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I am also not going to run Wake after broken Moon as I feel it dosen't fit the theme well, nor are my players the type to enjoy that type of horror. Instead I will have the dark rider trading the effigy for something found in a recently discovered osirion pyramid that has been discovered in the region. (Hey if Mexico can have em, why not Ustalav). I am putting together a list of classic mummy idea that I can use to build it out. I like how the path has used some classic tropes so far and want to keep on the theme. I will put the list here, but please add to it, if you have any more ideas. Whether it is a cool creature, an event, a plot, anything. The more I can choose from to build, the better it will be. Thanks for any help all.
1. Bookish female professor, wearing osirion amulet given to her by her professor father. Actually a member of the Palantine Eye
2. Young naive but beautiful research assistant.
3. A mummy queen brought back from the dig site to be on display.
4. The mummy king still at the dig site, not found yet (but awake)
5. Dog headed masks also on display, (later will be worn by minions of the mummy lord making them powerful)
6. people disappearing, bodies turned up all mummified
7. a secret order dedicating to protecting the pyramid, as it contains a disease that they are afraid it will be unleashed. They will be misguided and try to assassinate anyone they think is involved with the dig.
8. people finding that the prof from 1 above has a mummy (Eye Elder) and believe that it is causing this.
9. Onyx dogs.
10. Sand golems
11. Mummy king uses minions to kidnap research assistant from 2 above to be new queen. bringing her to the pyramid for the big dungeon finale
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Pyramids and Ustalav don't mix at all... However the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye is all about Ancient Osiriani tableaux. I think the treasures/ plunder brought back from an expedition to Osirion would be more thematically appropriate than finding a hitherto unknown pyramid...
Of course you can flip that on it's head and keep a Dark Tapestry connection but dress it in pyramids by using a plane shifting black pyramid that appears near the town of Vauntil. Said pyramid is the lair or vessel of an ancient mummy priest of Nyarlathotep. He is called the Black Pharoh afterall!
--Nile Vrockadile
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Instead of Osirion mummies why not have them be from some bronze or iron age Ustalavian culture that predates the Age of Darkness?
You could have an expedition climbing a peak in the Hungry Mountains that no one in recorded history has surmounted. On a barren, cold, windswept ledge near the top they discover rows of ancient mummified Kings set to watch over the once-fertile valley they ruled millenia ago.
Or, if you're determined to have something like a pyramid, make it more of a ziggurat, or ancient hill fort ruled by a bog mummies. Again, the Hungry Mountains are apparently filled with bogs that are difficult to get to in the first place, much less navigating them once you get there.
Heck, Ustlav isn't that far from Thassilon. One of the Runelords could have set up a base anywhere in Ustlav for whatever reason your campaign requires.
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I guess I should have added that I transferred the path to my own campaign world. The country they are in, is very like Ustalav, but there is a jungle area close by where pyramids fit perfectly. I just used the setting names more to describe the flavor, sorry. I am looking more for classic mummy idea, rather than setting tie ins. It you were playing a mummy adventure, what kinds of thing would you like to see.
Pyramids and Ustalav don't mix at all... However the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye is all about Ancient Osiriani tableaux. I think the treasures/ plunder brought back from an expedition to Osirion would be more thematically appropriate than finding a hitherto unknown pyramid...
This is EXACTLY what I was going to say. Check out the Esoteric Order article and you'll have all sorts of inspirations. I'd suggest an abandoned Lodge of the Order...filled with the mummies they imported from Osirion for their weird ceremonies.
I was also of a mind that Carrion Crown was missing a mummy adventure, and I would love to have see it rather than Lovecraftian horror myself. On the other hand, do consider that by Chapter 6, your players may very well be exhausted from all the undead-killing, and WotW really serves to mix it up before they get there, because lotd knows they'll be seeing hordes of them there. Maybe the Esoteric Order themselves (under control of a powerful old mummy) could be the mooks here, instead of more undead minions.
Just some thoughts!
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Instead of Osirion mummies why not have them be from some bronze or iron age Ustalavian culture that predates the Age of Darkness?
You could have an expedition climbing a peak in the Hungry Mountains that no one in recorded history has surmounted. On a barren, cold, windswept ledge near the top they discover rows of ancient mummified Kings set to watch over the once-fertile valley they ruled millenia ago.
