the stomach and stuff the box in the abdominal cavity and never have to worry about acid damage again - and a temporary Protection spell on it should be plenty to get it to survive long enough to do this.

When done, repair the hole you made so there's not acid leaking on your box. Then.... well, whatever plan you had for escaping would prbably be quite pleasant to initiate at this point.


Feytalist - Thanks, that's probably the one I'm thinking of (though I've still no idea where I saw it as I don't recall reading that book).

[Elemental]

You could simply coat the whole thing in irridium. That's immune to all acids that I know of.

[agentnone]

The lich in my last campaign has his phylactery as a Staff of the Magi. So yeah, the party had a tough time trying to figure out to destroy the phylactery while also trying not to destroy themselves. They had to fight that lich about 15 times before they finally figured it out. They really got fed up with it when the lich showed up in the middle of the first of three battles with the BBEG of the campaign. So that's my two copper.

[graeylin]

Actually, I think you could still just hold the bag upside-down, so everything would fall out.

If your game rules are such, yup. Not a safe place.

My games, the space inside the backpack has no dimension, no gravity, etc... so turning it upside down affects nothing inside, since there is no right side up or down in the space.

YMMV

[TheJake]

The one I'm thinking of is Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery from Champions of Ruin. It's unfortunately an epic spell.

Whats stopping you using this spell multiple times, to break the phylactery into so many pieces that even the Lich would have problems keeping tabs? You could do anything then - PAO them into random objects, hurtle them into extradimensional rifts using the portable hole/bag of holding shuffle, tarrasque gullets, imbue them into children, craft them into uberswords and hand them to the local paladin orders, the whole nine yards.

As a lich, you don't need all of the phylacteries - you only need *one*. So just make it damn near impossible to stamp them all out.

- J.

[Calanon]

Whats stopping you using this spell multiple times, to break the phylactery into so many pieces that even the Lich would have problems keeping tabs? You could do anything then - PAO them into random objects, hurtle them into extradimensional rifts using the portable hole/bag of holding shuffle, tarrasque gullets, imbue them into children, craft them into uberswords and hand them to the local paladin orders, the whole nine yards.

As a lich, you don't need all of the phylacteries - you only need *one*. So just make it damn near impossible to stamp them all out.

- J.


558 Phylacteries later...
I swear pissed my players off so much (The Lich was also Vecna Blooded and i ruled that his soul technically counts as a piece of him, so no scrying) it evolved from a single 1 night game to a campaign spanning an entire summer and a half with us playing everyday.

Answer: Nothing stops the Lich from making as many phylacteries as they please (with Aumver's Fragmented Phylactery of course) and thats kind of the point. Aumver used it to survive for centuries hiding his phylacteries across Faerun and various planes protected by various detection spells.

[flabort]

:smallbiggrin: :smallwink:
That's why I'm still alive (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190646). Fullbladder cannot possibly find all of my phylacteries. I even forget where 99.99999967231% of them are. And I know I have an army of massive constructs with phylacteries within them.