#lichy things

Alright so,

First of all, does the phylactery have to be fueled?  Prior to 5e this wasn’t talked about, and you could have a lich theoretically entomb themselves in a ditch and wait 30 years for the guards to no longer be on their posts.

If you want some type of fuel for a phylactery, here are some things to consider:

Emotions - Like in Adventure Zone.

Blood - For a more vampire-flavored lich.  How much blood? Dunno.

Spell Slots/Mana - A lich has to sacrifice some of their own magic - something a selfish and greedy lich would not like at all.

Knowledge - Every full moon, the lich must burn a book upon the phylactery, but the contents of the book are forever seared in the lich’s memory.

Food Essence - In some traditions regarding the dead, food is said to still contain some spiritual essence that could be given to the dead to eat before the living ate it.

Phoenix ashes - The ultimate symbol of immortality is part of the lich’s essence and undeath.  Just a pinch of it may do, which is alright if the phoenix does not need all of it’s ashes present to regenerate.

Raw life or death energy - Not the soul, but remnants of life energy that flee upon death, or some kind of energy that is somehow present when a creature dies.

Positive energy - Souls in some D&D settings are said to originate from the Positive energy plane, so perhaps it tends to be eaten by the undead (liches aren’t the only soul-consuming undead) because it has been refined enough that it doesn’t hurt them due to their negative energy (negative energy craves positive energy?).  A lich could have mastered in life how to refine positive energy to make it nourishing to undead.

So it seems you people like the idea of unexpected liches.  Well here is more!  Go ahead and roll for it!

The shady guy who sends you out on quests turns out to be a lich.

You find a kitty.  The cat turns out to be an awakened cat...who has attained lichdom.

Your party gets sent deep into the ocean with the aid of magic so they can breathe.  Guess what there are plenty of liches down there.

Up a tree.

In your family tree.

In the closet.

Your blind date.

Outside with an adventuring party.

With an adventuring party consisting of other liches.

Outer space. You know that iconic image of a skeletal astronaut? Guess what that’s a lich.

One of your party members bashes a wall because they think doors are for wusses. Waiting on the other side is a lich who then goes on a tantrum about property damage.

A lich just literally falls down from the sky for some reason; possibly was astronaut lich.

On the roof making loud noises such as yodeling, howling, and barking for some reason.

You wake up and find a lich cuddling you because of your living body heat.  The lich continues to cling to your body.

You are assigned a lawyer...who is a lich.

Your party reaches the end of a dungeon and finally finds the treasure. Inside the treasure chest is a lich. The lich is the treasure.

At the bottom of your drink. Don’t ask me how, it’s just at the bottom of the tankard of beer.

Inside a bag of holding or portable hole. Inside it has a cozy little room and if you are on friendly terms with it, can be added security to your items.

There is a weird horse wandering around town. The horse is a lich.

The academy also has a program for aspiring liches that takes several decades to complete but involves a lot of field and hands-on training on top of heavy study in necromany and biology. The goal of the program is to foster a safe ascent to lichdom with minimal risk of going insane or submitting to dark powers (this does not gaurantee though, that students are not evil). Students are expected to do lots of adventuring and character-building experiences to help increase their worldly knowledge and wisdom instead of just acumulating armchair knowledge. The speed and depth of this course depends on how many mortal years an individual has, but there are ways to magically extend it a little if needed.