The Enemies From The West

The ghosts of the Ancient Egyptians differ a little from those of modern Europeans.

Magic Might: 6 (Mentem)

Characteristics: Int 0, Per +1, Pre 0, Com 0, Str +1, Sta +1*, Dex 0, Qik +1

* Tireless

Size: 0, but immaterial

Season: Summer

Virtues and Flaws: Magic Spirit, Lesser Power (Ghost Touch), Cautious with Profession; Magical Monster

Magic Qualities and Inferiorities: Greater power: Possession, Lesser powers (Cause Mastitis, Eidolon, Dream Manipulation).

Personality Traits: Vary, but include Ghost +3 and Jealous of the Living of at least +2 Combat:

One of

Brawl: Init +1, Attack +5, Defense +6, Damage +3

or

Agricultural or craft tool*: Init +2, Attack +8, Defense +6, Damage +6

* The ghost's weapon reappears in its hand whenever needed.

Soak: +1, when material. Some soldier ghosts wear armor.

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11– 15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Brawl 6 (club) or Great Weapon 6 (large rural implement) or Single Weapon 5 (spear) and Thrown weapon 3 (throwing stick – treat as a stone)), Area Lore: grave site 4 (stories about the dead), Athletics 4 (running), Awareness 4 (living things), Profession: varies 6 (varies),

Powers:

Cause Mastitis, 2 points, Init –3, Corpus: Prevents mothers from generating milk for their babies.

(ReCo 3:(cause the symptoms of a minor illness without the underlying illness. Art and Academe, Page 57) +1 touch, +2 Sun. Lesser Power, Lesser Power. As per Realms of Power: Magic, page 102)

Dream Manipulation, 1 point, Init +1, Mentem: Allows the mut to enter the dreams of a victim. The mut cannot create instant changes, but can make the dream more ominous, and add frightening elements. (Based on the weaker form of the Envisioning power in Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 32.)

Ghost Touch, Variable cost, Init equal to (Qik – Might spent), Terram: Moves objects not held by another or fastened down. For 1 point, five pounds may be moved, with each additional point doubling this limit. If the item is hurled, the mut uses its Thrown Weapon Ability, and damage is +5 per point spent. If the mut has a Martial Ability, it may fight using this power. Determine its combat totals using its Abilities and Characteristics. Physical attacks with this power must Penetrate Magic Resistance. The power lasts until the mut discards the object.(Focus power, ReTe25, Realms of Power: Magic page 102.)

Lesser Eidolon, 3 points, Init –5, Imaginem: Creates an immaterial, illusionary form, allowing the ghost to interact with mortals. The form lasts until the spirit has no further use for it. Mut appear as translucent versions of the "best" version of the person they once were. For men, particularly, this can make them look a little unusual, as they have wise face filled with age, but great abdominal muscles, like a twenty year old. CrIm15 (Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Conc, +2 move at command+, 1 intricacy), Lesser Power. As per Realms of Power: Magic, page 102, redesigned as a Lesser Power.)

Possession, 1 or more points, Init +3, Mentem: If this power penetrates, the victim is possessed by the mut and is under its direct control. Any attempt to force the victim to act contrary to her nature, or to use any of the host's own magical powers requires the mut to spend Might. A supernatural power (including spell-casting) requires 1 Might point per magnitude to produce. A questionable action that is contrary to the nature of the host requires the mut to exceed the possessed being's Personality Trait roll on a stress die + Might points spent. The storyguide may give a modifier to the Personality Trait roll based on the nature of the command (see the Entrancement power, ArM5, page 65, for suggestions). Both Might costs must be met if the use of a supernatural power is also contrary to the victim's nature. If the mut is in direct control of its host's actions, the host acquires the mut's Magic Resistance, but is also affected by wards that would normally exclude the host. If the host is acting under her own free will, then she does not benefit from the mut's Magic Resistance, but may also walk through wards with impunity. (Power originally appeared in Realms of Power: Faerie, page 71.)

Equipment: Clothes, grave goods Vis: 2 pawns Mentem, prized possession Appearance: The mut appear as the ghostly doubles of humans, translucent, but colored.

