TEXT:  
  Kickstarter Manuscript Preview #3 
   
   
   
  © 2019 White Wolf Entertainment © 2019 Onyx Path Publishing 
  
  Chapter Four: Laws of the Arisen 
  This chapter contains the basic rules for playing Mummy: The Curse. More information, 
  including optional systems and examples of play, can be found in the Chronicles of Darkness 
  rulebook. 
  Traits 
  In addition to the supernatural traits of the Arisen, Chronicles of Darkness characters have 
  mundane traits common to mortals and monsters alike. Attributes are raw potential, Skills are 
  trained abilities, and Skill Specialties are specific areas of training in which a character excels. 
  Willpower is the extra effort a character can bring to bear in a stressful or dangerous situation, 
  when success is crucial or hangs by a thread. Some supernatural powers also use Willpower.  
  Humans possess a personal Virtue and Vice from which they can draw strength and refill their 
  Willpower. Since the Judges shackled the Arisen into eternal servitude, mummies refill their 
  Willpower through the Balance and Burden of their timeless condition instead. 
  Attributes 
  Attributes represent essential traits that every character possesses by default. These serve as the 
  foundation to most rolls in Mummy: The Curse. The nine Attributes are split into three 
  categories: Mental, Physical, and Social. If a game rule refers to a “Social roll,” or a “Mental 
  action,” that means an action that uses the appropriate Attribute category. 
  One dot in an Attribute reflects a below-average capacity. Two dots are about human average. 
  Three and four reflect a high level of competency, while five reflects the height of human 
  potential in that field. Supernatural beings sometimes have Attributes rated at 6 or more dots.  
  Mental Attributes 
  Mental Attributes reflect your character’s acuity, intellect, and strength of mind. 
  Intelligence 
  Intelligence is your character’s raw knowledge, memory, and capacity for solving difficult 
  problems. This may be book smarts, or a wealth of trivia. 
  Attribute Tasks: Memorizing (Intelligence + Composure, instant action) 
  Wits 
  Wits represents your character’s ability to think quickly and improvise solutions. It reflects your 
  character’s perception, and ability to pick up on details. 
  Attribute Tasks: Perception (Wits + Composure, reflexive action) 
  Resolve 
  Resolve is your character’s determination, patience, and sense of commitment. It allows your 
  character to concentrate in the face of distraction and danger, or continue doing something in 
  spite of insurmountable odds. 
  Attribute Tasks: Resisting coercion (Resolve + Stamina, reflexive action) 
  Physical Attributes 
  
  Physical Attributes reflect your character’s bodily fitness and acumen. 
  Strength 
  Strength is your character’s muscular definition and capacity to deliver force. It affects many 
  physical tasks, including most actions in a fight. 
  Attribute Tasks: Breaking a barrier (Strength + Stamina, instant action), Lifting objects (Strength 
  + Stamina, instant action) 
  Dexterity 
  Dexterity is your character’s speed, agility, and coordination. It provides balance, reactions, and 
  aim. 
  Attribute Tasks: Keeping balance (Dexterity + Composure, reflexive action) 
  Stamina 
  Stamina is your character’s general health and sturdiness. It determines how much punishment 
  your character’s body can handle before it gives up. 
  Attribute Tasks: Staying awake (Stamina + Resolve, instant action) 
  Social Attributes 
  Social Attributes reflect your character’s ability to deal with others. 
  Presence 
  Presence is your character’s assertiveness, gravitas, and raw appeal. It gives your character a 
  strong bearing that changes moods and minds. 
  Attribute Tasks: Good first impressions (Presence + Composure, instant action) 
  Manipulation 
  Manipulation is your character’s ability to make others cooperate. It’s how smoothly she speaks, 
  and how much people can read into her intentions. 
  Attribute Tasks: Poker face (Manipulation + Composure) 
  Composure 
  Composure is your character’s poise and grace under fire. It’s his dignity, and ability to remain 
  unfazed when harrowed. 
  Attribute Tasks: Meditation (Resolve + Composure, extended action) 
  Skills 
  Whereas Attributes represent innate ability, Skills reflect behaviors learned and honed over a 
  lifetime. These are things that could be practiced or learned from a book. Skills are divided into 
  Mental, Physical, and Social categories. 
  Skills do not receive free dots at character creation. Skills without dots are deficient or barely 
  capable. Skills with a single dot reflect a cursory training. Two dots is sufficient for professional 
  use. Three is a high level of competency. Four is outstanding, and five is absolute mastery of the 
  discipline. When creating your character, prioritize categories. The primary category receives 11 
  dots, the secondary receives seven, the tertiary four. 
  
  Sample actions are listed for each Skill; these lists are just common actions, and should not be 
  taken as comprehensive guides to where Skills can apply. We also suggest dice pools, but it’s 
  important to look at the context of the scene, and apply the best Attribute + Skill combination for 
  the events at hand. Also remember that equipment and environmental modifiers can shift a dice 
  pool. We’ve listed some sample equipment and factors that could enhance Skill usage. 
  Using a Skill with no dots incurs a penalty. For Physical and Social Skills, it levies a −1 die 
  penalty to the roll. For a Mental Skill, it’s a −3 die penalty. 
  Mental Skills 
  Mental Skills are largely learned, as opposed to practiced. They reflect knowledge and 
  procedure, lore and understanding. 
  Academics 
  Academics is a broad Skill representing your character’s higher education and knowledge of the 
  arts and humanities. It covers language, history, law, economics, and related fields 
  Sample actions: Recall trivia (Intelligence + Academics, instant action), Research (Intelligence + 
  Academics, extended action), Translation (Intelligence + Academics, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Rare Book Dealer, Law Professor, Head Librarian 
  Suggested equipment: Internet access (+1), Library (+1 to +3), Professional consultant (+2) 
  Specialties: Anthropology, Architecture, Art History, English, History, Law, Literature, 
  Religion, Research, Translation  
  Computer  
  Computer is your character’s advanced ability with computing. While most characters in 
  Chronicles of Darkness are expected to know the basics, the Computer Skill allows your 
  character to program computers, to crack into systems, to diagnose major problems, and to 
  investigate data. This Skill reflects advanced techniques and tricks; almost everyone can operate 
  a computer for email and basic internet searches.  
  Sample actions: Hacking a system (Intelligence + Computer, extended action, contested if 
  against a security administrator or other hacker), Internet search (Wits + Computer, instant 
  action), Programming (Intelligence + Computer, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: AI Researcher, Hardcore Computer Gamer, White-Hat Hacker 
  Suggested equipment: Computer system (+0 to +3, by performance), Custom software (+2), 
  Passwords (+2) 
  Specialties: Data Retrieval, Graphics, Hacking, Internet, Programming, Security, Social Media 
  Crafts 
  Crafts reflects your character’s knack with creating and repairing things. From creating works of 
  art to fixing an automobile, Crafts is the Skill to use.  
  Sample actions: Appraisal (Wits + Crafts, instant action), Counterfeit item (Intelligence + Crafts, 
  instant action), Create art (Intelligence + Crafts, instant action), Repair item (Wits + Crafts, 
  instant action) 
  
