Has anyone come up with any interesting scenarios for Myaruk's Phylactery? Myaruk is the lich at the end of Test of the Smoking Eye that is investigating the Nexus of Evil. Has anyone had him return to terrorize the party later in the campaign?
Dragon Issue #288 (October, 2001), page 60
20: Lich & Tarrasque
Outside of the dragons that might predate human history, no creature is more universally feared by heroes and nations alike than the marauding tarrasque. Nothing is more terrible than this heartless engine of destruction. Nothing, that is, except the necromancer that defeated it.
This mighty wizard tricked the tarrasque into devouring whole a trigger for a trap the soul spell, sealing the great beast inside a small gem. The necromancer then transformed himself into a lich, using the gem that holds the tarrasque as a phylactery. Now, all who oppose the lich's evil schemes are faced with a most unusual quandary. If they do not destroy the lich's phylactery, the lich is restored whenever he is slain -- but, if they do destroy the phylactery, they unleash the tarrasque upon the land once more.
Fighting the 18th-level necromancer who become a lich and a tarrasqu at the same time is an EL 22 encounter.
That's an EL 22 in 3.0 edition.
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In review of all the pairings in the Tag Team Terror article, I found the one above to be the most diabolical.
I turned the black fire into his phylactery.
The paladin ultimately sacrificed a portion of his soul (perm hps) to take the fire into himself and use his "goodness" to hold it at bay until he can find a way to destroy it later.
It will "leak" over time into his soul, providing undead-like benefits, but causing other problems as well, because, paladin.
Don't have a way to destroy it built in my mind, but I'm willing to entertain any decent ideas the pally has.