Lichdom (WSC)

Occasionally, a wizard who would otherwise perish seeks to preserve some semblance of life. When such a wizard is animated as an undead creature, the result is a lich, one of the more powerful types of undead monsters.

Seeking this state is not a good act, and the procedures, materials, and energies employed are both hazardous and baneful. Thus, this state is almost exclusively the province of evil non-player spellcasters who are willing to go to any length to extend their allotted natural lifespans. The basic cost of researching the procedures should not be less than 100,000 gp.

While a campaign might offer many different ways for a character to achieve the state of lich­dom, the one described here can serve as a basis for any description of the process the DM needs to convey to players.

Becoming a Lich

To become a lich, a wizard must attain at least the 18th level of experience. The candidate must have access to the spells Nulathoe's ninemen, magic jar, enchant an item, and trap the soul. The procedure is ruined if the candidate dies at any time during the process. Even if successfully revived, the candidate must begin the process anew. The basic procedure involves the fabrica­tion of a magical phylactery and a potion. (Most candidates prepare the potion first and arrange for an apprentice or ally to raise them if ingestion of the potion proves fatal. Fabrication of the phylactery is so expensive that most candidates do not wish to waste all the effort of the prepara­tion by dying after it is completed but before they are prepared for lichdom.)

The potion requires nine ingredients:

• Arsenic (2 drops of the purest distillate)
• Belladonna (2 drop of purest distillate)
• Blood (1 quart, from a pegasus foal killed by wyvern venom)
• Blood (1 quart, from a vampire)
• Heart (Intact, from a humanoid killed by a poisonous mixture of arsenic and belladonna)
• Reproductive Glands (from seven giant moths, dead for less than 10 days, ground to­gether)
• Venom (1 pint, drawn from a phase spider less than 30 days prior)
• Venom (1 pint, drawn from a wyvern less than 60 days prior)

The ingredients are mixed in the order given by the light of a full moon. The potion must be drunk within seven days after they combine into a sparkling black liquid that gleams with a bluish ra­diance. All of the potion must be drunk. Within six rounds, it produces an effect from the potion table (see page 1089).

The candidate always knows if the potion has worked. A successfully prepared candidate may appear somewhat paler of skin than before im­bibing the potion, but cannot be mentally or magically detected by others as ready for lichdom. The candidate, however, is always aware of readiness for lichdom, even if charmed, insane, or if memory loss has occurred. (A charmed candidate cannot be made to reveal the location of the phylactery—although he or she could be compelled to identify what the phylac­tery is, if it is directly shown.)

Once prepared by the potion, the candidate can live for an indefinite number of years before becoming a lich. The process fails if death comes before the preparation of the phylactery and the candidate's undeath.

The phylactery can take any form—it may be a pendant, gauntlet, scepter, helm, crown, ring, or even a lump of stone. It must be of inorganic material, solid and of high-quality workmanship if made by humans, and cannot be an item con­taining other spells or magical properties. The phylactery might be decorated in any fashion.

Enchant an item is cast on the phylactery (a rare case in which this spell can be cast on un-worked material); this process requires continual handling of the phylactery for a long time. The phylactery must make a successful saving throw as noted in the spell description. The phylactery must be completely enchanted within nine days (instead of the 24 hours normally allowed by the spell). Note that the “additional spell” times given in the enchant an item spell description are required.

When the phylactery is ready, trap the soul must be cast on it. Percentile dice are rolled; the spell has a 50% chance of working, plus 6% per level of the caster over 11th level. The phylac­tery glows with a flickering blue-green faerie fire radiance for one round if it is receptive to the candidate's essence.

The candidate must then cast Nulathoe's ninemen on the phylactery, and within a turn of doing so, cast magic jar on it and enter it with his or her life force. No other creature is required for this use of the magic jar spell. Upon entering the phylactery, the candidate instantly loses one experience level, along the commensurate spells and hit points (1d4, plus Constitution bonus).

The essence and lost hit points remain in the phylactery, which becomes ACO and maintains those hit points from now on. The candidate is now a lichnee, and must return to his or her own body to rest for 1d6+1 days. The ordeal of becoming a lichnee is so traumatic that the candidate's memory is wiped clean of the top three levels of available spells; nor can any spells of those levels be regained until the rest period is completed. (Candidates usually resume a life of adventuring to regain the lost level.)

The next time the lichnee candidate dies, de­spite the manner or the planar location of the death, or barriers of any sort between the corpse and the phylactery, the candidate's life force goes into the phylactery. For it to emerge again, the caster's own corpse (or such equivalents as a slain clone), if within range, must fail a saving throw vs. spell with a -10 penalty. The lichnee can attempt to enter its own corpse once per week until it succeeds. When the lichnee enters its own corpse, it rises in 1d4 turns as a full lich, with all memorized spells and all undead abili­ties described in the Monstrous Manual tome.

If for any reason, the lichnee's corpse is not available, the lichnee can try to take over the corpse of any recently dead creature (less than 30 days) within 90 feet of the phylactery. The corpse must fail a saving throw vs. spell to be possessed. A creature that possessed 3 Hit Dice or fewer in life saves as a 0-level fighter. A crea­ture that had 3+1 or more Hit Dice saves as if it were alive, with modifiers based on its align­ment (see table). The lichnee might be able to use the possessed body to find or recover its own body, eventually completing the process of be­coming a lich. (A phylactery too well hidden might never offer a lichnee a corpse to enter. Many lichnees arrange their own final deaths to avoid such troubles.)

Priests might also become liches, although these are much rarer. The requirements in terms of level, time, expense, and process are similar to those of the wizard version.

Creature Alignment Table

Alignment	Saving Throw Modifier
Any Good	0
CN, LN, N	-3
LE	-4
NE	-5
CE	-6

D% Roll	Effect
01-10	All body hair falls out, but potion is ineffective (the candidate knows this). Another potion must be pre¬pared.
11-40	Candidate falls into a coma for 1d6+1 days, is physically helpless and im¬mobile, mentally unreachable. Upon waking, potion works; the candidate knows this.
41-70	Potion works, but the candidate is feebleminded. Any failed attempt to cure the candidate's condition is 20% likely to slay the candidate.
71-90	Potion works, but candidate is para¬lyzed for 2d6+2 days (no saving throw, despite curative magic). There is a 30% chance for permanent loss of 1d6 Dexterity points.
91-96	Potion works, but candidate loses a sense or speech; it can be regained only by a limited wish or wish. 01-33 - Deaf 34-66 - Mute 67-00 - Blind
97-00	Candidate dies; potion fails.