  Sample contacts: Automotive Engineer, Makerspace Enthusiast, Police Sketch Artist 
  Suggested equipment: Point of reference (+1), Quality materials (+2), Tools (+1 to +3, 
  depending on utility and specialty), Well-equipped workplace (+2) 
  Specialties: Automotive, Cosmetics, Engraving, Fashion, Forging, Graffiti, Jewelry, Jury 
  Rigging, Painting, Repair, Sculpting, Taxidermy 
  Investigation 
  Investigation is your character’s skill with solving mysteries and putting together puzzles. It 
  reflects the ability to draw conclusions, to find meaning out of confusion, and to use lateral 
  thinking to find information where others could not.  
  Sample actions: Examining a crime scene (Wits + Investigation, extended action), Solving 
  riddles (Intelligence + Investigation, instant or extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Conspiracy Buff, Medical Examiner, Private Investigator 
  Suggested equipment: Forensic kit (+1), Unrestricted access (+2), Reference library (+2) 
  Specialties: Autopsy, Body Language, Crime Scenes, Cryptography, Lab Work, Riddles  
  Medicine 
  Medicine reflects your character’s knowledge of the human body, and of how to bring it to and 
  keep it in working order. Characters with Medicine can make efforts to stem life-threatening 
  wounds and illnesses.  
  Sample actions: Diagnosis (Wits + Medicine, instant action), Treating wounds (Intelligence + 
  Medicine, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Bio-Tech Company Researcher, Chronic Patient, EMT 
  Suggested equipment: Medical tools (+1 to +3), Trained assistance (+1), Well-stocked facilities 
  (+2)  
  Specialties: First Aid, Pathology, Pharmaceuticals, Physical Therapy, Surgery 
  Occult 
  The Occult Skill is your character’s knowledge of things hidden in the dark, legends, and lore. 
  While the supernatural is unpredictable and often unique, the Occult Skill allows your character 
  to pick out facts from rumor.  
  Sample actions: Identify the sliver of truth (Wits + Occult, instant action), Relate two similar 
  myths (Intelligence + Occult, instant or extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Anthropology Professor, Neo-Pagan Author, Weird Hermit Down the Street 
  Suggested equipment: Well-stocked library (+2) 
  Specialties: Amkhata, Casting Lots, Divination, Duat, Ghosts, Judges, Irem, Sekhem, Sorcery, 
  Superstition, Vessels 
  Politics 
  Politics reflects a general knowledge of political structures and methodologies, but more 
  practically shows your character’s ability to navigate those systems and make them work the way 
  she intends. With Politics, she knows the right person to ask to get something done.  
  
  Sample actions: Cut red tape (Manipulation + Politics, extended action), Identify authority (Wits 
  + Politics, instant action), Sully reputations (Manipulation + Politics, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Personal Assistant to the Governor, Political Blogger, Union Leader 
  Suggested equipment: Official position (+1 to +5, by Status)  
  Specialties: Bureaucracy, Church, Democratic, Guilds, Local, Organized Crime, Scandals 
  Science 
  Science is your character’s knowledge and understanding of the physical and natural sciences, 
  such as biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics.  
  Sample actions: Assess variables (Intelligence + Science, instant or extended action), Formulate 
  solution (Intelligence + Science, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Experimental Physicist, Geology Professor, Mad Inventor 
  Suggested equipment: Reference library (+1 to +3), Well-stocked laboratory (+2) 
  Specialties: Physics, Neuroscience, Virology, Alchemy, Genetics, Hematology 
  Physical Skills 
  Physical Skills are those practiced, trained, and learned through action. 
  Athletics 
  Athletics reflects a broad category of physical training and ability. It covers sports, and basic 
  physical tasks such as running, jumping, dodging threats, and climbing. It also determines a 
  character’s ability with thrown weapons.  
  Sample actions: Acrobatics (Dexterity + Athletics, instant action), Climbing (Strength + 
  Athletics, extended action), Foot chase (Stamina + Athletics, contested action), Jumping 
  (Strength + Athletics, instant action, one foot vertically per success) 
  Sample contacts: Parkour Enthusiast, Physical Therapist, Running Club Buddy 
  Suggested equipment: Athletic shoes (+1), Rope (+1)  
  Specialties: Acrobatics, Archery, Climbing, Jumping, Parkour, Swimming, Throwing 
  Brawl 
  Brawl reflects your character’s ability to tussle and fight without weapons. This includes old-
  fashioned bar brawls as well as complex martial arts.  
  Sample actions: Breaking boards (Strength + Brawl, instant action), Hand-to-hand fighting 
  (covered in the Violence section, p. XX) 
  Sample contacts: Club Bouncer, Self-Defense Teacher, Sparring Partner 
  Suggested equipment: Brass knuckles (+1) 
  Specialties: Boxing, Dirty Fighting, Grappling, Martial Arts, Threats, Throws 
  Drive 
  Drive is the skill to control and maneuver automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and even airplanes. A 
  character can drive a car without Drive dots; the Skill relates to moments of high stress, such as a 
  
  high-speed chase or trying to elude a tail. It’s assumed that most modern characters have a basic 
  ability to drive. As well, Drive can reflect your character’s skill with horseback riding, if 
  appropriate to her history.  
  Sample actions: Impressive maneuvering (Dexterity + Drive, instant action), Pursuit (Dexterity + 
  Drive, contested action), Tailing (Wits + Drive, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Bush Pilot, Mechanic, Street Racer Suggested equipment: Performance vehicle 
  (+1 to +3)  
  Specialties: Defensive Driving, Chariots, Evasion, Off-Road Driving, Motorcycles, Pursuit, 
  Stunts 
  Firearms 
  Firearms reflects your character’s ability to identify, maintain, and otherwise use guns. This Skill 
  covers everything from small pistols, to shotguns, to assault rifles, and anything else related.  
  Sample actions: Firefights (see p. XX for more on how firearms violence works) 
  Sample contacts: Gun store owner, Local law enforcement, Sharpshooter 
  Suggested equipment: See p. XX for a full list of firearms 
  Specialties: Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns, Trick Shots 
  Larceny  
  Larceny covers intrusion, lockpicking, theft, pickpocketing, and other (generally considered) 
  criminal activities. This Skill is typically learned on the streets, outside of formal methods. 
  However, stage magicians and other entertainers learn these skills as part of their repertoire.  
  Sample actions: Bypass security systems (Dexterity + Larceny, extended action), Lockpicking 
  (Dexterity + Larceny, extended action), Pickpocketing (Dexterity + Larceny, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Shady Pawn Shop Owner, Parole Officer, Three-Card Monte Dealer. 
  Suggested equipment: Crowbar (+1), Crowded area (+2), Lockpicks (+2), Partner in crime (+1) 
  Specialties: Breaking and Entering, Concealment, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Safecracking, 
  Security Systems, Sleight of Hand, Tomb Traps 
  Stealth 
  The Stealth Skill reflects your character’s ability to move unnoticed and unheard, or to blend into 
  a crowd. Every character approaches Stealth differently; some use distraction, some disguise, 
  some are just hard to keep an eye on.  
  Sample actions: Losing a tail (Wits + Stealth, contested action), Shadowing (Dexterity + Stealth, 
  contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Bow Hunter, Burglar, Lookout from a Former Job 
  Suggested equipment: Binoculars (+1), Dark clothing (+1), Smokescreen (+2), Spotters (+1) 
  Specialties: Camouflage, Crowds, Faking Death, In Plain Sight, Rural, Shadowing, Tomb, 
  Stakeout 
  Survival 
  
  Survival represents your character’s ability to “live off the land.” This means finding shelter, 
  finding food, and otherwise procuring the necessities for existence.  
  Sample actions: Foraging (Wits + Survival, extended action), Hunting (for animals, Wits + 
  Survival, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Homeless Person, Off-the-grid Survivalist, Scout Master 
  Suggested equipment: Survival guide (+1), Survival knife (+1) 
  Specialties: Duat, Foraging, Hunting, Navigation, Shelter, Weather 
  Weaponry 
  Weaponry is the ability to fight with hand-to-hand weapons, from swords, to knives, to baseball 
  bats, to chainsaws. If the intent is to strike another and harm him, Weaponry is the Skill.  
  Sample actions: Attacking another (see p. XX for more on Weaponry fighting) 
  Sample contacts: Fencing Instructor, Gang Member, Western Martial Arts Enthusiast  
  Suggested equipment: See p. XX for a full list of weapons  
  Specialties: Chains, Clubs, Improvised Weapons, Spears, Swords 
  Social Skills 
  Animal Ken 
  Animal Ken reflects your character’s ability to train and understand animals. With Animal Ken, 
  your character can charm beasts or even rile them to violence, under the right circumstances.  
  Sample actions: Animal training (Manipulation + Animal Ken, extended action), Cowing an 
  animal (Presence + Animal Ken, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Cat Lady, Rodeo Horse Trainer, Zoo Veterinarian 
  Suggested equipment: Treats (+1), Whip (+1)  
  Specialties: Birds, Canines, Felines, Reptiles, Calming, Training 
  Empathy 
  Empathy represents your character’s ability to read and understand others’ feelings and 
  motivations. This helps discern moods, or read deceptive behavior in discussion. It is not 
  inherently sympathetic; one can understand another’s positions without agreeing with them.  
  Sample actions: Finding someone’s pain (Wits + Empathy, contested action), Sense deception 
  (Wits + Empathy, contested action), Soothing nerves (Manipulation + Empathy, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Shoulder to Cry On, Police Profiler, Psych Student 
  Suggested equipment: Muted clothing (+1), Relaxing environment (+2) 
  Specialties: Calming, Emotion, Lies, Motives, Personalities, Cult Members 
  Expression 
  The Expression Skill reflects your character’s ability to communicate. This Skill covers written 
  and spoken forms of communication, journalism, acting, music, and dance.  
  