Or, if you're determined to have something like a pyramid, make it more of a ziggurat, or ancient hill fort ruled by a bog mummies. Again, the Hungry Mountains are apparently filled with bogs that are difficult to get to in the first place, much less navigating them once you get there.
Heck, Ustlav isn't that far from Thassilon. One of the Runelords could have set up a base anywhere in Ustlav for whatever reason your campaign requires.
Some excellent ideas in here - plus it would throw them a bit as they would not be expecting a European or Eastern European style mummy encounters.
And if you need an area to explore, you could have one in an underground artificial created "land of the dead" for some ancient Ustlavian warlord - could easily double as a dig site for a modern era group (a variant lodge of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye).
The whole affair could use a good mix of bog mummies, wights and the faith of the old times. Since it is indigenous to the area it would be very easy to have an old faith/ways cult spring up around protecting this "land" and serving one of the ancient warlords who once ruled over it.
Of course these suggestions don't address wanting to get a "classic" Universal Mummy type of feel but the same thing can be done with different trappings imo. You could still have a burial curse, forbidden love that trancends death, protective order, guardian creatures, and a large tomb to explore, etc - all just without sand.
I guess I should have added that I transferred the path to my own campaign world. The country they are in, is very like Ustalav, but there is a jungle area close by where pyramids fit perfectly. I just used the setting names more to describe the flavor, sorry. I am looking more for classic mummy idea, rather than setting tie ins. It you were playing a mummy adventure, what kinds of thing would you like to see.
OK, here's an idea....
Your mummy King is actually an usurper who killed off the royal family in order to claim the Princess, whom he'd been stalking for years. The Princess committed suicide rather than let the usurper claim her, but he raised her as a mummy and has spent the last several millenia in an insane cycle of imprisoning her, freeing her after her powers have weakened, trying to win her love, then re-imprisoning her as her own powers start to grow to the point she could be a threat to him.
But this time when the Princess wakes she's been found by explorers and taken to Ustalav. By coincidence, the female Professor (or her assistant) greatly resembles the Princess when she was alive.
The by now quite mad Princess seizes upon this and hatches a desperate plan. She starts sending dreams and visions to the Professor of the Princess' own life. She also starts sneaking out of her display case at night to perform rituals over the Professor to alter the Professor's aura to resemble her own.
The plan is that when the usurper shows up looking for the Princess he will find the Professor, think that she is the Princess reborn, and cart her off to his pyramid. Thus giving the Princess time to expand her own powers to the point she can either kill the usurper, or break whatever hold he has on her soul so she can finally just die.
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I guess I should have added that I transferred the path to my own campaign world. The country they are in, is very like Ustalav, but there is a jungle area close by where pyramids fit perfectly. I just used the setting names more to describe the flavor, sorry. I am looking more for classic mummy idea, rather than setting tie ins. It you were playing a mummy adventure, what kinds of thing would you like to see.
OK, here's an idea....
Your mummy King is actually an usurper who killed off the royal family in order to claim the Princess, whom he'd been stalking for years. The Princess committed suicide rather than let the usurper claim her, but he raised her as a mummy and has spent the last several millenia in an insane cycle of imprisoning her, freeing her after her powers have weakened, trying to win her love, then re-imprisoning her as her own powers start to grow to the point she could be a threat to him.
But this time when the Princess wakes she's been found by explorers and taken to Ustalav. By coincidence, the female Professor (or her assistant) greatly resembles the Princess when she was alive.
The by now quite mad Princess seizes upon this and hatches a desperate plan. She starts sending dreams and visions to the Professor of the Princess' own life. She also starts sneaking out of her display case at night to perform rituals over the Professor to alter the Professor's aura to resemble her own.
The plan is that when the usurper shows up looking for the Princess he will find the Professor, think that she is the Princess reborn, and cart her off to his pyramid. Thus giving the Princess time to expand her own powers to the point she can either kill the usurper, or break whatever hold he has on her soul so she can finally just die.
sorry, i thought this died a while ago. I love it. thank you. I was looking for a way to make the mistaken identity work and this is perfect, especially as it leaves a mummy running around the area at the end too. Thanks man.
