Will try keep this somewhat brief. Long story short, I'm DMing an epic level group of characters in a 3.5 campaign. Due to some twists I didn't see coming one of the characters has made it their current goal to obtain an Elixir of Life to gain back some years they lost due to plot stuff.
They have a contact with a very powerful mage and alchemist that reasonably would have an idea of the recipe. Rather than just make it for them I figured this would be a good spot for another bit of questing and plotline, so what I'm looking for is basically suggestions for the weird stuff they have to gather to make this potion.
Looking for things that would lead to roleplay/interesting situations more than just being really hard to get or murdering said creature, though appreciate whatever you fine folks come up with. Really obscure stuff could be fun too.
Misc Info: They are a predominantly neutral party with some tendencies toward good. It is planar oriented campaign though largely based in Forgotten Realms. Due to the nature of the campaign, they have visited Eberron, Rokugan, Sigil, and just about any place like that is possible for them to visit again.
Thanks very much for taking the time to look this over! I'll answer whatever questions I can.
I'm fond of using tears. They seem to make any mixture better.
Give them some ever-joyful fey creature as a target for a tough challenge, or maybe give them some great force of Good as a target for a decent challenge and some guilt.
It could be fun to see how creative they might get. Toss in some hidden weakness maybe, or allow tears of joy to count. Or tears at the sight of something beautiful. As the TF2 Scout says, "Rainbows make me cry".
(If he wants to get younger again, why doesn't he simply get a reincarnation and later a restoration into his old body via wish?)
Maybe you could do something along the line of the norse myth around Fenrir and Gleipnir?
(Gleipnir, the ribbon to hold Fenrir, was made out of things like: the tread of a cat, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish and the spit of a bird.)
So maybe take a relatively harmless creature (for them) and let it have something that is difficult to obtain (and it must be taken from a living specimen).
Nail clippings clipped from a living Earth elemental for example. Killing one is easy. But restraining one and the clipping it's "fingernails" might be more difficult.
Also Phoenix is always good for that stuff, with the whole ressurection thing going on. Maybe they need like a ton of his ash as a reagant, which must come from the same bird though, so they have to continuously kill/resurrect it.
And since it is a good creature it might be an evil act.
Love the ideas! Thanks for the input. Gave me some ideas.
As for the reincarnation/restoration thing there is some other plot reasons for it. Essentially the potion isn't for the player in particular but a gift for another. They personally have no ability in magic or access to those spells so getting this potion seemed the best option.
I'm personally just rolling with the flow and didn't see any reason they couldn't get it done with some work. Just making them pay for it though seemed too boring lol.