TSR 9412 RR6 Van Richten's Guide to the Lich

7/27/2019 TSR 9412 RR6 Van Richten's Guide to the Lich

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CreditsDesign: Eric W. HaddockEditing and Additional Design: David WiseProduct Coordination: Timothy B. Brown and Dori thpBarbarian WatryCover Art: Jeff EasleyInterior Art: Stephen FabianTypesetting: Tracey ZamagneProduction: Dee Barnett

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...................... 4Necrology ........................ 8Risk Factors ....................... 10Orig in of the Lich .................... 10How I Obtained the Know ledge . . . . 11The Process .............. . . 12Into Unlife ......................... 15Rituals of Sustenance ................ 15Connections to the S o-ca lled NegativeMaterial Plane .................... 17

VI: Keys to a Successful Hunt ......... 8Using Minions to Your Advantage ....... 48Recognizing a Lich .................. 49Gathering Intelligence ................ 50Lich Bait .......................... 51In the Lair ............. ....... 52Death for the Undead ................ 52Ramifications of Lich Destruction .......54Purification ........................ 55

: Powers ..................... 18LichSight ....................... 18The Black Aura ..................... 19The Chilling Touch ................. 2 0Weapon lmmunities .. . . . . . . . . 1Additional Protection . .. ..... 1Spells and Spellcasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Control Over Undead ................ 23Retained A bilities ...............: ..25Salient Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Psychology .............Dealing With Other Creatures ...Virtual Immortality ...........

.... 2..... 2. . . . . 33V:The Lair ......... .... 6

Where They Lair ..... . .36Magic Within the Lair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6The Library ........................ 37Deceptio n Within the Lair .............38Guards of the Lair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9: Lich Magic ..................... 40

Necromancy ....................... 41The Importance of Research ........... 42Power Rituals ............ ..... 43Lich Spells and M agical Items ... . .47

VI]: Strange and Deadly Minions ....... 6Quasimancers .................... 56Vassaliches .... 8Lich Familiars .......... . . 6 1....

VIII: The Mentalist Lich ..... .... 4The M ind of the Master ........ . . . . 5Menta list vs.Mystical Lich Auras .......65The Lair of a Mentalist Lich ........... 67Servants of the Mentalist ............. 67The Face of the Master ............... 68

IX: The Priestly Lich .............. 0Go odly Priests and Their De ities ........ 70Neutral Priests and Their Deities . . . . . . . 1Evil Priests and Their Deities .......... 72Psychological Impacts of the Change .... 3

X: The Demilich ................... 4Origins .. . . . . 5TheTransformation . . . . . .... 6............

Conclusion ...................... 79DM" Appendix .................... 80Lich. Psionic ..................... 95


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~ eath be no t proud, though som ehave called theeMighty and dreadful, fo r thou art no1SO ,For those w hom thou thinkkt thoudost overthrowDie not, poor Death, no r yet canst=d thou kill me .

-John DonneWho knows what arcaneexperiments are carried out bypowerful wizards secluded in theirmystical towers? We who areuninitiated to the machinations ofspells and o ther magicalphenomena can only wonder aboutthe events that take place in a

private study. We can only barelyV fathom the voluminous tomes of secretknowledge upon which these men and womenpour their attentions.

The fruits of such labor can be of wondrousbenefit to persons throughout the lands. Agoodly wizard's reward is the admiration an dgratitude of us all, and the knowledge andsatisfaction that our world has benefited and isa bette r place to raise our children.

On the other hand, a mage also may elect tocall forth the most vile creatures and evilI magicks we could imagine.

Sometimes, in exchange for assisting evilagent s who desire a foothold into our realm,these unwise mages ar e granted great powersto wield over their fellow man . And I fear thatthere a re too many mages who pursue thisopportunity over the considerations of the stateof our world. For these mages, treacheryawaits. Wizards who follow evil paths d o notunderstand that one cannot trust a creaturethat, by its nature, lives to betray.themselves. They hope to gain knowledge thatevil and powerful creatures jealously guard fo rthemselves. Su ch a mage believes that it isbetter t o enter the perilous halls of power

Still other mages seek those secrets of power,

himself, using his own efforts, than to rely upthe questionable graces of others. Themagnitude of this struggle is great. There armany secrets that evil uses t o pervert ourworld-secrets so elusive that a mortal mustexpend every ounce of his (or her) strength aspirit to acquire them.which th e mage is subverted, changed. H e losight of the pursuits of normal life and becomobsessed with seeking the keys to power.Eventually, the m age realizes that h e cannotlearn those secrets in his short lifetime. Hefinds that he must secure a method ofcontinuing his researches and experiments fyears, perhaps even centuries, t o come.

For this incredibly ambitious wizard, therebut one way: he must transform himself intodifferent creature, one that will outlive hismortal shell so that he might con tinue hisarcane efforts.

During a full moo n, this mage imbibes apotion tha t instantly kills him-yet his spiritsurvives! His spirit actually dispossesses itseof his body. While in this s tate, the spiritacclimates itself t o dark energies that a re thsource of pure evil. The spirit of t he wizardbecomes sympathetic to the heart of evil sothat it may learn new and more potent s ecrein the future.

The spirit eventually re turns to th e body, bin the interim the body shrivels and mummiinto a twisted mask of death. This corpse risfrom its own grave, eyes alight with a scarletlust for knowledge and power. The mage hasdied, yet it lives now and forever as a corpseNow it has the means to pursue itstwisted- nay, mangled- dest ny.

Perhaps after this vile transformation, th emage within the crusted shell revels in itsaccomplishment. If so, it will likely be t he latrue human feeling the wizard experiences,he ha s consigned himself to an eternalexistence that denies the sweet fruits ofmortality and replaces them with the sourrewards of the pursuit of evil.

This devotion is, no doubt, th e means by

The mage has forsaken his mortal identity


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-4it adopts a name which it feels land with its ruthless ambitions.

e appropriate to its station. Whateverfor evil the creature takes, we

for what it truly is: l i c h . It is a namebe uttered with cursed breath and contempt.

I was a doctor by profession, and might havehappily remained so had the black hand of Fatenot closed upon me. One day, my beloved sonwas kidnapped by the Vistani-curse theirgypsy hearts forever-and sold to a vamp ire, ay Path to the Dread Arcane

islike expounding upon myself and myexploits for two reasons: First, I am bynature a reticent man with little inclinationboast of or excuse my actions and, second, I

to expose too much of myself tosee m e halted in my quest to

If there is one thingit is that knowledgeof al l powers, and so I would noto much of me.Nevertheless, I cannot expect the reader tothis treatise without som e qualification.

I will briefly introduce myself andin my involvement with and study ofe of the most deadly beings to poison the

blood-drinking creature of the night whomasqueraded as an honorable noblemannamed Baron Metus. Even now it rends myheart to explain that I was forced to lay my ownson to rest at the point of a wooden stake!Baron Metus, in retaliation, murdered m ybeautiful wife, and thus was I castout ofhappiness forever. Once I sipped the finest wineof family b liss, but now I choke on the bitterdregs of revenge!Vampires became the first targets of m yvengeance, and I dedicated myself to learningall that was humanly possible to know aboutthem. I lost many friends and comrades alongthe way, each for whom I would weep freshtears at every sunset, had they not been asdedicated,to the cause of justice as am 1. It is


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also of som e com fort that their bloodysacrifices have yielded invaluable information,culm inating in an extended treatise onvampires-a volu me which I pray will savecountless sp irits from eternal slavery. It is withgreat satisfaction that I proclaim that BaronMetus is now a pile of dust in a sunny meadow.

It was not long befo re my notoriety as avampire hunter led m e to the study ofincorporeal undead. These beings also havetaken their toll upon me and those whom I holddear. In fact, I have felt the chilling touch of aghost upon my own breast, and I have lostprecious years from my life. I even have had tostudy entire volumes of my O W R research inorder to relearn knowledge lost to thememory-sapping grip of one peculiar nightphantom.After the completion of my meditation onghosts, there was a brief time when I hoped thatI might finally lay down m y sagely m antle andretire, but that sweet dream may be foreverbeyond m y grasp. I have realized that the landof the M ists is populated with a multitude ofstrange and evil things, but few are those whowill chase them down and kill them once andfor all. It occurs to m e that I have accruedextremely specialized experience that too manyothers have died pursuing. If I quit now, otherswill perish where I might succeed. And, I guess,a few more scars upon my heart and body maypreserve the freshness and innocence of others.com pelled by conscience and need to take upthe quill and parchment and write of one of themos t vile, dam nable beasts to plague the world,the lich.through a wizard friend of mine, namedShauten. Shauten was one of mycomrades-at-arms n the battle againstdarkness, and a powerful one at that. Hewasever-secretive, ever-enigmatic, yet I acceptedhis eccentr icities because his part in my causewas indispensable. More than once Shautencast a last-moment spell that saved us all.