  Sample actions: Composing (Intelligence + Expression, extended action), Performance (Presence 
  + Expression, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Investigative Journalist, Political Speech Writer, Reclusive Poet  
  Suggested equipment: Quality instrument (+1 to +3) 
  Specialties: Dance, Drama, Journalism, Musical Instrument, Performance Art, Singing, Speeches 
  Intimidation 
  Intimidation reflects your character’s ability to influence others’ behavior through threats and 
  fear. It could mean direct physical threats, interrogation, or veiled implications of things to come.  
  Sample actions: Interrogation (Wits + Intimidation, contested action), Stare down (Presence + 
  Intimidation, contested action)  
  Sample contacts: Barroom Tough Guy, High-Powered Executive, Police Interrogator  
  Suggested equipment: Fearsome tools (+2), Gang colors (+2), Isolated room (+1) 
  Specialties: Direct Threats, Interrogation, Stare Down, Torture, Veiled Threats 
  Persuasion 
  Persuasion is your character’s ability to change minds and influence behaviors through logic, 
  fast-talking, or appealing to desire. It relies on the force of your character’s personality to sway 
  the listener.  
  Sample actions: Fast-talk (Manipulation + Persuasion, extended action), Firebranding (Presence 
  + Persuasion, instant action), Seduction (Manipulation + Persuasion, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Car Salesman, Speech Coach, Trial Lawyer 
  Suggested equipment: Designer clothing (+1 to +3), Reputation (+2)  
  Specialties: Confidence Scam, Fast-Talking, Inspiring, Sales Pitch, Seduction, Sermon 
  Socialize 
  Socialize reflects your character’s ability to present herself well and interact with groups of 
  people (or mummies). It reflects proper (and setting-appropriate) etiquette, customs, sensitivity, 
  and warmth. A character with a high Socialize is the life of the party. 
  Sample actions: Carousing (Manipulation + Socialize, instant action), Fitting in (Wits + 
  Socialize, instant action), Getting attention (Presence + Socialize, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Diplomat, Drinking Buddy, Society Matron 
  Suggested equipment: Drugs (+1), Knowing people (+1), Money (+1 to +5) 
  Specialties: Bar Hopping, Church Lock-in, Dress Balls, Cult Rituals, Frat Parties, Political 
  Fundraisers, The Club 
  Streetwise 
  The Streetwise Skill is your character’s knowledge of life on the streets. It tells her how to 
  navigate the city, how to get information from unlikely sources, and where she’ll be (relatively) 
  safe. If she wants to get something on the black market, Streetwise is how.  
  
  Sample actions: Finding a shortcut (Wits + Streetwise, instant action), Working the black market 
  (Manipulation + Streetwise, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Bartender in a Rough Part of Town, Drug Dealer, Undercover Cop 
  Suggested equipment: Burner phone (+1), Known nickname (+2), Valuable contraband (+1 to 
  +3) 
  Specialties: Black Market, Cults, Gangs, Navigation, Rumors, Undercover 
  Subterfuge 
  Subterfuge is the ability to deceive. With Subterfuge, your character can lie convincingly, project 
  hidden messages in what she says, hide motivations, and notice deception in others.  
  Sample actions: Disguise (Wits + Subterfuge, instant action), Lying (Manipulation + Subterfuge, 
  contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Con Artist, Crooked Politician, Out of- work Actor 
  Suggested equipment: Costume supplies (+2), Fake ID (+1),  
  Specialties: Detecting Lies, Doublespeak, Hiding Emotion, Little White Lies, Misdirection 
  Skill Specialties 
  In addition to Skills, your character possesses Skill Specialties. These are refinements of the 
  broader Skills. These should be narrower than the main Skill, and help to define your character’s 
  particular expertise. For example, your character might have three dots in Firearms, but a 
  Specialty in Rifles. He’s capable with all guns, but particularly good with rifles. If you look to 
  the Skill descriptions, you’ll see example Specialties. The Storyteller is the ultimate arbiter of 
  what constitutes a Specialty and what doesn’t; Specialties that are too broad or too narrow can 
  hurt the story or never come into play. 
  If a Specialty applies to your roll, add a die. Multiple Specialties may apply to a single roll, 
  within reason. If you find yourself going to great lengths to justify a Specialty, it probably 
  shouldn’t apply. 
  Skill Specialties let you flesh out your character and offer a mechanical benefit. When creating 
  your character, let Specialty choice guide his development. For example, there’s a huge 
  difference between a character with Brawl 4 (Bar Fights) and Brawl 4 (Aikido). 
  Forgotten Skills and keeping up with the modern world 
  Unshackled from the linear flow of time, mummies have to deal with brutal temporal and spatial 
  displacement at every Descent. The sorcerous might that empowers them and centuries of 
  experience allow Arisen to adapt and triumph over their opponents, but the harsh truth is that 
  mummies are emissaries of a civilization that crumbled to dust eons ago, unable to truly belong 
  anywhere and anytime. Removed from reality by the same powers that allow them to exist, 
  mummies need to rely on others to remain in touch with the world of the living. Cultists are the 
  best candidates to fill this role and their help is invaluable for the Arisen, whether mummies are 
  willing to admit it or not. In more recent times, where technological and social changes happen at 
  faster rhythm, cultists are those best suited to introduce their immortal masters to a society they 
  don’t belong to while also being able to act and solve issues in a way only they can. Even the 
  most trusted cultist cannot help with the threat of Arisen’s cursed memories, though. When 
  
  Sekhem and the torments of Duat ravage the mind of mummies, they can turn the wisest scholar 
  into a clueless illiterate and make it so a champion of Irem barely remembers how to lift a sword. 
  Should this forgetfulness cling to mummies beyond the moment of their awakening, it drags 
  them down and separates them from a part of their own identity to a degree that the moment it 
  dissipates is both a glorious epiphany and a painful reminder of their condition. As an optional 
  rule, Storytellers who wish to represent this aspect of the Curse in their games can allow players 
  to pick the Forgotten Skill Condition (see p. XX) at the beginning of their character’s current 
  Descent. The player can either decide to resolve the Condition without taking a Beat at the end of 
  the Descent or maintain it through the next one. A character can have at most three separate 
  instances of the Condition, one for each Skill category. 
  Skills and the Dark Eras 
  Not only all Arisen have existed for millennia but, considering mummies experience time in a 
  non-linear manner, it’s easy for a Mummy: The Curse game to feature scenarios set before the 
  modern era. Whether in a flashback or a proper historical chronicle, certain Skills did not exist 
  until recent times. Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras discusses how Skills have evolved 
  across ages, starting on p. 23 of that book. 
  While this does not affect character creation in games mainly set in the modern era, this aspect of 
  the game does require a bit of planning should it ever come up at the table. With the most 
  straightforward solution, players can expect their dots in Computer, Drive, and Firearms to 
  translate into dots for their historical predecessors Enigmas, Ride, and Archery. Alternatively, 
  players can decide to keep bygone Skills to further highlight how ancient and removed from the 
  world mummies are. At the same time, they maintain an insight of anachronistic Skills that few 
  can boast. The opposite is also possible: characters with contemporary Skills in historical settings 
  will feel just as out of place. Their knowledge of things to come can both a source of confusion 
  and an opportunity to look at an archaic world with tools and perspectives nobody else possess. 
  Players can even choose to purchase dots both in ancient and modern Skills as a way to represent 
  the expertise a truly immortal character can have, with certain Specialties cross-apply at 
  Storyteller’s discretion. Characters roll all Skills with the relevant Attribute as usual, but if they 
  lack actual dots in a certain Skill they do so with the untrained penalty, even if they are well-
  versed with the Skill counterpart. 
  These are opportunities to toy with unusual character perspectives the Storyteller should take 
  into consideration. 
  Pre-Modern Skills 
  The following summarizes the information about pre-modern Skills presented in Chronicles of 
  Darkness: Dark Eras. 
  Archery: The Firearms Skill didn’t exist before 1500 and didn’t completely eclipse the Archery 
  Skill in ranged combat until the mid-1800s, when cheap and reliable hand-carried guns became 
  available. Crude, early firearms use the Athletics Skill to fire rather than Archery. Common 
  Archery Specialties include: European Bow, Japanese Bow, Longbow, Pellet Bow, Poor 
  Visibility, Short Bow, Trick Shot and Wind and Weather. Archery works identically to Firearms 
  except for dramatic failures: restringing a bow takes one turn just like clearing a gun jam, but 
  damage to the bow itself renders the weapon useless until it’s repaired. Storytellers might rule 
  
