past lodge
I have to devise 4 midboss lieutenants for a BBEG Thri-keen Death Knight former... paladin? (not 100% certain on that) trying to evolve into a Doom Knight, a homebrew equivalent for a melee counterpart to a lich. He has to do a ritual involving the creation of 4 different cursed blades that will then combine into a single sword to make his "phylactery", so to speak. I was debating between basically 3 options, first is that the swords just possess whoever picks them up, second that the swords create constructions matching their characteristics to "wield themselves", and third with the BBEG summoning pit fiends/greater oozes/etc powerful beings to babysit the swords, and the swords are away from him because they each need to kill a certain amount of people to complete the ritual (in the name of efficiency, and also the Death Knight is sort of reverse cursed by his holy blade from when he was alive which is why he wants a new sword).
The swords each represent one of the pieces that make up the body, (really they're chosen to match different kinds of undead) blood, bones, flesh, soul. I could also do with help bouncing ideas for the dungeon ritual space where each of these swords exists. I have some ideas, but nothing so far has jumped out at me.
desert hazel