Campaign at risk of stalling out - Help needed!

[Matrota]

I DM a 3.5e campaign in which the players have recently gotten into a situation that I'd like them to get out of ASAP. Part of this is my fault as a DM, to be honest, but I'd like advice on how to fix it. If you are one of the players in my campaign "The Six: Chapter One, Rebirth," please stop reading, as this post contains campaign spoilers.

The party has teamed up with some powerful NPCs to help take down an even more powerful lich. The lich seems to have a complete body, but has traits of a demilich, complete with jeweled teeth and eye (missing left eye jewel). This BBEG is actually a somewhat nerfed demilich who has, in his vanity, created a body for his skull to inhabit. After the party tracked down and destroyed his phylactery, they escaped the lich's wrath by instantly teleporting away to the capital city to be under the protection of an archmage NPC they've befriended. They've spent the last 9 hours of gameplay in protected cities, going over the same plan multiple times, and not daring to step foot outside.

I had planned for the lich, who is busy raising a small army, to send undead minions after the party in retribution. However, as they are refusing to leave the well-protected walls of militant cities, neither the lich nor the party can make much progress.

In addition to this, most of the party is not strong enough to take on the boss yet. I tried to showcase this in the encounter after they destroyed his phylactery, but they moved out before we even got to the lich's initiative. The undead minions he was going to send were supposed to help get the party xp and level them up, but so far only one of them has gone outside the city and encountered a minion of the lich.

What should I do to keep the campaign moving? At this rate they're just gonna diplomacy their way into getting the government to do their work for them, and that's hardly what adventuring is all about.

[Uncle Pine]

Why does the all-powerful lich not have humanoid allies or minions within the city walls to further his own schemes?

[ColorBlindNinja]

Maybe you should introduce a new plot hook to motivate them? Maybe the Lich has discovered and artifact that will destroy the world if he gets his hands on it?

[Palanan]

So why, exactly, can't the lich get at the party while they're inside a city? Are they under a magical aegis cast by the NPC archmage? Does this provide them protection no matter what city they're in?

And if so, why can't the lich resort to other methods, as Uncle Pine mentioned? A low-level squad of infiltrators should be able to slip into the city with ordinary merchant traffic, as part of a caravan or the like. Once inside, it shouldn't be too hard to find the party's location and feed intel back to the lich.

And there's always the indirect route: isn't there anyone in the world, living outside these particular cities, that the PCs care about?

[Matrota]

So why, exactly, can't the lich get at the party while they're inside a city? Are they under a magical aegis cast by the NPC archmage? Does this provide them protection no matter what city they're in?

And if so, why can't the lich resort to other methods, as Uncle Pine mentioned? A low-level squad of infiltrators should be able to slip into the city with ordinary merchant traffic, as part of a caravan or the like. Once inside, it shouldn't be too hard to find the party's location and feed intel back to the lich.

And there's always the indirect route: isn't there anyone in the world, living outside these particular cities, that the PCs care about?

Well, in a sense, yes. The party has been mainly staying inside the Hall of the Archmagi, the gathering place for the kingdom's archmages, or inside their archmage friend's tower, which is well warded. I suppose infiltrates are possible, but they're hardly moving more than 15 feet away from the epic archmage, which make them less threatening.

The last thing might work actually, one of the players has a sister that left the party a while back, but otherwise the party is full of people with no family left (#edgy)

[Matrota]

Maybe you should introduce a new plot hook to motivate them? Maybe the Lich has discovered and artifact that will destroy the world if he gets his hands on it?

Ironically the Lich possesses a holy relic that the party is also trying to retrieve, which is the blade that slew him before he returned and made himself a demilich. They're planning on retrieving it when they attack his fortress to aid in the fight.

[Matrota]

Why does the all-powerful lich not have humanoid allies or minions within the city walls to further his own schemes?

He's a bit of a madman who actually keeps mostly to himself, and his minions are noticeably undead. He has a few that can pass as living, but they guard his treasures and can't abandon their duty.

[legomaster00156]

Well, if the party isn't leaving, I guess that leaves that lich plenty of time to build a new phylactery...