The mut are believed to be spirits unable to pass on, stuck in the world due to something done incorrectly during their interment, or due to a piece of unfinished business. They are thus akin to shades (Realms of Power: Magic page 115). Unlike ka, the mut do not remember who they are, nor can they travel to the Field of Reeds. Lacking tombs, they are forced to wander the mundane world. They are jealous of the living, and seek to harm them, particularly pregnant women and newborn children. Mut, for example, can cause mastitis. They are capable of possession, moving objects, and causing nightmares. Their focus on nursing mothers is rather faerie-like, so some of these creatures are likely faerie impostors, but malevolence toward newborns may reflect the value that children had in Ancient Egyptian society. A man without family was far more likely to be forgotten, which was the most permanent sort of death.

Some sorcerers used the mut to attack their enemies. As an example, tying the hair of a victim to the hair of a dead man and then both to the body of a hawk could cause nightmares, possession and insanity. The dead hawk makes this working difficult to dispel using Egyptian incantations, as it is a sign of Horus, the warrior god of light and goodness. The ancient spell to dismiss a mut to the Afterlife is called The Making of an Akh, which forces the mut to the Magic Realm. It is odd for a banishing spell, in that, given sufficient time, a past mut could return to his family as an akh, and aid them.

Mut Story Seeds

An archmage unwilling to travel far from his concerns in Italy offers to pay anyone who can capture a mut for him. If the player characters lack the ability to create spells or item which can capture a mut, he may be persuaded to lend them a mirror which can capture ghosts. He has a theory that the Faerie and Magic realms had not separated when the mut were made, which is why they seem so faerie-like in some respects. How can the player characters make sure they capture a mut, and not a more recent ghost, or faerie impostor?

If characters are themselves necromancers, they may notice something odd about the mut: they are never black, like ghosts described by Roman and Greek sources, or white, like those now seen in Mythic Europe. House Criamon says the shift from black to white ghosts occurred when the Axis Magica was moved to the Cave of Twisting Shadows, and cite as evidence that the ghosts which predate Criamon there are all black. If this is a true explanation, then what spiritual cataclysm drained all of the color out of ghosts in the Classical world? Perhaps the mut of an ancient sorcerer might know.

may maintain their tombs, consume offerings, and project their presence from the grave. This allows the ghost to magically smite those who have wronged it. The ghost can animate its body, but this is incalculably precious and is sealed in the sepulcher, to avoid damage. A ghost instead animates a statue.

Egyptian ghosts find it difficult to animate statues which do not resonate with them emotionally as good likenesses of their dead body. Many physical flaws are, therefore, carried by the representations. Most famously, the serdab statues of a courtier with the Dwarf Flaw all have the height of his living form, and reproduce his crippled foot. Although they may have older faces, most of the statues of men have rippling abdominal muscles, like those of a warrior in his twenties. Women are generally depicted as rather younger than men, and they seem, with a couple of notable exceptions, to be attractive.

Multiple statues are present so that if one is damaged, the ghost has spares. Tomb robbers often smash statues. Defacement prevents a ghost animating a statue from ambushing the thieves, and deanimates those already possessed, so it is a simple precaution to shatter every statue discovered with a mallet. There's also a treasure-seeking motive for this vandalism. Many common statues are held together with copper dovetail clamps which are valuable. Some statues are hollow, and treasures are hidden in their cavities.

Family tombs may contain statues of a man, his wife, their servants, and sometimes their animals. The statues of the servants are usually smaller than life size, because they were not, when made, intended to be animated in the real world. These servants are ushabtis, literally 'answerers', and their job is to take the nobleman's turn when he is called to labor in the Fields of Reeds. These wicked little dolls can, however, be animated in the real world, and sent forth on the business of their master. They also explain why the mechanical traps in tombs never seem to break down through lack of maintenance. Family pets often have statues, although they usually have fewer duplicates than the humans.

Sometimes the serdab and the chapel communicate via a small tunnel, perhaps a few inches across. This is to allow incense and sound to travel from the chapel to the serdab. This does not appear in treasure hunting guides, because it is of little value to mundane thieves. Hermetic magi, able to change shape, or use Intellego magic, may make use of this architectural quirk, if they notice it.