With these convictions upon me, I am

I first becam e aware of these creatures

traitorous by som e. His part in our hunt formost powerful of the undead was but a quesfor knowledge of the necromantic. As ourassociation lengthened, Shauten grewincreasingly withdrawn, preoccupied withresearch of his own.the leap to immortality-he attempted todeprive me of my heart, to facilitate histransformation to lichdom. Of course, herelented at the last moment , and I belie ve inheart that his feelings of friendship for m eultimately spoiled h is most crucial spell ansaved my life. For that-for all the times hesaved my life-and for the invaluableinformation that he imparted along the wayshall always name him "friend."

In the end, I learned of his attempt to ma

The Lich o f Oarkonam afraid that there is a lich amon g us. Ishudder at the realization that this monsI as been in a position of ultimate power

over us for as long as anyone here canremember.Our illustrious ruler, Lord Azalin, is almo

surely a lich!I fear that he is no more the wizard-king houtwardly claims to be than it is safe to walthe countryside at night during a full moonknow not what he called himself-what hisname was-before he transformed himself lichdom. It does not matter, though, since tperson died with the drinking of the lethalpotion which began the ritual.

What is important for us to keep at theforefront of ou r though ts is that we may beliving under the rule of some one who is fa rfrom human. Although there has been talkhis extended life span, of how it seems he houtlived everyone in the entire realm, and hthis has been achieved through his ownmagic-it is not true. If he is indeed a lich, we must somehow , through some monumeeffort, drive him from our land.


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g Oiscouergou r rulers true nature was not

o m e at first. It was Shauten who put m escent that led me to the discovery. Wein a carriage on the road between I I Aluk

in my native Darkon. It was duringwe had left at the break of dawn inreach our destination be fore nightfall.

We were passing through the forest, roughlyint between the two cities, when

rounded a sharp curve and found the roadI realized that the road

I looked for anone might havetoo great a speed and turnedits side, but 1 saw none. M y thoughts raced as

my function as a doctor. HowI care for so many people? How many

to I I Aluk for care, and how manybe left behind?These thoughts were disrupted when Shauten

ed m e to a more horrifying fact: the deadrising and moving toward us!

Each of them appeared to have been rottingonths at the least. Their eye socketswed with a dull red gaze. They m oved upon, mak ing no sound save for theire dusty road.

I shouted to the driver to turn us around, butcall went unanswered. I exited the coach to

e what had happened to him, and he wasseen! I therefore too k the reins

the horses myself, calling for the dr iver allen joined m e at the drivers

turned the horses around quiteo glad t o retrace their

upon use necessary to fend them off.

symbol-an iron and silver relic thatalways afforded m e protection-and thrustin their rotting faces. They

grabbed m e and pulled me intost! It was the quick words and fingers

Shauten that blasted them clear of me andour fortunate escape.

I reached into m y black satchel and produced

As I sent the horses into a gallop to carry usas quickly as poss ible from the encounter, I sawa lone, tall man, dressed in the finest robes,with a crown upon its head, and I recognizedthe raiment of lo rd A zdi n himself ! And in thatmoment of recognition, I espied a brightcrimson fire in his eyes to m atch that of hisundead host, and I fancied that he appeared nomo re alive than any of them!Later, when I remarked upon the monstersimmunity to my holy symbol, Shauten repliedthat they were minions of magic, not of death.

It was not until much later, when Shautennearly consumed m e in a necromantic rite ofpassage, that 1 made the connection betweenAza lin and his minions, and I knew that myland was ruled by the hand OF Death.

NQW,with a core of research and yet a fewmore harrowing experiences behind me, Ipresent the latest of my guides to the creaturesof darkness. As always, the reader must bear inmind that the evidence presen ted herein islargely anecdotal and that nothing in theselands can be taken for the absolute truth. Still,if experience is the best teacher, then thereader may pro fit from this honest effort toexpose the well-guarded secrets of the lich.bears down upon the dusty remains of BaronMetus!

May it shed light upon the subject as the sun

Editors Note: Game app lications of Dr. VanRichtens guide will appear in gray-screenedtext, each entry following the text to which itapplies. Ideally, only the Dungeon Master willread the material contained in these blockswhile players will learn through theircharacters experiences. There is also anappendix following the Conclusion, againstrictly for the DMs eyes.Note that the powers ascribed to lichesherein are those which belong to thoseundead wizards of the RAVENLOFT@camp aign environment. Refer to theMonstrous Compendium for moreinformation regarding these monsters.


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Immortality is not a gift,Immortality is an achievement;And only those who strive mightilyShall Dossess it.-Edgar Lee MastersA s many types and races of peopleare scattered over the land as thereare species of wildflowers thatwistfully dot the countryside.Strong elements of language,custom, and belief define theseraces, setting them apart from oneanother.

But there is one characteristiccommon t o every sentient being:the quest for power.

Every creature has, at one timev o r nother, wished that he had more controlover his (or her, of course) destiny, that he had

more power to realize his greatest potential.Such a dream might be a s mundane as wishingfo r a good sword and the courage to assault anevil master or as grandiose as the conquest of anation. Dreams such as this ar e what motivatesa great many people to undertake adventuringand fortune-seeking.

It is, in theory, possible for a serf to becomean emperor if his determination and body arestrong. This would require an incrediblestruggle, for the typical serf star ts with nothing,but by the grace of the gods and the strength inhis heart, the slave may become a king. Powerand glory are there for the taking, and suchearthly happiness is attainable by anyone, aslong as they can be satisfied with the mereconquest of the world.this context, the reader must have patienceuntil the subject of this book is addressed.

The roguish fellow has an entirely differentdream and a decidedly different method ofseeing i t become reality, b u t his highest goalsare also firmly set in this world.

For priests, t he most important quests of lifeare different. They have not so much to d o with

If the adjective mere seems out of place in

power a s with proving devotion t o ones gobuilding a great temple where others can ethe hospitality of the priesthood and itsreligion. The greatest achievement of priesglory lies not in this world, but t he next.

Such is not the case with the mage, whicbrings us t o the subject at hand.

To become a mage, one must be exceptiin ability from the start. There ar e naturalprerequisites-factors of intelligence, streof personality, and pers istence in the face odifficult matters of mind and body-whichmust be present to learn the secrets of ma

Once som e basic secrets are known, themage can begin a pursuit which is endemiall mages: acquiring the knowledge of mospells, the ability to com mand greater and-greater magic. This is a struggle that contithroughout the career of the mage, and onthat never truly sees an end. In other wordwizards life begins in excellence, but life iseldom long enough to realize the full poteof that preeminence.

There are always more spells to learn, msecrets to know. There are secrets that remburied in arcane texts which have gone unfo r thousands of years. There are puzzles tunlock the mysteries of the universe and lto whole new planes of existence. For a mwho is foremost a scholar, these are secretmust be found. The passion t o learn moredriving flame within a mages heart and sppart of what makes him what he is.

For the mage, knowledge equals power,the acquisition of unlimited knowledge ofse ems to be within his grasp. Whereas thebegins in an environment where th e abilityshape destiny is as rare a s an eclipse, the mbegins his career already wielding power tonly a few dream of manipulating. This pocan become an insatiable drive that carriewizard beyond a career pursuit. It can becoan addiction of the mind and spirit, and bubeyond a driving flame into an insidious inthat burns a ma ge hollow of other qualitiefrom the inside out, until only the desire fomore, ever more magical power remains.


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In this ques t for knowledge, som e magesno longerThey pursue for long years the secrets of

ane ritual which will grant them aof forbidden secrets

of power that isto be gained over the spanan eternal life, or rather, unlife. If one can

om e a lich, then he or she will becom e theof undead known!

ncredible powers. The mortalual that starts the ritual of

a lich and the being thatmately becom es a lich are no longer thee person. The lich is immensely powerful,e it is in a position to gain

ore power and know ledge: a lich canr centuries, fa r outlasting any

Th e transformation of the mages body into a

The li chs mind seems to withstand time very

well, too. While the psychology of a vampireoften deteriorates with time, there is somethingabout the transformation-that allows the lich toremain sane-or at least motivated with its owngoals, even though they may be unfathomableto humankind-during this virtual immortality .undertake pro jects that are so far reaching as tobe beyond the scope of most mortalsapprehension. With enough time, knowledge of

With this amount of time, the lich can

almost any secret can be gained.What troubles me the most is that there are

mages walking this world who would sacrificenot just their lives, but their veryhumanity-the qualitie s of emotion and love ,the aspirations of mortals made in the image ofthe divine-just for the sake o f acquisition.Such ambition mak es any man dangerous, butif that man is mad e essentially immortal andgiven the power to realize his goals, then whathope is there for the world around him?


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Risk factorswould like t o propose an axiom: One cannotacquire great power without already having it.I his suggests the level of expertise necessaryto be com e a lich and, hence, the power of that

creature even at its inception. Given the relativerarity of liches in comparison t o the number ofevil creatures who aspire to such depths, it alsosuggests the inherent dangers involved inbecoming an undead wizard. In fact, the quest forlichdom is a journey not taken lightly, for it is themost perilous a mage can perform.

First am ong the mages risks is the peril o fsimply acquiring the scholarly texts concerningthe ritual. N ot surprisingly, there is no knowncom mo n source of these texts anywhere. Nomage can simply walk into a library or scrivenersand request the recipe for lichdom. Such textsare deadly in content, but they are just as deadlyin their procurement, for the power they offe r ispotent and those who own them are mostcertainly neither weak nor willing to giv e themup!

