As well as being puissant spellcasters, lichs are virtually immortal; they cannot be destroyed until their phylactery is also destroyed. Thus, a lich’s phylactery is a tremendously important object both for the lich and the adventurers seeking to defeat it. However, a lich’s phylactery is rarely described. The default phylactery is a small metal box filled with rune-covers scraps of parchment. Whatever form it takes, the phylactery is surpassingly difficult to destroy. (And obviously heavily guarded or well hidden).

Use the list below, to generate a phylactery’s details:

This hinged plain iron amulet opens to reveal a small, seemingly empty recess, perhaps once used to hold a small picture of a loved one. The recess is actually a tiny inter-dimensional space which can only be accessed by speaking the lich’s name. This space contains the lich’s research it used for its transformation.
This seemingly rusted iron comb was once apparently inlaid with several small gems, but these have long since fallen from their fixings. The comb is hidden in plain sight, amid a pile of mouldering and rusty equipment taken from corpses of the lich’s enemies.
A seemingly innocuous platinum coin lies among a hoard of similar coins hidden away in a dusty vault. The coin is one of a handful of ancient coins intermixed among more recent designs. Most of its features have been worn away through use and age.
A lump of magical hardened platinum lies at the centre of a large stone boulder created by stone shape. The boulder is so thick, detect magic and the like do not detect the phylactery’s magic, although a perceptive PC may notice the rock was formed by magic (and wonder why).
This phylactery takes the form of an over-sized amulet. It hangs from the mouldering collar worn by a huge skeletal dog lying in state in its own sarcophagus hidden in a secret recess in the floor.
This lich used the very first dagger it owned as the vehicle for its transformation. It etched the secrets of lichdom onto very thin sheets of gold which were then wrapped around the weapon’s blade. The phylactery was then thrown into a deep pool somewhere in the lich’s lair.
An animal lover in life, this lich decided to use the animated bones of its first animal companion—or perhaps a beloved pet—as its phylactery. The bones were drenched in molten adamantine before being animated.
Diamond—one of the hardest substances known to man—makes an excellent phylactery. This lich spent years hunting down a diamond as big as a man’s fist. Magically enchanted and inscribed with various special command words the value of the thing is virtually incalculable…unless it is destroyed in which case the magic lurking within its form causes it to evaporate like ice in the midday sun.
Vastly powerful, this spellcaster defeated a saintlike paladin during its quest for immortality. The paladin bore a holy sword that was shattered during the confrontation. The lich used the hilt of the weapon as its phylactery, revelling in the irony of transforming such a potent good-aligned weapon into an object powering its unholy life. To make matters worse the hilt is distinctive—carved from the bone of a balor and inscribed with the symbols of various good-aligned deities; the PCs may recognise it as the shards of a legendary, lost weapon. The lich has kept the shattered piece of the blade and in extremis may offer up the various shard in exchange for its “life” (gambling the PCs will either hesitate to destroy such a weapon or—more likely—not notice the lich’s sinister modifications to the hilt).
This lich painstakingly etched the secrets of lichdom onto the teeth of a great golden wyrm it slew centuries ago as part of its transformation. It keeps the wyrm’s skeletal remains behind a cunning hidden secret door. The skull lies amid a massed bone pile comprising the remains of all those who have attacked the lich in its lair.

Want More?

This article is an extract from GM's Miscellany: 20 Things IV. Add the book to your GM’s toolkit today! Alternatively, check out the 20 Things Archive for more handy, flavoursome and time-saving 20 Things articles ready for immediate use in your campaign.

GM's Miscellany: 20 Things IV

$10.95

Add To Cart