Creatures of The Tombs

Egyptian graves have many varieties of defender. Some are the guardians of cemeteries, mentioned earlier in this chapter, or are creatures bound to the tombs by talismans. These creatures are usually faeries, created or summoned by long-dead lector priests and feeding still on the vitality of the stories that surround them. Tombs may also be occupied by ghosts or kau, which belong to the Magic Realm. Each tomb has a principal ka, the person for whom the tomb was built. It may also be populated by the ghosts of those who were buried with the tomb owner, in order to guard his precious corpse or serve him in the Field of Reeds.

Realms of Power: Magic contains detailed rules to create a wide variety of magical creatures. Rather than repeat them here, this section includes kits which you can use to alter other characters, for example those from ArM5, to make them suit Egyptian stories.

Muslim writers in period saw the ka as a ghostly double of the body. In play, this means that characters encounter particularly resilient, well-resourced, and dangerous ghosts who have easy access to the Magic Realm, quite unlike the specters, apparitions, or shades of the West. Ka look slightly different from medieval European ghosts: they are transparent but fully colored, with increasing opacity as their Might increases.

Take a mortal character, such as a grog or companion described in ArM5.

Give the character a Magic Might score of between 5 and 25, depending on how challenging you want the encounter to be, and how many times you want the spirit to be able to use its powers.

All Characteristics remain the same as in life, although the character cannot fail Fatigue rolls now.

Remove all of the Virtues or Flaws based on social role, or the character's body. It does not matter if the Virtues and Flaws no longer balance. Most will take on the Magical Monster Major Social Status Flaw, although some could be Magical Friends (a Minor Social Status Flaw).

Add the Magic Spirit Virtue. This represents the character's spiritual nature and powers, ability to sense strong spiritual forces, and the eerie, magical air that makes Gifted magi untrustworthy.

All Abilities remain the same, although many will be practically useless.

Ghosts are intangible and cannot be harmed by material things like weapons or fire. Against magic, its Protection and Soak totals work normally. Ghosts are vulnerable to Mentem magic.

Add a Personality Trait of +3 tied to some piece of mortal business, like "defending the tomb."

Many ancient Egyptian ghosts can possess statues of themselves (see insert). If a ghost possesses a statue, see the details later for Animated Statue.

Few Egyptian ghosts have the ability to take material form (through the Donning the Corporeal Veil Power*,* which costs 5 points and allows the ghost to take material form until it releases its materiality; the ghost's personal equipment also becomes material).

Add any new power you like. Base it on Hermetic spells, and assume it costs 1 temporary Might per 5 spell levels to use, or 1 Might per 10 levels for powers which only affect the ghost. The power has an Initiative of (Qik – magnitude/2).

Add vis, usually Mentem, equal to the Might score divided by 5.

Quick Animated Statue Conversion Notes

Take a mortal character, like a grog or companion described in ArM5.

Give the statue a Magic Might score of between 5 and 25, depending on how challenging you want the encounter to be, and how many times you want the spirit to be able to use its powers. A ghost possessing a statue has the same Might as when disembodied.

All Characteristics remain the same as in life, although the character cannot fail Fatigue rolls now.

It is rare for Egyptian ghosts to be able

to possess statues which are not life-sized, but if it has occurred, adjust the Strength and Quickness of the character and the derived combat statistics. Characters lose 2 Strength and gain 1 Quickness per Size lost, or conversely gain 2 Strength and lose 1 Quickness per Size gained.

Remove all of the Virtues or Flaws based on social role. Replace with the Magical Monster Major Social Status Flaw.

Add the Magic Thing Virtue. This makes the character aware of its spiritual nature and powers, and able to sense strong spiritual force.

All Abilities remain the same, although many will be practically useless.

The creature's Wound levels are suitable for a creature of the same Size, but the creature's Soak is high, to simulate the difficulty of damaging things not merely clad in armor, but made of the same substances as armor. Wood grants +9 Soak. Ceramic, soft stone, or soft metal grants +15 Soak. Hard stone grants +18 Soak. Hard metal grants +21 Soak. These might seem high, but this is not the same as armor; statues are solid. A statue gains no Protection from wearing armor, unless that armor is harder than the substance from which the statue is made.

To destroy the face of a statue, forcing a ghost from it, requires the attacking character to announce that he is trying to do so, and then inflict a Medium Wound on the statue.

The damage of the statue's weapons is reduced by the materials from which it is made. Many wooden statues are equipped with real bronze weapons. Alchemically hardened bronze is as dangerous as steel. Weapons made of stone or bronze have a –1 damage penalty. Weapons which usually have striking surfaces of metal, but are instead made of gilded wood have a –2 damage penalty.

A Brawling statue has unadjusted damage if it is using a brawling weapon, like a gauntlet or dagger, but fists and kicks do +1 damage for wood or stone statues, and +2 damage for metal statues.

Add any new power you like. Base it on Hermetic spells, and assume it costs 1 temporary Might per 5 spell levels to use, or 1 Might per 10 levels for powers which only affect the statue. The power has an Initiative of (Qik – magnitude/2).

