...And you don't even have the ritual but a friend of a friend does.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I wouldn't call it unlikely. Now that Operation Fauxlactery is in place, Redcloak is in prime position to dispose of Xykon if his current physical form gets destroyed for any reason. Heck, I think Redcloak will need to dispose of Xykon if that happens, unless he really wants to count on Xykon being forgiving about the deception involving the phylactery and its high-quality-impersonator. I'm not putting any bets on Redcloak completing the ritual if Xykon kills (and probably reanimates) him.

Hmmm, I had forgotten about that part. I'll change my stance to I don't think Redcloak would rid himself of Xykon before the plan is completed, unless it becomes a matter of life or death for Redcloak (i.e. Xykon is killed and will discover his duplicity). I should have been more specific in my original statement.

[Socksy]

Operation Fauxlactery

Wow.
I'm not sure how I feel about this pun.
I think jealousy that I didn't think of it first.

[Lord Raziere]

I wouldn't call it unlikely. Now that Operation Fauxlactery is in place, Redcloak is in prime position to dispose of Xykon if his current physical form gets destroyed for any reason. Heck, I think Redcloak will need to dispose of Xykon if that happens, unless he really wants to count on Xykon being forgiving about the deception involving the phylactery and its high-quality-impersonator. I'm not putting any bets on Redcloak completing the ritual if Xykon kills (and probably reanimates) him.

Oh, Xykon won't be forgiving, and he will have a completely different secret to be mad about: the fact that Redcloak has lied about the mission for 30+ years and that Xykon will get jack squat once its completed. it will be the moment when Xykon realizes that thirty years of work and the sacrifice of the perhaps the last human pleasure in his life, was all for nothing. that he did the ritual, became a lich, raised an army, did all that work of trying to take so many gates.....all so that the person he thought was just his lieutenant with a wimpy "evil for a good cause" motivation was actually the real mastermind at work, and played him like a sucker, longer than it takes for someone to grow up into an adult, could enact the real plan all along.

and SoD spoilers:

Spoiler

Show

Redcloak does not care if he dies in the process of all this. He cares if he succeeds. If the Dark One
gets the Gate and can "negotiate" with the other gods to give the goblins an equal footing, he has already succeeded in his eyes. If he can win against Xykon and live to lead his people into a new age as their messiah who brought them out of being XP fodder? that will just be a bonus- particularly since he already established Gobbotopia and made people recognize it as a nation.

oh but you say, the widening rifts and the Snarl will come through and kill everyone. Redcloak cares not. If that happens, the Dark One will be there along with the rest of the gods to make sure the goblins get a fair shake the next time the world is remade.

so in a way, if Redcloak completes the ritual? he will have already won. what happens next after that is how he wins. even if Xykon kills Redcloak and vows to kill the entire goblin race in retribution, that will just mean that Xykon is the new BBEG of a group of goblin PC's who go forth to try and stop him and eventually defeat him to put a stop to his genocidal ways, probably while finding out dark secrets about Redcloak while they do so, from going through that astral fortress for nothing, to eventually finding out about Redcloak's goals and his life and having to accept their great messiah was an evil analytical mastermind who manipulated everyone around him for a goal that might've destroyed the world.

hm.....actually that would make a good fan-fic.....

[Jasdoif]

Oh, Xykon won't be forgiving, and he will have a completely different secret to be mad about: the fact that Redcloak has lied about the mission for 30+ years and that Xykon will get jack squat once its completed. it will be the moment when Xykon realizes that thirty years of work and the sacrifice of the perhaps the last human pleasure in his life, was all for nothing. that he did the ritual, became a lich, raised an army, did all that work of trying to take so many gates.....all so that the person he thought was just his lieutenant with a wimpy "evil for a good cause" motivation was actually the real mastermind at work, and played him like a sucker, longer than it takes for someone to grow up into an adult, could enact the real plan all along.

and SoD spoilers:

Spoiler

Show

Redcloak does not care if he dies in the process of all this. He cares if he succeeds. If the Dark One
gets the Gate and can "negotiate" with the other gods to give the goblins an equal footing, he has already succeeded in his eyes. If he can win against Xykon and live to lead his people into a new age as their messiah who brought them out of being XP fodder? that will just be a bonus- particularly since he already established Gobbotopia and made people recognize it as a nation.

oh but you say, the widening rifts and the Snarl will come through and kill everyone. Redcloak cares not. If that happens, the Dark One will be there along with the rest of the gods to make sure the goblins get a fair shake the next time the world is remade.

so in a way, if Redcloak completes the ritual? he will have already won. what happens next after that is how he wins. even if Xykon kills Redcloak and vows to kill the entire goblin race in retribution, that will just mean that Xykon is the new BBEG of a group of goblin PC's who go forth to try and stop him and eventually defeat him to put a stop to his genocidal ways, probably while finding out dark secrets about Redcloak while they do so, from going through that astral fortress for nothing, to eventually finding out about Redcloak's goals and his life and having to accept their great messiah was an evil analytical mastermind who manipulated everyone around him for a goal that might've destroyed the world.

hm.....actually that would make a good fan-fic.....

I agree that if the ritual is completed, Redcloak's already won.

But what I was trying to get at was that if Xykon's destroyed (again), his soul won't end up in the fauxlactery in his astral fortress like he's expecting. It'll end up in the real phylactery that Redcloak still has possession of. It takes a lich at most 10 days to generate a new body, and the ritual's supposed to take a few weeks. Even if Redcloak finds an appropriate arcane caster immediately he won't have time to complete the ritual before Xykon comes back. Unless Redcloak destroys the phylactery and Xykon with it.