Ideas for a somewhat economic based short story?

[DannehBoi]

So I'm working on on a short campaign revolving around a lich. He wants to become powerful and control a nation, but the twist is he wants to have an economic take-over with some propaganda supporting him rather than a military one as he's seen quite a few military take-overs from other liches fail miserably. This way he can buy the happiness of his future subjects, meaning they won't fight him when he tries to dethrone the current leaders.

He's figured out a way to create an artificial soul out of the arcane elements to inhabit dead bodies, and in doing so has created a half undead race that is loyal to him. He has a plenty large enough group to repair an abandoned town and getting it running again and the town he's inhabited has a collapsed gold mine that still is very rich in ore. The few people that have visited since he moved in felt too uneasy to stay long however, so the lich hasn't had a chance to try to strike up a conversation. Needless to say, the lich has focused on illusion so it can disguise him as a living human.

The group was hired by someone from the nearby town to investigate, then when they get there they can find out what's going on. If they decide they don't like the idea of a lich gaining power under even non-violent means, they can head to a major city nearby and get help in squashing this undead threat. The militia of this nearby town is busy due to some situation that's come up. The PC's can help them out so they can spare troops to drive out the lich. The lich himself won't fight, he'll just run and hide if conflict comes about as to prevent making more of a scene.

What I can't figure out though, is what to do if they decide to side with him. I suppose I could reskin the quests for if they side against him to just be a different group asking for help with a different problem, but I wanted a little more depth to it though. I don't want it to have the quest solid combat or solid roleplaying though, I'd like to at least have some sort of balance. Does anyone have some ideas?

Oh, and this is going to be based in 3.5 with just core and run at level 3. It'll probably end at level 4 or 5, so please try to keep this in mind.

[plastickle]

Even if the Lich gets the PCs onside, the power structure of the area he is trying to conquer will oppose the takeover, regardless of how peaceful it is. If the PCs are with the Lich, they are against [nearby town] that sent them to investigate, and [major city nearby] where they were going to get help against the Lich in the other tine of the story fork.

So you've already got several tiers of antagonists lined up:

1) The [nearby town] Lord or City Official whose position will be threatened by the Lich's provision of wealth to the town.

2) Other Power Players, probably either Leader(s) of [other nearby town(s)] or Mid-Level Official(s) in [major city nearby], whose prestige or power is jostled by the new Player.

3) The actual leadership of [major city nearby], who marshall their forces once they find out the new Player is a Lich. The emergency may even cause them to find an ally in [some situation that's come up], so your detailed work on that other fork can be used here instead.