Friday, November 18, 2022

The Hand of Al-Djamal - Dungeon Magazine 44

Here's another museum for your Ptolus campaign, not a side-show type with bizarre displays, but what we expect when we think museum. This one would work fine in Oldtown. (Maybe at the T intersection of Becker Street and Dalenguard Road.)

Valkner Museum has a deadly problem and the curator needs it resolved secretly. A messenger sent by Curator Valkner approaches the player characters and asks their urgent aid in a secretive matter at the museum.

They are asked to swear to secrecy before being brought in on the details of the matter. Assuming they agree, Valkner tells them  that two guards were killed last night and he knows it was the mummies he was preparing for display. When he acquired them the mummies were just bandage wrapped corpses and not undead. He reveals what he wants kept secret, that he stole them from a tomb in Uraq (sounthern continent) along with several other grave goods which are already on display.

Smarter than to hire just anyone, he'll ask if they've ever taken anything from a tomb or grave, and then continue with details of the task. Valkner wants the mummies dealt with, carefully, so they cannot harm anyone else. "Please don't use fire or other spells that would endanger the museum."

The mummies are currently inanimate in their closed sarcophagi. The sarcophagi are decorated with gold and jewels. If opened, the mummies are unmoving unless disturbed and then a fight breaks out.

When the PCs have defeated the mummies, the curator pays the reward and things appear to be just fine. Until the next morning.

There's more than a mummy curse at work here. An Uraqi who visited the museum a week prior had seen the other displayed grave goods and raised a loud fuss, demanding they not be displayed. He protested the robbing of graves and defiling of tombs. Al-Djamal was thrown out by the guards and thought nothing further of until the next night he was caught stealing the artifacts and subsequently thrown in jail by the City Watch.

In the original scenario Al-Djamal's hand was severed as punishment and he died by bleeding to death. This seems odd because it's likely a cleric would have been on standby since he wasn't sentenced to death. Here's my take instead.

Being a successful businessman, Al-Djamal could afford the fine so he paid it and was released. This of course was not the end of his efforts to set things right regarding the grave robbing. He sought help from a cleric of Rajek the Wanderer, but was actually dealing with a disguised priest of Maleskari, a god of undeath.

Convinced by this crooked cleric that he needed to sacrifice something of himself to gain the power to accomplish his task, Al-Djamal agreed to have his hand severed. The ritual took place in secret and the priest allowed Al-Djamal to bleed to death, imprisoning his spirit into his severed hand. Al-Djamal got his wish, he was now powerful enough to do something about the grave robbing.

The priest then snuck the hand into the museum setting it loose behind an exhibit and left the scene.

It is this powerful, angry spirit that is animating the mummies. It can also fight if need be, but by remaining hidden and casting spells, the situation will be confusing for the characters trying to deal with it.

On the next night after the party combats the mummies another museum employee is slain and Valnek comes to them for more help. If questioned he admits he had the mummies reconstructed to prepare for display, (if they could be) and they struck again.

The hand of Al-Djamal can animate corpses into undead, including previously defeated undead that are in some sense whole. 

This curator hires the characters to spend the night in the museum and of course a fight ensues.

Once the party identifies their real foe it becomes possible to put an end to the problem, but until then the hand will continue attacking and killing if able to do so.

You'll have to design the hand to work within your preferred game system.




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