Many supernatural creatures have Qualities (which are things like Virtues, but they don't balance Flaws) which improve combat statistics. Boost the character's combat statistics sufficiently to make it formidable enough for its role in the story.

Add vis, usually the form of the statue's material, equal to the Might score divided by 5.

Al-jazari, what Hermetic magi would call automatons, can also be generated using these rules. Take any monster and simply rework its physical features. Automatons do not have Might scores.

The ghosts of Egyptian royalty differ from each other due to the different origins and life experiences of, and death rituals performed on each ghost.

Blood Virtues

Many different families ruled Egypt over the centuries, and these had various

Major or Minor Supernatural Virtue

As a Minor Virtue, this is a variety of Faerie Blood. This Virtue also grants the character a Sympathy Trait of +1. As a Major Virtue, this is a variety of Strong Faerie Blood with the same benefit. A Sympathy Trait can replace the character's speciality on any applicable Ability roll, but doing so always makes the roll a stress roll. Any botches when using Sympathy Traits give the character Warping Points equal to the number of zeros. A Sympathy Trait can be raised with experience as if it were an Ability, and has a maximum value equal to the character's Warping Score +1 (for the Minor Virtue) or +2 (for the Major Virtue). At character creation, the player can choose a Warping Score for her character and raise the Sympathy Trait up to its maximum using experience points acquired from her age.

Scions of pharaohs most often had a Sympathy Trait of Royalty. Other dynasties had links to specific gods, and had Sympathy Traits applicable to their purview (warfare, scholarship, healing, and so forth).

relationships with the Realms expressed in their blood. The commonest story is that the Faerie god to which the dynasty was dedicated invested the body of the pharaoh while he conceived his heir, which grants the child the Blood of the Old Gods Virtue. Anyone descended from a pharaoh who was not, at that time, filled with the spirit of a Faerie god instead gained a Minor version of the Virtue. The last dynasty of all, the Ptolomies, constructed their own god instead, named Serapis, who was a supernatural ally but not an ancestor.

Powers of the Pharaoh in Life

A pharaoh whose rule was just by Egyptian standards kept the world in balance so that the floods came, food was plentiful, and people lived well. A pharaoh might make people richer or poorer simply by ruling that it should be so. All pharaohs were thought able to command spirits, but in many cases this was power at one remove: the pharaoh asked his divine patron to punish the spirit if it did not obey.

As wealthy men of great influence, many pharaohs were able to fulfill Mystery quests, and had access to unique sources of training. Any particular pharaonic ghost might have an odd power based on a life experience. Sometimes biographers like Herodotus indicate what these powers were. For example, one of the pharaohs apparently had the ability to slow the passage of time, so that those in his company aged less quickly than other people, and spells did not reach their Duration at the normal rate.

The death rituals offered to Egyptians varied over time, and with social status. The death rituals and coffin texts were of greater length for people with greater wealth and status. This allows their ghosts to undergo Transformation after death (Realms of Power: Magic page 52), which allows greater Might and a wider variety of powers. Tombs were occasionally stocked with vis for the very purpose of feeding Transformation.

The Akh

The Akh is the final stage in the spiritual development of the most powerful of the Egyptian dead, formed from the fusion of the ba, ka, and khu. The akh is a Daimon, described in more detail in The Mysteries: Revised Edition (pages 82–86). In brief, a Daimon is an indestructible spiritual being that interacts with the world by projecting an Aspect into it. Although the Aspect may change or die, the Daimon it embodies remains unharmed, and, for the most part, unchanged. Aspects are self-sustaining and do not require food or prayer to survive. Becoming an akh can take centuries. Imhotep, the inventor of architecture and medicine, is thought to have taken two thousand years to complete the process, but this is not typical: the greater the final Magic Might, the longer it takes. Once the transformation to akh has been achieved there is no further need for a tomb to be maintained, although some akhu enjoy the access between worlds that it offers.

Each akh is unique and has powers

which reflect the virtues of life, and the Mysteries of a particular path through the Egyptian underworld. Many can take an animal shape. All texts affirm that all akhu can have children, although this might cause their offspring to have Mythic or Magical Blood. Akhu tend to have virtuous Personality Traits, since part of the transformation process requires being judged by Thoth, and those with hearts weighed down with evil are fed to the Devourer of Souls. As intended by Wesir, those who follow his path and achieve the status of an akh become potential recruits for the Black, although none are forced to take up the fight against the Red.

Akhu may be created using the rules for Magic Spirits given in Realms of Power: Magic. Assume a Magic Might Score of 20 for noblemen who have the simplest coffin texts, up to 60 for the greatest pharaohs who were the children of gods and were personally guided through the afterlife by a potent parent. Akhu do not have or need cults of mundane worshipers like modern apotheosized humans. Instead, the name of the dead person is placed at the chapel entrance and on significant monuments. The akh slowly gains power as these are read. All akhu have, in the centuries since the last one was buried, taken this process as far as possible, so they are designed as Winter creatures. Akhu may still be summoned by name, or by using relics, as described for apotheosized humans in Realms of Power: Magic.

There are two tombs, in particular, that Hermetic wizards wish to find. They are arguably the first and last of the distinctive, Egyptian kind.