How to keep my baddie away

[Redhood101]

So my story involves a king from an ancient kingdom became a loch and has recently woken up and wants to rebuild his empire. My question is can anyone think of a good way to have my villain be locked away from a thousand years? My current idea is that some kind of time spell...? Kept him and his last city frozen in time and the party somehow undoes it? It’s dumb and I was hoping for some ideas.

[aimlessPolymath]

A lich regenerates at his phalactery after 1d10 days. However, no safeguards keep it from immediately dying afterwards (such as if it is in a suitably inhospitable place). Additionally, he would have no spells prepared.

Imagine a lich rejuvinating, only to die to a bath of ultraholy water. Five days later, he revives, only to die again. Imagine this over hundreds of years, until by a miracle of statistics (2d4 rolls its minimum just enough, a natural 20 on Swim pays off), he reaches the doorknob to escape. Ths lich is out. And boy, is he MAD.

[PiperThePaladin]

A lich regenerates at his phalactery after 1d10 days. However, no safeguards keep it from immediately dying afterwards (such as if it is in a suitably inhospitable place). Additionally, he would have no spells prepared.

Imagine a lich rejuvinating, only to die to a bath of ultraholy water. Five days later, he revives, only to die again. Imagine this over hundreds of years, until by a miracle of statistics (2d4 rolls its minimum just enough, a natural 20 on Swim pays off), he reaches the doorknob to escape. Ths lich is out. And boy, is he MAD.

Man, I was going to suggest that some ancient adventurers had defeated the lich but had no way to destroy the phylactery, so they sealed it. 1,000+ years later, the seal has finally decayed. But that is a WAY COOLER IDEA.

[Goaty14]

Cover the phylactery with Quintessence (SRD), which stops time from passing for anything that is covered in it. The Rejuvenation process will stop for as long as it's covered.

It's pretty cliche, but the lich could escape of some of the quintessence is knocked off from a recent earthquake or the like.

[rferries]

I think you're fine by simply saying a deity or epic spell (with the transport (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/transport.htm) seed) froze the lich and his city in time. RAW effects (e.g. holy water and quintessence as mentioned above, the imprisonment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/imprisonment.htm)spell, etc.) wouldn't affect the city as well, or wouldn't do so without an epic-level cost in gp and XP.

The binding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/binding.htm) spell might give you inspiration, though undead are immune.

[The Magister]

OK.... So, the lich-king and his city somehow get largely whacked right out of reality as part of the effort to defeat him and the legions of followers that inhabit it by some long-dead party of mighty adventurers. The king and the few parts of his city that remain in 'existence' end up in the Far Realm but, since time technically does not exist there (at least not in any fashion recognizable to most mortals), the lich-king and his shattered city are technically only there for a few minutes before being returned to wherever they came from after what appears to be only moments to them.

[brian 333]

As the empire crumbled around the lich and barbarian armies crushed his own on every front, the lich enacted an epic spell that moved himself and everything within a mile of his magical hourglass forward in time. There, forgotten by the kings whose barbarian kingdoms had fallen or become civilized the lich set about reconquering the lands.

Only to eventually be defeated. As the hordes of his enemies encroached upon his central fortress the lich again spun his hourglass on its gimbals and jumped forward in time.

This time he accidentally took a party of adventurers with him who had been scouting the perimeter of his castle. Having spent their careers learning about the lich, its history, and how to defeat it, they arrive in a future that has once again forgotten. Their knowledge falls on deaf ears.

But once again the lich begins to build his strength. As the ancient ones, who now realize they have moved forward in time, seek out their ancient homelands to warn their descendants of the danger, a new party forms with the intention of defeating the lich before his strength can build up.

No one knows about the hourglass. They only know they must somehow prevent the lich from escaping once again into the future.

A potential twist: the guys from the past wish to return. With the hourglass they could. Unfortunately, if they try they go back too far, to a time before the lich existed. They build a fort and gear up for the rise of the lich, who never comes. Obsessed with defeating the lich, they use powerful magic to extend their lives. And eventually the most powerful of them becomes the lich...

[Johel]

"-Your party finds a trapdoor on the floor. It leads down a chimney, much like the one used for the oubliettes in some castles. The walls are damp and covered in moss. At the light of your torch, a colony of spiders crawls away. You cannot see the bottom but dropping a pebble reveals a wide, wet echo, much like if there was a large room below but partially filled with water."

"-We are going down, I guess !! Prepare the rope. The rogue will make himself useful for once. Check for traps, too."

"-Wizard, can you detect the presence of magic down there ?."

"-There is magic alright !! The aura is overwhelming my sight !! It's glowing... it's majestous !! There's conjuration at work here !! It's half-way into the shaft, maybe 40 ft down."

"-I go down. I use the guidance of the wizard to find and disable the trap if possible."

"-You successfully find the trap but as for disabling it, you only manage to activate it. A strong wave of magical energy overtakes you. Do you want to resist it ? If yes, make a will save"

"- 15 !!"

"-Not close. You are back to full hit points."

"-...whaaaaat ?"

"-It was a healing spell !! Healing is a sub-school of conjuration !!"

"-But why a healing spell in a trap ?"


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If it's not enough to keep them out and they do go down the shaft, the adventurers will only find a room 40 ft high and 40 ft wide, partially submerge in 10 ft of water which an analysis by a cleric might reveal is holy if using Detect Magic, Spellcraft and a successful Knowledge (Religion).
The walls are mostly smooth, except for a corner of the room where clawing marks have dented the stone up to the ceiling. Whatever poor creature fell down there probably died trying to climb up, with little to no hope, as the only exist was far to distant from the walls.

There is no treasure down there, except for that small statue at the bottom which glows with evil energy. Our heroes decided to stay slumber the obviously cursed artifact.

Of course, the water alone is worth a fortune : about 25 gp per pint...


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Sold for about 5 gp per bottle, the holy water that the Rogue started selling on his downtime allowed him to quickly corner the regional market. He even started to sell by the barrel to far away lands, having found here a luxury comodity with close to no production cost for him while his competition couldn't do better than 25 gp per bottle.
Soon, he was a very rich man.
He knew the source would run dry one day, of course... but there was more than enough : about a million pints. More than he could ever hope to sell. And what he could hope to sell was fortune enough for several lifetime.


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Of course, it was not necessary for evil that the water disapeared.
Only that someone provided a way to get up before the water sent the old cursed king back into oblivion.
The half-mad Lich was careful not to reveal its presence the first time it saw of the intruder, letting him fill his bottles and then get back up. The Lich had endured eons of suffering and while the water still burned it, it could tolerate the pain, especially now that hope had been rekindled in its dark soul.

No more than ten or twenty cycles after, the Lich saw a bucket being lowered into the pool. The human had installed a pulley system at the top of his well of fortune. And a few more cycles after, the greedy little man wasn't even operating the extraction himself, now paying a pair of half-wits to do the job, filling the barrels for him while he came only for the pickup. They were working nearly every day. It was just a question of time now : either the pool would be emptied or the rope would be there for the Lich...


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Finding the butchered remains of his employees barely phased the rogue, who hired two more, along with two guards.
But the extra security was too late, for the threat was already out...