Deathless and Nameless (Mummy: the Curse Quest)
- Thread starter QafianSage
- Start date
- Mature
0.1 Vote Closed
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Looks like we're going to be playing an Arisen with a focus first on the social approach, and second on the social. Hopefully, I'll get the next update up soon with @BungieONI !
0.2 - Anamnesis
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
You rise towards the living world, and your soul rises with you from the depths of Duat. Five parts has the soul, five great Pillars - but one is most radiant of all, building for itself a raiment of raging Sekhem, honey-gold and hotter than a furnace. You chose it in that dark place before Judges whose faces you cannot remember. When all else was broken and degraded, the very house of your spirit rendered to ashes, one Pillar stood tall and you declared yourself…
[] Ashem.
Though all the world should burn, your sheut will lead your way forwards into darkness. Though every ghost and demon should assail you, you will not bend the knee, your shadow rooting you in place. Under the sign of the jackal, beast of Anpu, you shall stand and show the world no trace of fear.
[] Deshret.
If a mountain stands in your way, you shall climb it. If a river bars your path, you shall ford it. Your ba-spirit can neither bend nor break, and all obstacles only grant the falcon-soul the chance to soar aloft. Though all the ages of the world may stand before you, you will tread forwards without hesitation.
[] Kheru.
Your Heart bears no witness against you. Listen and it will say the same as you. Lion-crowned it will cry the flame of your defiance in an old, cold world. Though your body may be dust, your heart burns on into eternity. So long as you love, so long as you hate, you have not died!
[] Nesrem.
You endure. Though your bones may be shattered, your limbs bound in chains and the very world torn asunder, this does not change you. Your ka endures for eternity, bull-formed and diamond-souled. More unmoving than the mountains, more relentless than the ocean, the sands of time shall run barren and dry before you change one iota of your essence.
[] Usheb.
Though you be stripped of all else, none may have your ren. Through your name, you know yourself. Self-knowledge becomes knowledge of capabilities, and knowledge of capabilities becomes knowledge of the world. Like the stars reflected in a pool, your name is the very reflection of Fate's grand weave. Should you only speak it with serpent-tongue, you shall live eternal.
Around that pillar your soul is raised like a temple, and memory returns as you ascend like the threadbare banners of a festival, descending upon you like the tattered robes of an ancient votary draped about your shoulders. Ghosts of sensation flit between your fingers; the taste of wine in a city whose name you cannot recall, and the thick drip of blood upon your upraised palms. When, where, who, why - all of these are gone.
Some things remain to you, though, gathering about you as you rise. Your name. Your Guild. And the drowning-taste of salt.
Though… no.
That taste on your dead tongue is not a memory at all.
Gracie May-Wells crawled along behind the convoy as it made its way up the winding roads of Suffolk, damning to hell her dodgy leg and every one of her seventy-seven years alike. Time healed all ailments, so the saying went - but that was bull as far as she was concerned. It had never healed quite right, not after that bullet. It was all very well when she could walk with her cane, but working the clutch mile after mile down these damned little roads gave her the shakes.
Normally, she'd have simply headed out to the main roads, where she only had to change gears every now and then, but today she couldn't. Not with what the men from the museum had in their van. She could see in her mind's eye the shape of that sarcophagus, etched with the signs of old Irem. She'd seen it every night since it sank into the dark waters of the Channel, haunting her like a black monolith, blotting out the distant stars as she kneeled before it. She had searched, searched for years - taken up SCUBA diving for it, even, when that had been invented and come within her financial reach - and taken a comfort in its solid, unchanging outlines. She had thought the real coffin must have long since been colonised by kelp and barnacles, but the one that ruled her nights was pristine. She took that as a sign; a sign that…
[] Name: Write in
her…
[] Master (Male gender)
[] Mistress (Female gender)
[] Sovereign (Other gender): Write in.
Would come again. Of course, they were immortal - Deathless; Gracie remembered the word. She remembered what she had been taught, back in the forties; not that much, considering her place in the following, but she remembered the scant secrets she had treasured like pearls, the miracles she had witnessed, the mysteries of the…
[] Maa-Kep.
