Years ago I ran a Triton Mummy Lord laired up with its undead horde in the underwater tunnels of a huge iceberg. He was not dry but had his skin flayed and was wrapped in rune-marked seaweed wrappings. I swapped out some spells, immunities and vulnerabilities for flavor but it was totally just an underwater mummy preserved by dark magic and salt. Also the limitations that make a Mummy Lord(and many other baddies) basically food for a moderately prepared party can be tweaked in really fun ways by giving them magic items instead of just more HP or better spells. Love the videos, glad I subbed!
I once had a Mummy Lord as the Big Bad in a campaign. She wasn't cursed however, she was extremely devoted to her goddess. The Priestess knew a dark and terrible secret: Her goddess was dying, but the ailing deity knew how to return to life, but the process would take centuries. For her unquestioning loyalty and devotion, the Priestess was specially embalmed after having imbibed a mystic poison at the behest of her goddess. Rising as a Mummy Lord, the priestess keenly feels the last of her goddess' divine power pass through her, fueling her diving magic. Now she sends forth her minions to gather the reagents needed to resurrect her goddess, acting with the patience that only the dead could have...
Awesome. I currently run a campaign based on Dwellers of the Forbidden City with a Mummy Lord as the main BBEG. It too is attempting to bring its god (a Lovecraftian horror from outside reality and time) using a version of the Codex of the Infinite Planes and a Cubic Gate to the Prime Material.
I love the idea of adding the plagues to a mummy. Yeah I know it’s been done in the movies but the characters, especially ones familiar with the D&D mummies, might be surprised when the fountains or water features start pouring with blood. Or if one of the actions cause a dried dusty corpse start to bulge and ballon until it ruptures explosively with flies/locusts/beetles… or if you’re really nasty, rot grubs.
great channel and I like your take on the mummy lord. I am building one in the middle of the dark jungle in a ziggurat, using jungle themed creatures and Indiana Jones themed traps.
In real life there were only 2 kinds of Mummy. Pharaohs and his servants. Pharaohs were the head of the Egyptian pantheons. They could rewrite the pantheon, history and change the order of their deities if they desired. They had sorcerers, large libraries, incredible resources and vast armies with chariots, exotic pets, etc. With that knowledge a Mummy Lord would be in charge of many lesser mummys. Mummy wizards, Mummy warriors.... Wow, what potential for a campaign. Definitely a last potential bad guy. A lot of betrayal going on the ranks however.
The variation in Lair settings is great and the artwork in this video is amazing. I have placed Mummy Lords in several different places over the years, to include a Spelljammer ship crashed on an asteroid.
Definitely a great vid with a lot of fun ideas. I pretty much agree with the lore as presented with one small change. In our setting, mummy lords were a type of undeath discovered before liches, who were created later by mages that improved the process. Great stuff! Thanks for making the vid. 😊
Fresh Idea, newly formed. Jarl of the Draugr. A former king of the Mordish horselords' tomb has been disturbed. He has awoken and with him; brings a dozen of his hardest thanes, also returned from the lands beyond death. To serve their king, once again. The environment is not a desert, but Snow covered mountains, underdark tunnels and cold forest/plains.
Great timing! Im a GM in a game where my players got the Mummy Lord effect from the Bag of Beans (8 level 9 players) and they just left the pyramid to return to at a later level! Ive been looking for inspiration on how to have the Mummy's influence spread to bite them back later on in-game.
If I heard & translated right, "Mortalus Aternum" roughly translate from Latin as: eternal mortal. I'm guessing the voices that Ankahara heard were telling him that he's achieved eternal life... at a cost.
Imagine a mummy lair at the center of a true river of quicksand. Just reaching the structure would have caused uncounted deaths, but adventurers with control water and other magics will always try their luck.
Mummies can also be formed by being persevered in a swampy bog. Maybe a back story of a king, priest or priest-king and his army were thwarted and “wiped out” in a battle or in his mad pursuit of a McGuffin. Maybe the gods found disfavor and rose the waters to drown them, leaving behind a swampy bog filled with the dead. Maybe those who survived built a tomb or enshrined a temple or obelisk were the lord died. There he rose up, a wrathful figure preserved by the swamp.