The burial chamber or sepulcher stores the body, and is for the refreshment of the traveling soul (called the "ba"), much as the serdab is for the re-invigoration of the ghost (or "ka"). Ancient Egyptian myths claimed that the ba regularly left the heavenly boat of the sun god and instead visited the body to recharge itself, perhaps as often as nightly. The body is carefully prepared to retain its appearance, so that the ba can recognize it. The corpse is treated with various alchemical techniques, bound with talismans, and encased in coffins. On the inside of these coffins, or the walls of the sepulcher, are mystical words of power which assist the ba on the arduous adventure into the afterlife. Hermetic magic, perhaps because of the Limit of the Soul, cannot sense the ba, or make use of the many spells designed to allow the ba safe passage on its nightly journeys.

According to these coffin texts, the ba makes many journeys in search of the khu. The khu is the spark of animating Divine presence that flees the body at death. The ba is judged on the weight of its sins. It travels through fearful places, to the abode of the Solar gods, and explores there, facing further obstacles. Some people, aided by their talismans and coffin texts, overcome these Mystagogic ordeals. When the ba finds the khu, it carries it back to the ka and the body. The ka, ba, and khu merge into a new being called an akh, and drain the body of mystical power. More information on akhu is given later in this chapter.

The body is highly prized by grave robbers, because its is preserved using mummia. This almost magical bitumen is treasured for its medicinal properties in Egyptian Alchemy. This is described in more detail later.

Over Egypt's long history, many different structures have been used to inter the dead. The earliest graves were covered with a vast

tumulus of soil or sand. This left the warlord ordering the tomb with the difficult decision of whether to be buried in a town, where people could keep an eye on his tomb, or far out in the desert, where fewer people would be tempted to buy a shovel. In later tombs this tumulus was replaced with a platform (or mastaba) of limestone blocks, containing rooms. In the case of the pyramids, the limestone blocks which form the pyramid were jacketed in smooth stone, so that it was difficult to find the door. In some cases the jacket was of granite, so that even exploratory digging (with stone and bronze tools) would take so long that the thief was likely to be caught, even if he knew where the entrance was.

After the priests of Egypt found ways to offer an afterlife to noblemen as well as kings, and during periods of drought or foreign invasion, smaller, cheaper tombs were needed. There are two main types of lesser tomb. The simplest is made of black clay bricks, and is a small mastaba with a pyramidion (little pyramid) on top of it, which

Ancient tombs often have Magic auras because of the preternatural tether that forms from their ancient use and because they tend to be built in places of natural beauty (Realms of Power: Magic, pages 8–10). The stele within the tomb's serdab is a vestige to the Magic Realm with a level equal to the Magic aura within the tomb. This vestige allows the tomb's ka to travel to and from the Field of Reeds (for more information on vestiges and travel to and from the Magic Realm, see Realms of Power: Magic pages 20–24). If the mummified corpse of the ghost is still present intact in its tomb, then this acts as an Arcane Connection to the mundane world and its home in the Field of Reeds, granting a Familiarity Bonus to the Vestige Travel Total of 15. Mortals wishing to use the vestige gain no such advantage.

Ancient temples (other than the mortuary chapels found in tombs) may have Faerie auras because of their association with pagan worship. Since most temples are long abandoned by their congregations, these Faerie auras are often weak if they still exist at all.

contains a single chamber for the sepulcher, and a niche for the serdab. This sometimes has an exterior chapel, or a perimeter wall.

As another alternative to building a pyramid, many tombs were cut into the sides of limestone cliffs. This is a laborious process, so the serdab was often combined either with the chapel, as a sort of niche in which statues of the dead sat in state, or with the sepulcher. In rock cut tombs, the preferred design was to have the sepulcher directly below the chapel, connected by a long shaft that could be filled with rubble. This design was sometimes adjusted, however, to suit the seam of limestone being quarried, or to avoid breaking in to adjoining tombs.

There is a secret valley, filled with rock-cut tombs, which lies close to Alexandria. To hide the location of these tombs, the mortuary chapel of each was placed near the banks of the Nile. The ghosts of the dead regularly ride to their chapels, to gather supplies from among the offerings, or to scrounge from the garbage in the street if their chapels are destroyed or unattended. Characters with Second Sight may be able to follow the ghosts back to their tombs, but if they are spotted while doing this, the ghosts will attack – their spectral weapons entirely solid on the Paths of the Dead.

