Help Me Pick A Phylactery For A Penguin Lich Please

[unseenmage]

Got the cash, got the level, got that NE alignment, just need to settle on the specific particulars of what the phylactery will be and how to safeguard it.

I'm suffering a lot of decision paralysis here so assistance would be appreciated.

The character is a penguin. And a necromancer. Uses Clerical Spheres of Power and gestalt Wizard levels to necromance. Has loads of minions and is openly a necromancer and part of a community of the same.

Has a business that repairs corpses (Corpse Manipulation) both for the bereaved and for fellow necromancers and the occasional criminal case. Controls a couple of sentient, enlarged Ankhegs who are equipped with Know Dungeoneering and Know Architecture who are currently expanding the tombs ever downwards.

Current level is 14 if that matters. Game allows guns but not tech (on the players side), and no outer space shenanigans. Setting is the frozen north of Golarion. Bit of frigid glacial crater a few wastelands to the side of Irrisen. Anything official SoP or PF allowed. Custom magic items and spells are allowed but we try to avoid the extra bookkeeping.

[Phhase]

If Warforged or an equivalent sort of golem is present you could actually make one of those into your phylactery. Warforged armor specifically can be enchanted as if it were a magical item, despite it being an integral part of the entity.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Make it out of apparently mundane ice, and put it at the center of a glacier. Use some sort of equivalent of Passwall that works on ice to place it, and have an empty chamber in the glacier 'nearby' the phylactery for your new body to regrow in if you're killed. Due to the thickness of the ice, it shouldn't be possible to detect the phylactery's presence from outside the ice. Just in case, Sequester makes it undetectable, but you would need to refresh that (Extended of course) every few months unless you can somehow make it permanent.

[Batcathat]

I feel like an egg would be a pretty fitting phylactery for a penguin, since you're sort of "reborn" from it.

[Maat Mons]

Seconding the egg idea. I'll go further and say fabergé egg.

[Kurald Galain]

I feel like an egg would be a pretty fitting phylactery for a penguin, since you're sort of "reborn" from it.

Also, the original lich from folklore (Koschei the Deathless) hides his soul in an egg. Then he hides the egg in a duck, the duck in a rabbit, and the rabbit in a wolf; something like that. That can make for an interesting plot, too.

[Batcathat]

Also, the original lich from folklore (Koschei the Deathless) hides his soul in an egg. Then he hides the egg in a duck, the duck in a rabbit, and the rabbit in a wolf; something like that. That can make for an interesting plot, too.

Oooh, good point, I didn't even think of that. Makes my idea seem smarter than it was. :smallbiggrin:

[TheStranger]

The egg idea is too flavorful to pass up for a bird lich. Do that. Bonus points if it’s the actual egg he/she/it hatched from, pieced back together. Or if your penguin is female, an egg she laid, for the implication that she’s willing to sacrifice her unborn child for eternal unlife. But in a pinch, an elaborately carved jade/ivory egg is acceptable.

As far as safeguarding it, the whole bottom of the ocean/inside a glacier/pebble on a beach/hidden where nobody can ever find it thing seems to come up a lot, but there’s really no point. If the plot demands that the phylactery be found, it will be found/threatened and the GM will justify it somehow. Applies to both PC and NPC liches. No exceptions. So just put it wherever you think is coolest, protect it well enough that nobody can say you’re being careless, and call it a day.

Also, I’m unreasonably bothered by a penguin in the north instead of the south. Much more so than a penguin lich. Just thought you should know.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by TheStranger
Also, I’m unreasonably bothered by a penguin in the north instead of the south.

A level 14 gestalt cleric/wizard probably has more options to move about the planet than the average waddles-on-ice-floes crowd.

[TheStranger]

A level 14 gestalt cleric/wizard probably has more options to move about the planet than the average waddles-on-ice-floes crowd.

That was why I was “unreasonably” bothered.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Elves
For phylactery, instead of putting it in center of glacier, seems appropriate for you to have to dive deep underwater in a freezing sea to reach it, since penguins are deep divers.

This is certainly thematic, but the trouble here is that Golarion's seas are busy places, and "deep underwater" means "front porch for merfolk and all their friends."

Inside a glacier makes it more difficult to access, although keep in mind that glaciers typically flow downhill to the ocean, where the glacier's leading edge calves off into icebergs. The phylactery could end up floating inside an iceberg, which might wander into warmer waters, melt, and drop the phylactery straight into the lap of a merfolk cleric.

[DeTess]

This is certainly thematic, but the trouble here is that Golarion's seas are busy places, and "deep underwater" means "front porch for merfolk and all their friends."


Then the deep-sea hiding space even comes with minions. I mean, you'll need to kill and raise them first, but you're (going to be) a lich, that shouldn't be an issue.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by DeTess
Then the deep-sea hiding space even comes with minions.

The deep ocean has its own adventurers, some of whom will be very effective at dealing with minions. Still too exposed.

[TheStranger]

The deep ocean has its own adventurers, some of whom will be very effective at dealing with minions. Still too exposed.

