Quick summary: My players (5x PCs at level 5) are running around in an undeground dungeon. They pretty much got to just outside the last remaining area of the dungeon before backtracking to rest and recuperate.
Anyway. Now that the players have retreated out to rest once they get back in some areas of the dungeon have been repopulated. Flipping through the Bestiary the mummy caught my attention and I realized the players are about the appropriate level to fight one.
The thing is the dungeon is populated by gnolls and I can't really think of many ways to just put a mummy in there...
Any suggestions?
The mummy could be a former chieftain of their tribe who they now venerate in undeath.
Gnoll mummy. No contest.
And jack up his HD a bit for good measure. Use CR too rigidly and your players will get spoiled :)
It could also be a much older mummy that the gnolls uncovered while attempting to dig deeper tunnels. Ancient red dragon mummy is nice.
yeah gnoll mummy ftw.. there are actually some in one of RA Salvatore's books that I thought were very cool (one of the ones with Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle teamed up)
Moll Gnummies rock! ;-)
There's just something about a wolfman-like Undead that comes to mind here.
Maybe make the Mummy look like Anubis or the warrior-thingies from Scorpion King, if you catch my drift. Looks cool and everybody knows what they'll be up against when you introduce some pictures.
And in Golarion, Gnolls live in Katapesh and Osirion, where mummies are pretty common. (Of course, mummies were exported all over the inner sea)
The only problem I see with this is that gnolls are notoriously lazy, which makes the effort that goes into the mummification process unlikely for them to undertake.
On the other hand, I did get a weird thought about pugwumpi gnoll worshipers doing all the work for the gnoll tribe.
Thanks for your replies.
There's a tiny bit of backstory relating to this dungeon.
Before the gnolls took over the place was a drow hideout. It's in the jungles of Xen'Drik (Eberron campaign setting). The drow left and the gnolls moved in a few years later.
The PCs are in the dungeon on a mission to kill gnolls.
oooo...drow mummies!! :P
drummies?
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The only problem I see with this is that gnolls are notoriously lazy, which makes the effort that goes into the mummification process unlikely for them to undertake.
On the other hand, I did get a weird thought about pugwumpi gnoll worshipers doing all the work for the gnoll tribe.
Now, according to Classic Horrors Revisited, the mummy can be a spontaneous mummy as well, awoken not by some technique for burying the dead, but from other motivations such as a greed so powerful that it will bring the dead back to unlife to protect its treasures from tomb raiders. So not all mummies have to go through an arduous process of mummification. Also some are created naturally based upon environmental conditions.
Now I am liking the drow mummy idea, but it needs a notch up, something to really set it apart and make them go "Oh CRAP!" Maybe look at some great templates and add them as well. A vampiric drow mummy... a half fiend drown mummy... a giant vampiric half-fiend drow mummy... lol
Advanced Bestiary: Dread Mummy Drow Priestess. That should have all the "nasty" you want.
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The only problem I would have with a gnoll mummy (cool image) is that they probably wouldn't exist. Gnolls being the desert scavengers that they are would cannibalize their dead, especially a powerful leader (to take his strength) vs. entombing him.
A gnoll mummy is a great visual, personally I would go with an entombed advanced Gnoll Ghast - maybe kept in a sealed off section of their lair (special backup weapon), a personal gift/emissary from Yeenoghu to the tribes chieftain or shaman. That or the shaman had a vision concerning the chieftains powerful son (one the chieftain considered a threat) and they sealed him alive = advanced ghast or ghoul gnoll.
It could look mummy-like, but I would think anything tied to Gnolls = savage hunger and or cannibalism.
Just my two domars.
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Make it a gnoll mummy.
I don't think any PC ever is anthropologically aware enough of the campaign world to suddenly interject:
"Hold on a second, historically Gnolls have never mummified their dead. My suspension of disbelief is ruined! I will not roll another attack roll, or loot another corpse until the backstory of this one mummy is explained to me!"
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Make it a gnoll mummy.
I don't think any PC ever is anthropologically aware enough of the campaign world to suddenly interject:
"Hold on a second, historically Gnolls have never mummified their dead. My suspension of disbelief is ruined! I will not roll another attack roll, or loot another corpse until the backstory of this one mummy is explained to me!"
Thanks for sh&%ing on my idea!
Gnoll mummy. No contest.
Even better, make it a knoll mummy. That mofo will be HUGE! (Well, Colossal at the least... maybe even Titanic or Macro-Fine if you use that sizing system.)
Macro-FineHm. Was "Mickey", of the Toni Basil song of the same name, Macro-Fine? That would blow my mind.
clap-clap clap, clap-clap clap
I made it a gnoll mummy that they released as a last resort.
I made it a gnoll mummy that they released as a last resort.
Did you already play it out? How did it go? Did you successfully get an OH SH*T moment out of them?
clap-clap clap, clap-clap clap
Knoll mummy's sonic resistance negates your Mickey Clap Line attack. Sorry.
I made it a gnoll mummy that they released as a last resort.Did you already play it out? How did it go? Did you successfully get an OH SH*T moment out of them?
Yeah it was pretty cool. Didn't turn out as I had initially planned, but that was more thanks to my own sloppiness.
In the middle of the final battle a lesser gnoll opens up a door to the inner temple of the gnolls, releasing the mummy upon them. The room was a bit TOO big so the players had ample room to maneuver around it but almost everyone was busy dealing with the ogre and the gnoll leader.
Sounds like what a gnoll would think a plan well laid. ;-) If you as a GM don't think something through, it's the monsters' fault, naturally. Stupid, stupid, rat monsters. I mean gnolls.
O:-)
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Thanks for sh&%ing on my idea!Make it a gnoll mummy.
I don't think any PC ever is anthropologically aware enough of the campaign world to suddenly interject:
"Hold on a second, historically Gnolls have never mummified their dead. My suspension of disbelief is ruined! I will not roll another attack roll, or loot another corpse until the backstory of this one mummy is explained to me!"
I'm sorry if I came across that way. I just know what it's like to think all the history and backstory of a monster through, to have the PCs trample roughshod through the dungeon murder everything in sight and take all the stuff.
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I'm sorry if I came across that way. I just know what it's like to think all the history and backstory of a monster through, to have the PCs trample roughshod through the dungeon murder everything in sight and take all the stuff.Thanks for sh&%ing on my idea!Make it a gnoll mummy.
I don't think any PC ever is anthropologically aware enough of the campaign world to suddenly interject:
"Hold on a second, historically Gnolls have never mummified their dead. My suspension of disbelief is ruined! I will not roll another attack roll, or loot another corpse until the backstory of this one mummy is explained to me!"
Monsters have backstories? Why??????? They just get killed within 12 seconds of appearing anyway! Monsters are like the animated skits in Monty Python's Flying Circus: They make no f@cking sense at all but are FUN!
Just kidding. As a GM I have a backstory for the monsters but I don't think a PC has EVER asked or learned even 10% of the behind the scenes stories. "Look a monster. KILL IT!" is about all there is.
Honestly, you could have made it an animated object/ four headed cryo-pyro hyrda/ demonic/ celestial/ gnome/ mummy/ gnoll from Pluto (that needed some serious therapy) and the PCs would have shrugged and just killed it.
mmmmmm
just occurred to me....
Men are from Mars,
Women are from Venus,
Gnolls are from Pluto