[ColorBlindNinja]

Ironically the Lich possesses a holy relic that the party is also trying to retrieve, which is the blade that slew him before he returned and made himself a demilich. They're planning on retrieving it when they attack his fortress to aid in the fight.

I see. Maybe the Lich should raise an undead army to assault the city? Or if your PCs insist on getting the government's help you could have the government officials argue about what should be done and ultimately accomplish nothing.

[Deeds]

So your 'duex ex machina' and his city protects the PCS and you're afraid the party may diplomacy away the lich?

Let the archmage/city try and fail to defeat the lich.

[VonMuller]

Kill the archmage. Make it clear it was because the party was being targeted. Make the consequences of his death a new plot hook.

Maybe he was the best abjurer and now the city is less defended. Maybe he was the best diviner and now they are blind to menaces.

Siege the city. Put innocents at risk because of their apathy. And also, make them know Lich is making a new phylactery with an act of unspeakable evil. Perhaps blowing up part of the city as a mass sacrifice?

[Fable Wright]

The lich is, obviously, absolutely livid at the party, the archmage, and the kingdom harboring them. He has centuries of experience, some of the greatest magical powers wielded in this or any age, and a willingness to use the blackest and most hateful kinds of magic to achieve his ends, no matter the cost.

He might not stand up to multiple archmagi on his lonesome... but he is by no means powerless here. Perhaps he collected the remains of his phylactery and used the last remnants of his soul vessel to lay the mother of all Epic death curses on the archmagi protecting the party. He knows the party can't stop him, and that the city is defenseless without its protectors. And he wants them to suffer.

So the Archmagi are losing points off their casting stat. Perhaps every day. Perhaps every hour. Perhaps just one point at a time, or perhaps one then two then four then eight points at a time. The protection isn't going to last, and it's beyond the archmages' (reduced) intelligence and capacity to do anything about it.

Get moving, PCs, 'cause there's a reckoning coming after you.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Lich has feats: Fell Drain Spell (LM), Snowcasting (FB), Flash Frost Spell (PH2).
Lich knows spells: Summon Component (1st, CM), Locate City (1st, RoD).

Lich gets to within 100 miles of the city they're in, casts Summon Component (1st, swift) for a handful of snow, uses Snowcasting to cast Flash Frost (+1) Fell Drain (+2) Locate City (4th). Everything in a 10 mile per caster level radius is covered in a layer of ice, and every creature in that area takes 2 cold damage. Anyone damaged by it also gains a negative level.

He casts this over and over again, every round until he's run out of 4th and 5th level spells.

Anyone who gains as many negative levels as their hit dice is killed and becomes a Wight (uncontrolled). Every low level commoner, expert, and warrior in the city turns into a Wight, and turns on any of their neighbors who managed to survive. Anyone slain by the Wights becomes one as well. Anyone who survives blames the PCs. Other cities will have heard about this and will not allow the party to seek refuge there until the Lich is destroyed.

They can go clean up the Wights to level up.

[John Longarrow]

You can always do a 180 on the party.

The lich, now in fear of its existence, had decided to really lay low and the diviner's can't find it. They are pretty sure said undead has departed the plane, if just for a while. That should take the fear out of your players. Let them realize there IS no giant scary undead caster waiting for them to step foot outside the walls. Let them get back to adventuring.

That way in a few levels when said lich does return they are better able to deal with him AND have a good in game reason to come looking for him.

[Gildedragon]

Lich has agents (awakened ravens?) be keeping tabs on the party
Meanwhile lich has things to do: Lich's plans keep chugging along

Meanwhile Archmage is called to some conclave: "You can come with, but you can't enter the hall. You aren't members of the order" so they may be without their guardian for a bit. conclave might be off-plane.
There some mage may recruit them for something
or they run into lich or agents thereof. Lich makes no move against them: there's strict peace accords and wards. If party attacks Lich, archmage must kick them out. Lich is there petitioning access to the order's truenamer so as to unbreak his phylactery.

Meanwhile some other threat arises

[Matrota]

Kill the archmage. Make it clear it was because the party was being targeted. Make the consequences of his death a new plot hook.

Maybe he was the best abjurer and now the city is less defended. Maybe he was the best diviner and now they are blind to menaces.