An d what if a source is false? The stakes ofhis life are what the m ag e is playing with whenhe ju dges on e source accurate, anotherpartially so, and a third flawed in total, for thetest of his hypotheses will cos t him his life.Whether or not the cost is permanent thewizard will not know until its to o late.

Origin o f thu Lichne must wonder what texts the very firstlich worked from, how that ill-fated mag efirst cam e by the formula that

dispossessed his body o f his spirit. The lich is asolitary creature that d oes not tell others howt o join its ranks. The thought o f it speaking toothers at all on a civil basis without so medevio us ulterior mo tive is almost laughable.Even fo r the lich, the fewer that play itsmanipulative gam es, the better.item (translated here for the readersconvenience) fro m the Haedritic Manuscripts,

During m y research, I cam e across a peculiar

purported t o have been written by so me on eknown only as the Dweller in th e JacinthChamber. This text is very o ld indeed, and 1belie ve that there are many more liches inexistence today than when the tex t was writt. . .and I was also told during thisnether-spanning discussion that [this tanarn](name untranslatable)had decided to takecontrol of a world wherein humans anddemi-humans lived together.

[The tanarn] irst plotted to seed the worldwith his minions and take the world by force.This proved unsuccessful. Yet intent uponacquiring the world, [the tanarri] set aboutcreating minions that were [significantlymorepowerful] han the troops previously used. Ittempted the mages of the world with great poand knowledge, and it gave them instructionshow to transform their bodies, minds, and eve[spirits] o a higher form of existence-one thwould command [great magic] and allow [thetanarri] o assume control of the world withsubtlety and plotting.

[This tanarri]still lives, as do its higherminions. The world it has tried to conquer isours, and this is surely the origin o f the [lich]explaining how this [pestilence]came to[existence].What our fates will be i f we allow[liches] o influenceus is a truly terrible thougto contemplate. . . .

This fragment suggests the origin o f th e land I am inclined to believe it. There had toa first lich, and there had t o b e som eon e toformalize a ritual for its creation. That a moshould gambl e with a ritual that must kill itdo es not grant it unlifewithout s om e sort ofguidance seems unlikely.

Considering the many factors, com plex innature, of what is known about the ritual, thodds that som eon e should get it right bycoincidence are ludicrous. Perhaps theseinstructions cam e from a fiend fro m anotheplane of existence, perhaps not. But thisfragment, couched as it is in mythic terms, still as fair an explanation as I ve encounterin my researches of the o rigin of the first lic


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I Obtained the Knowledgetell yo u, there is a malevolen ce which lurksoutside the vision ofmor tals. It waitsatiently, living fo r millennia, schem ing

plex series ofdark goals whiche only to produce m ore power fo r yet mor e

Nothin g stops it-nothing except the utterof ts bo dy and spirit. I f allowed t o

e, it will set in motio n such plots thatnever hope to prevent. Mortals

nnot live long enough to grasp theof his nefarious creature, w ho seeks totimate power and claim the throne of hes for itself, wreaking havoc u pon the mortals

m it once walked.Read the ournal I have sent with this letter,Richten, and study it well! I fear I have beenpromis ed and that Mirinalithiar knows I have

I f this is so , then yo u are the onlyin all the realms that can give m y death

a letter penned by lrithaniar Milliniusto Dr. Van Richten1 co m e into the possession of thea ma ge who supposedly died nearly aury ago. T he diary of Mirinalithiarhumanity to

are entries beginning almostshe decided to b ecome a lichmom ent she passed over. This has

be m y m ost important source ofation about the ritual and processes of

min g a lich. Of course, the existence ofin itself, and might be

of som e subtle plan of the forces of evil.Much of the journal is cryptic , extraneous, orempirical, but 1 will summ arize som e ofore pertinent data. Mirinalithiar began her

lichdom by investigating incidents ofe was

ing the tell-tale marks of what sheto be lich behavior. Mirinalithiara breakthrough when she happened

of how, at a century-old

battlefield, the dead rose from theirgraves-weapons, armor, and all-and marchedinto a nearby range of mountains.She began to study the history of the areawherein the peculiar events took place, payingparticular attention to tales of the mages thatlived there and their behavior. She found thatthe mages were quite powerful, but preferredabsolute solitude in comparison to most othermages, who gained power through heroicadventuring. The reclusive wizards defendedtheir abodes from evil or other threats, but onlyif their keeps or lands were d irectly in danger.

documented, however. Mirinalithiar found thatthe mages made occasional trips to magicalcol leges and guilds. There, they impressed andintimidated the high wizards with their abilities.Most importantly, those mages studies wereinvariably concerned with necromancy. All ofthem were especially interested in spells thatallowed communication with the dead andthose places where the dead reside.

It was M irinalithiars belief that they wereseeking information about the processes ofbecoming a lich, and about methods ofcontacting some ghost or long-dead spirit orperhaps even that fiend referred to in theHaedritic Manuscripts. Mirinalithiar attemptedto follow that same path to knowledge, andapparently she succeeded.Her journal became decreasingly coherent asshe went about the business of summoning andspeaking with the dead, and it is difficult toreconstruct the facts from her text. Even so,with a great deal of study and th e assistance ofseveral scholars, 1 believe I have discovered thebasic formulae for achieving lichdom.

Be warned, you who would use thisinformation for evil intent, that Mirinalithiarwas not sane when she recorded theseprocedures. I offer them only to shed light onthe gall and desperation of the wizard whowould be immortal. Used in the cause ofjustice, this knowledge is indeed power; usedfor evil purpose, this knowledge is certaindeath!

The startling level of their powers was


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The ProcussA ccording to Mirinalithiar's journal, on cethe details of the transformation processare known, the scholar has to practicewith rigor the new-found information.Primary among the requirements is the abilityto cast key spells. The spells themselves are rare,and only an wizard of great power and knowledgewh o fears not to dabble in the horrid art ofnecromancy can cast them, but this is not aparticular hindrance to a knowledge-hungry-nay,knowledge-rauenous-mage. As I have postulated,on e cannot acquire great power without alreadyhaving it. Hence, power is the key, power thatbegets power, ever corrupting the mage whilepreparing him t o accumulate even m ore might.

The PhglacterrJOn ce the spellcasting considerations aresatisfied, the wizard proceeds t o the next,equally important step: the making of aphylactery, a vessel that will house his spirit.Th e phylactery usually is a small boxlikeamulet made of com mo n materials, highlycrafted. Lead o r any other black or dark-graycolored material is frequently used. Inspectionof the amulet m a y reveal various arcanesymbols carved into the interior walls of thebox, and those g roo ves are filled with silver aspure as the m age can find. These amulets arenever made of wood , and rarely of steel.Brightly colore d metals, such as gold, areinfrequently used. (Mirinalithiar's account isextreme ly unclear, but it may not b e the colorwhich is the problem. The relative softness ofthe material and its subsequent likelihood ofbeing injured may create this restriction.)for anyone to know what ritual he isundertaking-particularly what the arcanesymbols and etchings truly look like-the magemay study and leam how to handle molten metals,and hemay well acquire other crafting skillsnecessary to design and construct the phylactery.

Because the mage understandably has no desire


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o f Transformationry constructed, the mag ent of spells to properly

and finally castTo d o so, however, requires the inclusion ofct of becoming theof transformation. Then to me,

y chance that I even came t oo f its existence. M irinalithiars journalt foul brew from

heart of evil.Aft er so me consultation and speculation withy scholarly sources, I have concluded that theom of a number o f rare creaturese involved, as the potion kills the mortal

ost instantly. Of course, after myfatal experience with m y old friendI am sure that another one o f theis the heart of a sentient creature.

In any case, I do know (from Mirinalithiarsnal) that the m ag e must drink the potionhe moo n is full, and if successful, the

ag e is transformed into a lich. Otherwise, theag e dies immediately. Whether or not theis successful, and whether the magesution can handle the effects, is thee test of the m ag eb skill and knowled ge.

The ChangeThe mages physical form reflects thetransformation of his spirit. Where the m ag e inlife might have been beautiful to the eyes, thepotion turns his body into somethingprofoundly hideous to behold.shrunken and weary of heart, who swears to m ehe was not born in these lands, but came fr oma far off place he called Cormyr. He served as ascout in the army of the king of that region, aman he named Azoun. In his youth, herecounted, he served the king in a great andnoble battle against the forces of evil in thatland, which had swelled unknown like a hiddencancer and were now erupting like a malignantdisease upon the surface of the land. As anadvance scout, he and two others rode out o nfleet-fo oted ponies toward the enemy forces, t odeterm ine their number and position.He said that his patro l surprised and, in turn.was set upon by a dozen undead skeletons,each armed with archaic armor and weaponsfrom an era and army he didnt recognize.Com manding the troops was an undead wizard.During the encounter, the scout had themisfortune of looking directly at the lich formo re than a few seconds.

