I need a unique way to destroy an evil artifact that is indestructible by normal means. (Other than the cliché of throwing it into a volcano).
Any suggestions?
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Ideally it would be related to the nature of the artifact, so... what are we talking about?
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Evil Artifact? How about that it has to be shattered by the strike of a Holy Avenger wielded by a mythic paladin?
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What does it do? What's its story? Is it a Major or Minor artifact?
All of these contribute to what an artifact's destruction method usually is.
Has it been around for a long time? Being the catalyst for the conquests of many tyrants, surviving downfall after downfall?
If it has, then there could either be a ridiculously complicated way of destroying it, or it could be virtually impossible but very straightforward.
Like: An incredibly evil person person must knowingly and willingly sacrifice their very soul to destroy the artifact.
...or just give it a combination lock, with every faulty third try resulting in the absolute corruption of the purest person a mile around. Some of the evil tyrants who ruled with this artifact could have originally been heroes, before they lost themself while trying to destroy the artifact.
How about search for a way to get a wish, and wish it was never created.
I need a unique way to destroy an evil artifact that is indestructible by normal means. (Other than the cliché of throwing it into a volcano).
Any suggestions?
Are you asking as a player? That's the sort of thing you usually go on quests to find out.
Are you asking as a GM? First you have to ask yourself if you're going to allow the players the possibiity. If the answer is yes, look at existing examples for guidelines that fit the flavor of the item and your campaign.
Wish that it never existed in the first place.
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The bearer must spend at least one solid week watching grass grow or paint dry, and only stopping to eat a simple meal of white bread or sleep. Each week this is done, the artifact has a cumulative 10% chance of succumbing to terminal boredom and disintegrating.
The bearer must perform such a phenomenal blunder in a foreign land that by the time they return to their home the locals are already talking about it. The artifact, overcome with shame for being owned by someone whose mistakes travel faster than they do, will shatter.
The artifact must be buried in a 40ft hole, which is then covered completely with rocks and boulders. Then the last bearer must burn everything they have ever worn over the course of their entire life. All of this must be done after warning every person they've had contact with before about the dangers of the artifact. Particularly powerful artifacts may also require using magic to translate the bearer's books into a language they do not know, revealing their perverse proclivities to their elders, and sterilizing their animals. Done correctly, the artifact will be rendered powerless.
For those whom have asked for more details:
The Horn of Xenjer, Major Artifact
It's the horn of a horrible chaotic evil creature called Xenjer. While the monster can be slain, the horn is impervious to weapon damage and magic (including wish and miracle). If an intelligent living creature holds the horn to her own head, it bonds to her permanently.
It grants that individual various immunities such as to acid, mind affecting effects (except from itself), negative energy attacks, poison, disease, paralysis, transmutation (except from itself), stunning, and negative aging effects. It also grants DR 10/law and magic, resistance to all energy 10, spell resistance 23, and regeneration 2/epic.
The curse of the artifact is that as time goes on, those whom the horn has been bonded to will have to make a series of savings throws every day. Each failure turns them more and more into a copy of the monster, both mentally and physically. If they are slain, the horn will survive to begin the cycle again. While it has been hidden several times throughout the ages, it is always eventually found and used leading to mass death and destruction until some heroes put the creature down again.
How would the PCs break the cycle and destroy it forever?
(Just looking for ideas as I seem to have written myself into a corner on this adventure.)
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Take an artifact made from a lawful good creature. Have the one meet the other and mutually annihilate. No responsibility is taken for radiation or other energy released in the process.
Or, attach the horn to some creature of such pure law that it cannot be morphed, an inevitable or something, then smite the horn with a vorpal sword.
Or, attach the horn to something which changes shape constantly, then throw them into a pit in the Abyss where they break down together into primal chaos.
Or, find a way to send it back in time to its creation.
Or, get Xenjer's descendant & heir/one true friend/only master to break it.
Feed it to the Tarrasque?
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Drive Xenjer's horn, detached or not, through Xenjer's own still-beating heart, removed or not.
Make sure the PCs don't discover this until after they've killed Xenjer. That way they have to find someone to attach the horn to and let it be re-created before they can try to destroy it.
Plant it in Heaven and water it with holy water every day for a year.
