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| Afflicted! The Leper from Darkest Dungeon. Of course. |
A Pseudo-Mummy is Afflicted with a horrible rotting disease.
The common characteristics of Pseudo-Mummies are:
- unaffected by magical healing.
- natural healing rate cut to 10% (or 50% if they receive cure disease and/or remove curse within 1 hour of Affliction).
- likewise, rates for aging, air/oxygen consumption, bleeding, fatigue, hunger/thirst, progression of poison/venom.
- -2 Charisma per month of affliction for d6 months; at the end of this term, save or die (5% you will rise as an undead Mummy after death).
- you are 75% mistaken for undead: mindless undead will not automatically attack unless commanded or in self-defence; sapient undead initial Reaction is Indifferent/Neutral (Ghouls and Ghasts, Curious); 0 to 3rd level NPCs make fear/horror/Morale Checks on sight.
Survivors are not cured. Cure disease does not work, because they are unaffected by magical healing.
Dry Pseudo-Mummy Rot...
...(also known as Classic or Common) causes the body to desiccate and crumble, requiring extensive bandaging and treatment with lubricants, moisturisers and preservatives. If this regimen is not kept up, lose 1 Dexterity and 1 Constitution per week (recover at 1 point each per week of properly maintained treatment).
Unfortunately, the treatment is holistically flammable (full damage from normal fire; double from magical, or normal if a save is made).
The ingredients of effective treatment are variously expensive, illegal, rare, and/or unwholesome in their supply.
Dry Pseudo-Mummy Rot is contagious. Normal exposure/infection chances in the presence/lair of a Pseudo-Mummy; 25% (+ or flat rate) per touch/unarmed attack.
Dry Pseudo-Mummy Rot is painless. This is because of nerve damage; a side-effect is immunity to physical pain (non-lethal damage halved).
The Rot does not smell; the treatment does, but often pleasantly - frankincense, myrrh, cloves, sandalwood, WD40.
Wet Pseudo-Mummy Rot...
...causes the body to soften, decompose and crumble, requiring extensive bandaging and treatment with consolidators, retarders, stabilisers, and sealants. If this regimen is not kept up, lose 1 Intelligence and 1 Constitution per week.
Constitution is recovered 1 point per week of properly maintain treatment; Intelligence loss is only paused.
The ingredients of effective treatment are variously expensive, illegal, rare, and/or unwholesome in their supply.
Constitution can be also be recovered +1 point per week by consuming d3 pints per day of fresh blood direct from a living intelligent being, whether or not you're maintaining treatment.
Intelligence can be recovered 1 point per week by consuming one brain per day, freshly harvested from a living intelligent being.
Wet Pseudo-Mummy Rot is not contagious. Exposure/infection is via infestation by infected flies/maggots (c.f. Rot Grub, Son of Kyuss), (monstrous) spider venom, or teleport accident (magical or otherwise).
Wet Pseudo-Mummy Rot is not painful as such. But.
You feel yourself rotting and deliquescing. It pre-occupies every waking moment. Sleep comes only through utter exhaustion or self-medication. Drinking fresh blood and devouring fresh brains provides temporary relief.
The Rot smells awful; the treatment, worse.
*Further Elaboration: there are two variant sub-types of Wet Pseudo-Mummy Rot, Spider and Fly.
In both cases, as the old flesh decays, peels aways and drops off, a new body emerges piecemeal (c.f. Pakubrazi), or a new way mode of behaviour, or a new special ability.
Each month (your choice, from the beginning or the end of the initial d6 term), save or suffer one Hit Die of lethal damage as a new feature blossoms in the foulness.
Properly maintaining the treatment regimen will either prevent the hit point damage or the new characteristic developing, but not both. Special ingredients (e.g. spider-silk bandages, remedial maggot infestation) recommended for flavour.
*Ice Mummies.
Cold can also be effective in alleviating the symptoms and slowing the progression of Pseudo-Mummy Rot.
As long as the Pseudo-Mummy remains in a low-temperature environment, they are entitled to individual saves vs. Ability Score loss as it occurs, even if they are not otherwise undergoing proper treatment.
As a side-effect, save with advantage/bonus vs. all types of cold, and take only half damage from non-magical cold, -1 hp per die from magical cold.
If cold is an effective treatment, this will be specialist knowledge, even amongst Plague Doctors and Pseudo-Mummy experts.
*Mellified Mummies.
A recommended treatment regimen for Pseudo-Mummy Rot involves significant quantities of Golden Mummia and/or Killer Bee honey.
Make a save for each treatment period, and after three consecutive or six total fails, a weird synthesis occurs, and the Pseudo-Mummy Rot mutates into Pseudo-Honey Rot.
*Check for awakening of psionics/wild talents.