I have recorded a tale of an old man,

The skin over its entire body was shrunkenand wrinkled over each bony limb. It was asdried as parchment, and rough to the point o f


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r

being able t o grind marble into dust.Th e sockets of the eyes were the most

terrifying to behold. Instead of eyes, it hadsunken pits as black as the most ev il heart thatever pulsed. As the skirmish wore on, fromwithin the sockets came a harsh reddish glo w,two fiery blobs of light that sparkled andilluminated the sockets and the area around thelich.ground. He loo ked back at his comrades, andthey t oo had fallen and were being stripped oftheir gear by the spiritless minions of the lich.Just as he was about t o say his final prayer, thelich strode over to him.

Th e scout was wounded and fell to the

the he had ever undergone. Here are his exawords, as my less-than-nimble fingers wrotethem down:7 looked back at the lich ust in time to see itwalk toward me. Its wretched gaze neverwavered as it stepped onto and over the bodo f my comrades. Its vulgar sockets fixedthemselves upon me, and I felt the evil pour ume like it was water, as f the lich exuded apalpable evil.

Then t came to stand next to me. Godsagoddesses, I have never felt anything so foulevil!A terrible cold came over me, the likes owhich were worse than the icy blasts o f the

remember to not talk to strangers-that thismom ent was fear itself. Nex t to it all the otherfears of his life had been m ere worries aboutthe weather. That was the most terrible mom ent

hand still had a grasp of it. It was still lit. Whethe lich stopped next to me, and the cold camover me, I looked to the lantern for comfort awarmth-thinking it might be my last sight.


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I saw then that the light from the lantern haddimmer somehow . The flame was of

al size-this I saw plainly through the glass, the light from the flame had somehow

nk. From the weakened lightof he lantern, Iy make out m y own forearm.Suddenly there was a red glow upon m e, ana

y arm grew plainly visible. I realized to m yat the lich had com e even closer to m e,

d I was seeing my arm by the glow of tsDespite m y fear, I turned to loo k at the lich,

ed down next to me. I would atloo k upon m y death. Rotted, stinking robes

ng t o its skeletal form . It was also wearinge kind of chain ofoffice. I did not recognizehain, nor the kingdom nor of fice t

I cou ld tell, though, that the lich wase kind ofnobility.

It looked at m e for a few seconds, and thenIt s ancien t muscles pulled its lips apart

sound . It opened its mo uth as i fo words came forth.

Bathed as I was in the darkness, the light ofkets and the num bing cold, I passed out.

last vision was of hose terrible piercing eyes,hrough m e to m y very spirit.I thank every go d ofgo od and punty that the

d its foul hand up on m e, and that forme inexplicable reason, I was spared death.

The as tut e reader will realize that this is anopportune moment to stri ke down the lich.That is why the preceding information is soinvaluable. To know th e process is to know thelichs vulnerabilities; An alert person may sp otthe prospective lich as it pursues its deadlygoal, and then be ready to strike when thecreature is helpless. On ce the week hasexpired, the lich will never be so helpless again.

When the lich rises, the precise location ofthe mages spirit is debatable, but I am inclinedto believe that its body is just a shell, a meatpuppet with which it works its will upon itssurroundings. The phylactery is now what trulycontains the essence of the lich. In any case, i fthe lichs body should die, then its spirit isalready safe within the phylactery. If the spiritis, in fact, not already within the phylactery,then th is transference is instantaneous, and Ibelieve not subject t o distance, magical, oreven dimensional restrictions.of liches after their documented destruction,presumably, once back in its phylactery, thelich has so me method of inhabiting a new body,or creating a new one. This transhabitation isnot, however, part of the journals ofMirinalithiar, and so I am left speculating uponthis point, and am at a loss as to the truth of it.

As many sources speak of the reappearance

n order to affect the world, the lich must havea method of interacting with it. This meanshe spirit of th e lich must a ttach itself to a. After entering the phylactery, the spiritfo r at least three days. After those

he lich may re-enter the bodyof transference is

nding upon the host body. Because offor a week after re-enteringe body. During this week the lich is unable to

spells and is unable to undertake anyis only able to exertenergy to care fo r itself, and perhaps to

meditate.

Rituals o f Sustunanctpropose that the lich does no t have the abilityto sustain itself over the centwies withoutsome sort of itualistic practice .

-Harmon Ruscheider, schola rIDr. Harmon Ruscheider was a classmate andcolleague of mine, more gifted in the rigors ofempirical research than I. Our friendship wasbased upon a mutual fascination with biologicalprocesses, but his was a desire to advance thecapabilities of the medical profession whereas Iwas more interested in the application ofproven practices. Understandably, we driftedapar t when our tenures at the University ended .


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Then, a few months after I began myinvestigation of the lich, he came to me by thedark of night, foolishly traveling during thehours when the dead walk free ly; I very nearlyrefused to allow him entrance into my home,but he frantically convinced m e of his identityand good intentions. Dr. Ruscheider was one ofthe most stoic and controlled men I have everknown, but the blithering person whom Ireluctantly admitted to my abode was scarcelythe same fellow. The poor man was teeteringon the brink of sanity, clutching at theremaining strands of his once-formidable mindwith a steadily weakening grasp, dissolving intoa lunatic befo re my eyes.We talked through the night and well into thefollow ing morning, but it was not a nostalgicchat of past loves and classroom exploits.Ruscheider had been a prisoner of an Invidianlich for the prior seven months, and hewasdesperate to impart his knowledge to mebefo re his faculties left him for good. What Iwrote down as my old friend babbled throughthe night proved to be my most importantresource regarding liches, next to the journal ofMirinalithiar.

It seems that Ruscheider had been studyingthe nec rology of liches as an extension of someresearch of his on the post-mortemdecomposition of the body. Such analysisinevitably necessitated the observation of asubject, but Ruscheider-equallyinevitably-became a subject himself.Fortunately, the lich understood an obsessionwith knowledge that would lead a man downdangerous paths, and it allowed Ruscheider tolive long enough to learn som e of its necrology.Even more fortunate, the lich destroyed itself inan unsuccessfulpower ritual (see Chapter V,Lich Magic), and Ruscheider was eventuallyable to escape the clutches of the lichssuddenly-ungoverned minions.bought, and I present it to the reader in hismemory. When he had exhausted himself ofboth strength and information, he diedbittersweetly in my arms.

Harmon Ruscheiders knowledge was dearly

The RitualLiches need not partake of food , water, orof the things we mortals must, but they stmust conduct rituals which are des igned trenew their powers and sustain their physexistence. When the lich has learned enousatiate its gluttonous appetite for power, iabandon its solid form for the explorationrealms beyond mortal comprehension (seChapter X, the Demilich), but until then itsustain its body against the ravages of timThis ritual of sustenance is also necessarylich is to maintain control over undeadservants, cast magical spells, and conductrituals (discussed later in this text). Fortunthe lich undergoes a ritual of sustenanceapproximately once each century.The undead wizard begins by acquiringmain ingredient in lich preservation: a freheart. Ruscheiders research indicates thakind of heart-that is, its owner s specie-isrelevant. The only important characteristithat it must belong to a sentient mortal. Amay not have stopped beating for more ththree nights. Since the ritual apparentlycomprises tapping off the life-essence of asentient being, it is reasonable to concluda body freshly killed, or not killed at all, isfor the lichs purposes.

Once the lich has found such a heart (usby having its undead minions prey on neavillages or by capturing mortals who passclose to the lair), it steals the heart. The liitself, needs to take the heart from the bodthis act is part of the ritual process .Once the body, living or dead, is transpto the lichs lair, it undergoes embalmingprocesses and several incantations. My nofrom Ruscheider s testimony are ratherincomplete regarding what the body isembalm ed with, and what spells are cast, can say the embalming fluid is highly lethRuscheider claimed that two pints delivereinto a small lake will kill al l who drink froNeedless to say, if the victim is not alreaddead at this point, he soon will be.


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I-ower tends to corrupt and absolutepower co rrupts absolutely.-Lord ActonKnow that the planes are filled withall manner ofstrange creatures,each on e unique. This applies tocreatures ofmagic most especially.While they are o ften of he same ilk,they are also clearly different romone another-different in creation,purpose, desires, and potency .Realize this and know that no twosupernatural beings are alike, andthat one cannot w holly predict their

Loo k instead upon each beingindividually, and make your

tions for the behavior of hat one.V -From The Gnom ics ofBilenus

The logic of Bileriuss passage above maysee m obvious o r trite, but I have lost too manycomrades to the assumption that theyre allalike. Neuer make this mistake! While the skillsand powers of a given creature may be sharedby most or all of its breed, t he most powerful ofthe supernatural remain ever unpredictable,ever singular.province is the arcane , a subject of apparentlyunlimited scope , and each lich is as unique asthe power it pursues. Legends proliferate withtheories abou t what is gained by becoming alich. Some locales have folk so ngs abou t lichesbecoming ghostly skeletons whose bones ar e asstrong a s steel , while others tell of spellspowerful enough to reduce mountains to dust.Yet another tale promises that standing waterfreezes when a lich is nearby, even in the heightof summer. These songs exaggerate the realityof lichdom, but only slightly so.Vampires was greatly aided by the fact thatvampires are notoriously egotistical creatures.In hindsight, I realize that much valuable

With th e lich this is particularly true , fo r their

The research that led to my Guide to

information regarding the extermination ofthese monsters came from the monsters,themselves, anxious to tell their own stories

Unfortunately, the lich is not so eager tojustify its exk ten ce as is the vampire. Holdilich at bay has not been achieved and astraightforward interview is, of course, out othe question! Im afraid that the only way tolearn about th e lich is through directobservation and careful conjecture.Second-hand information is occasionallyhelpful, but remains suspect at best.