  that an Archery dramatic failure results in hitting the wrong target instead, or running out of 
  arrows if the game tracks ammunition narratively. 
  Ride: The Drive Skill didn’t exist before the late 1700s and didn’t become commonplace until 
  the mid-1900s when cars became more than luxuries for the wealthy. Transportation by animals 
  uses Ride, whether the character rides them directly or drives them via coach or chariot. 
  Characters can also use Ride to perform basic veterinary first aid on common mount animals and 
  build relationships with them. Common Ride Specialties include: Jumping, Particular Breeds, 
  Riding in Combat, Tricks, Tailing and Unfamiliar Horses. A mount animal has a Handling score 
  like a vehicle, which starts at the animal’s Wits rating and increases or decreases based on 
  treatment and training. Attributes associated with Ride vary: to ride into battle requires Physical 
  Attributes, Social Attributes work better for exhibitions or entertainment, while Wits is more 
  appropriate for rolls that require quick reactions outside a fight, such as those made to tail 
  someone while mounted. Dramatically failing on a mount usually involves injury to the mount or 
  uncooperative behavior, like throwing its rider or refusing to move. 
  Enigmas: The Computer Skill didn’t exist until the late 1970s, with the invention of the home 
  computer. Before that point, character use Crafts or Science to interact with cruder computer-like 
  technology. They use the Enigmas Skill to manipulate information, navigate complex systems, 
  solve puzzles, and create and decipher codes. It shouldn’t replace interactive problem solving 
  and roleplaying, but should help offer specific answers and new options. Common Enigmas 
  Specialties include: Bureaucracies, Codes, Conspiracies, Research, and Social Networks. On a 
  dramatic failure, the Storyteller gives a dramatically appropriate misinterpretation of the 
  information or solution. With failure, the character knows she failed and can try again with a -1 
  penalty. On a success, the character successfully decodes or obscures the information. With 
  exceptional success, the character gains more answers than she was looking for or hides the 
  information exceptionally well. Decoding Ciphers is an Intelligence + Enigmas extended action 
  requiring between 5 and 20 success, with each roll representing one hour of work. Encoding 
  information is a Wits + Enigmas + equipment instant that takes between a few minutes and a few 
  hours depending on the complexity. Mastering Complex Systems is a Wits + Enigmas extended 
  action requiring 10+ successes with each roll representing three hours of interaction or 
  observation. 
  Getting Ahead of the Times 
  What happens when an Arisen remembers what a car is millennia before the 
  combustion engine is invented? How can a mummy awakened at the height of the 
  Roman Empire with a deep understanding of computer programming put such 
  knowledge to use? Mummies wield knowledge centuries ahead of its time. From 
  the simplest commodities to more complex and groundbreaking inventions, the 
  awareness of what is missing alienates mummies even further from the world. To 
  master a Skill only matters to a point without the history and buildup which gave 
  that Skill shape. Some things just can’t be anticipated, a grim reality which 
  disheartens and frustrates those who confront with it. If someone can overcome 
  those hardships, though, it’s the Arisen. Mummies are truly timeless beings: their 
  divine mandate and the Sekhem blazing through their dead bodies give them both 
  the clarity of purpose and audacity to try and succeed where others cannot even 
  fathom the idea. Mummies can overcome lack of tools, materials, and proficiency 
  
  to a degree nobody else can. Their existence unbound from the linear passage of 
  time allows them to bring bits of the future into the past, one Descent at a time. 
  Traces of the Arisen’s passage are scattered through history. Items like calculators 
  made of stone and rusted gears, ancient batteries still able to harness electricity after 
  centuries spent in the dust, and depictions of vehicles which should not exist are a 
  source of endless questions for those who discover them. Only mummies are able 
  to recognize these objects for what they are: attempts by the scions of Irem to 
  recreate modern innovations in an era where they have no place to be. These relics 
  hold no supernatural power by their own, but they can shed a light on the hidden 
  history of the world and, within the right hands, help to recover wisdom of Irem 
  and Duat buried by the sands of time.  
  Speed  
  Your character’s Speed is the number of yards or meters she can travel in a single turn. This trait 
  is a combination of her Strength, Dexterity, and a species factor that reflects her age, physical 
  configuration, Size, and other considerations.  
  Other species, such as horses and cheetahs, have physical configurations that lend themselves to 
  high travel rates. 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Factor  
  Species  
  1 
  Turtle 
  3 
  Human toddler 
  5 
  Human adult 
  8 
  Wolf 
  10 
  Caribou 
  12 
  Horse 
  15 
  Cheetah 
  [END TABLE] 
  Rolling Dice 
  When a character is trying to accomplish something and the outcome is in doubt, the player rolls 
  a pool of ten-sided dice. The result of that roll determines whether or not the character succeeds 
  or fails at what they’re trying to accomplish. Success means they accomplish it with no 
  complications. Failure means they don’t accomplish it because more complications are in their 
  way. They could also roll an exceptional success, or dramatic failure, depending on the dice 
  outcome. 
  Dice Pool 
  The total number of ten-sided dice rolled is called the dice pool. That number is determined by a 
  couple of different stats on a character’s sheet. Generally, a dice pool is the value of an Attribute 
  + the value of a Skill, or the value of an Attribute + the value of another Attribute.  
  
  The player states what they’re trying to accomplish, and then the Storyteller will decide the 
  appropriate dice pool for that action. Since there’s sometimes a couple different ways to do the 
  same thing, the traits used will often be decided by how it’s being done. If a character is trying to 
  get past a bouncer, they could do it in a manipulative or an intimidating way, and the way they 
  decide to roleplay will help determine which traits to roll. 
  Most of the actions characters take will say which dice pools and Attributes and Skills to use for 
  them, but feel free to improvise. Sometimes there will be actions that players come up with that 
  could call for creative dice pools! Circumstantial factors, equipment, or opposition can add and 
  subtract from the total pool.   
  LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING NEEDS TO LOOK LIKE THE TABLE ON P. 175 
  OF CHANGELING: THE LOST 
  • 
  Building a Pool: A dice pool is an Attribute + different Attribute or Attribute + Skill.  
  • 
  Modifiers: Bonuses add the indicated number of dice; penalties remove them. Unless 
  otherwise specified, modifiers never exceed +/−5. Add all bonuses before subtracting penalties. 
  • 
  Successes: Any die showing 8, 9, or 10 counts as a success 
  • 
  10-again: Any die that shows a 10 is counted as a success, then rerolled. Rerolled dice 
  count successes as normal. Continue counting successes and rerolling as long as you keep rolling 
  10s. 
  /TABLE ENDS 
  The Chance Die 
  If a dice pool is reduced to zero or below from penalties, roll a single die. This is the Chance Die.  
  LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING NEEDS TO LOOK LIKE THE TABLE ON P. 176 
  OF CHANGELING: THE LOST 
  Chance Die Results 
  • 
  Success: A chance die displaying a 10 counts as a success. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: A chance die displaying a 1 is a dramatic failure. 
  • 
  No 10-again: Do not reroll 10s on chance dice.  
  /TABLE ENDS 
  Roll Results 
  Once the dice pool has been rolled, count all the successes, and reroll all dice that need rerolling. 
  Then it can be determined if the character succeeded or failed at their action.  
  LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING NEEDS TO LOOK LIKE THE TABLE ON P. 176 
  OF CHANGELING: THE LOST 
  Roll Results 
  • 
  Exceptional Success: 5+ successes. The character’s action succeeds, and they gain a 
  beneficial Condition. Specific actions might have additional effects on an exceptional success. 
  • 
  Success: 1-4 successes. The character’s action succeeds. 
  