That the spotlight is a temptation, a lure as powerful and deadly as any fisherman's hook. To step into it is to be revealed; it is the severance of all the possibilities that yet wait outside its glare. Such is the lesson of the amulet-makers, the labourers and the spies of the Arisen: they are Maa-Kep. Friendly, diplomatic organisers, few can bring themselves to hate them, though they may not entirely trust them. Such is their skill that even though they are known as spies amongst their kind, their effectiveness is hardly diminished. They serve as stewards, seneschals, right-hand men, emissaries and middle-management, masters of the power that comes not from the throne, but from being invaluable to the one who occupies it.
[] Mesen-Nebu.
That the work of sweat and blood becomes gold and beauty and power. To harness the dedwen of the universe - primal value, whether expressed in utility, monetary worth or simple beauty - one must understand that the processes of transmuting lead into gold and tearing gold from the bosom of the earth are intimately related. This is the heart of the Mesen-Nebu, the alchemists, merchants and potion-makers. All things possess dedwen, and the study of the world is the study of its transmutations. By turns they funded Irem's great conquests of the world, forged the weapons of its armies and brought beauty to the Nameless Empire. Their skills are in the perfecting of material things, and many seek their services to empower themselves and their Cults. They serve as financiers, bankers, and other mercantile resources, understanding that the throne cannot enact its will without value to spend - though in this age without Pharaoh or Shan'iatu, many have made empires of their own.
[] Sesha-Hebsu.
That the universe is a great unfurling of laws and stories older than time, and which will endure long after the last mortal fades into dust. That there is a Scroll of Ages, the record of all things touched by Fate. According to the Sesha-Hebsu, one's actions are indelibly written into the Scroll, and so one must act with honour and clear foresight in one's judgements. That was the role of the Scribes; to be magistrates and judges, clerks and bureaucrats, record-keepers and librarians. They knew the span of Irem's conquest across the world, they kept the calendar which tracked the Judges festival days, they saw and recorded every bushel of grain and every ingot of bronze which passed through the Nameless Empire's lands. Their skills are in dismantling deceit, the written word and its uses as propaganda, law and record, and in the keeping of what history remains to the Arisen.
[] Su-Menent.
For most in the modern world, the grave is a final destination. 'Dead and buried' is a way of saying ended, finished, kaput. Nothing could be further from the worldview of the Shepherds of the Chamber. To them, the tomb is a door into which all pass, but from which some may return - in whole or in part. In Irem they were morticians, mummifiers and necromancers who stood beside the Shan'iatu as they performed their rites to honour and propitiate the Judges of Duat, and bound ghosts and wailing spirits to the service of the Nameless Empire. Since the Shan'iatu were lost and they were subjected to the Rite of Return, however, they have taken on new roles. Though all Arisen serve the Judges, the Su-Menent have become priests in truth - both defenders against blasphemy and heresy, and guides through the terrors and tribulations of the world. Many serve as counsel to their fellow mummies, while others seek to shepherd mortals more than the Deathless. All still plumb the mysteries of death and beyond, but they have new duties, and a high calling to answer.
[] Tef-Aabhi.
Irem is called the City of Pillars, and no one Guild was entirely responsible for them - but the Tef-Aabhi drew out their occult diagram before a scribe ever supplied materials or an alchemist refined them. They are the masters of the Lifeweb, the subtle flows of Sekhem and sympathetic magic which bound together the greatest works of Iremite magic, from the tombs of mummies to the temples of the Nameless Empire. But this is a myopic, reductive view of their art. Mystic geometries only draw out and strengthen the effects of the Lifeweb; it stretches throughout the world as a whole, binding countries, cities and companies alike. These connections persist through time as much as space; the Tef-Aabhi stride a line between innovation and tradition, between correcting the mistakes of the past and remembering and re-creating the good. They consider themselves monuments as much as their works: Monuments to Irem, and to their own mastery.
The year before, the discovery of 'Seahenge' down by the Wash had raised her spirits, only to dash them again. And then a year later, in the spring of 1999, for her dreams to be made real. A stone coffin pitched up by a spring storm in Suffolk, its appearance on the shore almost overshadowed by the controversy around the excavation and extraction of Seahenge.
