RC having the phylactery has two advantages...

[Bad Hair Day]

The obvious one is that after RC and Xykon complete the ritual, then RC has power over Xykon to prevent Xykon from taking it out on RC and/or Gobbotopia.

However, if something happens to the lich before the ritual is completed, then this also gives an advantage to RC because then RC knows that Xykon will be regenerated for sure because he has the phylactery. You just know that any time a super magician creates a "unbreakable vault" that this is just an invitation for someone to break into it. They phylactery is far safer with RC than in the fortress/tomb/thingy, even if it is on the Astral plane.

If Xykon found himself regenerating in RC's back pocket instead of the tomb, I think it's an easy sell for RC to tell Xykon that RC guarding it was safer all along, especially if NO ONE (not even Xykon) knows the true location of the phylactery.

My Two Cents,

BHD

[SaintRidley]

You make a mistake with your logic. Redcloak holds no power over Xykon by having the Phylactery. That's why Redcloak got to keep wearing it in the first place - Xykon knew Redcloak had no power over him with it.

[Math_Mage]

Wrong on both counts.
1. SoD spoilers--Xykon demonstrated rather plainly in the Can't Taste Coffee scene that Redcloak holding the phylactery gives him no control over Xykon, since the phylactery is irrelevant while Xykon's soul remains in his skeleton. Consider that, in the main comic, Redcloak's possession of the phylactery up to now hasn't given him any measurable control over Xykon at any time except immediately following Dorukan's Gate. That hasn't changed.

2. The 'unbreakable vault', dramatically speaking, is in the comic to give Xykon a false sense of security not because it's actually breakable, but because the phylactery isn't in it.

[Slayn82]

Redcloak is a massive munchkin, and creates monsters by consulting the monster manuals.

There is a certain monster that is created by an evil priest capturing a lich phylactery and putting it inside a bunch of used scrolls. As long as this mindless servant exists, the lich simply ceases to be.

Do the math.

[B. Dandelion]

Any chance of an elaboration for the D&D-illiterate?

[Math_Mage]

Any chance of an elaboration for the D&D-illiterate?

Which part do you want elaborated?

[B. Dandelion]

I wanted to know what monster Slayn82 was talking about! He sent me a link about

the Grisgol.

[SaintRidley]

Grisgol is from the Monster Manual III. It's basically a golem powered by a Lich's phylactery, composed of old scrolls and potion bottles and other magic items.

[Sethala]

Eh, I'd say that's too much game mechanic for a comic that's now only loosely based on D&D. There would have to have been some foreshadowing before now to keep it from being too much of a deus ex machina, especially since RC's direct position hasn't changed from before; the only difference is that Xykon doesn't know RC has the phylactery. (Unless he does, and just let Redcloak think that he doesn't know. Unless RC does know that Xykon knows, and just wants Xykon to think he doesn't know about him knowing... ok, I'll stop now.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Except that doesn't do Redcloak any good. It takes time to make a construct, even Grisgols. If Redcloak's 'Plan' suceeds then Xykon realizes the truth and has MORE then enough time to kill Redcloak before Redcloak has time to complete a Grisgol. If he does it before the Plan succeeds...then Redcloak has no high-level arcane caster.

[Sethala]

Except that doesn't do Redcloak any good. It takes time to make a construct, even Grisgols. If Redcloak's 'Plan' suceeds then Xykon realizes the truth and has MORE then enough time to kill Redcloak before Redcloak has time to complete a Grisgol. If he does it before the Plan succeeds...then Redcloak has no high-level arcane caster.

Not that I agree with the idea, but wouldn't RC be able to mostly make a Grisgol, and just not finish it until the ritual is complete? As long as Xykon doesn't find out about it before then, and RC can finish making it and animate it before Xykon is fully resurrected (you can't use a phylactery unless the lich using it is in the middle of being revived, which might cause more problems for RC), he wouldn't have any problems finishing it in time.