I believe, based on my experience with thundead in general, that liches are intimatelyconnected with that dimension of negativeenergy, the Negative Material plane. It is frothis un-plane that the vampire draws its unhpowers, and I suspect that th e lich shares thsource. Several of the lichs native abilitiesotherwise simply unexplainable. Thoseinvestigative scienti sts who follow in myfootsteps would be wise to continually doubthis hypothesis, however. Otherwise, anyimmediately unanswerable question may befoolishly attributed to the powers of this metheoretical place.

Whatever the actual source of th e lichsfaculties, the manifestation of that power isquite observable. In this chapter, therefore,shall address the various powers of the comlich (if any lich can be referred t o ascommon), and also to a number of abilitiethat I have encountered in my research,constituting an uncommon lich.

Lich Sight?ere s little that can e scape the ey es oich. I recall waiting in amb ush fo r a lic1 a cell dee p underground, without a sou

of light for thousands of yards (we hadthoroughly cloaked our own). I was immersin a blackness so deep that I could almost fit, and only shadow-sparks swam before myminds eye to remind me that light had eveexisted.

After a long wait, the deliberate, unearthl


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shuffle of th e lich eased through the thickdarkness and signalled the monsters approach.We he ld our breaths in absolute silence andwaited as the red pin flares of the lichs eyescam e into view.It entered the cell, advanced until it stoodnearly between our positions o n opposite walls,and stopped abruptly. Then, with an eerinessthat ma kes m y skin crawl even to think of it,the lich turned its gaze, first to on e side andthen the other, and loo ked upon our party as ifw e stood in full light of day! Thus were webetrayed by our own trap, for w e were the onlyblind ones in the room! T he lesson we learnedis that darkness is not your friend when dea lingwith a lich.But neither is light your ally against theundead wizard. Th e lich is not intimidated inthe least by sunlight, nor is it blinded.is not dependant upon light waves. Rather, itsconnection with negative energy allows it tosome how pe rceive the very presence andlocation o f material objects and beings,situated in a dimension physically anddiametrically oppo sed to its own frame ofreference.

I surmise that the visual spectrum o f the lich

A lich ca n see with normal vision-in even thedarkest of environments, but it temainsunaffected by eve n the brightest of light..

The Black Auray painstaking research has detailed manylethal attributes to liches. A certainsubset of those attributes are often

repeated am ong m y texts, and they seem topoint to a co re feature of the comm on lich: anaura of fear, darkness, and cold .

FearIt is thoroughly understandable that anyonecom ing fa ce t o face with an undead wizard ofenorm ous power would react with direct andabject fear. Although I am not a grea t warrior or

a powerful wizard, I have seen much of thatwhich lives by the dark of night and terrorizesthe living; I have become much inured t o sightsof the most ghastly nature. Nevertheless, thereare certain monsters that I will always view withunreasoning terror, and the lich is on e of them .However, the black aura of the lich is not athing that can be faced down with sheercourage. Even the most stalwart hero willinstinctively fle e in terror from the presence o fa lich. Fear precedes the lich like the stench ofits minions. Though so me brave souls maywithstand its demoralizing effec t, none candeny the c old g rip on their heart when the lichappears on the scene. Whatever the cause ofthe fear, ma gic or otherwise, the fact remainsthat those who co me near enough t o a lich toknow its nature by sight will almost always fle ein terror.occurs if the lich is revealed fo r what it is.Liches who utilize illusion or magical items toappear as normal mages or clerics or som eother being d o not automatically cause thisreaction. It is therefore all the more powerfulwhen they are discovered.

It is important t o note, however, that this only

Cold OarknussIt is the experience of all who make contactwith a lich that this aura of fear also manifestsitself in cold and darkness. Sources confli ct asto the nature o f this. Som e say that thedarkness is an actual physical emission, similarto a : darkness,which coincidentally


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causes fear because it evokes the frequentdread of darkness in humans and humanoids.Accepting this premise, the cold would bespell-like in nature, too. 1 disagree.

Othe rs theorize, and I side with them, thatthe cold and darkness are a physicalmanifestation of th e magical icy darkness ofth e creature s being, and its aura of alien andhorrifying power c auses fear in all who drawnear to it. As with vampires, this phenomenonmay be attributable to that theoreticalconnection between liches and th e plane ofnegative energy, and t he cold and darknessmight simply be a cloud of that extraneousnegative energy. As such, the aura doe s notexist as a physical absence of heat and light,but rather is a field of malignant power thatviewers perceive as frosty darkness in theirattempts t o grasp its true nature.

The Chilling Touchever was the re a creature which moreironically turned o n its head the homily,N Cold hands, warm heart. Woe to the

person who is grasped by th e lich! Its touch willfreeze the skin of anything as would the coldestarctic ice. For a living person, this can meansevere pain and epidermal damage.Furthermore, the pitiable crea ture so touchedmay be chilled literally to th e bone, becomingcompletely immobile until aided by magical orpriestly powers. In several texts there areaccounts of deat h caused by the icy touch ofth e lich.

What is the cause of this chill touch? It is

possible that it is, after a fashion, a curse of thgods of Goodness upon th e lich for betraying mortality. Since the lich has willingly thrown oall that is warm and kind and human in order pursue with cold dispassion the acquisition ofpower, the gods may have punished the undeawizard by making its touch a reflection of itsinner, cold-hearted nature.simply the cold of the grave, amplified by ascore of magnitudes during the ritual thattransforms th e lich from living being to walkdead. Being a man of learning and of themedical sciences, 1 am su re that this is nottruth. Dead beings ar e only cold in relationsto their living counterpar ts and are, in fact,simply the sa me temperature a s theirsurroundings. What amplification of roomtemperature could result in a cold that couldcause a mans skin to s tick to the lichs bonyclaw and peel from his ar m like th e skin of ablanched tomato? No , this theory is flawed.Numerous wizards have confirmed that bothcommon and essential component s used incasting of spells would be ruined or rendereinert by freezing, yet I have found no evidenof any lich keeping his components warm. Ihave also inspected numerous objects for siof contact with significant coldness after thehad been handled by a lich, but found nothito suggest that they we r e affected by the blaaura. It is apparent , then, that thi s chill touca selective ability of the lich, rather than aphysical characteristic of living death.touch is a manifestation of the twisted linkbetween that hypothetical plane of negativeenergy and the lich. In that case, theenergy-sapping nature of that place leechesvery hea t from t he air through t he lich, whicstands as some sort of mobile portal to thatdomain. Or, possibly, the physical contradicof positive and negative energies coming incontact may cause damage t o living tissuesthat I am not versed in planar theory, an d Icannot confirm the existence of a plane of

Others maintain tha t the lichs icy touch is

Once again, it may be put forth that the ic

Whatever the case, I must remind the rea


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ativ e energy. However, the existence of suchplace or thing certainly explains much.

i with many undead things, unenchantedweapons inflict no d amage upon th e lich.- f that werent enough , it takes a sword oferable experience t o find th e soft spo tsmak e them bleed, so to speak. The

of the magical energy concentrateda lichs being is so great that it take s a

of magic, itself, and a well-trained armarm one. This is not to say that

hanted weapons and inexperiencedrs d o no t s trike th e lichs form; rather, t he

halt and skid off as i f theyade contact with a sto ne too dense to

I recall o ne instance in which anctious young blade of s om e renownuck th e skeletal form of a lich between th e

of its forearm (which were op en t ohe air du e to its adv anced decay). With an idle

t, th e lich ges tured with its arm and brokee youths blade in two!Liches can be hit only by weapons of at least1 ench antm ent , by magical spells, or by

ures with at least 6 Hit Dice (o r levels ofor magical properties.ional Protect on

lis need for magic to damage t he lichsorm extends in a dual fashion into certain

- .mmunities in the lich. However, from whathave read, I d o not believe that the lich is

o the effects of sorcery, except forare designed to induce a

tion based in the biological nature of a

living being. A spell cast to impart insanity onthe target is one example. S uch spells have noeffect, as the lichs mind works in such anarcane, twisted manner that sanity has n opractical meaning. Death spells ar e alsoineffective, regardless, it seems, of who cast sthem. Likewise, spells of sleep an d enfeeblementhave no effect. And th e lichs mighty andinhumanly transformed intellect makes the useof charm magic upon it utterly futile. As coldand electricity also commonly depend upon aliving biological state fo r th e majority of th edamage that they cause, th e dead flesh of thelich, combined with its ensorcelled toughn ess,renders the se damaging magick s uselessagainst it also. Finally, the lich seem s to beunaffected by polymorph magic. Apparently thelichs intimate connection with negative energyconfounds th e workings of a positive-materialaffecting spell.