Not enough for the coffin and its strange inscriptions to fall beneath the notice of archaeologists, however, nor for it to escape the notice of an old lady three towns over. She hadn't been able to spirit it away before they secured the site, so she'd done her best. She'd followed along with the investigation of the coffin with the newspaper, the binoculars and the persistent inquiries of a curious old pensioner, and then followed along - more literally - with its extraction. Gracie didn't know exactly what she'd do, but she knew as certainly as the sky was blue that there would be something. She was meant for this.
Ahead of her, the van rocked on its wheels, and its red brake lights glowed as it squealed to a shuddering stop. The passenger door opened and a man climbed out, walking around towards the back of the van. Gracie's breath caught in her throat, and her hands were white claws as they gripped the wheel.
After fifty years, she was going to see a miracle again.
Please vote as a plan. Pick one Decree, your Guild and one Guild Affinity. A valid plan should look something like this:
[] Plan Name
-[] Decree
-[] Guild
--[] Guild Affinity
Vote for name and gender as a separate combination:
[] Name
-[] Gender
This vote will remain open for at least a few days, though it may close sooner if a plan gains a significant lead.
Authors' Notes: We had a quick turnaround today! Admittedly, because a lot of this could be copied to a greater or lesser extent, but still. It feels good to have something moving along - and this is a fun update.
Also, you get your first good look at Mummy powers, though we'll start mocking up the character sheet soon. Broadly speaking, Affinities are subtle(-ish) powers that are either passive or cost Willpower to use. The four main types of Affinity are:
[] Ashem.
Though all the world should burn, your sheut will lead your way forwards into darkness. Though every ghost and demon should assail you, you will not bend the knee, your shadow rooting you in place. Under the sign of the jackal, beast of Anpu, you shall stand and show the world no trace of fear.
[] Deshret.
If a mountain stands in your way, you shall climb it. If a river bars your path, you shall ford it. Your ba-spirit can neither bend nor break, and all obstacles only grant the falcon-soul the chance to soar aloft. Though all the ages of the world may stand before you, you will tread forwards without hesitation.
[] Kheru.
Your Heart bears no witness against you. Listen and it will say the same as you. Lion-crowned it will cry the flame of your defiance in an old, cold world. Though your body may be dust, your heart burns on into eternity. So long as you love, so long as you hate, you have not died!
[] Nesrem.
You endure. Though your bones may be shattered, your limbs bound in chains and the very world torn asunder, this does not change you. Your ka endures for eternity, bull-formed and diamond-souled. More unmoving than the mountains, more relentless than the ocean, the sands of time shall run barren and dry before you change one iota of your essence.
[] Usheb.
Though you be stripped of all else, none may have your ren. Through your name, you know yourself. Self-knowledge becomes knowledge of capabilities, and knowledge of capabilities becomes knowledge of the world. Like the stars reflected in a pool, your name is the very reflection of Fate's grand weave. Should you only speak it with serpent-tongue, you shall live eternal.
Around that pillar your soul is raised like a temple, and memory returns as you ascend like the threadbare banners of a festival, descending upon you like the tattered robes of an ancient votary draped about your shoulders. Ghosts of sensation flit between your fingers; the taste of wine in a city whose name you cannot recall, and the thick drip of blood upon your upraised palms. When, where, who, why - all of these are gone.
Some things remain to you, though, gathering about you as you rise. Your name. Your Guild. And the drowning-taste of salt.
Though… no.
That taste on your dead tongue is not a memory at all.
Gracie May-Wells crawled along behind the convoy as it made its way up the winding roads of Suffolk, damning to hell her dodgy leg and every one of her seventy-seven years alike. Time healed all ailments, so the saying went - but that was bull as far as she was concerned. It had never healed quite right, not after that bullet. It was all very well when she could walk with her cane, but working the clutch mile after mile down these damned little roads gave her the shakes.
Normally, she'd have simply headed out to the main roads, where she only had to change gears every now and then, but today she couldn't. Not with what the men from the museum had in their van. She could see in her mind's eye the shape of that sarcophagus, etched with the signs of old Irem. She'd seen it every night since it sank into the dark waters of the Channel, haunting her like a black monolith, blotting out the distant stars as she kneeled before it. She had searched, searched for years - taken up SCUBA diving for it, even, when that had been invented and come within her financial reach - and taken a comfort in its solid, unchanging outlines. She had thought the real coffin must have long since been colonised by kelp and barnacles, but the one that ruled her nights was pristine. She took that as a sign; a sign that…
[] Name: Write in
her…
[] Master (Male gender)
[] Mistress (Female gender)
[] Sovereign (Other gender): Write in.