Siege the city. Put innocents at risk because of their apathy. And also, make them know Lich is making a new phylactery with an act of unspeakable evil. Perhaps blowing up part of the city as a mass sacrifice?

Unfortunately the NPC archmage has a long history with a boss figure I intend to introduce soon after the defeat of this lich, and I don't want the history to be glazed over since the archmage died.

A siege might work, even though at first I was reluctant, as the Lich was privately raising an army to take revenge on an elusive god that cursed him, not on a group of level 9 adventurers. Since they've gotten in his way now, perhaps he'll see it as an opportunity to test and showcase his true might?

[sleepyphoenixx]

You could just remove the Archmage. Have him go off-plane on important mage business.
The party is still protected by the city wards, but that opens them up to groups of assassins infiltrating the city and trying to murder them.

Even if the Archmage is there nothing stops the Lich from sending dominated assassins, intelligent undead and bound demons on suicide missions after them. Just account for the mage when building the encounter - he doesn't even have to be threatened, just stalled.

If the party won't go to the encounters the encounters just have to come to them.
Make it flashy too - enemy casters blasting away in a crowded marketplace, innocent citizens tranformed into undead abominations and sent after the party, dominated secretaries trying to poison them, hidden archers with poisoned arrows lying in wait for the party to show themselves outside.

Go through the whole playbook of nasty, indirect magical attacks until they get off their asses and decide to actually do something about it.

[Gandariel]

In short:
- if your city has multiple uber arch mages, why can't THEY solve the problem?

Find a way to answer this question in your campaign.

Possibilities include:

They are currently all occupied with a bigger problem. (They all have to expend most of their spell slots every day to keep an epic abjuration up)

they swore a magical oath to never harm the demilich (he saved them once, maybe when he was alive?)

Second problem:
- why should your players leave the city?

Introduce some important time constraint. Super Ritual, macguffin, etc

[Menzath]

I'd say you kill two birds with one stone.

Have said lich mind control/infiltrate the city with minions to use a rare "story" poison that he found/researched ages back to incapacitate the arch mages.

Now city is undefended and the PC's have to cure said poison a'fore it's to late~!

-Maybe lich also needed a component in the mages stash to help complete new awesome phylactory so he had this planned anyways?

[Vizzerdrix]

Lich has feats: Fell Drain Spell (LM), Snowcasting (FB), Flash Frost Spell (PH2).
Lich knows spells: Summon Component (1st, CM), Locate City (1st, RoD).

Lich gets to within 100 miles of the city they're in, casts Summon Component (1st, swift) for a handful of snow, uses Snowcasting to cast Flash Frost (+1) Fell Drain (+2) Locate City (4th). Everything in a 10 mile per caster level radius is covered in a layer of ice, and every creature in that area takes 2 cold damage. Anyone damaged by it also gains a negative level.


Even if you dont want to start a wightpocolypse, this sounds like a good way to kill fields and heards, and starve the city. The archmagi could notice the wight creating potential in the spells being used, forcing him to boot the players out to keep the lich from starving the city to death. Maybe he teleports them to a far off location and tosses decoys out the gates, but he cant allow the city to suffer for them.

For extra fun, have him sow the fields with blacksand instead. This should prevent farming in the long term as well as make the area surrounding the city favorable fighting ground for an undead seige later on. And for extra fun, have zombie chinchilas dust bathe in blacksand, then sneak into the cities grain storage and roll around in it, or infest it with any of the dangerous molds.

[Matrota]

These suggestions have been incredibly helpful, thank you all. I think I'm probably gonna go for a mix of a few, where the lich will use sending to tell the party to come meet him for a discussion between two parties. If they refuse, he'll raze the city of Del to the ground and turn it into his new seat of power with this whole wight apocalypse idea (of course he won't tell them how he's gonna do it, just that he will). After all, why not corrupt the food supply while taking out 80% of the city's population and turning all the commoners into deadly hazards?

The lich has no idea why they're even seeking him out in the first place, other than that he's a lich and has killed people on the way towards seeking his revenge. He would earnestly want to speak with them, mostly because he's curious and very confident in his own strength. He'll play dirty and send a private message to Oslo, saying that if they try to take advantage of the situation to try and kill him, he'll have his sister Brook, who he's taken captive, killed in an instant. Oh, and then he'd destroy the city they hold so dear.

