Had a cool vsion in my head but not sure how to use it in my game:

[Nosta]

so my players are reaching the city of the dead in my game. as its name implies its a city for the dead. its a very large place filled with all kinds of undead and I plan for there to be a nice juicy bit of plot here for my players.

now the image I had in mind is the players wandering the catacombs and winding up a large room with nothing but one thing in the center. A coffin made of Antimantine with chains made of sliver wrapped around it with seven locks, each needing a different key

now knowing my players the one will do everything in there power to open this coffin.
I am thinking A big boss battle with a nice reward for beating it

but the problem is I am not sure what the boss should be.
my players are all level 12

with a rogue a cleric a ranger and a paladin

I kinda invasion a appearances are deceiving type scenario though something terrifying could be fun as well


any one mind throw me some ideas?

[Blackhawk748]

A Dry Lich could be fun, though thats kinda area dependent. Otherwise you cant go wrong with a Mummy

[vasilidor]

try an oracle build lich. about 14 levels of oracle, fire or bone mystery with a few summon spells for immediate buddies/meat shields. have said oracle be dedicated to some evil god of the dead. throw in a couple of disabling spells for good measure.

[DrMotives]

7 locks makes me immediately think the Swedish film "The Seventh Seal", which is largely about a crusader knight and others fleeing the Grim Reaper, who is a metaphor for the black plague. It's the movie where the whole game of chess against death trope came from. So an Aspect of a death and/or disease god bound in the container, and it's vulnerable to taking bets if someone challenges it to a game of skill, which is probably how it got bound in the coffin in the first place.

[Riviera]

Maybe put a sleeping demilich in there ? That might make your players **** their pants if they know what a demilich is. The Boss fight would be against the angry guardian of the coffin, fearing that the creature might awaken.

You could even use this as a hook for the next arc in your game. The good guys end up being hunted and persecuted for awakening an ancient and evil power, plot twist. I'm gonna do something like this later in the game I run. :P

[Grod_The_Giant]

Maybe a Nightwalker? Reasonably recognizable (at least to veteran D&D players) and a good creepy-shadow-death-god type deal.

[FocusWolf413]

Leave a little note in there that says something like "Doesn't this seem a little too obvious? #widenedexplosiverunesx3" and have a lich earthglide/whatever out of the ground behind them laughing after it goes boom.

[John Longarrow]

Silver chains would be easy to break/cut. Silver is a fairly soft metal. You may want a single adamantine bar that runs through sets of loops on the top of the coffin. It has seven lock, each of which keeps a horizontal bar out to keep the lid shut. Same effect, just avoids smart players cutting the chains.

An enthropic reaper could be fun, also keeps with the death theme. Have its purpose to be to kill who ever open the coffin.

[dantiesilva]

An intelligent vampire/blackguard? Sure the La sucks, but as DM you go by CR which helps a little bit.

Paladin 5/Rogue 1/Shadowbane inquisitor 7/Blackguard 1

I have seen DM's count shadowbane inquisitor in the blackguard fallen paladin rules, so trade in all 5 paladin levels for blackguard end as

Rogue 1/Shadowbane inquisitor 7/ Blackguard 6 and have all the fallen paladin abilities of a 7th level paladin? Play him like David Xanathos from Gargoyles, charming and such. Thanking the players for setting him free, of how he was thrown in the coffin by someone from the past that was a friend of the hero that locked him up. Basically saying that the person who stood by the side of a hero was the true villain and when the vampire found out and was going to tell him he was locked in the box. If the players buy into it he gets away and is able to start planning on taking over the world again or whatever he wishes to be done. If they fight him, he fights until 25% health then turns into mist and retreats.

Though the entropic reaper does sound really cool as well.

[LTwerewolf]

The reward can be the coffin itself. That much adamantine+silver is a country's worth of wealth.

[SwordChucks]

Oh, oh, say Gwyneth Paltrow's head is in there.

Then surprise the party by saying the coffin attacks them because it's an animated object.