  • 
  Failure: 0 successes. The character’s action fails. There are immediate consequences. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: The chance die shows a 1. The character’s action fails, and something 
  goes significantly awry. Specific actions might have additional effects on a dramatic failure. 
  Otherwise, the Storyteller decides on an appropriate turn of events. 
  /TABLE ENDS 
  Permutations 
  Mummy has a few variations on dice rolls. 
  • 
  9-Again: Reroll dice that show 9 or 10, as opposed to just 10. Reroll until you get a result 
  that isn’t a 9 or 10. Certain Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances may award you 9-
  again on specific kinds of rolls. If you gain 9-again on a roll that already had that quality, it 
  becomes 8-again. 
  • 
  8-Again: Reroll dice that show 8, 9, or 10 — any successful die — and keep rerolling for 
  each success. Certain Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances may award you 8-again 
  on specific kinds of rolls. If you gain 8-again on a roll that already had that quality, it may, at the 
  Storyteller’s discretion, become a rote action. 
  • 
  Extra Successes: Assuming your roll succeeds, you get a number of extra successes 
  added to your total. This permutation mostly applies to weapons, which add their damage bonus 
  as extra successes on your attack roll. 
  • 
  Rote Actions: When you’ve got plenty of train-ing and the steps you need to follow are 
  laid out in front of you, you’ve got a significant chance of success. When you make a roll with 
  the rote quality, reroll any dice that do not show an 8, 9, or 10. If you’re reduced to a chance die 
  on a rote action, don’t reroll a dramatic failure. You may only reroll each die once. Certain 
  Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances may award you the rote qual-ity on specific 
  kinds of rolls. 
  • 
  Successive Attempts: When you fail a roll, you may be able to try again. Normally, you 
  make successive attempts with your full dice pool. If time is short and the situation is tense, each 
  subsequent attempt instead has a cumulative one-die penalty. Successive attempts do not apply to 
  extended actions. 
  • 
  Teamwork: Working together can be vital for going up against powerful foes. See p.XX 
  When to Roll Dice 
  Dice rolls are only needed when there’s some kind of obstacle in the character’s way to 
  accomplishing their goal. If the character can easily do it, and there is nothing stopping them, 
  they can just do it without rolling dice. If their action is impeded in any way, by someone else, an 
  object, the weather, time, themselves, that is when dice should be rolled. 
  Deciding to roll dice means this action is meaningful within the story you’re telling together. If 
  the action doesn’t really matter too much or isn’t that significant, don’t bother making it a dice 
  rolling challenge. When the character is taking a meaningful action in the story, that’s when dice 
  rolling makes the most sense. 
  It’s also important to roll dice when there are obvious mechanics involved. If a character is 
  trying to use one of their special Mummy powers, it will most often require a dice roll, because 
  
  that’s a highlight of this particular game. Make dice rolls fun and meaningful by choosing the 
  right time to roll them. 
  Actions 
  Actions in Mummy fall into two categories: how long it takes to do the action, and if the action is 
  opposed. Each action will have these two descriptors to determine how to accomplish the action. 
  So for example, an action might be Instant + Simple, Reflexive + Resisted, or Extended + 
  Contested. Take a look at the charts below to see the combinations of actions characters can take. 
  Time Based Actions 
  LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING NEEDS TO LOOK LIKE THE TABLE ON P. 176 
  OF CHANGELING: THE LOST 
  • 
  Reflexive: A reflexive action requires one roll or no roll. A character can take reflexive 
  actions on other characters turns and don’t take up their turn in an action scene. In the narrative it 
  doesn’t take any meaningful time or effort. Contesting someone else’s action is always reflexive. 
  • 
  Instant: An instant action only requires one roll, and takes a turn in an action scene. 
  In the narrative it represents a few seconds. 
  • 
  Extended: An extended action requires multiple rolls. This represents the longer length 
  of time it takes to complete this action in a narrative. An extended action will usually take longer 
  than one action scene, so isn’t typically an option in action scenes. 
  Opposition Based Actions 
  • 
  Simple: No opposition. Dice pools and roll results are unaffected. 
  • 
  Contested: Your target opposes to your action. Calculate dice pool and roll. The target 
  rolls their dice pool (according to the action they’re taking). Compare successes. Whoever has 
  the highest successes succeeds, and the lowest successes fails. If it’s a tie, reroll the same pools 
  until one result is higher. 
  • 
  Resisted: Your target resists your action. Calculate your dice pool and apply a penalty 
  equal to the appropriate Resistance attributes of the target.  
  Extended Actions 
  Extended actions are actions in the narrative that take much longer than a typical action. They’re 
  projects that might take multiple hours or days, much concentration, or that a character can pick 
  up and put down to resume at a later time. They don’t have to occur in consecutive time, but it’s 
  possible they could. 
  The Storyteller determines if an action is extended or not, although some character powers 
  require an extended action and will say so in their description. Depending on the extended action 
  the character is taking, the Storyteller will determine how many successes it will take to 
  complete it. Most extended actions require between five and twenty successes. Five is a 
  reasonably easy action that a competent character can accomplish with the right tools and 
  knowledge. Ten is a more difficult action that’s still realistic for an expert in the action. Twenty 
  is a very difficult or complex action that even a skilled character would have trouble doing. 
  
  The Storyteller also determines how long in the narrative it will take the character to accomplish 
  the task. If it takes weeks to complete, the Storyteller might ask for one roll per week. If it takes 
  a day, one roll per hour might make more sense. Try to spread it out into a timeline with 
  somewhat even intervals.  
  Once all these factors are determined, the player can begin rolling their multiple actions. 
  Successes are accumulative across all rolls. If the player earns the required amount of successes 
  before time runs out, they succeed at their extended action.  
  Anatomy of Extended Actions 
  • 
  Multiple Rolls: During the extended action, players will roll their dice pool multiple 
  times. Successes on each roll will count toward completing the entire extended action. 
  • 
  Roll Limit: The roll limit is equal to the base dice pool for the action before modifiers. 
  • 
  Time Interval: Each roll takes a certain amount of time in the narrative, as determined 
  by the Storyteller in advance. 
  • 
  Required Successes: The Storyteller determines the amount of successes needed to 
  complete the extended action, between five and twenty. 
  Extended Action Roll Narrative Results 
  There are different results that can occur after each roll within an extended action.  
  • 
  Success: After each roll, add the successes to the running total. Work with the Storyteller 
  to determine how far along you’ve gotten toward your goal, and what this particular roll 
  represents in the story. 
  • 
  Exceptional Success: Choose one: reduce the total number of successes required by your 
  character’s Skill dots, reduce the time interval for each following roll by a quarter, or apply the 
  exceptional success result of the entire action when you complete your goal. 
  • 
  Failure: Take a condition, or abandon the extended action.  The character faces a 
  setback. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: Lose all accumulated successes for the extended action so far. In 
  addition, the first roll at a subsequent attempt at the extended action receives a two die penalty.  
  Common Actions 
  The following is a list of the most common actions characters are likely to take in a Mummy 
  game. It’s not exhaustive, and for more details see the Chronicles of Darkness rulebook. 
  Awe 
  (Instant, Presence + Expression) 
  You attempt to awe someone with your ancient presence.  
  • 
  Success: They’re thoroughly impressed with you, but they decide how they react. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They’re so impressed with you it’s as if no-one else is in the room. 
  • 
  Failure: They’re not very impressed with anything you’ve done. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You’ve accidentally repulsed them. 
  
