Ok, so heres the deal: I told them about a lost holy sword in a lich's lair, thinking to drop an adventure hook for future adventures. The group literally drops everything they're doing to go get it (seriously, they are ignoring a coup and a brewing civil war for this). I, being a simple story teller, don't want to tell them what to do, its not my thing.
So here is the story: paladin king goes into Lich's lair to defeat him and never returns. Powerful wizard seals the lair to prevent the Lich's escape, has remained sealed ever since.
Twist: The paladin was actually a paladin/sorcerer/eldritch knight (nice high level build, btw). He used his skill of magic to defeat the lich, absorb his power and was made into a lich himself. His sword is now an unholy sword and a symbol of death and pestilence rather than hope and freedom.
What I want: The result I want is for the Paladin Lich to escape his prison without killing them. He will begin spreading an undead plague, etc etc.
Ideas how? He could simply kill them, but thats kind of anti-climactic. He could simply walk out past them since hes such a higher level, but thats kind of lame.
Any cool ideas?
Have the lich appear to the the legendary paladin king via seeming. Explain how after the defeat of the creature he was locked inside, somehow ageless yet conscious. Now thanks to the party he is free and he can again carry out his sacred mission to spread goodness throughout the land. Maybe even imply he is some sort of rightful ruler and/or wise adviser that can bring an end to the potential civil war.
Have him offer a mighty boon to the party for freeing him, the mighty blessing of God X. Have him tell them to link hands around him, close their eyes, and let the divine power flow into them (i.e. not resist a "harmless" spell).
The twist? The "divine boon" is him casting Prismatic Spray on them and they are all now willing and as such auto fail the save. And then he leaves, laughing his ass off.
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First off as soon as he goes lich drop paladin and add antipaladin to his build. depending on the level of your party his UBER FEAR AURA may be enough for him to just walk out untouched.
sounds like you have your twist the only problem i see from a story tellers standpoint is that a paladin needs a reason to take on the lichs power.
MIGHT I SUGGEST>:D
upon the destruction of the lich your brave king stands by the fallen lichs crushed remains he sees the creatures soul move from the body into the phylactery nestled in a pedastal to the right of his throne. the Eldritch knight paladins amazing spellcraft and knowledge arcan lets him know that this phylactery is beyond his means to destroy. with no time to spare the large onyx crystal that is the lichs phylactery begins reanimating the body of the fallen lich. needing a way to disable the device the eldrtich knight pulls a "DIABLO 1 JACK MOVE" and crams the onyx stone into his chest trusting in his god and his mental fortitude to contain the gems evil power. The magic is contained but now the Paladin king is tormented by the lichs constant mental barrages. refusing to unleash the evil upon the world he summons his own magic to place an indestructible rune on the floor that acts as a suger dimensional anchor stopping him from teleporting out. then brings the ceiling down over the run so that he cannot walk out of the cave. taking it upon himself to hosue and contain the evil he sits upon the throne of the fallen lich for 100s of years. over time the king begins to talk to the voice of the fallen lich and they meld over time. in darkness they become one. but still trapped by the power of his own spell and the physical barrier.
CHANGE THE TYPE TO GESTALT RULES!!! your main bad guy is now a wizard lich 20 on one side and a sorcerer paladin eldritch knight on the other. share mental stats reduce wisdom for the broken mind and use kings physical stats.
Wow, loving these ideas, thanks! I have an image in my head: The heroes battle their way to the final chamber, a massive hall with pools of black liquid lining a single walkway upstairs. There, upon an unholy alter, lies the paladin king, impaled by his own sword.
The heroes file in, watching the environment for danger and the lich. Half way through the room, the pools writhe and boil to life as zombies begin to pull themselves free of the glop. They are no real threat except for their numbers, which seem endless. The fighter, cleric, wizard and rogue hold them monsters at bay while the paladin ascends the stairs, grabbing hold of the blade and pulling it free of the corpse and holding it high with triumph.
That is when he realizes something is wrong. Negative energy flows into him from the blade, sapping his life as a holy avenger would in the hands of an evil being. Just then, a cold, skeletal hand clamps down on the paladin's throat and a voice that sounds as if it were made by two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together chides him, "Fool!"
The power of the lich's touch overwhelms him and he crumbles to the ground. The others whirl to see the lich king take up the sword and a surge of power flows through him, wreathing the undead in cold blue white fire that empowers them ten fold. Fighting for their lives, they try to push their way clear, but the paladin king channels his paralyzing touch through the blade (hes mythic, so he can do that) and to everyone it appears as though a single blow from his sword means death. When the last of them falls, he whispers to them, knowing they can hear him in that gravely voice, "My master comes and my time is at hand. For your service to the End, I give you your life, however fleeting. For your folly, I leave you here, entombed in the bile of your own failure, just as I was. Goodbye, fool... we will never meet again."
He then walks away, takes stride of his mount (a massive eagle construct that flies called Skyshadow) and takes leave of his prison. How do the heroes escape? Not sure yet, but that sounds like the perfect place to end a gaming session ;)
Mwahahahaha... (wringing my hands evily) Thanks everybody!
Ok, some background:
The party spent literally 3 levels (3-6) getting the Crown Princess away from some bandits, then sneaking her back to the capitol, dodging assassins and being framed for a Duke's murder along the way. The Princess is a budding sorceress and carries an arcane bloodline long thought dead.
When they finally got to the capitol, the king (who thought she was dead) showered admiration upon the PCs. He met the paladin of the party and gave him an old map etched into leather. He told him it was the last resting place of the last paladin king of the kingdom. The brave king of old entered a lich's lair to stop him from wiping out the kingdom. He went in alone since he alone was strong enough to best the lich. As a precaution, he asked the most powerful being he knew, a storm giant wizard, to seal the entrance. The storm giant told him it would do little more than delay the lich, but agreed to do it to give the leaders of the world time to formulate a plan. The giant was to wait for either the king's signal or wait for the lich to begin unraveling the magic, but neither ever happened, and so everyone assumes the king and the lich destroyed each other, and so there lies the sword of the first king, a blade called Hestius, the sword of dawns.
What really happened? The two mythic characters fought and the paladin won, but narrowly. Seeing that the philactory was about to choose a new host and impossible to be destroyed, the king jammed it into his own chest and used every scrap of his magic to seal the lich's lair from teleport and sealed it in never ending ice, his power of choice. Over the years, the lich's soul has slowly corrupted the once great king. The now anti-paladin king is trapped with all his power, driven by the lich's lust for power but tempered with the warrior's cold, decisive action, tactical knowledge and leadership.(read the scenes ending)
What the PCs don't know: that the "king" that gave them the map was, in fact, the Princess. Shes the reincarnated soul of a Samsaran wizard princess who had gone mad 25 years ago and was killed, but her soul was never caught. Instead of heading back to her home country to be reborn in an inert clone infant and ultimately captured for her crimes, she roamed the earth in search of a powerful child she could possess. Ultimately she chose the princess of a neighbor country. She (along with the rest of the royal family) is aware the lich probably survived the king's battle and thats why no one has ever gone in search of the blade. So she used an illusion, disguised herself as the king and gave the map to the paladin of the party, knowing he'll been drawn to it like a bee to honey. The release of the lich/king will set off a series of events that will bring forth the apocalypse.
Mwahahahaha