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Credits

Designed by Skip Williams Edited by Jonatha Caspian Product Coordination by Dori Jean Hein and Andria Hayday Cover Art by Jeff Easley Interior Art by Stephen Fabian and Paul Jaquays Art Coordination by Peggy Cooper Graphics Coordination by Sarah Feggestad Electronic Prepress Coordination by Tim Coumbe Typography by Angelika Lokotz Production by Paul Hanchette Proofreading by David Wise

Special thanks to David Wise, , Dori Hein, Andria Hayday, and Lisa Smedman.

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Introduction 4 Rejuvenation 30 A Different Kind of Menace 4 Disease 31 The Priest of the Tor 5 Fear 32 Other Typical Powers 33 Chapter I: Necrology 7 DM Notes 34 The Planar Connection 8 Power Ranks 34 The First Ancient Dead 10 Invulnerability 34 DM Notes 11 Energy and Elemental Attacks 34 The Ancient Dead Defined 11 Spells That Are Useless Against All Mummies 35 Chapter II: Types of Mummies 12 Special Weapons 35 Power Rank 12 Rejuvenation 35 First Rank 13 Disease 36 Second Rank 14 Fear 37 Third Rank 15 Infravision 38 Fourth Rank 16 Enhanced Strength 38 Fifth Rank 16 Animal Mummies 39 Background 17 Monster and Composite Mummies 39 Physical Origins 17 Accidental 17 Chapter IV: Salient Powers 40 Created 18 Alter Form 40 Invoked 18 Animate Objects 40 Psychological Origins 19 Charm 40 Servitude 19 Curse 40 Restlessness 20 Command Clndead 42 Recalled 22 Create (Jndead 42 Dark Pacts Sample2 3file Delay 42 Forms 23 Elemental Command 42 Humanoid 24 Grapple 42 Animal 24 Illusion 43 Monster 24 Passage 43 Composite 25 Resist Magic 43 State of Preservation 25 Retained Abilities 43 Skeletal 25 Summon Horde 44 Withered 25 Symbiosis 44 Intact 25 Weightlessness 44 Pristine 26 DM Notes 45 Conclusion 26 Alter Form 45 DM Notes 26 Animate Objects 45 Fear and Horror Checks 26 Charm 46 Natural Mummification 27 Command (Jndead 46 Monster Mummies 27 Create Undead 46 Mummy Raiment 27 Curse 46 Delay 46 Chapter III: Typical Powers 28 Elemental Command 46 Invulnerability 29 Grapple 48 •*%i^-L . •••**::i&f.4. •^ffiWg'*" TJUM Of CONTENTS .•r-i.-y/

Illusion 48 Chapter VI: Awakenings 72 Passage 49 Creating a Mummy 72 Resist Magic 49 Triggers 73 Retained Abilities 49 Time 73 Summon Horde 51 Action 74 Symbiosis 52 Event 74 Weightlessness 52 Psychology 75