[John Longarrow]

Just for fun, come up with a couple "Job offers" that the lich could make. Nothing like "You know, I'm really really impressed with you guys. You came out of nowhere, smoked one of my goodies, and lived to see the light of day! I really didn't think you had that in you! I could really use someone like you for a rather special job...."

[Gandariel]

These suggestions have been incredibly helpful, thank you all. I think I'm probably gonna go for a mix of a few, where the lich will use sending to tell the party to come meet him for a discussion between two parties. If they refuse, he'll raze the city of Del to the ground and turn it into his new seat of power with this whole wight apocalypse idea (of course he won't tell them how he's gonna do it, just that he will). After all, why not corrupt the food supply while taking out 80% of the city's population and turning all the commoners into deadly hazards?

The lich has no idea why they're even seeking him out in the first place, other than that he's a lich and has killed people on the way towards seeking his revenge. He would earnestly want to speak with them, mostly because he's curious and very confident in his own strength. He'll play dirty and send a private message to Oslo, saying that if they try to take advantage of the situation to try and kill him, he'll have his sister Brook, who he's taken captive, killed in an instant. Oh, and then he'd destroy the city they hold so dear.

Again. And if he's so strong and dangerous, why don't the multiple arch mages in the city intervene?

[Crake]

out of curiosity, what level is the lich, and what level are the PCs? This seems like it's quite possibly a doomed scenario for the PCs, even under the protection of a powerful archmage. There are some things you just can't protect against. If the lich wants to kill the PCs, he doesn't need to show up in the city to do so.

[Cheech]

If they really want to handle it diplomatically, you could let them. Award xp for achieving diplomatic objectives, and let them level up that way for a little while.

Alternatively, the Archmage could give them an item that makes them undetectable to the lich's scrying, letting them go out of the cities and accomplish secondary objectives (which may or may not be related to taking on the lich, but wouldn't involve facing it directly) without fear of the lich finding them and raining merry hell.

[sleepyphoenixx]

out of curiosity, what level is the lich, and what level are the PCs? This seems like it's quite possibly a doomed scenario for the PCs, even under the protection of a powerful archmage. There are some things you just can't protect against. If the lich wants to kill the PCs, he doesn't need to show up in the city to do so.

If they're low level enough for that to be a problem they're low level enough to not actually be worth the lichs personal attention.
If there's so many archmages in the setting and he has a personal vendetta on top of that he probably has his hands full dealing with that instead of curbstomping a few weaklings.
That's the kind of thing you send mooks after. Unless you're playing in a campaign with a really genre-savvy BBEG at least.

The fact that that approach will provide them with a way to level up against reasonable challenges is just a happy coincidence, really.:smallwink:

[Matrota]

out of curiosity, what level is the lich, and what level are the PCs? This seems like it's quite possibly a doomed scenario for the PCs, even under the protection of a powerful archmage. There are some things you just can't protect against. If the lich wants to kill the PCs, he doesn't need to show up in the city to do so.

Player Characters:
Scar - Cleric 8 greater vampire
Guinevere - Ranger 8 elf with a custom undead template
Molag'Bal - Fighter 8 orc
Oslo - Rogue 6/Cleric 10 halfling who has, due to some crazy rolls and odd circumstances, gained divine rank 0
New PC being introduced next session at level 8, apparently some form of rune mage

NPCs:
Lukan - Enchantment specialization Sorcerer 20/Archmage 10/Artificer 2 silverbrow human
Morgath’Khal - Wizard 22 human with demilich template, has a private demiplane and fortress crawling with undead under his command.

[Matrota]

Again. And if he's so strong and dangerous, why don't the multiple arch mages in the city intervene?

There's one Archmage per major city in this kingdom. The party is currently in Lukan's (their friend) city. The lich hasn't done a ton in this kingdom actually, and might have been completely off the radar if the players hadn't met some of his victims from many years ago.

Due to this, they're fighting him to avenge their friends and prevent him from using the army he is ammassing, though they have no idea what his motives are. Since the lich hasn't made any moves, there has been no reason for the government to retaliate.