Heh heh... I'm binging all your videos, and again, my Lovecraft obsession kicks in. And of course it's the observatory...where it's already been established that peeking into the cosmos is a *very, very, VERY bad idea.* I would have the pyramid AS an observatory. But this ain't gonna be your standard mummy lord. Oh no. How does Lovecraft fit here? Through the fabled Pharaoh Nephren-Ka. The most extensive treatment of this character in Lovecraft comes in "The Haunter of the Dark" (1935/1936), where he forms part of the history of the Shining Trapezohedron: "The Pharaoh Nephren-Ka built around it a temple with a windowless crypt, and did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records. Then it slept in the ruins of that evil fane which the priests and the new Pharaoh destroyed, till the delver’s spade once more brought it forth to curse mankind." This plays into the god curse trope but with a twist. How? Well, this special little Pharaoh that goes by a couple of names---The Black Pharaoh and Nophru-Ka most famously. He is also dubbed "The Haunter of the Dark." He turned on the good gods to worship another insidious deity and they cursed him. But his dark god found favor with him. And this god not only gave Nephren-Ka great power and wisdom, but this god made the Pharaoh his avatar, thus the monikers"Nophru-Ka" and "The Black Pharaoh". And that God is Nyarlathotep, "The Crawling Chaos" himself. And the Shining Trapezohedron? That's a special artifact. Let's see what's said about it: "The Trapezohedron serves as a window on all of space and time. By gazing into it, its wielder would summon *Nyarlathotep* in his avatar as the eponymous *Haunter of the Dark,* as well as (possibly) the other Outer Gods. In exchange for horrible sacrifices, the *Haunter of the Dark* would reveal other worlds and arcane knowledge. It has been theorized that the stone offers a glimpse into the mind of Yog-Sothoth." Yeah...my party is FUCKED. Would totally tie in the vampire observatory scenario as well. Why do you keep tempting me to use Lovecraftian elements?! This is the second time now lmao
R&L - I gave this video a rewatch as I am ramping up for an encounter with a BBEG = a Mummy Lord. I have mine in a Step Pyramid/ Ziggurat in an ancient ruined jungle city set in I1s Dwellers of the Forbidden City. I treat mine more as the clerical version of a Lich. He meant to become a Mummy Lord and serve the Outer God he’s pledged to. I also gave this creature exceptional intelligence to go with its supernatural wisdom and charisma. It’s drive is to open a portal to the Far Realm and bring its Lovecraftian Cosmic Abomination of a deity to the party’s reality.
@danielrowan4716 I love the idea of your Mummy Lord seeking access to the Far Realm! There is so much untapped potential there! Thanks for sharing and giving it another watch! I know its an older video that is probably due for a remaster.
I’d love to run a mummy lord as an BBEG for an arc of a campaign, one that has been entrusted with guarding one of the four artifacts the party is trying to collect.
Given your spelling of Lenin I can certainly understand! :) The ability has nothing to do with the former Russian leader, but the material (linen) that mummies are most often wrapped in as part of their burial ceremony. Thanks for watching!
I built a mummy emperor for my epic campaign cr 40 brought back level drain just for him.lots of health mythic actions made up a third tier called Divine actions
I have played all the Divinity series so love Larian Studios... unfortuntely I have zero free time at the moment... but eventually.. YES definitely, love CRPGs :)
Im really loving the channel so far. Something that will help both people find you as well as help people navigate, please put in chapters. TH-cam gives video with chapters more views and we fans would love easier navigation for when we can't watch your longer videos on one sitting. An addon that will help your SEO is called "tube buddy" It will help grow your channel naturally by giving you reccomended optimized changes. I used to do media management for youtubers and I think you have it in you to be big!
I Love your videos. Just a thing though. I Played 2'nd Edition. There was never a need to make a "Whatever Lord" I had players up against a strong Mummy that had gained Knowledge and power in it's Undeath. why the Zombie Lord, The Mummy lord, etc. You can easily make a Strong, intelligent adversary in any rules. Base rules and stats are just that. Base. Ravenloft 2'nd edition has a far better "Mummy Lord" as you call it. This NEED to fit the rules is the decimation of RPG's as a whole. Imagination and creativity are what makes a campaign or a stand alone adventure. What is next? A Kobold lord.... Already done years back. Though it was just a very strong leader of Kobolds. i REALLY hate this "Lord" term so much used now as if it makes a thing more evil. For reference... Check out the RPG "Chill" it had the Zombie master to a Tee in it's ability to be part of society. Now THAT is Horror. Unsubscribed now. Sorry. I Liked your Vids.
