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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

EVER STUFF A LICH INTO A BAG OF HOLDING?



Just two years ago, I ran a Realms campaign, which hit some high levels of play and power. Six-member party included an Abjurer (don't ask, let's just he's always been a bit eccentric as a player lol), Druid, Cleric of Helm, Specialty Priest of Mystra, and two Thieves, one human, one halfling.
One night, the halfling thief was soul trapped into two living, magical daggers. That is, he was evidently alive in both blades, trapped by the magic in an extra-dimensional prison. He was immune to most types of harm in this new weapon form, and translucent twin images of him could be seen on the blades. The player stayed in this "weapon form" for a few sessions for a couple of good reasons. One, the party hadn't figured out how to get him out yet, and two, it was fun for the player and the halfling to be a sentient pair of flying +5 magic daggers that could move and attack on their own. One caveat: the daggers could never be more than 10' apart, or it was cause an extra-dimensional rupture much like throwing a back of holding into a bag of holding would, and the halfling would be instantly destroyed. Only wish magic or divine intervention could bring him back to the realm of the living. Needless, to say, despite all freedom of flight, he was careful in his new form to stay close together with 'himself' at all times.
The party soon learned that a lich mage was scheming allies of theirs, and as the party made its presence more known (i.e. irritated the lich more and more by delaying or foiling his plans one by one), he finally attacked them while they were on a ship. The lich first aised sea zombies from the ocean to climb aboard the ship and slaughter the crew and the characters. However, as the lich anticipated, the heroes were able to handle the zombies, although they expended an arsenal of magic and energy to win the combat, and the entire crew was killed as he predicted. The heroes scrambled to get themselves together, throwing the dead overboard with blessings from the cleric. While the ship drifted aimlessly, the still (improved) invisible lich used a staff, plus his own magic, to summon brutal weather. Gale force winds, hurricane, waves up to 50' high - impossibly sudden, and they were only a few miles from the coast! But they knew not who or what was responsible! ;) The ship and the heroes were thrown off the ship. The weather ceased as suddenly as it came, and Bigby's Hands snatched the drowning infidels heh and then slammed their bodies violently against a great horizontal wall of force created literally on top of the rocky coastline. Debris from the ship was hurled at them (by the Hands) even as they coughed and recovered as best they could. Several of the heroes’ legs and arms were broken, all were bleeding badly, depleted of spells and hit points, and one was dead. Still all in shock, ignorant of their malefactor.
Finally, the lich appeared floating atop the invisible platform, the jagged black rocks of the coastline beneath the broken and dying bodies of the heroes. He explained that they had been unknowingly pestering him and his plans to create his own pocket dimension by killing or otherwise disrupting the work of his underling wizards and priests, and that his specialty was time and space - his lifelong study was that of the planes, and specifically extra-dimensional pockets, and wanted to tear the very fabric of time and space across all of Faerun, creating these voids as bridges to his Realm, and eventually points through which his armies could enter and exit freely to control and destroy any who stood in his way. The lich even revealed testament to this lifelong pursuit - opening his robes further as the winds blew stronger, the heroes could see that the skeletal body had bizarre voids or tears of light and darkness. The lich was partially made of the purest forms of time and space - he was a living extra-dimensional being.
The creature finished his monologue with pride, and demanded they surrender all their possessions, or suffer disintegration. The heroes were surely defeated. The lich's robes still flayed about in the wind, its otherwordly, undead form an intimidating spectacle.
The lich, however, never expected the "Halfling Daggers" to do what they did. The daggers had survived the zombie attack, unnatural storm, and Bigby's Hands without harm.
Halfling Daggers Player: "I fly right at those spaces in his body - and then separate myself and fly, max speed, opposite directions."
Everyone, including me, looked at the player. I was the first to smile. Brilliant. I had given him enough information as to how his daggers worked, including their weakness, and this was just epic. Everyone started wowing and laughing while I said, "Yeah... I... think... that's going to work..." :)
The ensuing explosion was spectacular, just as much as the halfling's player's epic decision to do it. The extra-dimensional rupture within raw time and space magnificently obliterated the lich and the halfling. The players were in awe of the spectacle, and it was a pleasure describing this incredible scene.
We still talk to this day about how incredibly cool that was!

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