Dungeon Master Appendix
Most players in regular AD&D campaigns develop a healthy respect for mummies as powerful, if inflammable, foes. They rapidly learn that it is much more efficacious to quickly fry mummies with flaming oil than to risk the perils of mummy rot by engaging the ancient dead in melee. Enterprising Dungeon Masters can give overconfident players quite a shock by introducing a fireproof mummy or two into the game.
There is a place in horror roleplaying games for monsters whose primary threat is physical. There is no doubt that simply introducing a mummy with one or two enhanced typical powers and a single salient power will have players fearing for their heroes' lives. However, it is a mummy's potential for inspiring psychological horror that can bring true chills to a roleplaying campaign.
In the 1932 movie The Mummy, Imhoptep (the mummy) proves to be a subtle and cunning villain. He is a foe who has endured through the centuries. He understands ancient secrets that the film's heroes must painstakingly rediscover. Initially Imhoptep is a traditional bandage-wrapped Egyptian mummy. Once awakened, however, he masquerades as a modern archeologist and effectively becomes invisible; the heroes cannot detect the monster lurking in their midst because he looks and acts just like they do.
Likewise, Imhoptep's motives are inscrutable because the key to his thoughts lies more than 3,000 years in the past. He seeks to revive his lover, Princess Anaka, who has been dead for centuries. She has long since passed from living memory, but Imhoptep remembers.
The mummy also poses an unstoppable physical threat. To prevail against Imhoptep, the heroes must abandon their twentieth-century weapons and rely instead on their knowledge of ancient Egypt. It is a frantic plea to a long-forgotten
Egyptian deity that finally brings about Imhoptep's destruction.
Mummy Adventures
To successfully create an adventure featuring a mummy as the primary villain, the Dungeon Master must pay special attention to four basic elements:
history, trespass, retribution, and mystery. One element will predominate, but all must be considered. The primary element sets the tone and provides the focus for adventure.
For example, Van Richten's campaign against the Bog Monster of Hroth revolved around a single historical incident and the consequences that arose from it. To shift the adventure's focus to trespass, the scene describing the bog monster's awakening could be changed; perhaps the mummy rose when disturbed by a treasure hunter, or in response to an elf boasting about his victory over the minotaurs.
A mystery adventure involving the bog monster could do away with the tavern keeper's tale in order to create a story based upon trespass. Instead, the first hint of the monster's presence might be a set of unidentified footprints leading away from a burned-out cabin. While the hunters struggle to locate and identify the mummy, it could begin stalking them as trespassers on its territory.
A retribution adventure would redirect the mummy's attacks against the residents of Hroth. The monster would seek to destroy only the elves who slew it, instead of simply attacking hapless victims who find themselves too close to its bog at the wrong time.
History
A mummy's history is the factual story of its mortal life and death. This is the most crucial element in any mummy adventure, because who or what the mummy was in life foreshadows its powers, weaknesses, and motivations, which generally are symbolic of some aspect of its life or death.
If the mummy has a high rejuvenation power rank and several salient powers and weaknesses, a detailed history is essential. If you have not developed a detailed history for your creature, you will find it very difficult to adjudicate all the detective work the heroes must complete to uncover the creature's weaknesses and defeat it. It is, of course, possible to create a mummy just by throwing together a few statistics, but if you do this, make sure the mummy is fairly weak and serves only as a minor character. Above all, be sure that you do not assign a high rejuuenation power rank to a mummy without also creating a detailed history, as these creatures are nearly impossible to destroy without recourse to a high-level spell such as wish or resurrection.
It is not necessary to develop all the minute biographical details about an important mummy's life, but you should note the mummy's profession, what it was doing and thinking when it died, and how and where its body was buried and preserved.