[MisterKaws]

Make the coffin itself a boss: 19hd advanced spellwarped mimic with 5 levels of warshaper, make it hold smaller warshaper mimics inside itself, and have them all rush at your party when they try to open it.

All those mimics could have a stash inside them, so it could be a pretty nice reward.

Don't forget to advance the adhesive DCs, they're 1/2 HD Con based, in case you didn't notice.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I didn't know Gazebo Jones (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9823824&postcount=132) could take adamantine forms, but it's nonmagical, so he can...

[DarkSoul]

My first thought when I read it was "Why would a city of the undead have something like that chained up?"

...because inside is the one thing they fear the most. At the upper end it would be an avatar or aspect of whatever deity hates undead the most in your game. Maybe it's a celestial, maybe the spirit of a high priest. What matters is that it's something the undead want to keep locked up forever, because if it gets loose it guarantees the destruction of the city.

The characters aren't there to loot what's inside, they're there to free it.

[CharonsHelper]

If all of the rest of the undead are running free - I'd have the coffin actually contain an Planar or some such - and the undead bosses are trying to keep you from freeing it.

[the_david]

The reward can be the coffin itself. That much adamantine+silver is a country's worth of wealth.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking...

[ShurikVch]

First idea: coffin is actually an entrance somewhere else, maybe even portal to another world

Second one: take a page from Megami Tensei - Dark Hour (http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Hour): in a coffin some innocent victim undead wish to prey on, but unable to open the coffin from outside; if chains are strictly external, then maybe some hidden ally reinforced coffin's defense to prevent unnecessary open?

[Nosta]

so I'm think a celestial with the lich temp
A aspect of a chaotic good god of the dead
death is a good thing it is the next step one must take when they have reached the end of there life
and all who would deny death deny the truth of the world and there for deny the world itself


so i'm thinking that this good being will mistake the party for evil people and attack them

[atemu1234]

so I'm think a celestial with the lich temp
A aspect of a chaotic good god of the dead
death is a good thing it is the next step one must take when they have reached the end of there life
and all who would deny death deny the truth of the world and there for deny the world itself


so i'm thinking that this good being will mistake the party for evil people and attack them

Problem is, Outsiders can't become liches.

[DrMotives]

Problem is, Outsiders can't become liches.

That's an annoying retcon rule I like to ignore. After all, before he became a vestige, Acerak was an Outsider lich. He's a half-fiend (half-pit fiend, half human) with first lich, then demi-lich template applied.

[MisterKaws]

That's an annoying retcon rule I like to ignore. After all, before he became a vestige, Acerak was an Outsider lich. He's a half-fiend (half-pit fiend, half human) with first lich, then demi-lich template applied.

Outsiders can't become liches. However, the other way around is completely legal, and thus, a Lich could become an outsider, usually by divine ascension or class features.

[Andezzar]

My first thought when I read it was "Why would a city of the undead have something like that chained up?"

...because inside is the one thing they fear the most. At the upper end it would be an avatar or aspect of whatever deity hates undead the most in your game. Maybe it's a celestial, maybe the spirit of a high priest. What matters is that it's something the undead want to keep locked up forever, because if it gets loose it guarantees the destruction of the city.

The characters aren't there to loot what's inside, they're there to free it.For an added twist make the City of the Dead be populated largely by neutral or good undead and have the freed character start destroying/killing/murdering/slaughtering (your pick) all of them.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Problem is, Outsiders can't become liches.
Generally true, except that fiends can take the lich-fiend template.

Since that proves the general principle, I'd say that a celestial with the lich template is not impossible, just a unique accident. Maybe the celestial was forced into the ritual somehow (not taking an alignment hit), and is now a Good lich of the angriest Good subtype, bent on destroying the city of the dead and anyone in it?

[MisterKaws]

Generally true, except that fiends can take the lich-fiend template.

Since that proves the general principle, I'd say that a celestial with the lich template is not impossible, just a unique accident. Maybe the celestial was forced into the ritual somehow (not taking an alignment hit), and is now a Good lich of the angriest Good subtype, bent on destroying the city of the dead and anyone in it?

That works, I guess...