This sort of counterexample is why I maintain that trying to put your phylactery somewhere totally safe is a fool’s errand. A PC’s phylactery is like a PC’s family - it’s just a plot hook waiting to happen. The best you can do is make your GM be creative about it, but if the GM’s notes say that the heroes have found your phylactery it’s probably going to happen.

IMO, you’re better off doing something cool with it and figuring out your protections around the coolness factor rather than going crazy trying to think of something that your GM can’t counter. Besides, even if you succeed and the GM leaves it alone, where’s the fun in that? It’s more fun if your phylactery is a pearl in a giant zombie oyster that you keep in a tank in your sanctum that’s full of skeletal sharks with laser beams on their heads.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by TheStranger
It’s more fun if your phylactery is a pearl in a giant zombie oyster….

I think we have a winner.

:smalltongue:

[Segev]

It’s more fun if your phylactery is a pearl in a giant zombie oyster that you keep in a tank in your sanctum that’s full of skeletal sharks with laser beams on their heads.

Do this, and then make a big deal over protections around a Faberge Egg that you suggest or even outright claim is your phylactery. Maybe make hundreds of them, each magical items, each with nasty traps if broken, and claim you did this to obscure which one is your real phylactery. All the while the zombie oyster with your phylactery-pearl is an unimportant decorative minion.

[TheStranger]

Do this, and then make a big deal over protections around a Faberge Egg that you suggest or even outright claim is your phylactery. Maybe make hundreds of them, each magical items, each with nasty traps if broken, and claim you did this to obscure which one is your real phylactery. All the while the zombie oyster with your phylactery-pearl is an unimportant decorative minion.

I agree that this is a smart way to hide your phylactery. However, it runs into the same problem as a lot of other smart ideas - your GM already knows the answer. You can’t play a shell game with the GM, because you’ve already explained exactly how you set it up.

If you want to do something like this (or really if you want the protections on your phylactery to matter at all), whether you get any benefit from being smart about it is a matter of GM fiat. Unless you have total faith in your GM to handle it in a fair and fun manner, it might be worth having an OOC conversation about it.

[Segev]

I agree that this is a smart way to hide your phylactery. However, it runs into the same problem as a lot of other smart ideas - your GM already knows the answer. You can’t play a shell game with the GM, because you’ve already explained exactly how you set it up.

If you want to do something like this (or really if you want the protections on your phylactery to matter at all), whether you get any benefit from being smart about it is a matter of GM fiat. Unless you have total faith in your GM to handle it in a fair and fun manner, it might be worth having an OOC conversation about it.

The point wasn't to make it GM-proof; you can't. The point was to have fun with it. I think both the fancy eggs AND the oyster are fun, and I think the fancy eggs can be made even more fun by having creative traps and uses given to them.

[TheStranger]

The point wasn't to make it GM-proof; you can't. The point was to have fun with it. I think both the fancy eggs AND the oyster are fun, and I think the fancy eggs can be made even more fun by having creative traps and uses given to them.

I agree the fancy eggs can be fun. And having them as traps for any would-be heroes can be fun. But if your GM decides that the heroes ignore the traps on the fancy eggs and go straight to the giant oyster, that’s the opposite of fun. And I’ve known some GMs that would do that. So it might be worth a conversation, in general terms, to figure out what sorts of things might be fun.

[Segev]

I agree the fancy eggs can be fun. And having them as traps for any would-be heroes can be fun. But if your GM decides that the heroes ignore the traps on the fancy eggs and go straight to the giant oyster, that’s the opposite of fun. And I’ve known some GMs that would do that. So it might be worth a conversation, in general terms, to figure out what sorts of things might be fun.

I'm not sure how not having the fancy eggs would change that. If the GM is just going to go for the giant oyster, he's just going to go for the giant oyster. If it's the only thing to go after rather than there being obfuscation in place, how does that improve things?

[TheStranger]

I'm not sure how not having the fancy eggs would change that. If the GM is just going to go for the giant oyster, he's just going to go for the giant oyster. If it's the only thing to go after rather than there being obfuscation in place, how does that improve things?
The advantage of not having the fancy eggs in that case is that you haven’t wasted OOC time and IC resources coming up with something that was going to fail by GM fiat.

I assume your sanctum is alarmed in some manner. Imagine the alarm goes off and you teleport in. Ideally, the floor will be strewn with broken eggs and the intruders will be frustrated and bloodied. But if the eggs are untouched and the pearl is missing, you’ll probably just be pissed off at your GM no matter how good a justification he has for how they pulled it off.

I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m saying it’s worth having an OOC talk to set some expectations because there aren’t any rules for whether this sort of thing works as intended.

[unseenmage]

So I'm liking the glacier/iceberg and egg ideas. Funny y'all should mention eggs. There is a nest of half solar dragon, half silver dragon eggs at the pinnacle of the local terrain that never hatched.
Their mother was flying about afflicted with madness to the point she was equally likely to fire breath someone as to adopt them on any given day (PC's healed her).
The dad... that guy was "dead". Turns out he was actually the local self proclaimed king who'd hired us in the first place all along. Guy bought a life size statue of his dragon self carved from red marble off of us for an exorbitant price at a low enough character level that I had to cheese carrying capacities and spend way more time than was wise reassembling the colossal thing with spells. (Go look up how PF prices and sets the weight for marble statues. It's... not great.) Was a god 'gotcha' moment though, definitely had me fooled.