Had an idea for a PC with the end game goal of becoming a Mummy Lord. LG human cleric of Kelemvor the God of death and the afterlife, parents were killed by a necromancer and kelemvor answered his prayers while he was hiding. Kelemvor promised to bring him to the afterlife with his parents if he serves him as his chosen priest with the primary goal of killing intelligent undead as they represent an affront to the natural cycle of life and death. And ofc the best way to take down immortal intelligent undead is to be one yourself, so at Lv 20 the PC and his followers he gathered through his career enact the ritual to be a mummy lord, finish it up with a use of divine intervention to have Kelemvor bless the ritual and BAM Lv 20 mummy lord cleric of death
What about a spell called ancient dusty fart. Where the mummy farts out a dust cloud that chokes and pulls the air from the victims lungs only to lay the flavor of the fermented last meal the mummy ate 5000 years ago.
"Let me put it this way. Can you see the pyramid?"
"Yes."
"Then you're too close..."
Thanks
Thanks so much for your support and time!
Chuck Norris is the reason Mummies wear bandages. Great content.
Years ago I ran a Triton Mummy Lord laired up with its undead horde in the underwater tunnels of a huge iceberg. He was not dry but had his skin flayed and was wrapped in rune-marked seaweed wrappings. I swapped out some spells, immunities and vulnerabilities for flavor but it was totally just an underwater mummy preserved by dark magic and salt.
Also the limitations that make a Mummy Lord(and many other baddies) basically food for a moderately prepared party can be tweaked in really fun ways by giving them magic items instead of just more HP or better spells.
Love the videos, glad I subbed!
Love it! Thanks for sharing... and listening!
Certain Mummy Lords could use a magic to regain a youthful appearance like The Mummy movies.
I once had a Mummy Lord as the Big Bad in a campaign. She wasn't cursed however, she was extremely devoted to her goddess. The Priestess knew a dark and terrible secret: Her goddess was dying, but the ailing deity knew how to return to life, but the process would take centuries. For her unquestioning loyalty and devotion, the Priestess was specially embalmed after having imbibed a mystic poison at the behest of her goddess. Rising as a Mummy Lord, the priestess keenly feels the last of her goddess' divine power pass through her, fueling her diving magic. Now she sends forth her minions to gather the reagents needed to resurrect her goddess, acting with the patience that only the dead could have...
This is awesome!
Thank you for sharing... I love these types of comments!
Awesome. I currently run a campaign based on Dwellers of the Forbidden City with a Mummy Lord as the main BBEG. It too is attempting to bring its god (a Lovecraftian horror from outside reality and time) using a version of the Codex of the Infinite Planes and a Cubic Gate to the Prime Material.
That’s such an amazing BBEG idea, especially as mummy lords are to clerics what liches are to wizards.
I love the idea of adding the plagues to a mummy. Yeah I know it’s been done in the movies but the characters, especially ones familiar with the D&D mummies, might be surprised when the fountains or water features start pouring with blood. Or if one of the actions cause a dried dusty corpse start to bulge and ballon until it ruptures explosively with flies/locusts/beetles… or if you’re really nasty, rot grubs.
Man I just love your clips on DND
You forgot to mention the bag of beans tie in. As a pyramid can pop up literally anywhere.
love your stuff, great vids
Pharaoh Settra is a good example of an undying ego
great channel and I like your take on the mummy lord. I am building one in the middle of the dark jungle in a ziggurat, using jungle themed creatures and Indiana Jones themed traps.
That's a great idea! Will definitely make a fun adventure!
Nice. I find it fascinating that real Egyptian mythology is cannon in DnD.
In real life there were only 2 kinds of Mummy. Pharaohs and his servants.
Pharaohs were the head of the Egyptian pantheons. They could rewrite the pantheon, history and change the order of their deities if they desired. They had sorcerers, large libraries, incredible resources and vast armies with chariots, exotic pets, etc.
With that knowledge a Mummy Lord would be in charge of many lesser mummys. Mummy wizards, Mummy warriors.... Wow, what potential for a campaign. Definitely a last potential bad guy. A lot of betrayal going on the ranks however.
My favorite back story for a mummy lord was an arrogant King and a badly worded wish from a djinn.
The variation in Lair settings is great and the artwork in this video is amazing. I have placed Mummy Lords in several different places over the years, to include a Spelljammer ship crashed on an asteroid.
Blighted oasis x insect plague is my new nightmare fuel. Ty.
Definitely a great vid with a lot of fun ideas.
I pretty much agree with the lore as presented with one small change. In our setting, mummy lords were a type of undeath discovered before liches, who were created later by mages that improved the process.
Great stuff! Thanks for making the vid. 😊
I love mummies, but sadly they are often over looked in fantasy, so thanks for making this video!
Completely agree!