Trespass
A recurrent theme in mummy stories is transgression. Some person or sentient entity violates a moral tenant or disturbs something that is best left alone. This might apply to the mummy itself, to the events that wake the mummy, or to both. Anhktepot, lord of Har'Akir, offended his deity by railing against his own inevitable death and the loss of his kingdom to his heirs. The Bog Monster of Hroth, greedy for treasure, sought to invade Hroth and steal from its citizens. The hapless archaeologists in The Mummy are very proud of their ability to read ancient hieroglyphics, and they carelessly read aloud from a scroll an incantation whose power they do not understand.
Frequently, the transgressor knows that his or her actions are wrong. The character is not necessarily a scoundrel; ambition, greed, lust, hate, vanity, or some other powerful emotion often clouds a person's judgment.
It is the nature of the trespass and the trespasser's identity that shape an adventure. As Van Richten points out, Anhktepot is an undying bogeyman. He is consumed by his desire to rule, but prone to lie in his tomb and dream of better days. The Bog Monster of Hroth haunts the site of its death, lashing out at anything it can reach. The archaeologists in The Mummy must unravel a deadly mystery.
It's possible that neither the mummy nor the heroes are the transgressors. For example, an innocent victim of mummy rot, unwillingly turned into an ancient dead after death, becomes a tragic figure, even as a mummy. The actual transgressor is the being who slew the victim, or he who transformed the victim into a mummy. This being might play a role in the adventure, directing the mummy's actions, or he might be absent altogether. No matter what the case, heroes who put the mummy to rest ultimately serve as its liberators.
Retribution
The trespass invariably sets in motion a chain of events that have dire and unforeseen consequences. The retribution reflects the nature of the trespass (the punishment fits the crime), and both the victim and the entity that delivers retribution shape the adventure.
Mummy curses are a common type of retribution, though these tend to come into play only after a mummy adventure begins.
As beings trapped in living death, all mummies are stuck in a form of eternal punishment. However, in classic horror, retribution does not always fall solely on the transgressor. Anhktepot and the Bog Monster of Hroth pay for their transgressions by becoming undead mummies, and both creatures use their newfound powers to menace innocents.
Retribution functions on two levels in The Mummy. The archaeologists suffer consequences for waking Imhoptep, but those same archaeologists ultimately frustrate Imhoptep's attempts to revive Princess Anaka. Just moments before completing his task, Imhoptep dies a permanent and agonizing death in the film's final scene.
Mystery
In a Ravenloft adventure, it is best to keep the players guessing. This is particularly important in mummy adventures, where the heroes often must discover a foe's one weakness. Long after mastering the terror of facing a strange new creature that turns out to be a mummy, the heroes must continue to struggle with the exact nature of the beast, having exhausted their standard approaches to dealing with such menaces. It is not only the horror in the face of the unknown that is important to the game, but the mystery of dealing with it.
As a dungeon Master, never simply blurt out vital information about a mummy's vulnerabilities; indeed, never blurt out the fact that the heroes face a mummy. Instead, be prepared to feed the players a steady stream of vague clues. In the case of the Bog Monster, Van Richten began with the innkeeper's questionable assertion that the monster came forth on moonlit nights, which suggested that it might be a lycanthrope, and several other fragmentary clues such as the monster's desire to collect treasure. During the investigation, the survivor's account of an attack only indirectly revealed the monster's immunity to fire.
It is usually best to give the heroes only brief glimpses of the monster before their final confrontation. This actually works in the party's favor, as mummy rot can devastate a party, especially if it is not well provided with cure disease magic. More importantly, keeping the foe hidden from the players slowly builds terror - everyone fears the unknown.
Constructing Mummies
The Quick Way
The Monstrous Manual tome contains monsters that can provide starting points if you need to create a mummy in a hurry, including the mummy and greater mummy. The son of Kyuss (MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk" Appendix, TSR #2107), Senmet (MC15 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix II: Children, of the Night, TSR #2139), and Tiyet (RR1 Darklords. TSR
#9331) are available and are good examples of mummies whose powers have mixed ranks. A typical mummy has 6+3 HD and a movement rate of 6, and it makes one attack each round for 1d12 points of damage. This places it in the second rank. It is harmed only by magical weapons and suffers only half damage from those, so it has fourth-rank invulnerability to weapons. It is immune to cold, but is vulnerable to even normal fire, so it has only first-rank invulnerability to energy. Its rejuvenation rank is not listed, but mummies are not known for regenerative powers, so we'll assume the power rank is first. Mummy rot from this creature is fatal in 1d6 months, a first-rank disease.