The GM has made it abundantly clear that the necromancer (that's me! :) ) is to go no where near the dead fossilized clutch of eggs. Both the mother and father have said as much.
Which, of course, begs the question... can a fossilized dragon egg be secretly made into my phylactery? No better guardians than a heroic NPC space dragon and his scaly gal.

Faberge penguin eggs as phylactery decoys is a great touch too. The only issue is that my character is chronically broke. The GM introduced an undead necropolis and associated slave markets and corpse markets and my flipper shaped little pockets have been empty ever since.
On the other hand I have several frostfallen pukwudgies, a soon-to-be mummified intellect devourer, and a pallid vector fungus queen who will eventually be my second mummy lord. (Neither frostfallen nor mummy lord takes away the disease special attack. Neat.)

So yeah. Thanks all for the suggestions and assistance.
I'm thinking I'll flesh to stone an infant penguin person, phylactery that, hide it in a glacier/iceberg, THEN hide a bunch of faberge-ed penguin eggs all over the place, each magicaly tricked out to be undetectable and hardened etc etc.

EDIT: Oh yeah! About the decorative pet undead oyster. We actually have a bigdumb undead mascot. Fiery simple templated Gelatinous Cube that's then hit with the Frostfallen template making it an IcyHot gel cube. We even stuck some isitoqs (sentient, flying, undead eyeballs) in it as googly eyes. And I'm pretty sure it's gone through the whole campaign with at least one completely mundane skeleton floating in it as a backup corpse just in case we needed it. This thing is worse than useless. We actually had to research whether templates can give negative Dexterity. It was almost funny enough to animate a completely immobile gel cube but we ruled that it can have its Dex score.

[Ason]

Since you've got a high level necromancer on your hands, why not hide its phylactery in that giant zombie oyster but then hide that Oyster somewhere in the River Styx in the Abyss. That way it's a whole expedition to get the darn thing, and extracting it is even harder but still doable. And on the penguin's side of things, it means that even he is no longer quite sure where the phylactery is, since every time he dies he regains consciousness somewhere downstream. Perhaps it's hidden in an especially frosty, ice-ridden section of the river.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by unseenmage
The dad... that guy was "dead". Turns out he was actually the local self proclaimed king who'd hired us in the first place all along. Guy bought a life size statue of his dragon self carved from red marble off of us for an exorbitant price at a low enough character level that I had to cheese carrying capacities and spend way more time than was wise reassembling the colossal thing with spells. (Go look up how PF prices and sets the weight for marble statues. It's... not great.) Was a god 'gotcha' moment though, definitely had me fooled.

Can you elaborate on this? How was the king both dead and a dragon? And a dragon statue as well?

Also, any chance you could share the stats for a half-solar/half-silver dragon? Assuming your DM has made those available.

[unseenmage]

Can you elaborate on this? How was the king both dead and a dragon? And a dragon statue as well?

Also, any chance you could share the stats for a half-solar/half-silver dragon? Assuming your DM has made those available.
We arrive in a frontier town in the frozen tundra. It's a ramshackle place in the middle of like 3 or 4 warring factions of locals. Troglodytes, snow elves, ghouls, etc.

The town is on the edge of a great crater valley that has a mountain spire in the middle. The whole area was the hoard of a great warm solar Dragon who recently died. Now so many adventurers have gathered that a town has formed.

The king of this town is a raucous sort, and wealthy. The dead dragon's hoard is broken up into hidden caches, each a dungeon in it's own right. This king is said to've scouted and discovered most, if not all, of the caches first. It is he who caused the gold rush here.

Each cache is different, some are clockwork manufacturing another would be an art stash, another is a rogue's gallery, etc.

The king will sometimes favor a team of adventurers with a map to a cache in exchange for services rendered. Sometimes that means you getrich, sometimes the adventurers never return because they were annoying and sent to their death.

We explored a cache and found a colossal solar Dragon statue of red marble, tricked out as a trap, It was a to scale sculpture of the deceased owner.
I, like a good PC, tore it down, packed it up, brought it back, spammed mending etc, then sold the thing.
It was worth too much to get cash so the king bought it in exchange for land and downtime finds for building. Now I had my business, evil church, and tombs.

The half solar, half silver dragon eggs are a the top of the mountain guarded by their maddened (currently cured) mother. They were the egg equivalent of still born and have long since petrified. So no stats. Sorry.

It was recently revealed that the king of the town is actually the supposed deceased dragon himself hiding in plain sight from an enemy shadow dragon. The guy faked his death and the hoard. Seriously an entire crater valley of wealth and riches because he needed to fake out the enemy dragon. Now we're in the middle and I'm just itching to get my hands in a great big Dragon carcass for mummy lord ification