I hasten to add that, -for all these manyimmunities, the creatur e is still vulnerable to aplethora of magicks, and indeed, magicalattack from a distance remains one of t he bestoffenses against these beings.

There also are priests who have presentedtheir holy symb ols with such faith and authoritytha t the lich ha s (at least temporarily) fled th escene, but these were mighty clerics indeed. 1hesitate t o mention that it is possible to tu rn alich back through the priestly virtues, for I havelost several holy friends who miscalculated thepower of their adversary. Nevertheless, lichesare certainly undead creatures, and as suchthey are vulnerable t o the ba ne of the undead:righteous faith and the power of the gods.


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I

1 Spulls and Spellcastingf course, one important skill that a magdoes not lose when he transforms into a0 ich is the ability to cast spells. But to msurprise, I found that the lich remains under

same basic restrictions as living mag es whencasting spells. For example, the lich still haskeep its spells recorded in a spell book, and still has to g o through the rituals ofspellcast ng.

One aspect of spellcasting that does changupon the transformation of a living wizard intlich is the need for sleep-liches never need iHowever, they do need to spend an equivalentime to a normal mages rest in a light sort ofmeditative trance in order to be able tore-impress upon their minds the m agical wordand energies that com pose spells. However,whereas the typical mortal mage must have acertain period of uninterruptedrest, the lich donot. (After all, being undead, the lich can nevrest as does a mortal.) O nce it has spent thetotal needed amount of time in meditation upthe unseen configurations of the threads ofmagic, it can consult its spell books andrememorize its spells no matter how many timit has been interrupted. (Practically, 1 wouldsuppose that these segm ents of med itative timcannot be fragmented into spans of less than quarter of an hour each to be of any use). Th ilight meditative trance would account for themany descriptions of liches as being broodinand lost in arcane thought. But any foo lishman who thinks a meditating lich is unaware his surroundings is bound for but a short timethis life.This piece of information is useful inasmuas it serves for a warning: a party of lich huncannot interrupt a lichs rest and thus deprivof its ability to learn spells. Much more likelthe lich will dispense with the party and thencontinue from whence it left off.The l ichs undead, evil nature grants itparticular expertise when casting n ecromantspells. The lich is a dealer of death (and adea ler with death), and it has many spe lls an


24/98

to it for this nefarious use. Inin authoritativee Journal of Moritavius

novitch and the schola rly Divers [sic]higher Magiclcs that liches

e able to wield necromantic magicof living

While there can be no question thatept at the use of necromantic

I attribute their general potency t o theirthe time they spend

elop ing their talents, rather than theirl, undead natures.

ie of the most commo nly invoked powersof the lich is its ability to control a varietyof undead creatures. The lich is able tod a number of undead to protect it.

number of undead it can control at onee depends largely upon the mental abilitiesthe lich. Generally, the more intelligent the

the mo re undead it can control. However, Iof a lich being able to control

.

more than a score of undead at once.There are known to be magical devices thatsom e liches have constructed which allow them

to control many more undead creatures thanthey presumably could normally. These oftenresemble necklaces or amulets, and arefrequently carved with mystical signs of direimport.

If one is pursuing a lich and encounters aband of undead that are protecting it, one canonly assume that there are more of them overthe next hill. The distance from which the lichcan comm and these undead soldiers seems tobe without limit. I have even read a tale of a lichthat instructed a ghoul to travel to another Iand to f u l f i l l a task, and the lich was able to seethrough the undead creatures eyes and in to thefar distance land to more closely d irect theghoul in its task.

Many types of undead can be com man ded bya lich. Essentially, it can command any undeadcreature that is less powerful than itself. Thisincludes skeletons (probably the m ost popularminion among liches), ghouls, zombies,shadows, and the like. A d istinguishingcharacteristic of a lich minion is that its eyeswill bear the same fiery gaze as thecomman ding lich, but the minion will notpossess any of the lichs powers or auras. Theminion completely loses al l form ofindependent thought. In fact, the will of the lichinundates the undead creature totally, so thatthe lich alone is able to control it. Should thelich die, then al l who obey it simply fall to theground dead, or so I would hope.This ability to control the undead seem s tobe a natural part of lichdom. They are ab le toraise skeletons from the ground with great easeand on some occasions are able to raisecorpses without even visiting the grave.Animated corpses are only able to performphysical actions-they are unable to performany task which requires sentience or even adegree of mental thought. However, since thelich is able to use the corpses senses when itdesires to do so, freshly dead corpses arepreferred by liches to be used as minions.


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Whether or not several of the physical sensescan b e used depends on the condition of theminion s sensory organs. Eardrums, forexamp le, are still usable after the lich animatesthe corpse, as is the sense of touch as long asthe skin is rela tively intact. As thesecomponents begin to decay, the lich becom esless able to distinguish the surroundings of theminion . However, the lich is always able to seethrough the minions eye sockets with the samede gt ee and clarity as if the m inions eyes werestill healthy and intact.

This ability to use the corpses senses is avery useful on e to the lich. With it, the lich canuse the minion to perform alm ost any sort ofphysical action that the lich could, itself,including reading texts and preparingalchemical solutions or traps.

to be controlledontrol range. Onn command oneilar to the 6th-le

contain more than mand might be: Gotle; kill the red-hair

undead can undersplex orders. Suchrdered to tak e

a battlefield orm on a missio

pursuit of the quest. It wi

til willed to do

11. When no longerch as out of theng cleric or pala

nore all distracher creatures.

rn automatica

the lichs radius of


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tained Abilitieshe lich, despite its incredibletransformation from mortality, in allprobability retains mos t or all of thenm age skills it had as a living creature. This

ed for m e in Barovia, when I huntedlich that had taken up residence in thethe lich, which cal led itself Crimson Arcanus,ed with the disappearance of a

hat well known and very powerfule called Antirius the Red. Asidem his magical powers, Antirius was locallyr his ability t o throw two dartsaneously, one fr om each hand. Later,

e first confronted the Crimson Arcanusit to emp loy combat techniquesus before fleein g, it comm itted theof using that ambidextrous dart toss.

hat poison-coated trademark cost them y dear comrade Nadin the ranger, but itm e of a story about Antirius which I

ce, in a tavern in Falkovnia.I journeyed t o Falkovnia and learned

I could about the apparentlysed Antirius the Red. The key fact provede a relatively trivial one: he was fond ofcing in his earlier years.bined sword fighting with dancet out the Crimson

ed it into anothero-hand me lee , introducing the mercenaryer at a crucial moment. To our lasting

lich counter-stepped to thearys moves with an arrogant grace! Its

ity thus exposed, we were a ble use ourof Antirius the Red t o defeat thecate and destroy its

It was remarkable to m e that a lich shouldl of dexterity, despitestate, but the important

1 learned was that the lich had not lostse skills that it had in life.

Returning to Barovia with a mercenary who

I think it reasonable t o conclude that if

abilities requiring dexterity are retained, thenall former-life skills of the lich m ay be retained.This includes thieving and weapon skills, aswell as psionic and spellcasting knowledge . It isalso reasonable to assume that these skills cancontinue to b e honed until they are far superiorto those of any mortal. In fact, any skills thelich had before transformation most likely carryove r to a high deg ree and are an essential partof the lichs knowledge and ability. These skillscan be perfected by the lich since it iscontinuing its study of them .In further support of this theory, it seemslogica l that physical skills (such as carpentry,sword fighting, swimm ing, etc.) that the lichlearns after its transformation cannot b elearned to the same d egre e of perfection sincethe lichs physical body is undead and will notrespond to physical training as well as a living,nimble body. On the other hand, if the lich doesnot require the same amount of rest and sleepthat the living do, it may accelera te its learningof physical skills compared t o when it wasliving.

Assuming that my chain of log ic is sound,any mental skill such as navigation or a lchemyprobably can be learned to perfection after thechange, since the lichs mind doe s notdeteriorate as does its body. As it is impossibleto ask a lich what activities it has taken upsince becoming undead, I have no means ofconfirming this. Even so, it is better to gi ve thelich t oo much credit than not enough!


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Qliont AbilitiesI rom s om e sketchy commentary andI glosses drawn from sundry sources, it isapparent that some particular liches are

also able t o cast necromantic spells that are notcomm only available to the living mage.Whether these are spells of the lichs owndev ising, drawn from further research, orspecial abilities o f a spe ll-like nature that theseliches possess, I am once again forced tospeculate. Even living mages d o not commonlyreveal the extent of their spell-weavingknowledge t o those not of the magicalbrotherhood; what is a com mon spell and whatis a personal pie ce of so rcery is not a topicupon which I can venture to guess.Nevertheless, I have been a witness to manystrange and terrible powers engendered byseveral liches , and I shall speak briefly of som eof them here.Considering their undead state, it shouldc om e as no surprise that a lich would b e acraftsman in bone. In Valachan 1 encountered alich who had created an entire laboratory madeof humanoid bone! A t the first I thought themonster had commissioned so me darkcraftsman, but when m y hunting party attackedthe lich in a graveyard, it suddenly erected aprotective wall of bon e around it. To seehumanoid bones e me rge from the ground allaround us was quite alarming, but to watchthem bend and me ld together was positivelyhorrifying!undead should be self-evident to anyone whohas had any dealings with these monsters, butfew suspect the depths to which they havehoned that accomplishment. I know of oneparticular lich (that to this day has confoundeaand eluded me!) that is able to animate thedead with disconcerting ease. In our lastconfrontation, the lich sent a veritable army ofundead creatures toward us. Where they allca me from w e knew not, but they arrived indrov es and in seemingly endless numbers.