  Consort 
  (Instant, Presence + Socialize or Streetwise) 
  Mix easily with a group of people at a party or in a crowd. 
  • 
  Success: The group listens to you and respects your words and actions. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You’re a new favorite among this particular crowd, and will be 
  remembered fondly. 
  • 
  Failure: Nobody pays you much mind, and they go on as if you weren’t really there. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You’ve made an embarrassing faux pas. 
  Debate 
  (Instant and Contested, Intelligence + Expression vs. targets Resolve + Composure) 
  You try to sway someone with rational debate. 
  • 
  Success: They accept your position in the debate, coming around to your point of view. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They’ve been converted to your point of view. 
  • 
  Failure: They listen but are unconvinced. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You accidentally convince them of the opposite of your point. 
  Flirt 
  (Instant, Presence + Expression, Socialize, or Empathy) 
  Let your attraction to someone be known to them. 
  • 
  Success: They’re aware you’re flirting with them, and they decide how they react to your 
  flirtations. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They’re very taken with your flirtations, and they decide how to react. 
  • 
  Failure: They don’t notice you’re flirting with them. 
  • 
  Dramatic: They are insulted by whatever you did in an attempt to flirt. 
  Infiltrate 
  (Instant and Contested, Intelligence + Socialize vs. targets Wits + Composure) 
  Ingratiate yourself naturally with a social group you’re unfamiliar with. 
  • 
  Success: The group accepts you, an outsider, as one of their own. 
  • 
  Exceptional: The group is easily swayed by your ideas and words. 
  • 
  Failure: The group doesn’t trust you quite yet, and you’re still not privy to their 
  conversations or invites. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You’ve accidentally insulted the group and they don’t trust you. 
  Interrogate 
  (Extended and Resisted, Manipulation + Empathy or Intimidation vs. targets Resolve) 
  You try to dig secrets out of a reluctant informant. 
  
  • 
  Success: You get the information you wanted, one piece per successful roll. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You get the information you were looking for and the target wants to help 
  you. 
  • 
  Failure: The target gives half-truths and lies. 
  • 
  Dramatic: The target is quiet and unaffected by your questions. 
  Intimidate 
  (Instant and Contested, Strength or Manipulation + Intimidation vs. targets Resolve + 
  Composure) 
  You try to get someone to do what you want through fear. 
  • 
  Success: They’re scared enough to help you with what you want. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They develop a lasting fear of you, and you won’t need to intimidate them 
  in the future. 
  • 
  Failure: They’re unimpressed with your threats. 
  • 
  Dramatic: They don’t even take your threats seriously. 
  Investigate 
  (Extended, Intelligence + Investigation) 
  You look for clues about what’s happened in the recent past in a place or involving a situation. 
  • 
  Success: You find exactly the clue you need. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You find a clue and know how it fits in with a web of other clues you 
  hadn’t noticed before. 
  • 
  Failure: You notice evidence but it’s hard to decipher or damaged. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You accidentally destroy a valuable clue. 
  Observe 
  (Instant, Wits + Empathy) 
  You watch a social situation and try to understand what’s going on before engaging. 
  • 
  Success: You notice something useful for how you can approach the situation. 
  • 
  Exceptional: What you notice is incredibly insightful and even helpful to the situation. 
  • 
  Failure: It’s not obvious what might be going on in this situation. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You interpret something harmful as harmless. 
  Research 
  (Extended, Intelligence + Academics or Occult) 
  Using your existing knowledge, you look for information on a current mystery. 
  • 
  Success: You find the basic facts you were looking for. 
  
  • 
  Exceptional: You find what you were looking for and everything else you ever needed to 
  know about that particular topic. 
  • 
  Failure: You turn up a lot of promising leads, but they’re all dead ends. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You get some misinformation which could be harmful information to apply to 
  your situation. 
  Skulk 
  (Instant and Contested, Dexterity + Stealth vs. targets Wits + Composure) 
  You’re trying to avoid the notice of someone or something. 
  • 
  Success: You avoid notice and get where you needed to go. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You avoid notice and are able to escape with no problems. 
  • 
  Failure: You’ve been spotted, but you can still slip away. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You accidentally attract a lot of attention.  
  Trail 
  (Instant and Contested, Wits + Stealth or Drive vs. Wits + Composure) 
  You follow someone without it being obvious to them. 
  • 
  Success: You follow the target without them noticing you. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You can easily continue to follow the target into whatever place and for as 
  long as you like. 
  • 
  Failure: The target realizes you’re following them and manages to lose you. 
  • 
  Dramatic: The target confronts you after noticing your poor attempt to trail them. 
  Willpower 
  While Sekhem the measure of an Arisen’s life-force, a mummy’s Willpower represents her 
  determination and her ability to go above and beyond what should be possible to achieve her 
  goals. Determine Willpower for Arisen characters by adding Composure to Resolve. 
  Mummies and mortal characters regain one point of Willpower from seven hours of meditation. 
  Spending Willpower  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Reflexive Action: Unless otherwise specified, spending Willpower is a reflexive action.  
  • 
  Roll Bonus: Spend 1 Willpower to gain a three-die bonus on a single dice pool.  
  • 
  Increased Resistance: Spend 1 Willpower to gain +2 to resistance (see above) against a 
  single action.  
  • 
  Refreshing the Will: By sacrificing a dot of Sekhem, all spent Willpower points will 
  return. The Arisen can do this once per turn, as a reflexive action.  
  • 
  Other Expenditures: Other abilities, Affinities, Utterances, and certain relics may 
  require Willpower expenditure, as noted under their Cost.  
  
  • 
  Per Action Limit: Characters may only spend 1 Willpower per action. 
  [END TABLE]   
  Conditions 
  Conditions represent ways in which the story has affected a character, and what he can do to 
  move past those events. Players don’t buy Conditions; events in the game apply them and they 
  remain until certain resolution criteria are met. A character can only have one instance of a 
  particular Condition unless each applies to a distinctly different circumstance — for example, he 
  may be Informed about both the occult symbol he stayed up all night to research and the inner 
  workings of the corporation he infiltrated. He’d resolve each independently. Various systems and 
  supernatural powers bring Conditions into play, and the Storyteller can do so based on story 
  circumstances.  
  A list of sample Conditions can be found on p. XX. The listed resolutions for each Condition are 
  the most common ways to end its effects; other actions may also resolve it if they would 
  reasonably cause the Condition’s effects to end. When a character resolves a Condition, the 
  player takes a Beat. However, if a Condition has a natural time limit and then fades away without 
  proper resolution, he doesn’t take a Beat. If a Condition lingers beyond its relevance in the story, 
  the player and Storyteller may agree to simply let it fade. A player can only earn one Beat by 
  resolving Conditions in each scene. 
  Some Conditions are marked as Persistent. These Conditions last for a long time, and can only be 
  resolved permanently with a specific and impressive effort. Once per chapter, a player can gain a 
  Beat when a Persistent Condition impacts his character’s life. 
  Improvised Conditions  
  Storytellers shouldn’t feel limited by the list of Conditions in the Appendix (p. XX). As a rough 
  guideline, a Condition typically consists of a modifier between +2 and −2 dice to a certain type 
  of action, or to any action taken with a certain motivation. A Condition resolves when the 
  character’s done something significant to act on it, or when she addresses the original source. 
  The sample Conditions later in this book have examples of how to resolve them, but you can also 
  resolve them after other events if it makes sense in the story.  
  If play bogs down as you search for the right Condition, just improvise one and keep things 
  going.  
  Lingering Conditions  
  Conditions are designed as reminders that events that happened earlier in the story have 
  repercussions later. Usually, Chekhov’s gun applies — if you put the Condition on stage, it 
  should fire by the end of the story. But stories are slippery things, and sometimes a story thread 
  represented by a Condition is better to drop for the sake of the overall narrative.  
  For example, an emotional state like Swooned might no longer be relevant to events in the game 
  because a long time has passed, or it might have been the result of an interaction with a character 
  you don’t care about anymore. In those cases, it’s perfectly fine to just cross off the Condition. 
  We recommend awarding a Beat as if resolving it, but that’s at the Storyteller’s discretion.  
  We recommend doing this sparingly, but the bottom line is: If a Condition doesn’t feel relevant 
  to the story anymore, just let it go. 
  