Would come again. Of course, they were immortal - Deathless; Gracie remembered the word. She remembered what she had been taught, back in the forties; not that much, considering her place in the following, but she remembered the scant secrets she had treasured like pearls, the miracles she had witnessed, the mysteries of the…
[] Maa-Kep.
That the spotlight is a temptation, a lure as powerful and deadly as any fisherman's hook. To step into it is to be revealed; it is the severance of all the possibilities that yet wait outside its glare. Such is the lesson of the amulet-makers, the labourers and the spies of the Arisen: they are Maa-Kep. Friendly, diplomatic organisers, few can bring themselves to hate them, though they may not entirely trust them. Such is their skill that even though they are known as spies amongst their kind, their effectiveness is hardly diminished. They serve as stewards, seneschals, right-hand men, emissaries and middle-management, masters of the power that comes not from the throne, but from being invaluable to the one who occupies it.
[] Mesen-Nebu.
That the work of sweat and blood becomes gold and beauty and power. To harness the dedwen of the universe - primal value, whether expressed in utility, monetary worth or simple beauty - one must understand that the processes of transmuting lead into gold and tearing gold from the bosom of the earth are intimately related. This is the heart of the Mesen-Nebu, the alchemists, merchants and potion-makers. All things possess dedwen, and the study of the world is the study of its transmutations. By turns they funded Irem's great conquests of the world, forged the weapons of its armies and brought beauty to the Nameless Empire. Their skills are in the perfecting of material things, and many seek their services to empower themselves and their Cults. They serve as financiers, bankers, and other mercantile resources, understanding that the throne cannot enact its will without value to spend - though in this age without Pharaoh or Shan'iatu, many have made empires of their own.
[] Sesha-Hebsu.
That the universe is a great unfurling of laws and stories older than time, and which will endure long after the last mortal fades into dust. That there is a Scroll of Ages, the record of all things touched by Fate. According to the Sesha-Hebsu, one's actions are indelibly written into the Scroll, and so one must act with honour and clear foresight in one's judgements. That was the role of the Scribes; to be magistrates and judges, clerks and bureaucrats, record-keepers and librarians. They knew the span of Irem's conquest across the world, they kept the calendar which tracked the Judges festival days, they saw and recorded every bushel of grain and every ingot of bronze which passed through the Nameless Empire's lands. Their skills are in dismantling deceit, the written word and its uses as propaganda, law and record, and in the keeping of what history remains to the Arisen.
[] Su-Menent.
For most in the modern world, the grave is a final destination. 'Dead and buried' is a way of saying ended, finished, kaput. Nothing could be further from the worldview of the Shepherds of the Chamber. To them, the tomb is a door into which all pass, but from which some may return - in whole or in part. In Irem they were morticians, mummifiers and necromancers who stood beside the Shan'iatu as they performed their rites to honour and propitiate the Judges of Duat, and bound ghosts and wailing spirits to the service of the Nameless Empire. Since the Shan'iatu were lost and they were subjected to the Rite of Return, however, they have taken on new roles. Though all Arisen serve the Judges, the Su-Menent have become priests in truth - both defenders against blasphemy and heresy, and guides through the terrors and tribulations of the world. Many serve as counsel to their fellow mummies, while others seek to shepherd mortals more than the Deathless. All still plumb the mysteries of death and beyond, but they have new duties, and a high calling to answer.
[] Tef-Aabhi.
Irem is called the City of Pillars, and no one Guild was entirely responsible for them - but the Tef-Aabhi drew out their occult diagram before a scribe ever supplied materials or an alchemist refined them. They are the masters of the Lifeweb, the subtle flows of Sekhem and sympathetic magic which bound together the greatest works of Iremite magic, from the tombs of mummies to the temples of the Nameless Empire. But this is a myopic, reductive view of their art. Mystic geometries only draw out and strengthen the effects of the Lifeweb; it stretches throughout the world as a whole, binding countries, cities and companies alike. These connections persist through time as much as space; the Tef-Aabhi stride a line between innovation and tradition, between correcting the mistakes of the past and remembering and re-creating the good. They consider themselves monuments as much as their works: Monuments to Irem, and to their own mastery.