In Mythic Europe, there are two contradictory sets of beliefs about tomb contents, and each is attested with evidence by seekers, allowing troupes to vary tomb contents between stories. The first is that tombs are filled with gold, jewels, and valuable medicines. Other seekers suggest that this is true only of early tombs, and that later people merely buried representations of treasures. These, although valuable, are not worth as much as might be imagined by a tomb's excavator. An early pharaoh might be buried with a throne of solid gold, but his later successor might have

Most Egyptian ghosts cannot posses statues which are far larger than the person was in life, because they do not feel, to the ghost, like accurate representations. Rameses II, the pharaoh of the Bible, built some enormous images of himself to decorate his tomb. Rameses, who was an epitome of Pride, saw himself as a worldstriding colossus. He might, therefore, be able to animate the vast images that adorn the Ramaseum. Other pharaohs, who share his Personality Flaw, might also be able to manifest in through huge statues.

In a very few tombs, the most valuable goods left for ghosts are carving tools. These allow the ghost to make representations of objects, and these representations become real, for the ghost's purposes. A ghost who needs a chariot, for example, but was not buried with one, can simply carve a small model of a chariot, and it becomes part of his grave goods.

A ghost with carving tools is a difficult foe to face. Given a little time, the spirit can create reinforcements to thwart grave robbers. For example, simply carving a rough representation of archers into a nearby wall allows the ghost to summon faerie reinforcements.

The carvings don't need to be terribly accurate in later tombs, so the ghost can create a new object by drawing it in a single round. In earlier tombs, the carving needs to closely approximate known representations for the object, which slows the ghost so that each new object requires five minutes. It is noted by the seekers that in some of the earliest tombs, the ghost needs to make a miniature statue of the object, and this may require half an hour. In many tombs, the inhabitant has a little servitor statue who uses the carving tools on his behalf.

Ghosts can eat food they create with these tools, and it allows them to avoid the fate of unfed spirits like the mut. These creatures travel the roads, scrounging food which humans have owned, but thrown away, thereby giving them, spiritually, to the next finder. Spirits forced to scrounge hate to be demeaned in this way, and may seek out humans to plague with ill-luck until they offer libations.

been buried with a wooden chair covered with sheets of gold leaf, since the representation becomes the real thing in the Field of Reeds. Three classes of treasures are never replaced with representations, and so can dependably be found in many tombs: writing, personal possessions, and items that preserve the body.

Mystical writings are representations of greater things, such as invocations to gods. They cannot be replaced with simplified versions. When the ba needs to invoke the protection of spirits against the Great Serpents of the Hours, it needs the actual words, not a picture of a scroll. Imhotep, who invented medicine and architecture, took every scroll he owned to the grave, and his grave has never been found.

Favorite items are buried with their owners. A nobleman who wants his favorite chariot in the Afterlife is buried with that exact chariot, not a generic model of a chariot crafted by

The Field of Reeds is located within the Magic Realm. Described by sources as the ka of the Nile Delta, the Field of Reeds consists of numerous islands, each one the paradise of a different ka. These kau rule as they did in life, attended by the servants who accompanied them into death. Each island has a stele, a copy of the one in the ghost's tomb. A ghost could travel to a different island and use the stele there to enter the mundane world at a different tomb, but this is considered a gross breach of etiquette.

The Field of Reeds is ruled by Wesir (the Egyptian name for Osiris), a powerful Daimon who is a powerful ally of the Black. It was his ordeals that provided the formula for other ka to follow, and he is revered as the originator of this form of immortality, and possibly the first human ever to undergo apotheosis and become a Daimon. He has made the path available to others in the hope of recruiting more friends of the Black.

Euhemerized stories of Wesir may have been the origin of the Osiris myth, or else the stories of that Faerie god may have instead inspired Wesir; none really know which came first. Either way, there is a copy of the Field of Reeds in the Faerie Realm ruled over by the god Osiris and populated by faerie ka.

his goldsmith. This extends to many personal items but, oddly, no actual crown of Egypt has ever been found, in any tomb. Its appearance is known only from paintings and statues.

The items which protect the body need to be real: they can't be representations. Gold doesn't rust, so it is used to make some of the coffins which contain the mummy. The talismans that protect the mummy are made of valuable materials and create mystical wards. The medicines that preserve the flesh are extractable and reusable. Extra medicine is often stored in tombs, presumably so that the ka can perform maintenance on the body.