[TheBrassDuke]

In short:
- if your city has multiple uber arch mages, why can't THEY solve the problem?

Find a way to answer this question in your campaign.

Possibilities include:

They are currently all occupied with a bigger problem. (They all have to expend most of their spell slots every day to keep an epic abjuration up)

they swore a magical oath to never harm the demilich (he saved them once, maybe when he was alive?)

Second problem:
- why should your players leave the city?

Introduce some important time constraint. Super Ritual, macguffin, etc

Emphasis mine.

Maybe they're bound by something akin to Sepulchrave's
The Great Injunction

...is a time-honoured convention which is defied by mages at their peril. Excepting acts of self-defense, a Wizard may not use his power for political or temporal ends, particularly on the battlefield during war. This prevents the escalation of magical warfare, and the casual employment of wizards to fling ‘fireballs’ around upon the battlefield. The Great Injunction is a magical détente which transcends all considerations of race, gender, power and alignment. It is inviolable. "Grey Areas" – for example, if Mostin were to scry on behalf of the Duchess – certainly exist, but Mages must be cautious lest they push the limits too far.

The "Council" which Mostin refers to, is nothing more (or less) than the sum total of all of the Wizards in Wyre and its dependencies. In fact, no formal body of mages exists.

The Great Injunction is based upon "Murgen’s Edict" – a similar idea appearing in certain novels by Jack Vance.

They can ward the city, but maybe they can't interfere with the Lich due to that..?

[Shadowflick]

If you go with a siege, why not make it a sort of count down. Like the skyies are turning black and the archmage can tell that this is the sort of spell used to steal the souls of countless amount of villeins to make a stronger lich. When the time of the siege comes, instead of having an army approach....have them rise from the ground! Tearing there way out from the ground beneath the sneak attack! It could give the idea that the party is never safe. Then have something like a zombie dragon show up and try to destroy something important to them while the undead ravage the streets. It could also serve as a sign that the lich is growing in power while the PC's are staying idle. After the dust settles you can send them on a quest to gather allies and try and seige the lich in return, culminating in a big huge boss fight

[Gandariel]

There's one Archmage per major city in this kingdom. The party is currently in Lukan's (their friend) city. The lich hasn't done a ton in this kingdom actually, and might have been completely off the radar if the players hadn't met some of his victims from many years ago.

Due to this, they're fighting him to avenge their friends and prevent him from using the army he is ammassing, though they have no idea what his motives are. Since the lich hasn't made any moves, there has been no reason for the government to retaliate.

Ok, for now.

But from now on, you will *always* have to answer this problem in some way.

Evil demilich sieges the city? Archmage should intervene.
Evil demilich wants to get item X that allows him to control the world? Archmage should intervene.

Unless you find a good reason why that doesn't happen, the most logical and simple solution is that the level 32 friendly spellcaster solves your problems for you.

I really feel you *have* to answer this question at some point for your story to make sense.

I just came up with another good one: the BBEG curses the party, such that nobody believes them when they ask for help against him.

Or maybe he created this epic spell on his Truename or something, that makes it so that everyone believes he doesn't exist (so noone believes the party and they can't get help).
But why do the party know about him? Maybe cause they met him in person, maybe because they were in X place, or did Y thing.

[Matrota]

Lich has feats: Fell Drain Spell (LM), Snowcasting (FB), Flash Frost Spell (PH2).
Lich knows spells: Summon Component (1st, CM), Locate City (1st, RoD).

Snowcasting has a prerequisite of con 13, since liches have no con score, can the demilich actually have this feat?

[Segev]

Look in Libris Mortis at the Mother Cyst feat, and the line of Necrotic spells it allows. Look, particularly, at necrotic scrying and necrotic tumor. Take note of the various spells which kill people to turn them into Skulking Cysts; at least one of them (necrotic eruption, I believe) also damages and infects anybody nearby with more Necrotic Cysts.

Look up the Skulking Cyst in the back; these monsters can hide well and spread necrotic cysts like candy on Halloween.

Now, ask yourself what your demilich could do with a Mother Cyst bulging from the eye socket that's missing a gem. Consider all the minions he could get by infecting them with necrotic tumor. And how he could use them as walking bombs.