The year before, the discovery of 'Seahenge' down by the Wash had raised her spirits, only to dash them again. And then a year later, in the spring of 1999, for her dreams to be made real. A stone coffin pitched up by a spring storm in Suffolk, its appearance on the shore almost overshadowed by the controversy around the excavation and extraction of Seahenge.
Not enough for the coffin and its strange inscriptions to fall beneath the notice of archaeologists, however, nor for it to escape the notice of an old lady three towns over. She hadn't been able to spirit it away before they secured the site, so she'd done her best. She'd followed along with the investigation of the coffin with the newspaper, the binoculars and the persistent inquiries of a curious old pensioner, and then followed along - more literally - with its extraction. Gracie didn't know exactly what she'd do, but she knew as certainly as the sky was blue that there would be something. She was meant for this.
Ahead of her, the van rocked on its wheels, and its red brake lights glowed as it squealed to a shuddering stop. The passenger door opened and a man climbed out, walking around towards the back of the van. Gracie's breath caught in her throat, and her hands were white claws as they gripped the wheel.
After fifty years, she was going to see a miracle again.
Please vote as a plan. Pick one Decree, your Guild and one Guild Affinity. A valid plan should look something like this:
[] Plan Name
-[] Decree
-[] Guild
--[] Guild Affinity
Vote for name and gender as a separate combination:
[] Name
-[] Gender
This vote will remain open for at least a few days, though it may close sooner if a plan gains a significant lead.
Authors' Notes: We had a quick turnaround today! Admittedly, because a lot of this could be copied to a greater or lesser extent, but still. It feels good to have something moving along - and this is a fun update.
Also, you get your first good look at Mummy powers, though we'll start mocking up the character sheet soon. Broadly speaking, Affinities are subtle(-ish) powers that are either passive or cost Willpower to use. The four main types of Affinity are:
- Decree Affinities, which you only get one of and are (shockingly) associated with your Decree.
- Guild Affinities, which you can only gain if you're a part of the relevant Guild, but which you can have multiple of (though only one of for the moment).
- Soul Affinities, which are usually associated with one of the five Pillars, and which you can have multiple of (you'll have two by the end of character creation.
- Bane Affinities, which are nasty horrible corrupted powers mainly used by Shuankhsen, though Arisen can also get them through a process more like infection than anything else.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gEzmL1DXr8
I come bearing Meeeeeeeemes!
Also as collaber, this is a random Egyptian name generator for name ideas.
For those that want to get particularly in-depth, here's a source for Egyptian sounds and name components this dictionary is extensive!
- Location
- some computer lab
[x] Yeshua
-[x] Master
I'll take a look at a build later, but I would like to propose this name.
-[x] Master
I'll take a look at a build later, but I would like to propose this name.
Teocraso
A bear as strong as nine bears
- Location
- The City of Angels
i legit have that scene from Prince of Egypt in mindIf they won't listen to words, muscles shall speak.
"Be Silent! Pharaoh speaks!"
I mean I know the titular mummies aren't Pharaohs, but still ...
- Location
- some computer lab
[x] Yeshua
-[x] Master(Male gender)
[x] plan undying leadership
-[X] Nesrem.
-[x] Su-Menent.
-[x] Blazing Zeal
makes us pretty tanky and let's us rise from our grave when one of the followers we care about gets hurt, lets us preserve the legacy of those who fall in our name by giving those who remain some measure of their talents, and buffs our followers so that they shall know no fear.
-[x] Master(Male gender)
[x] plan undying leadership
-[X] Nesrem.
-[x] Su-Menent.
-[x] Blazing Zeal
makes us pretty tanky and let's us rise from our grave when one of the followers we care about gets hurt, lets us preserve the legacy of those who fall in our name by giving those who remain some measure of their talents, and buffs our followers so that they shall know no fear.