  Action Scenes 
  Sometimes it’s useful to zoom in close on the action and track things moment by moment, with a 
  clear understanding of who does what in what order. These are action scenes, and to keep 
  everyone’s actions straight, they proceed by turns in order of Initiative. The most common action 
  scenes are fights, but the Storyteller can call for one any time complex things are happening very 
  quickly.  
  Turns  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  What You Can Do: On your turn, move up to your Speed and take one instant action, or 
  move twice your Speed.  
  • 
  How Long It Lasts: A turn is roughly three seconds. If an effect says it lasts “until your 
  next turn,” it lasts until the beginning of your next turn.  
  • 
  Order of Action: Characters involved in an action scene take turns one at a time in order 
  of Initiative, from highest to lowest.  
  • 
  Cycle: Once all characters involved in the scene have acted, the order of action returns to 
  the character with the highest Initiative. Initiative can change from turn to turn, if for instance 
  one character delays his action, or a supernatural power makes a character faster or slower.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Initiative  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Calculating: When you come into the action scene, roll one die and add the result to 
  your Initiative modifier (p. XX). This is the only roll in the game on which you treat the result of 
  the die as a number rather than a success or not. Wielding a weapon inflicts a penalty to Initiative 
  based on the type of weapon (p. XX).  
  • 
  Delaying: You may choose not to act when your turn comes up and instead act at any 
  point later in the scene, even if the order of action has reset. When you do act, change your 
  Initiative to the Initiative you acted on for the rest of the scene.  
  • 
  Surprise: If the start of the action might take a character unawares, the Storyteller may 
  call for a surprise roll. Roll the character’s Wits + Composure, possibly contested by an 
  opponent’s relevant dice pool (Dexterity + Stealth for an ambush, Manipulation + Subterfuge if 
  they lull you into a false sense of security, etc.). If the surprised character’s roll fails, they cannot 
  act or apply their Defense until their second turn.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Defense  
  Defense measures your character’s ability to react to danger and mitigate harm to herself. It’s 
  most often used when violence breaks out, but is sometimes used to resist harm from other 
  sources as well.  
  Defense Basics  
  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • Resistance: Defense counts as a Resistance Attribute (p.XX) for any rule that interacts with 
  Resistance (e.g. spending Willpower).  
  • Multiple Hazards: In an action scene, each time you resist an action with your Defense, you 
  suffer a cumulative −1 penalty to Defense. This penalty goes away at the beginning of your next 
  turn. You can choose not to resist an action with Defense; if you do, the penalty doesn’t increase. 
  [END TABLE]   
  Tilts  
  Tilts apply temporary circumstances to both characters and the environment during action 
  scenes. Outside action scenes, use Conditions instead.  
  Tilts do not grant Beats when they end, but the effects of a Tilt can easily cause a Condition. For 
  instance, a character in a fight gets a handful of road salt flung into his eyes and receives the 
  Blinded Tilt. When the action scene ends, this shifts to the Blind Condition. Resolving this 
  Condition grants a Beat as usual. If the character enters an action scene again before the 
  Condition resolves, the Blinded Tilt applies again.  
  Tilts come in two forms: Personal and Environmental. Personal Tilts only apply to one character 
  and include ways in which that character can overcome the effect. Environmental Tilts affect the 
  whole scene, and offer ways for individual characters to mitigate their effects. For a list of 
  sample Tilts, see p. XX. 
  Violence  
  An Arisen’s tendency to seek out violence heavily depends on their dots in Sekhem and 
  Memory. While a mummy brimming with Sekhem but with little Memory can act with 
  incredible violence, those with high Memory but low Sekhem seek out violent acts. Both 
  immortals and mortals try to get their way with physical force. Whatever the reason is, the 
  Arisen must fight so she can fulfill her role. 
  Intent  
  Everybody wants something out of a conflict. The very first thing you need to do — before 
  worrying about who attacks first or anything like that — is determine what each character wants 
  to get out of the fight. Boil it down into a simple sentence that starts with the words “I want,” as 
  in “I want Nubia’s relic,” or “I want to discover Jabari’s true allegiance.”  
  Declaring Intent  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  By Violence: Intent must be something achievable by violence within the current scene.  
  • 
  The Price: If your intent doesn’t include causing harm and your character ends up killing 
  someone, lose one Willpower point.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Down and Dirty Combat  
  
  The Storyteller might decide that your character can get what she wants without focusing on the 
  details of the fight. Maybe she’s picking on people weaker than her. Maybe the fight’s not the 
  important thing going on with regards to the character’s intent. In these cases, the Storyteller can 
  opt to use Down and Dirty Combat.  
  This system resolves the entire fight in a single roll. If multiple characters have separate intents, 
  resolve each intent as a separate Down and Dirty Combat action. If the group only has one intent 
  but multiple characters are participating, they can use teamwork (see p. XX) on the roll. Players 
  can call for Down and Dirty Combat, with the Storyteller’s approval. Storyteller characters might 
  deal damage as a result of a Down and Dirty Combat, but they can’t initiate one.  
  Action: Instant and contested; takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes.  
  Dice Pool: Combat pool (Dexterity + Firearms, Strength + Brawl, or Strength + Weaponry) 
  versus either the opponent’s combat pool (as above) or an attempt to escape (Strength or 
  Dexterity + Athletics).  
  Roll Results  
  Success: Inflict damage equal to the difference in successes + weapon modifier and achieve your 
  intent — including killing, if that was on the table.  
  Exceptional Success: As success, and gain 1 Willpower.  
  Failure: Do not achieve your intent. If the opponent rolled a combat pool, suffer damage equal 
  to the difference in successes + opponent’s weapon modifier. Opponent escapes if they want to.  
  Dramatic Failure: The opposite of your character’s intent happens, or she’s knocked out or 
  suffers other serious consequences. 
  Optional Rules: Beaten Down & Surrender   
  A character who takes more than his Stamina in bashing damage or any amount of 
  lethal damage suffers the Beaten Down Tilt (p. XX): He’s had the fight knocked 
  out of him.  
  A character can choose to surrender, giving his attacker what she wants. If your 
  character surrenders, regain a point of Willpower and take a Beat, and stop 
  participating in the fight. Your character’s opponent must spend a point of 
  Willpower to attack him.  
  If one side’s intent involves violence for its own sake, their intended victims don’t 
  get Beaten Down and can’t surrender. When someone wants to kill you, the only 
  thing you can do is to try to stop her, whether you run like hell or unload a shotgun 
  at her. 
  These optional rules only apply to people who would incur a breaking point for 
  committing (or attempting) murder.  
  Detailed Violence  
  When the fight is a significant event in the story, or Down and Dirty Combat doesn’t suit, use 
  these rules. Violence like this is an action scene (p. XX).  
  Actions in a Fight  
  
  The most common action in a fight is to attack. Characters can also dodge or push themselves to 
  the limit, sacrificing Defense for greater effect.  
  Attack  
  All attack actions are instant actions. Unarmed, melee, and thrown attacks are resisted, while 
  ranged attacks and touching an opponent are simple actions.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Unarmed Attack: Strength + Brawl – Defense; bashing damage  
  • 
  Melee Attack: Strength + Weaponry – Defense; lethal damage  
  • 
  Ranged Attack: Dexterity + Firearms; lethal damage  
  • 
  Thrown Attack: Dexterity + Athletics – Defense; lethal damage  
  • 
  Touching an Opponent: Dexterity + Brawl or Dexterity + Weaponry; inflicts no 
  damage.  
  • 
  Damage: A successful attack inflicts damage equal to the number of successes rolled + 
  weapon modifier (p. XX), if any.  
  • 
  Pulling Blows: Set a maximum damage value up to the highest trait in your attack dice 
  pool, and grant the target +1 Defense. Your attack cannot inflict more than the maximum 
  damage you set.  
  • 
  Offhand Attack: Take a two-die penalty to attacks made with the character’s non-
  dominant hand.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Dodge  
  Dodging is a reflexive action, but your character can only do it if she hasn’t taken an action yet 
  this turn, and it takes up her action for the turn.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Contested Attacks: Attacks made against your character become contested instead of 
  resisted until your next turn. Contest attacks with double your Defense as your dice pool, and 
  unlike a normal contested action, your successes cancel out the attacker’s successes on a one-for-
  one basis. Don’t reroll ties; if you cancel out all the successes, the attack simply fails.  
  • 
  Multiple Attackers: Apply the Defense penalty for multiple attackers before doubling. If 
  your character’s Defense is reduced to 0, roll a chance die.  
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: Defense suffers a −1 penalty until your next turn.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Special Maneuvers  
  To enact any of the following instant actions, the character sacrifices her Defense until her next 
  turn. If the character has already lost her Defense, for example by being surprised or attacked by 
  enough opponents in one turn to reduce her Defense to 0, she cannot take any of these actions.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  
  • 
  Charge: Move up to twice your character’s Speed and make an unarmed or melee attack.  
  • 
  All-Out Attack: Make an unarmed or melee attack with a two-die bonus.  
  • 
  Aim: Keep an opponent in your sights with a ranged weapon to gain a one-die bonus per 
  consecutive Aim action on your next attack against that target, to a maximum of three bonus 
  dice. Incompatible with autofire (below).  
  [END TABLE]   
  Other Actions  
  These are all instant actions.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Drop Prone/Stand Up: Ranged attacks against prone characters suffer a two-die penalty, 
  but unarmed and melee attacks against prone characters gain a two-die bonus if the attacker is 
  standing.  
  • 
  Reload a Weapon: If rounds must be loaded individually, lose Defense until your next 
  turn.  
  • 
  Killing Blow: Inflict damage equal to your attack’s dice pool + weapon bonus. Requires 
  an unconscious, immobilized, or otherwise helpless target. May prompt a breaking point.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Unarmed Violence  
  These rules present special cases that come up when fighting without weapons.  
  Bite  
  Biting counts as an unarmed attack action.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Damage: Human teeth inflict −1 bashing damage (so an attack that rolls only one success 
  inflicts no damage). Animals and monsters may treat their teeth as weapons, with a bonus 
  between +1 and +4.  
  • 
  Grapple Required: Humans must first grapple an opponent to bite them.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Grapple  
  Grappling counts as an unarmed attack action. To start grappling, you have to grab your 
  opponent. 
  [BEGIN TABLE]  
  • 
  Grab: Make an unarmed attack. On a success, inflict no damage but start a grapple. On 
  an exceptional success, also choose a grapple option to enact reflexively.  
  • 
  One Action: All participants in the grapple act on the highest Initiative among them. The 
  only action they can take is the grappling action.  
  