Th e lichs affinity for creating and controlling

Fortunately, we were Drepared for a

large-scale battle and we cut down the lichsforc es with alacrity. To our shock and horrorthe lich move d about the battlefield with somagically enhanced speed, reanimating thebod ies wehad laid t o rest with a sim ple touof its bony claw. Thus, we found ourselvesfacing and fighting the same undead beastsagain and again and again, until we were foto retreat.

1 have learned of a particularly cruel lich on e of its pitiable victims: the monster hadmastered a technique of entering the dreamits enemies. Night after night it haunted thepoor fellow , preventing him fro m resting unhe sickened and went mad. No spell or praywas able to shield his mind from the lichsmental onslaught. Sadly, I have heard that hbecam e a murderous lunatic, was hanged bhis people, and now he serves the lich a s anundead thing. Mos t distressing!

Still another lich o f which I have heard isapparently able t o capture the residual m agfrom other casters spells and recreate the seffect under its control. O ne survivor of anencounter with this particular lich told m e ta wizard in her party cast a sizab le fireball athe lich, who suffered considerable damagefrom the spell. However, the flames of thefireball did not dissipate, but rather withdreinto the lichs hand as if a vacuum in its palhad drawn them there. Then the lich sent thvery same fireball back into the face of theunfortunate wizard. Th e witness assures m ethat she saw n o casting or use of any item othe part of the lich. Instead, it seems that thlich merely took hold of the casted dweomand re-energized it!

The sheer scope of possibility dictates ththere may b e countless salient abilitiesavailable t o the lich. Be ing virtually immorthese wizards have an eternity to deve lop sand powers beyond our imagination. So m eliches generate unique and bizarre talents.Other liches are simply more powerful thanusual, requiring evermore powerful magicaweapons t o hit them, having the capability casting more of their deadly maq ic than us


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d so orth. A so-called common liches seem near@. indestructible! There a re f

o challenge them, power versusThe best hope of the lich-hunter is tthe lich. Whil e each lich-nay,ature that walks the land-has itsdo es it have its weaknesses. Onc e again, as

oint out, knowledge is theKnow your enemy and you mayo defeat it.

Ideally, t stom design a

offer. General

n be created. Tstructure willthe lich comm

tures created in Ybones are act ed into one ano

Chilling Windin a cone 100base. The win and 50 feet wide

rs within the anot need to c zes standing liquid an

one ca


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IL

thin a skull will 1permanency spell iAnyone who touchdamage.

skull will suffeA dispel magic spe ll will extinguish the fla

Improved DefensThe lich may be hienchantment or beor more Hit Dicell

by weapons of +2r by creatures withr magical propertie

Animate Dead by TouchThe lich is able to ombies and skeletto rise with a mere .Such creatures oncan be turned as who raised them , along as the lich i 00 feet of them. Tlich may raise as atures as areavailable. All unde ted in this fashionrise as 2 Hit Die that will behave acomm on zombie letons, excepting conditions noted


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s the face and ga

re that his dl remain unais ical, rather than

manipulation wlls

the nightmare (DMs may role-play aor simply assess 3d10 points ofthtd character must make a horror chec

f failing a check, the character will be unablefor ld 4 nights. During this

of insomnia, no hit points are restored,e characters THACO drops by 1 per day, t

by 5 percentage points per dano spellcaster may memorize any 3rd-le

3ream manipulation is not possib le i f thein holy ground such

a church or even a graveyard. The range ofs equal to the lichs lntelligenctin miles.

if the

oor ma.

d must be out inonly a few minuttim can be curedneutralize poison

When it is acti mbus of coruscatiflame surroun

When the lichreduces a char

st for one hour. If tStrength to 1 in th

restored. If thto 0 or less, theThe lich cann

have a cumulativ

Control Undeth of undead creatu

d while those of 9ne to this specialAll undead oDice or more

command wh he lich to eithe


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ead m e from the unreal to the real!

-Brihadaranyaka UpanishadI was alone in m y study, conductingsome meditation, when I happenedupon a secluded mind.I say Secluded because I do notthink it mean t of tself to b e heard bysomeone such as me. Nevertheless,I saw what its mind generated. Ilooked into the eternal despair whichutterly gripped it, until all it couldthink ofwas a final death wherethere would be no pain, whereeveyt hi ng would finally, mercifullyend.s mov ed to weep for this poor soul, but then I caught ust a glimpse ofwhat this creature

truly was and I was instantly repulsed. I had thatnight accidentally looked into the mind ofa lich. Idoubt I will ever again see such pain ordespair-or evil.-From the journal of Kilrinia Trynar, master of

the mental artsThis was the first example o f lich psycho logy t ocross t o m y desk. It was the first thing I readabout the inner thoughts of the lich, and Ibegan t o wonder if the other things I had read,about evil cerem onies and quests for power andknowledge, were a gift or a curse for the lich.Fo r an instant I felt pity. Fortunately, I also havefound other texts which have given m e a fardifferent perspective. B e forewarned: Pity for alich will cost you your life!Th e first thing I should say about that foulcreature of the undead is this: There are nogood-hearted liches in the land of the Mists.This may seem like a rather obvious statement,but I wish to emphasize that all lic,hes arecom plet ely evil. Perhaps they suffer, experiencejoy, fee l pain, loneliness, passion, and all theemotio ns in between, but they are at their corecom plet ely evil and wholly undeserving of an

ounce of sympathy. Nevertheless, 1 would lto try to impart some understanding so thehunter may com prehend what motiva tes it

While liches may be of any~~i~~~nother p k@ ,Sh&e creatures wtHs w ide in~~~~~~ campaign world are unifamevil. They ace, however, free to punwe B laneutral, of e)raotSc lifestyle.Oualing With Othur Cruaturus

he lich certainly possesses enough poman age dealings with other creaturesT m sure there is no creature who can its entire existence without contact with ananother creature, if only an enemy. (I ha;e

experienced the odd feeling that my hostilintrusion upon a lichs privacy has been mwith a sort of relief. This is not to say that glad t o see me!) Liches are hardlyconversationalists, and by their genera l naare isolationists. The lich will approach e vesituation with a self-centered perspective.its talk will definitely b e aimed toward gaininformation or whatever else it desires.Such objectives m ay be hampered by thlich s use of social graces and turns of phrathat are generally a century or mo re out o fdate-an eerie yet amusing trait. This is ongo od way t o spot a lich in disguise: I wouldcarefully watch any individual using speecis older than the eldest villager-particularlya stalwart young lad stands be for e you. Liccan polymorph themselves into many shapbut their behav ior can thwart their disguisethe other hand, recall that these creatures of genius intelligence. They will be extremcunning and convincing in any guise.Doubtless, a lich will take steps to learn atmost o f the behavior patterns of the creatuimpersonates. A tiny slip may b e your onlyclue, and a slim o ne at that.


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or Oeceiuer?lie ve that the outright destruction of a lichsa plan of last resort. There is,n fo r this ruthless brute, merit in preserving

creatures-even enemies. After all,gained througha captive. Servants of good lyight be subverted. Subjects

a terrible victory for the lich againsts of good , as well as the acquisition ofapons to use against mortals.

d the Hazlanic lich that called itself thebane almost to the Nightmare Lands and

of catacom bs in which wee been hopelessly lost without theof Torenor the dwarf. A t last we foun d

e through the false ceiling,I guessed it would be.

Therein we foun d the enraged lich, guarding al its gruesome defenses .Ady battle ensued and, through s om e

of uck, I was the sole survivor.y last drop ofstrength, I drove m y shortthrough the breast of he monster and it

floor in a pile ofdust and bone .Though m y w racked muscles forbade m e toov e another inch, I drew forth a hamm er fromy trusty satchel and smashed the ruby. The

xploded with a firestorm ofblazing mistsd I fell, exhausted and near death.understand how I had survived theit seemed that the lich had no t usedagic to greatest effec t. As soon as I was

I hired a new term ination crew and returnedthe lair. As I suspected, the lab and every o therof he lich was gone .

The w hole thing had been but a ruse, but I wasto it now. I declared the hunt a success and

ng to return a day later.Sure enough, the lich had slipped back. . . .