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- Location
- Britain
"Let's call ourselves Jesus"
lame, there are better abrahamic references for bad decisions
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan: I Beheld, As Lightning
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
lame, there are better abrahamic references for bad decisions
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan: I Beheld, As Lightning
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
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- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan Battle Butler
-[X] Kheru
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
Kheru and Maa-Kep together mean that we are good at manipulating and leading people by helping them, and thrive on confident improvisation, and it doubles down on our social/physical focus. It's fronting as Alfred, but with a lot of [your superspy/assassin of choice] under the hood. Affable Aid is just the best power in Mummy and I am required to vote for it.
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan Battle Butler
-[X] Kheru
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
Kheru and Maa-Kep together mean that we are good at manipulating and leading people by helping them, and thrive on confident improvisation, and it doubles down on our social/physical focus. It's fronting as Alfred, but with a lot of [your superspy/assassin of choice] under the hood. Affable Aid is just the best power in Mummy and I am required to vote for it.
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BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Mummy powers just have No Chill Whatsoever and it is delightful.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan Battle Butler
-[X] Kheru
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
I like this.
-[X] Mistress
[X] Plan Battle Butler
-[X] Kheru
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
I like this.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
I'd prefer to play a lady mummy, and the name is kinda funny without being immediately recognizable and therefore impossible to take seriously.
[X] Plan Battle Butler
A social focus that encourages us to be indiscriminately helpful and friendly sounds fun, especially since there's the potential for spy shenanigans.
-[X] Mistress
I'd prefer to play a lady mummy, and the name is kinda funny without being immediately recognizable and therefore impossible to take seriously.
[X] Plan Battle Butler
A social focus that encourages us to be indiscriminately helpful and friendly sounds fun, especially since there's the potential for spy shenanigans.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
One thing with the tallybot; this overwrote your plan because it takes your most recent post with votes in it. If you want your plan in the tally, just edit it into this post.
[X] Plan: I Beheld, As Lightning
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
In order to properly use your charm, you need a trick in order for your cunning not to turn people away from you, you need to be charming.
Another fact in favor of Usheb is that in the setting of mummies, the true name means a lot and the focus of our mummy on this aspect of his personality seems to be very useful.
[x] Rameses
-[x] Male
As far as I remember, Ramses 2 is one of the most powerful and long-lived rulers who lived up to 90 years.
Good name.
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
In order to properly use your charm, you need a trick in order for your cunning not to turn people away from you, you need to be charming.
Another fact in favor of Usheb is that in the setting of mummies, the true name means a lot and the focus of our mummy on this aspect of his personality seems to be very useful.
[x] Rameses
-[x] Male
As far as I remember, Ramses 2 is one of the most powerful and long-lived rulers who lived up to 90 years.
Good name.
Last edited:
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
Forgot the condition for this one.
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
[x] Rameses
-[x] Male
[X] Plan: Rising Lord
-[X] Kheru.
-[X] Mesen-Nebu.
--[X] Almsman's Tithe
Just a plan with good synergy in my opinion. Through wealth, power, and through power, our goals will be aligned.
-[x] Male
[X] Plan: Rising Lord
-[X] Kheru.
-[X] Mesen-Nebu.
--[X] Almsman's Tithe
Just a plan with good synergy in my opinion. Through wealth, power, and through power, our goals will be aligned.
- Location
- Britain
Okay so, with respect to mechanics, while I could be convinced for any of the guilds there is a specific Decree I want to push for - Usheb. This is for a specific reason — its defining pillar is Ren. Why? Well, give me a moment.
Mummy is a very strange work, in that you get weaker over time, rather than stronger (not skills and stuff, but your 'power' stat). This means that if you want to throw around anything big in terms of Utterances (especially ones that roll Sekhem), which are... essentially Mummy's Charm equivalents? You need to start, at character creation with the prerequisites. And let me present to you... Secrets Ripped From Skies, my single favourite Utterance in Mummy as a narrative tool and set piece:
For people who don't want to read, the tl;dr is that if you have the prerequisites for all three tiers (the third being the most important) you can have Horrifying Metaphorical Prophecy Visions on demand and call down meteors to strike your foes. Downside? You need to start with 5 Ren, which means it's gotta be your Decree.
So I could be convinced for any guild, but for now I'll go with...