The typical mummy is a fearsome creature, but a few increases in its power ranks - say, third-rank elemental invulnerability, third-rank rejuvenation, and second-rank mummy rot - would make it a truly nasty opponent. To counteract these increased powers, we need to assign it a weakness the heroes can exploit. Perhaps it was a talkative barber who spread a little too much gossip; this might suggest that the mummy could be bound with a hair rope, damaged by a particular herbal tonic, or killed with a razor. The mummy's invulnerability powers could be dependent on clay tablets hidden in its tomb. If they are smashed, the invulnerabilities drop two ranks. These weaknesses also help make this "kit" mummy a unique creature.
From Scratch
This method is more difficult and time consuming than modifying an existing creature, but it allows you to create a truly mysterious and dangerous villain, tailored exactly to your needs. Start by considering your story's four basic elements. These form the basis for your mummy. It is not necessary to fully develop the story before turning your attention to the mummy. Actually, it often is best to move back and forth between the story and the creature.
Once you have a story in mind, pick the mummy's origins and form. These will usually depend on the mummy's history. For example, if the mummy was a scheming power monger in life, it probably will be an invoked mummy because it would want to wield power even after death. Such a villain does not have to be invoked, however; if the mummy was killed by rivals, it could also be usurped or accidental - it all depends on how the creature died.
If the schemer died in his or her bed, it probably will be invoked (having completed that one final scheme to gather power even after death). If the schemer was killed in an ambush instead, it probably could not have become an undead mummy unless it was naturally preserved. If the schemer was more subtly assassinated, it is likely to be usurped (the rivals wrought a complete victory by forcing the mummy into subservience after death).
Once you have determined the mummy's origins, choose its state of preservation from the examples given in Chapter Two. The circumstances of the mummy's death are the most important factor here. Naturally preserved mummies are usually withered or skeletal. Only mummies that have received elaborate or expensive embalming will be intact or pristine.
Now choose the mummy's general power rank and determine its powers. Examples given Chapters Three and Four provide suggestions, but many others are possible. Don't forget that the mummy's powers do not all have to share the same power rank. Its powers should reflect a mummy's history. For example, the schemer discussed above probably would have some kind of
charm ability. Power mongers usually get ahead on a combination of ruthlessness and charm.
It usually pays to vary the power ranks a little bit from each other. This is particularly important if your players are the sort who read Dungeon Master material. For example, it is fairly easy for players to determine an opponent's Armor Class, damage per attack, and movement rate. If the mummy's powers have uniform rank, a quick look at Chapters Three, Four, and Five would allow your players to use their heroes' observations to determine the extent of all the mummy's powers. A little variety gives your villain strengths and weaknesses, and can keep players guessing at how hard they have to work.
When you've determined the mummy's powers, move on to its weaknesses; Chapter Five gives some guidelines for the many possibilities that can be used here. Pay special attention to weaknesses if the mummy has a high invulnerability or rejuvenation rank; if the heroes cannot discover some method to circumvent these powers, they probably will not be able to defeat the mummy.
When you have completed all the mummy's statistics, go back to your story and add or alter any details required to explain these statistics. If you haven't done so already, consider how the mummy came to wake and decide what it is doing during the adventure.
Finally, turn your attention to the mummy's abode. Does it reside in the tomb where it was initially buried, or does it lurk elsewhere? If the mummy has a superior rejuvenation power, it will need a secure place for its body to re-form after it has been "slain." In any case, the mummy's abode should be inaccessible and well defended. As heroes thread their way through a lair filled with unanticipated dangers, the players' tension heightens, too. These penultimate jolts make an adventure's climax - the final battle with the mummy - that much more horrific.