Personally, to make my villains as hatable as possible, I like using children. Low fort saves make them easy prey, high sympathy factor makes people not want to suspect, let alone take them out. Oh, and if anybody gets the bright idea to excise the cyst from them, the little tyke's agonized screams and high chance of dying from the procedure demoralizes them.

[daremetoidareyo]

Honest opinion; Liches are boring. Wizard nemesises are only fun until 5th level spells. Contingency sucks to deal with.

Introduce a wildly different plotline completely unrelated to the lich. What do your players want for their characters? Offer a swashbuckling and daring quest for the pc's to trounce around in. You know, a chandelier fight against mutant dragons with halfling aristocrat riders. And something for the vampire too...

[Honest Tiefling]

Screw the PC's! This Lich has better things to do. But now he's been revealed, so it's time to roll out the undead army. A pity to reveal it now, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

So many the PCs need to butter up their friend and do some errands for him. Sure, he's their friend, but at the very least, he'd appreciate if they would train a bit or be helpful. Maybe this archmage guild isn't as unified as they thought, so there's a bit of political machinations going on. Maybe another Archmage tries to dupe the party into stealing a magical macguffin...So they can ward a abbey outside of the city where their secret family resides. Others are trying to figure out more and more information about the lich and try to talk to the party. Others still believe THEY should be in charge and seek anyway they can to protect the city by bringing down the current leader. There could even be nobles and other people wanting to talk to someone in the guild, and their friend directs these distractions to the party to get them out of his hair so he can ward the city, thank you very much.

After that, the party realizes a sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight issue...See, undead armies and farming don't mix. After a brief respite with social or political encounters, the news hit: There's a famine. Food is being hoarded and sold on the black market. It gets so bad that grocers have to hire protection after one of their own died to looters. So now the party has the choice of staying in a starving and increasingly desperate city, or try to take out a bit of the undead army and recover some food.

[Gildedragon]

Honest opinion; Liches are boring. Wizard nemesises are only fun until 5th level spells. Contingency sucks to deal with.

Introduce a wildly different plotline completely unrelated to the lich. What do your players want for their characters? Offer a swashbuckling and daring quest for the pc's to trounce around in. You know, a chandelier fight against mutant dragons with halfling aristocrat riders. And something for the vampire too...


Screw the PC's! This Lich has better things to do. But now he's been revealed, so it's time to roll out the undead army. A pity to reveal it now, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

So many the PCs need to butter up their friend and do some errands for him. Sure, he's their friend, but at the very least, he'd appreciate if they would train a bit or be helpful. Maybe this archmage guild isn't as unified as they thought, so there's a bit of political machinations going on. Maybe another Archmage tries to dupe the party into stealing a magical macguffin...So they can ward a abbey outside of the city where their secret family resides. Others are trying to figure out more and more information about the lich and try to talk to the party. Others still believe THEY should be in charge and seek anyway they can to protect the city by bringing down the current leader. There could even be nobles and other people wanting to talk to someone in the guild, and their friend directs these distractions to the party to get them out of his hair so he can ward the city, thank you very much.

After that, the party realizes a sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight issue...See, undead armies and farming don't mix. After a brief respite with social or political encounters, the news hit: There's a famine. Food is being hoarded and sold on the black market. It gets so bad that grocers have to hire protection after one of their own died to looters. So now the party has the choice of staying in a starving and increasingly desperate city, or try to take out a bit of the undead army and recover some food.

These are good ideas
Just precipitate the showdown wirh the lich.
Lich waits until archmage is out and goes full steam to finish their plots. They've been rendered mortal now... Best finish whatever they had in mind.

[Segev]

Alternatively, liches can make new phylacteries if their old ones are destroyed. It just costs a lot. May take some questing. Like, say, sending out hordes of undead to find sacrifices for the ritual, and the like.

Let the PCs know that the lich's activities seem focused in odd ways, and that he's taking prisoners and even has undead seemingly searching for...stuff. Let them figure out, with investigation, that he's gathering materials like he did just before he became a lich, or (alternatively) just let them discover that this is the ingredients for the phylactery.

The knowledge that he's remaking his phylactery, and that it will require horrifically evil actions that might hurt thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, might spur them to action against him while he's still killable.