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As a Major Artifact, it should be horrendously difficult to truly destroy. And I'm always a fan of the "self sacrifice" methods, so here's my take:
A willing Good person must knowingly inflict the curse on themselves. For a year and a day they must resist the curse of the Xenjer without fully transforming (both mentally and physically), and during this time must spill the blood of no living creature, nor partake of their flesh.
At the end of this period, the horn falls off, becoming inert for 24 hours. If, during this time, the creature that bore it drives the horn through their own heart and perishes, the horn is destroyed forever.
Should they fail to do so, the horn returns to its original state, and the ritual must be done again.
I'm actually going to disagree with Sundakan's approach, mostly due to the "for a year and a day" part. I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't be interested in doing nothing but monitoring a guy for a full year in game. It just seems boring and tedious.
I really like Fuzzy-Wizzy's approach. And it will make the PCs feel very accomplished, IMHO.
It's actually not the most boring and tedious one on the books, and fits in with other similar ones like "Must sit in an unhallowed cave without being touched by a single ray of sunlight for a year, then destroyed".
The point being that Artifacts, and by extension their destruction, are meant to be plot points more than anything else.
If you wanted to do it day by day, mechanically, merely rolling 366d20 and counting how many results are failures makes it a quick process.
Find some horrible abuse of its rules that forces the GM to remove it from the game.
Iconoclast Inquisitor?
Unweave Xenjer's spirit from reality. It would stop the cycle of his rebirth, potentially leaving the powerful horn and associated bonuses. To fully destroy the horn, each of its effects need to be removed individually, then the horn itself must be fed to the terrasque.
I like how you added "then the horn itself must be fed to the terrasque". It seems to be a popular answer.
Attach the horn to a protean lord notorious for its ever changing features and characteristics. Rather than being transformed by the horn, the protean lord's constantly changing self eventually forcing the horn to merge with it.
Going with the horn theme, it feels like it should involve a unicorn.
I like themes of sacrifice for destroying artifacts, as well as opposites.
I would go with it is destroyed if someone the bonded creature loves willingly sacrifices themselves by impaling themselves on the horn.
I would make it someone the bonded creature loves, instead of someone who loves the creature, since that puts a time limit on things. Too far gone and they are likely to become incapable of love. It also makes bonding (and the ensuing ability to spread destruction) a risky thing for the horn, since early in the process it becomes vulnerable, which is something I like.
Having the successful sacrifice also remove any transformation effects and fully restoring the creatures mind would also be cool.
Sundakan's idea is very thematic and fits with the way that other artifacts are destroyed.
Alternatively, I presume that the horn is immune to Mage's Disjuction normally. If the bearer of the horn is killed by the horn of a living kirin with at least 4 mythic ranks, this immunity is deactivated for a number if rounds equal to the mythic ranks possessed by the kirin. During thus time, a successful casting of Mage's Disjuction (with the 1% per caster level chance of success), or a wish or miracle, can render the horn inert for 1 year. Once it is inert, additional castings of MD, wish, or miracle will extend the inert period for half as long as the previous extension (half a year, one quarter of a year, and so on). The inert horn must be placed in the Garden, the highest level of Heaven, for one day less than 2 years without becoming active again. (This will require many additional successful castings of MD, wish, or miracle to extend the inert period.) At the end of the last day of that period, the horn will regenerate into the original form of the Xenjer, who can be killed normally, at which point the horn will be permanently inert and can be destroyed by mundane means. If the Xenjer escapes Heaven and manages to travel to the Abyss, the horn regains its power and the process must begin entirely from the beginning.
As a player, if I found out that the method of destruction was overly complicated, I would simply follow ye olde 2500gp solution: buy a bag of holding, put the horn in it, and rupture the sucker.
If a bag of holding is overloaded, or if sharp objects pierce it (from inside or outside), the bag immediately ruptures and is ruined, and all contents are lost forever.
Problem solved...at least for my lifetime. That's the glory of nondimensional spaces, as well as extradimensional spaces.
You must find xenjer's corpse, graft the horn back on, resurrect xenjer, then kill him with an additional thematic requirement.
The horn must be taken to the coldest region of the world, and driven into the ice. Where it must remain for a year and a day, upon the second day it can be shattered.