[X] Plan: I Beheld, As Lightning
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
and to reiterate so the tally doesn't lose it
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
Mummy is a very strange work, in that you get weaker over time, rather than stronger (not skills and stuff, but your 'power' stat). This means that if you want to throw around anything big in terms of Utterances (especially ones that roll Sekhem), which are... essentially Mummy's Charm equivalents? You need to start, at character creation with the prerequisites. And let me present to you... Secrets Ripped From Skies, my single favourite Utterance in Mummy as a narrative tool and set piece:
Secrets Ripped From Skies
Prerequisites: Tier 1: Ba • (Subtle); Tier 2: Sheut ••• (Curse); Tier 3: Ren •••••
Tier 1: The mummy unleashes this Utterance while gazing up at the sky. Doing so reveals his location relative to all known geographical referents, using whatever system of measure comes most naturally to him. The accuracy of this intuition roughly matches the information provided by global positioning satellites. For example, he may realize he is 20 miles southwest of Mount Sinai or two blocks north of the Chinese restaurant he had lunch at yesterday. Use of this Utterance automatically allows a mummy to retrace his steps through a maze back to known entrances.
Tier 2: The mummy speaks a word of power that reverberates back across space and time to the beginning of the universe, reshaping its genesis. The passing eons ensure that matter is spun and coalesces in accordance with auspicious wrath, culminating in a blazing meteorite
falling upon an intended target. The mummy can only choose a known target he can perceive within one mile, and that target must be exposed to the open sky (i.e., objects inside buildings can't be targeted, though the building itself is fair game).
Roll the Arisen's Sheut + Occult + Sekhem as a ranged attack; successes inflict lethal damage (aggravated to inanimate objects and structures). Range penalties do not apply; targets are either within range or not. Cover is calculated from above, rather than the barriers separating
the mummy and target. The meteor also creates a bonfire with Bunsen burner intensity inside a two-yard radius around the impact crater, though the flame only persists for the turn the meteor lands unless it sets combustible materials ablaze (e.g., wood, people, etc.). Characters who might be within the initial blast of fire and who are capable of applying their Defense can sometimes escape the worst of the blaze by leaping away; their players roll Dexterity + Athletics and subtract successes from the levels of damage applied. Victims hit by the meteor itself cannot jump away from the resulting flames.
Tier 3: The Arisen gazes upon the night sky and listens to the murmurs of the firmament, scrutinizing the cosmic mysteries inscribed upon the patterns of constellations.
Roll Memory + Ren, applying a –5 penalty if the sky is more than half covered by clouds and/or too much light pollution drowns out the stars (as in most major cities and suburbs). Success allows the mummy to glean one important truth from Fate, a clue that directly helps solve
his most pressing dilemma in the current story. The clue is shrouded in metaphor and cryptic symbolism, but not so much that it isn't actually useful.
If a mummy unleashes the second tier in the same scene he attempted to read the future in the stars (successfully or not), he calls down an Epic meteor shower rather than a single meteorite. The shower ravages everything within a mile of the mummy for a number of turns equal to his
Sekhem rating. The Arisen must choose whether to rain destruction in accordance with chance or Fate. In the former case, every possible target in range has a 10% chance of being targeted by a meteor each turn that the skies burn (i.e., roughly 10% of the land is utterly devastated before taking into account the secondary destruction wrought by fires). If Fate guides the shower, meteors fall upon as many or as few targets as it decrees. The meteor strikes use their normal full dice pool, though these reflexive attacks do not require further effort on the mummy's part. The mummy who unleashed the shower is never within its radius, though allies have no protection beyond trying to huddle in close to him.
Prerequisites: Tier 1: Ba • (Subtle); Tier 2: Sheut ••• (Curse); Tier 3: Ren •••••
Tier 1: The mummy unleashes this Utterance while gazing up at the sky. Doing so reveals his location relative to all known geographical referents, using whatever system of measure comes most naturally to him. The accuracy of this intuition roughly matches the information provided by global positioning satellites. For example, he may realize he is 20 miles southwest of Mount Sinai or two blocks north of the Chinese restaurant he had lunch at yesterday. Use of this Utterance automatically allows a mummy to retrace his steps through a maze back to known entrances.
Tier 2: The mummy speaks a word of power that reverberates back across space and time to the beginning of the universe, reshaping its genesis. The passing eons ensure that matter is spun and coalesces in accordance with auspicious wrath, culminating in a blazing meteorite
falling upon an intended target. The mummy can only choose a known target he can perceive within one mile, and that target must be exposed to the open sky (i.e., objects inside buildings can't be targeted, though the building itself is fair game).