Chapter V: Weaknesses 54 Chapter VII: Houses of the Dead 76 Typical Weaknesses 54 Tombs 76 Elemental Vulnerability 54 Guardians 80 Holy Symbols 55 Curses 80 Holy Water 56 Traps 81 Spells 56 Contents 81 Turning (Jndead 56 Cults and Temples 81 Weapons 57 DM Notes 83 Salient Weaknesses 57 Types of Tombs 83 Allergens 57 Curses 83 Presentation 57 Wards 58 Chapter VIII: Battling the Ancient Dead 84 Fascination 58 Identification 84 Bonds 58 Picking Up the Scent 84 Place 59 Confirmation 86 Object 59 Commitment 87 Creature 60 Research 87 Dependence 60 Assessment 88 Objects 61 SampleReconnaissanc filee 88 Elixirs 61 The Kill 89 Maintenance Rituals 61 The Plan 89 Exotic Weapons 63 Confirmation 90 Latent Powers 63 Spells of Retirement 63 DM Appendix 92 DM Notes 65 Mummy Adventures 92 Elemental Vulnerability 65 History 93 Holy Symbols 65 Trespass 93 Holy Water 65 Retribution 93 Effects of Wizard Spells Upon Mummies 65 Mystery 94 Effects of Priest Spells Upon Mummies 67 Constructing Mummies Quickly 94 Turning (Jndead 68 Constructing a Mummy Allergens 69 from Scratch 95 Bonds 70 Dependence: Spirit Items 70 A Recipe for Fine Mummification 73 Dependence: Elixirs and Maintenance Rituals 71 Latent Powers 71 he long habit of living struck, I should have spent all my days in these indisposeth us for dying. happy pursuits. But a vampire, abetted by —Sir Thomas Browne human agents, took from me my son, and then my wife. Ironic, that like the creatures I hunt, I When green buds hang in the too was transformed—reborn—through violence elm like dust, and tragedy. And sprinkle the lime like rain, This book, in a sense, reflects what separates Forth I wander, forth I must me from my undead enemies, for 1 have And drink of life again. embraced what is holy. There always will be a —A.E. Housman corner of my spirit that grieves for my wife and child, but that recess is bright. It is filled with Poets and philosophers of every warm memories, recollections of shared age and nation have noted that triumphs, and all the joys of enduring love. life is an insignificant moment I do not brood on what 1 have lost, nor do I when compared with the begrudge others their happiness. Rather, 1 strive enormity of death. It is to preserve those who cannot otherwise prevail undeniable that death lasts in the face of evil. My own grief is less important longer than life. For most, this is than the struggle to spare others the pain I have not distressing; one life span felt. That one lifetime is too short to accomplish seems to be sufficient. Many the lofty goals I have set for myself troubles me others see death not as the end not at all. Others will take up my work when I am of life, but as the beginning of an entirely new gone. Even now, folk I have never met share my state of being, often superior to mortal existence. quest and carry on the fight. After all, I cannot be But some few bemoan their short lives, fearing everywhere at once. what lies beyond the grave. 1 have written this book and others like it to There is no question that some spirits endure share my knowledge, for knowledge is the most beyond death, and that an incompletSamplee or tragic file potent weapon in any struggle. I have no desire life can bind a spirit to the mortal realm after its to linger in the world after death. Instead, I leave body has perished. Vampires, liches, and ghosts this volume so that others might benefit from my stalk this land of Mists. They are twisted experience after 1 am gone; it is all the creatures, pathetic in their torment, but immortality I require. dangerous nonetheless. 1 know these creatures well, having made it my business to oppose the undead wherever they lurk. A Different Kind of Menace Not entirely by choice have I taken up this egends of the living dead abound. This book unending quest. Unending it truly is, for the concerns those corporeal creatures I call the wickedness that permits some dead to mock and L ancient dead, villains more commonly known torment the living is eternal. Just as the as mummies. But let me backtrack a moment. procession of day and night will continue long By and large, undead creatures can be neatly after 1 am dust, so will the dead continue to rise divided into two categories: corporeal and from their graves after I am gone. incorporeal. The first encompasses dread liches Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. and vampires, creatures whose corrupted spirits Rudolph van Richten, sometime purveyor of dwell within their own dead flesh, as well as their herbs and medicines, full-time hunter of the weaker cousins, mindless automatons such as undead. Once, I lived a mundane life as a zombies and skeletons. The second includes physician, husband, and father. Had tragedy not ghosts, creatures whose force of will grants them an existence independent of the body, and a few The Priest of the Tor lesser kin such as spectres. This dual Sample file classification is incomplete, but for years the ome years ago, my comrade Shauten the shortcoming escaped my notice. wizard and I heard rumors of undead I was, of course, aware of the lore of mummies Smarauders in eastern Darkon, and we before 1 became an undead hunter. Even after 1 decided to consult a former companion of ours in had taken up my work, however, I regarded Nevuchar