I was torn by the deaths ofm y comrades, and

the personal journal of Dr. Van Richten

Despite its best laid plans and carefulmeasures, the machinations of the lich aresometimes discovered, as well as its very lair. Inthese situations, I have found that the lich o ftenwill make an attempt to somehow trick itsassassins into believing that it has left the area.Rather than make a display of outrightdefiance, it seems that it is of paramountimportance to the lich to convince the huntersthat they have succeeded in their task. Ofcourse, the lich usually will destroy everyone inthe hunting party save one. (In three separatecases, I was the sole survivor.) It then dependson the surviving member to carry the news thatthe lich has been killed back to the living. Oncethat is done, the undead wizard can return to itsdark designs in peace, com fortable in theknow ledge that no more living creatures willco me after it. A crafty lich may even scaledown its operations in the area for a period ofyears, perhaps even for one or two generationsof the creatures living in the area, to convincethe hunters of their success. Afte r all, what arefifty or one hundred years to such a creature,except plenty of time to research anultrapowerful spe ll?

Uirtual Immortality11 liches were once m ortals. Somew here atthe core of the lich is a mortal mind,A suddenly and irrevocably made imm ortal;

this must be a shock for anyone. Being anundead master of m agic complicates matters,making a stable mind rather difficult to co meby among liches-at least during the earlyyears of its existence.I noted in my Guide to Vampires that thosenewly immortal creatures go through severalpsychological stages, from e lation to apathy. Ibelieve that liches experience a similar rush ofpower at the first realization of a successfultransformation, but 1 do not think that they everfeel the vampires weariness with the passing ofeons. While the lichs intensely magical natureremoves it from accep ted standards of sanity


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and insanity, there is no evidence to suggestthat the strain of immortality has anydeleterious effects in the long run. Havingentered into extensive discourse with diverswizards, priests, sages, and philosophers, I havedrawn the following conclusions from m yobservations of th e lich.mind-the higher mind-in addition to thephysical and mystical changes. It must graspthe ram ifications of eternal life so that it canfunction effectively in its new form. Immortalitycan m ake one drunk with carelessness, but thelich must remain in control of itself, lest it putitself in unnecessary danger.Aspects of life upon which mortals dependare daily rituals of maintenance. We sleep, eat,and perform many duties which divide our daysinto sections in which we can m ore closelydevote our energies. I discipline myself with areward system-if there is a duty I mustperform of which I am not particularly fond,then I will g ive myself a reward once the duty is

The lich must undergo a transformation of its

performed. But imagine not having anythinadd variety. to your day other than the counconjurations of spell research.Imagine not having to sleep or eat. Whennight comes, there is no effec t upon you. Yneed no light to see, nor a moon to sleep uYou do not eat, so your sense of taste isworthless to you. Your sense of smell is gonwith your mortality. Lacking skin, you cannfeel things as do mortals. And, as I have

previously speculated, sight (and probablyhearing as well) is no more aesthetic to a licthan a wall is to a bat. A ll the senses, with athe pleasure they may afford, are gone, so yhave nothing stimulating to look forward tothe end of the day-no ale after a long journo fresh meat after a good hunt, no scent oyour home as you enter it, no sweet caress child or lover to com fort you. Can power orwash away the appreciation of these thingsTim e loses meaning. Days becom e longeshorter, then altogether meaningless. Eachbecom es the same, with the concept of tim


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emory. All that is for you is only yourn self. You may monitor the outside world,etimes very closely, but it is easy to loseof what progresses outside your lair whenlect to peer outside a window for afavoring instead to research atext or cr eate a particular

What if you sat down to read ak, then look ed up from it a generation later,ognize , noh which t o debate a fine point?Perhaps the lich undergoes a psychological

al similar to that of the vampire, when(for lack of a better word) erodes itsto continue. Mages in al l likelihood

ergo the transformation to lichdom in hastein personal anguish for many years.Nevertheless, they al l seem to recover. Theresome aspect of the lichs mind that is able to

ergo those torments and weather them out.a few months or a century-but allually becom e accustomed to theirce and function comfortably.

It may also be that some-perhaps evendespair and die or fade away orr existence as som eIf so, this is a blessing to the

a mercy to the lich. How manyore liches would p lague the world otherwise?

Goal, Then?h do with the time it

? What tim e-consum ing diversions stir itsheart? What goals the lich undertakese are likelyined by its interests previous to itsmation from a living creature.Generally, mages who undergo the

witha well-secured lair, a library, and a

in which to carry out their arcaneso those things are not the probableof their interests. For these liches, there

for rare spell materials.ed, the pursuit nf maqical components mav

be the lichs first order of business because itpresents a familiar activity in which to engagewhile the freshly-altered monster adjusts to itsnew form. (Take note: Sometimes the best wayto find a lich is to find that which it seeks!)Once its lair is built and stocked, the lich willsurely turn to the next logical pursuit: power.Being an undead master of magic is of litt lemeaning if the power is not exercised. To thisend the lich can undertake any number ofefforts designed to test and expand its powerbase.

One com mon m ethod of bolstering onesauthority is to attempt to ga in control o f akingdom by planting a lich-controlled kingupon a throne. But this sort of power may befleeting to the lich, as the king and his subjectsdie too quickly to provide lasting entertainmentor an y use outside of an experimental nature.Such a lich must eventually find a new arena toexerc ise its prerogative , and that means findingwhole new concepts of power and control-andthis means exploration into other realms ofreality, beyond human ken.

I have heard a quaint phrase: There s awhole world out there. For a lich, with theknowledge to travel among worlds and planesof ex istence, there is quite an arena ofexperiences to choose. Perhaps a lich mayundertake the conquest o f a small world orcontinent on a planet that is generally ignoredby other world-traveling mages. This wouldcertainly present much stimulation andopportunity for evil. The planning andorganization alone cou ld take decades, theexecution centuries.

Among al l of these plans is, of course, thequest for higher magic. This quest, as I havestated, is a neverend ing, pervadingcharacteristic of the lichs existence. There arealways more magicks to command, secrets toknow, and artifacts to find or create. The lich isdriven to find the answers. Som etim es it is forits own sake, and other times it is a means toeven more power.

But always its for the cause of evi l.


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r J . F j \-I d I ou fools! You hurl yourselves intoe vo id without the slightest notionwho or what awaits you. . . .-$ :4$ I

-Kanar-Ri of the Ebon Eyele lich is a creature that takes

enorm ous care in where it lives,most especially in securing itsdomicile from the prying eyes andefforts of other creatures. Even itsmost trusted minions are ignorantof the true nature and plan of alichs lair. It spen ds many yearsplanning and constructing a perfectstronghold from which to operate.Given enough t ime and resources,both of which th e lich has inabundance, it will surely constructan impregnable fortress.

UShere Thug Lairf paramount importance to the lich is itsown security. Before any other factor isconside red, the lich will seek a locale that

is defended by natural barriers or one that iseasily constructed upon t o provide superiordefense. O nce that prerequisite is satisfied, twoschools of thought govern the choice of lair: aneed fo r privacy versus a ques t for politicalpower.

Liches who crave privacy tend t o enjoylocales that ar e in a hostile environment. Themore that mortals dislike it, the more favorablyit is viewed. Cold bogs, a rcti c wastes, desertseas, beneath t he depths, and the highest peaksar e popular places for a lich t o settle.

Sinc e most liches begin as mages, the typicalfirst domicile is a tower or similar construct.This soon proves to b e inadequate, however, asa tower is vulnerable to attack . The lich maythen seek a n area that is difficult to reach byany means, which serves as an intermediaryhom e until the lich is established and powerfulenough to begin construction of a moreelabora te haven. Ruins are popular, a s they

already contain foundations and raw materianecessary for additional construction. Inaddition, a ruined cas tle (for example) willalmost always have a great deal of dead burinearby. These serve as a pool of labor uponwhich th e lich draws to c rea te its lair.

However, no m atter how far removed o rimpenetrable t he lichs lair, it must remain aleast partially accessible. Servants, living ordead, must come and go. Also, a strategyamong both liches and morta ls is to take ankeep hostages. In most situations, thehostage-taker must allow verification that thhostage is still alive, so the lichs lair must bleast partially accessible to mortals. Thereinlies the hope of all lich hunters: there mus t bway in.

If the lich is seeking to establish itself a s apolitical entity, it is virtually required to pickwell-known location t o facilitate relations withe local mortal authorities. (Such a lichrecognizes t he mortals need to associate aplace with a leader and his power.) This maycompromise privacy a nd p resent a n invitingtarget, but the creatu re will assuredly takesteps to remain secure against all attacks, soth e lich will gain respect as it gains power. Ocourse, a lich with a gift for illusion m ay buian empire right under t he noses of its mostadaman t enemies. If my theory about LordAzalin is true, that would certainly b e th e ca

Magic Within the Lairhave dreamed many nights of what a lichmust guard in the deepest recesses of its Such treasures may be witnessed by no

more than on e person in ten generations. A has dealt with magic during all of itsexistence-even when it was mortal.Considering the ultrapowerful wizards capacto enchant, the number of magical warescontained within the lichs private sto res mube staggering. A dragons hoard, that fabledmountain of wealth upon which the great wysleeps, may not even compare to the magicarichness and variety of a lichs treasure ches

7/27/2019 TSR 9412 R

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TSR 9412 RR6 Van Richten's Guide to the Lich