Roll the Arisen's Sheut + Occult + Sekhem as a ranged attack; successes inflict lethal damage (aggravated to inanimate objects and structures). Range penalties do not apply; targets are either within range or not. Cover is calculated from above, rather than the barriers separating
the mummy and target. The meteor also creates a bonfire with Bunsen burner intensity inside a two-yard radius around the impact crater, though the flame only persists for the turn the meteor lands unless it sets combustible materials ablaze (e.g., wood, people, etc.). Characters who might be within the initial blast of fire and who are capable of applying their Defense can sometimes escape the worst of the blaze by leaping away; their players roll Dexterity + Athletics and subtract successes from the levels of damage applied. Victims hit by the meteor itself cannot jump away from the resulting flames.
Tier 3: The Arisen gazes upon the night sky and listens to the murmurs of the firmament, scrutinizing the cosmic mysteries inscribed upon the patterns of constellations.
Roll Memory + Ren, applying a –5 penalty if the sky is more than half covered by clouds and/or too much light pollution drowns out the stars (as in most major cities and suburbs). Success allows the mummy to glean one important truth from Fate, a clue that directly helps solve
his most pressing dilemma in the current story. The clue is shrouded in metaphor and cryptic symbolism, but not so much that it isn't actually useful.
If a mummy unleashes the second tier in the same scene he attempted to read the future in the stars (successfully or not), he calls down an Epic meteor shower rather than a single meteorite. The shower ravages everything within a mile of the mummy for a number of turns equal to his
Sekhem rating. The Arisen must choose whether to rain destruction in accordance with chance or Fate. In the former case, every possible target in range has a 10% chance of being targeted by a meteor each turn that the skies burn (i.e., roughly 10% of the land is utterly devastated before taking into account the secondary destruction wrought by fires). If Fate guides the shower, meteors fall upon as many or as few targets as it decrees. The meteor strikes use their normal full dice pool, though these reflexive attacks do not require further effort on the mummy's part. The mummy who unleashed the shower is never within its radius, though allies have no protection beyond trying to huddle in close to him.
For people who don't want to read, the tl;dr is that if you have the prerequisites for all three tiers (the third being the most important) you can have Horrifying Metaphorical Prophecy Visions on demand and call down meteors to strike your foes. Downside? You need to start with 5 Ren, which means it's gotta be your Decree.
So I could be convinced for any guild, but for now I'll go with...
[X] Plan: I Beheld, As Lightning
-[X] Usheb
-[X] Maa-Kep
--[X] Affable Aid
and to reiterate so the tally doesn't lose it
[X] Helel
-[X] Mistress
[x] Sesha-Hebsu.
That the universe is a great unfurling of laws and stories older than time, and which will endure long after the last mortal fades into dust. That there is a Scroll of Ages, the record of all things touched by Fate. According to the Sesha-Hebsu, one's actions are indelibly written into the Scroll, and so one must act with honour and clear foresight in one's judgements. That was the role of the Scribes; to be magistrates and judges, clerks and bureaucrats, record-keepers and librarians. They knew the span of Irem's conquest across the world, they kept the calendar which tracked the Judges festival days, they saw and recorded every bushel of grain and every ingot of bronze which passed through the Nameless Empire's lands. Their skills are in dismantling deceit, the written word and its uses as propaganda, law and record, and in the keeping of what history remains to the Arisen.
[x]male
That the universe is a great unfurling of laws and stories older than time, and which will endure long after the last mortal fades into dust. That there is a Scroll of Ages, the record of all things touched by Fate. According to the Sesha-Hebsu, one's actions are indelibly written into the Scroll, and so one must act with honour and clear foresight in one's judgements. That was the role of the Scribes; to be magistrates and judges, clerks and bureaucrats, record-keepers and librarians. They knew the span of Irem's conquest across the world, they kept the calendar which tracked the Judges festival days, they saw and recorded every bushel of grain and every ingot of bronze which passed through the Nameless Empire's lands. Their skills are in dismantling deceit, the written word and its uses as propaganda, law and record, and in the keeping of what history remains to the Arisen.
[x]male
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