Springs about the veracity of the mummies as merely a lesser form of corporeal reports. Along the way, we visited several undead. Legends about bandage-wrapped uncharted villages and questioned the locals corpses rising from their tombs 1 could easily dis- miss on many grounds: Ignorance of the world's about the tale. We discovered very little in the more elaborate burial customs, 1 reasoned, was way of hard evidence until we entered a the mainspring of mummy legends. Funeral cus- picturesque little hamlet not far from the banks toms in many places include ceremonies that of the Vuchar. Tidy cottages lined a dusty main symbolically bestow senses and motion upon the street, which gave way to a track that wound dead, that they may enjoy the afterlife. A simple through fields bursting with ripening crops. But misunderstanding of these rituals, and an occa- there were no people. sional incident involving genuine necromantic Our search of the deserted village revealed magic, would be enough (I thought) to start signs of violence everywhere, but neither many tales circulating among superstitious folk. survivors nor bodies. The lack of corpses The truth is not so simple. seemed ominous, and soon our fears were realized. As we studied the tangle of footprints left by the hapless villagers and their attackers, a part, brought wave after wave of zombies, quartet of ragged zombies emerged from the sometimes accompanied by ghouls, to attack us fields and attacked. Two monsters were foul and at inconvenient times during our exploration. decrepit, and must have been in a state of Clearly, a keen tactical mind had been observing undeath for months. The remaining pair, our movements and chose to advance when we however, were fresh and clad in the tattered were most vulnerable. remains of farmer's garb. We no longer had any Through our own shrewd observations, my doubts about the villagers' fate. companions and I deduced where our unseen Shauten quickly dispatched the zombies with a opponent must be standing, and we pressed spell, and we had little difficulty tracking them forward to a final confrontation. Our foe proved through the trampled grain. We knew we were to be a spellcaster whose skeletal body was taking a risk, as the village was large enough to adorned with several amulets, and clothed in a produce a veritable army of zombies. flowing robe embroidered with priestly symbols Nevertheless, I desired to rescue the living of an unholy nature. We concluded that we faced captives—if there were any—and Shauten too a clerical lich. seemed eager to continue our investigation. Through sheer force, and Shauten's spells, we The trail through the grain led us to a huge won through. We lost no time in entering the cemetery, ancient beyond belief. A sprawling tomb, where we found a wealth of treasures and expanse of headstones skirted mausoleums artifacts of great antiquity. We promptly carved into a rocky hillside. Gaunt figures assembled every object we thought could be a skulked among the monuments, keeping furtive lich's phylactery and destroyed them all. watch on us. Our attention was immediately Afterward, we kept a strict vigil over the tomb, as drawn to a particularly large hillside tomb with a we could not be sure we had prevailed. classical facade and a massive iron gate. When To our dismay, the "lich" reappeared within a we approached this edifice, the figures, which week. Its fury knew no bounds. Only after much turned out to be ghouls, attacked. Shauten's fighting and travail did I discern our foe was no spells prevailed once again, and we set about lich, but a wholly different creature! examining the gate. Sample file The most valuable clue that led to my discov- The portal was shut fast, and I immediately ery was the simple fact that the monster had applied myself to opening the lock, in perfect returned from destruction in exactly the same working order despite the tomb's great age. A physical form as we had originally seen it. Clearly, cry from Shauten cut my efforts short. Several the creature's spirit had not issued from some more tombs had opened and a horde of zombies still-hidden vessel to usurp another body. Yet our shuffled out. Further, I began to discern motion foe reappeared to menace us again and again. within the inky blackness that filled the crypt If not a lich, what was our foe? It was the beyond the gate. Shauten and I beat a hasty creature I had dismissed from my classification retreat. system: an ancient dead. Not until we had Our flight took us directly to Nevuchar specially crafted a mace, based on the symbols I Springs, where we quickly organized a proper deciphered from the creature's robe, were we expedition to locate and eradicate whatever able to inflict a final death upon the monster. creature held sway over the undead in the In the years since, I have fought the ancient cemetery. Upon our return, we set about a dead in many guises. I use the term "ancient systematic exploration of the hillside and soon dead" throughout this work; for all practical came face to face with our adversary. purposes, it is interchangeable with "mummy," What some might have taken for luck, but I and I use it to remind the reader that these recognized as adroit maneuvering on our foes' creatures come in many forms.