Fresh Idea, newly formed. Jarl of the Draugr. A former king of the Mordish horselords' tomb has been disturbed. He has awoken and with him; brings a dozen of his hardest thanes, also returned from the lands beyond death. To serve their king, once again. The environment is not a desert, but Snow covered mountains, underdark tunnels and cold forest/plains.
Great timing! Im a GM in a game where my players got the Mummy Lord effect from the Bag of Beans (8 level 9 players) and they just left the pyramid to return to at a later level! Ive been looking for inspiration on how to have the Mummy's influence spread to bite them back later on in-game.
Thanks for checking out the video and commenting... i forgot the bag of beans! lol the perfect video eludes me still :)
Great stuff, man. I've got some stuff cooking that could lead my party to Anaurach. A mummy lord seems like a fitting capstone for that arc...
MummRa The Ever Living!
This video was amazing man. I can't wait to dig through your back catalogue.
Thanks for listening and be sure to let me know if there is something you would like to see so we can add it to the queue!
If I heard & translated right, "Mortalus Aternum" roughly translate from Latin as: eternal mortal. I'm guessing the voices that Ankahara heard were telling him that he's achieved eternal life... at a cost.
Nailed it!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wow! That was a great video! The artwork is fantastic!
What an amazing video, from the beginning to the end...I didn't want it to end! Love this channel....thank you for your hard work and dedication!!
Anyone else hearing Slayer’s Season In The Abyss in their heads as Rich read out that intro?
I must know more about this!
Do share and I will check it out! :)
Thanks for commenting and taking the time to watch... very appreciative.
Imagine a mummy lair at the center of a true river of quicksand. Just reaching the structure would have caused uncounted deaths, but adventurers with control water and other magics will always try their luck.
I love this! Might have to add this to my own homebrew tome with your approval and attribution :)
Mummies can also be formed by being persevered in a swampy bog. Maybe a back story of a king, priest or priest-king and his army were thwarted and “wiped out” in a battle or in his mad pursuit of a McGuffin. Maybe the gods found disfavor and rose the waters to drown them, leaving behind a swampy bog filled with the dead. Maybe those who survived built a tomb or enshrined a temple or obelisk were the lord died. There he rose up, a wrathful figure preserved by the swamp.
I love this... a perfect example of yet another "not to typical" lair idea...
Mummies don't necessarily have to be Egyptian-coded, one can as easily make a "Mayan" or a "japanese" mummy basing them of the self-mummifing monks
Awesome! We just need the Deathlock now and we pretty much all the undead that could be former players lol
And don't forget the world of homebrew and third party! :)
Heh heh...
I'm binging all your videos, and again, my Lovecraft obsession kicks in. And of course it's the observatory...where it's already been established that peeking into the cosmos is a *very, very, VERY bad idea.*
I would have the pyramid AS an observatory.
But this ain't gonna be your standard mummy lord.
Oh no.
How does Lovecraft fit here? Through the fabled Pharaoh Nephren-Ka.
The most extensive treatment of this character in Lovecraft comes in "The Haunter of the Dark" (1935/1936), where he forms part of the history of the Shining Trapezohedron:
"The Pharaoh Nephren-Ka built around it a temple with a windowless crypt, and did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records. Then it slept in the ruins of that evil fane which the priests and the new Pharaoh destroyed, till the delver’s spade once more brought it forth to curse mankind."
This plays into the god curse trope but with a twist. How?
Well, this special little Pharaoh that goes by a couple of names---The Black Pharaoh and Nophru-Ka most famously. He is also dubbed "The Haunter of the Dark." He turned on the good gods to worship another insidious deity and they cursed him.
But his dark god found favor with him. And this god not only gave Nephren-Ka great power and wisdom, but this god made the Pharaoh his avatar, thus the monikers"Nophru-Ka" and "The Black Pharaoh".
And that God is Nyarlathotep, "The Crawling Chaos" himself.
And the Shining Trapezohedron? That's a special artifact. Let's see what's said about it:
"The Trapezohedron serves as a window on all of space and time. By gazing into it, its wielder would summon *Nyarlathotep* in his avatar as the eponymous *Haunter of the Dark,* as well as (possibly) the other Outer Gods. In exchange for horrible sacrifices, the *Haunter of the Dark* would reveal other worlds and arcane knowledge. It has been theorized that the stone offers a glimpse into the mind of Yog-Sothoth."
Yeah...my party is FUCKED. Would totally tie in the vampire observatory scenario as well.