As the Pseudo-Mummy is now spontaneously and perpetually treating themself, they no longer suffer Ability Score loss, nor do they need to expend resources on maintaining a regimen.
Dry Pseudo-Mummies are no longer unusually flammable.
Wet Pseudo-Mummies no longer need blood or brains to offset Ability Score loss, but still have a healthy/unwholesome appetite for them.
Wet Spider and Fly Pseudo-Mummies no longer suffer lethal damage, and welcome their bodily changes. In fact, they are evangelical about it.
Pseudo-Honey Rot is infectious, causing actual Honey Rot.
*Bonus: Pseudo-Ghost/Spectre.
An alternative treatment method is phasing/fading out of synchrony with the mortal sphere, thus pausing the progression of the Affliction by existing outside of conventional space-time. How you achieve this is up to you/ world-builder's choice.
Pseudo-Mummy's Ghosts are visible on the material plane as see-through/shadowy versions of themselves, and are 90% invisible if they remain still (100% in darkness).
They cannot hear or be heard by those still on the material plane, and cannot (normally) interact with them or other physical objects.
While this means they are immune to physical attacks (world-builder's choice re. magic weapons), they can be affected by mental and (magical) energy-based attacks (*save with advantage/bonus due to targeting difficulty).
Dust of appearance, remove curse, dimension door, teleport, duo-dimension and probability travel could all bring the Pseudo-Mummy's Ghost back in sync with the mortal sphere, at the mercy of time and disease again.
*Further Elaboration: While out-of-sync with the mortal sphere, you are closer to the Astral/Ethereal/ Dream/Nightmare/Mirror/Shadow Plane(s), and vulnerable from that direction. Psionic encounters, too.
Every d6 days, make a random encounter roll to see if something finds you and pursues you for 3-12 turns. If you can hide out or hold them off, you are safe for another d6 days.
The something can be randomly determined, level appropriate or campaign/character specific. It may only be curious, but it's not friendly.
You may be able to partially materialise (cf. Ghost) to drag someone (feat of willpower and dexterity) from the mortal sphere as a distraction/sacrifice (or trick them, as in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tale The Howling Tower).
*Bonus: Self-Made Mummies.
Hardcore ascetic practice.
Mostly associated with characters/classes following strict alignment rules; principally, Druids, Monks and Paladins, but also anyone driven enough to seek some radical form of ascension/ longevity/ immortality. Clerics and Magic Users fairly common (relatively). Cavaliers, too (with a much clearer intention to walk abroad once more).
Ideally, you need to be 5th level or higher - you've had your career as a Hero, but don't need/want to wait for 30th level to petition for Immortality.
It takes six years, during which you do not do much more than meditate and fast, drinking very little water, and eating only astringent and preservative foods (pine needles is a favourite). You don't really have the energy to do anything else. Rates of healing etc. contract as for Pseudo-Mummy Rot.
Variant methods could involve ice baths, extreme sun-bathing, blood-letting, immersion in a peat bog, live burial (pyramid or mound), festooning with lighted candles to be sealed in a shroud of wax, dedicated tobacco consumption, and - of course - Mellification.
Each year make a death save to survive. You can subvert a failed death save with (heroic) feats of willpower and endurance.
After six years, you die, but a (super)heroic feat of willpower and endurance means you become a Self-Made Mummy (RAW, but no disease). You look like a fatally emaciated version of your mortal self. Pre-mortem bandaging would be a fashion choice.
Most Self-Made Mummies remain in motionless contemplation/meditation and so need to work out the stiffness when they finally animate (c.f. Cadaver, for the specific mechanics and a general vibe).
Self-Mummification can also occur as a wrong-turn on the path to Lichdom/Immortality, or as a consequence (accidental or otherwise) of being a Plague Doctor, cooped up in that mask and robe and slathered in/hopped up on experimental medication all the time.
Self-Mummification is not always consensual. Despite the name.
Commentary.
Assorted variations on a theme of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, including the Leonine Men of Biblical Carcosa.
An important source for the confusion/development of D&D Mummy Rot: Delta's D&D Hotspot: Mummies Through the Ages.
Obvious cross-over with certain types of (Pseudo-) Zombie, as per this comment on a previous post.
Whether Pseudo-Mummy Rot is a magical or non-magical disease (when it's a disease) depends on how you want Paladins (and Cavaliers) to fit into this.
Dry Pseudo-Mummy Rot can also be a teleporter accident, and you eventually turn into sand (animate or not).
Probably makes you immune to other diseases.
Regeneration seems to be key to a cure.
Gold and silver leaf/foil as bandages; precious stones with purported healing properties as dermal implants.
Very high probability of (quite reasonably) developing Cotard's Syndrome, or developing Pseudo-Mummy Rot as a fantasy/magical complication of it.