Why do you keep tempting me to use Lovecraftian elements?! This is the second time now lmao
R&L - I gave this video a rewatch as I am ramping up for an encounter with a BBEG = a Mummy Lord. I have mine in a Step Pyramid/ Ziggurat in an ancient ruined jungle city set in I1s Dwellers of the Forbidden City.
I treat mine more as the clerical version of a Lich. He meant to become a Mummy Lord and serve the Outer God he’s pledged to. I also gave this creature exceptional intelligence to go with its supernatural wisdom and charisma.
It’s drive is to open a portal to the Far Realm and bring its Lovecraftian Cosmic Abomination of a deity to the party’s reality.
@danielrowan4716
I love the idea of your Mummy Lord seeking access to the Far Realm! There is so much untapped potential there!
Thanks for sharing and giving it another watch!
I know its an older video that is probably due for a remaster.
Fire! Fire! Yeah! Fire! Hee hee hee hee! Pyrokineticist. Priest of Kossuth. Pyromancer. Psionics,divine and arcane.
make one with no homebrew about lices
Always great man
Currently on my BG3 run and ran into a mummy lord… time to get familiar.
I’d love to run a mummy lord as an BBEG for an arc of a campaign, one that has been entrusted with guarding one of the four artifacts the party is trying to collect.
I'm not a native speaker and the "great Lenin grasp" part threw me off a little...
Given your spelling of Lenin I can certainly understand! :) The ability has nothing to do with the former Russian leader, but the material (linen) that mummies are most often wrapped in as part of their burial ceremony.
Thanks for watching!
I built a mummy emperor for my epic campaign cr 40 brought back level drain just for him.lots of health mythic actions made up a third tier called Divine actions
New Subscriber! Stick to the undead! I love the undead and anything from the abyss or 9 hells. Bad guys, only.
Thanks so much for checking out the channel and subbing up, welcome!
Anyone else excited for that undead sourcebook that recently completed its kickstarter? lol the wait for the books is going to be painful...
Curious. Do you play / are you going to play Larian's BG3?
I have played all the Divinity series so love Larian Studios... unfortuntely I have zero free time at the moment... but eventually.. YES definitely, love CRPGs :)
Im really loving the channel so far.
Something that will help both people find you as well as help people navigate, please put in chapters.
TH-cam gives video with chapters more views and we fans would love easier navigation for when we can't watch your longer videos on one sitting.
An addon that will help your SEO is called "tube buddy"
It will help grow your channel naturally by giving you reccomended optimized changes.
I used to do media management for youtubers and I think you have it in you to be big!
i miss bill are dm learned firsthand never use a mummy lord on a party with a necromancer.
also bog mummy lord of a fallen barbarian king
nice selection of random words
I Love your videos. Just a thing though. I Played 2'nd Edition. There was never a need to make a "Whatever Lord" I had players up against a strong Mummy that had gained Knowledge and power in it's Undeath. why the Zombie Lord, The Mummy lord, etc. You can easily make a Strong, intelligent adversary in any rules. Base rules and stats are just that. Base. Ravenloft 2'nd edition has a far better "Mummy Lord" as you call it. This NEED to fit the rules is the decimation of RPG's as a whole. Imagination and creativity are what makes a campaign or a stand alone adventure. What is next? A Kobold lord.... Already done years back. Though it was just a very strong leader of Kobolds. i REALLY hate this "Lord" term so much used now as if it makes a thing more evil. For reference... Check out the RPG "Chill" it had the Zombie master to a Tee in it's ability to be part of society. Now THAT is Horror. Unsubscribed now. Sorry. I Liked your Vids.
Had an idea for a PC with the end game goal of becoming a Mummy Lord. LG human cleric of Kelemvor the God of death and the afterlife, parents were killed by a necromancer and kelemvor answered his prayers while he was hiding. Kelemvor promised to bring him to the afterlife with his parents if he serves him as his chosen priest with the primary goal of killing intelligent undead as they represent an affront to the natural cycle of life and death. And ofc the best way to take down immortal intelligent undead is to be one yourself, so at Lv 20 the PC and his followers he gathered through his career enact the ritual to be a mummy lord, finish it up with a use of divine intervention to have Kelemvor bless the ritual and BAM Lv 20 mummy lord cleric of death
why you got jack sparrow as your thumbnail for mummy lords?
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
What about a spell called ancient dusty fart. Where the mummy farts out a dust cloud that chokes and pulls the air from the victims lungs only to lay the flavor of the fermented last meal the mummy ate 5000 years ago.
Bruh narrate some stories please lol