  • 
  Grappling: Instant and contested; Strength + Brawl vs. Strength + Brawl. The character 
  with the most successes chooses a grapple option to enact immediately, or two grapple options 
  on an exceptional success. On a tie, the characters continue to grapple but nothing else happens. 
  [END TABLE]    
  Grapple Options  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Break Free: The grapple ends, and your character may take another instant action 
  immediately.  
  • 
  Control Weapon: Take firm hold of a weapon, either your character’s or her opponent’s. 
  Lasts until your character’s opponent chooses Control Weapon. Required for other grapple 
  options.  
  • 
  Damage: Treat the grapple action as an unarmed attack, inflicting damage equal to your 
  rolled successes. If you have control of a weapon, this counts as a melee attack with the 
  weapon’s modifier.  
  • 
  Disarm: Remove a weapon from the grapple entirely. Requires Control Weapon (above).  
  • 
  Drop Prone: Throw all participants to the ground. Requires Break Free to stand back up.  
  • 
  Hold: Immobilize an opponent. Both characters lose Defense.  
  • 
  Restrain: Your opponent suffers the Immobilized Tilt (p. 330). Requires Hold. If your 
  character uses equipment to restrain her opponent, she can leave the grapple.  
  • 
  Take Cover: Any ranged attacks against your character automatically hit her opponent. 
  Lasts until your next turn.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Ranged Violence  
  These rules present special cases that come up when shooting at people.  
  Autofire  
  Automatic weapons can fire a short, medium, or long burst in place of a single shot.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Short Burst: Uses three bullets. +1 bonus to attack action.  
  • 
  Medium Burst: Uses 10 bullets. +2 bonus to attack action. Can attack multiple targets, 
  up to three.  
  • 
  Long Burst: Uses 20 bullets. +3 bonus to attack action. Can attack multiple targets, with 
  no limit.  
  • 
  Multiple Targets: −1 penalty per target after the first. Roll individually against each 
  target.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Range  
  
  Ranged attacks suffer a dice penalty the farther away the target is. Ranged weapons have a short, 
  medium, and long range listed on the weapons table (p. XX). 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Short Range: No penalty.  
  • 
  Medium Range: −1  
  • 
  Long Range: −2  
  [END TABLE]   
  Concealment  
  If the target of a ranged attack is partially or fully obscured, she has concealment. Concealment 
  applies a penalty to the shooter’s dice pool. 
  [BEGIN TABLE]  
  • 
  Barely Concealed: −1 (hiding behind an ornate bust on a thin pillar)  
  • 
  Partially Concealed: −2 (hiding behind a tombstone, with upper body exposed)  
  • 
  Substantially Concealed: −3 (crouching behind a large statue).  
  • 
  Shooting from Concealment: Barely concealed: no penalty; partially concealed: −1; 
  substantially concealed: −2. You can ignore this penalty, but if so you lose your own 
  concealment until your next turn.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Cover  
  If a target’s entirely hidden by something substantial, he’s in cover.  
  [BEGIN TABLE]  
  • 
  Tough Cover: If the cover’s Durability (p. XX) is greater than the attacker’s weapon 
  modifier, the attack can’t penetrate the cover.  
  • 
  Less Tough Cover: Subtract the cover’s Durability from the attacker’s damage roll. Both 
  the object and the target take any remaining damage.  
  • 
  Transparent Cover: If the cover is transparent (bulletproof glass, for example), subtract 
  half the cover’s Durability, rounding down. Both the object and the target take any remaining 
  damage.  
  [END TABLE]   
  Covering Fire  
  With a weapon capable of autofire, a character can lay down covering fire to keep anyone from 
  entering his target area.  
  [BEGIN TABLE]  
  • 
  Action: Instant  
  • 
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Firearms  
  
  • 
  Bullets: Uses 10 bullets.  
  • 
  Characters in Area of Effect: On their next turn, they must either take cover within 
  range of their Speed or drop prone, to avoid suffering damage equal to successes on covering fire 
  roll + weapon modifier.  
  • 
  In Close Combat: Wielding a ranged weapon larger than Size 1 in close quarters grants 
  the opponent (weapon’s Size + 1) as a bonus to Defense.  
  • 
  Shooting into Close Combat: Take a two-die penalty for each character involved in 
  close combat with your target that you want to avoid hitting, or a four-die penalty if they’re 
  grappling your target. You can’t selectively avoid targets this way with autofire.  
  [END TABLE] 
  Weapons and Armor  
  Weapons are one of the fastest ways to turn a fight into a murder, but sometimes the best defense 
  is a good offense. Armor, meanwhile, keeps a character from grievous harm.  
  Armor 
  [START TABLE] 
  Type Rating Strength 
  Defense  
  Speed Availability Coverage 
  Modern 
  Reinforced clothing* 1/0 
  1 
  0 
  0 
  • 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  Kevlar vest* 1/3 
  1 
  0 
  0 
  • 
  Torso 
  Flak jacket 
  2/4 
  1 
  −1 
  0 
  •• 
  Torso, arms 
  Full riot gear 3/5 
  2 
  −2 
  −1 
  ••• 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  Archaic 
  Leather (hard) 2/0 
  2 
  −1 
  0 
  • 
  Torso, arms 
  Chainmail 
  3/1 
  3 
  −2 
  −2 
  •• 
  Torso, arms 
  Plate 4/2 
  3 
  −2 
  −3 
  •••• 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  [END TABLE] 
  Rating: Armor provides protection against normal attacks and firearms attacks. The number 
  before the slash is for general armor, while the number after the slash is for ballistic armor. 
  Strength: If a character’s Strength is lower than that required for her armor, reduce her Brawl 
  and Weaponry dice pools by one. 
  Defense: The penalty imposed on a character’s Defense when wearing the armor. 
  Speed: The penalty to a character’s Speed when wearing the armor. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  armor. 
  
  Coverage: The areas of a character protected by the armor. Unless an attacker targets a specific 
  unarmored location (see “Specified Targets,” p. 184), the armor’s protection applies. Wearing a 
  helmet increases the armor’s coverage to include a character’s head. 
  * This armor is concealed, either as normal clothing (e.g. biker leathers) or from being worn 
  under a jacket or baggy shirt. Attackers have no idea the target is wearing armor until after they 
  land a successful hit. 
  Weapons 
  [START TABLE] 
  Melee Weapons Chart 
  Type Damage Initiative Strength Size Availability Special 
  Sap 
  0 
  −1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Stun 
  Brass Knuckles 
  0 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Uses Brawl to attack 
  Baton 1 
  −1 
  2 
  2 
  n/a 
  Crowbar 
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  • 
  Tire Iron 
  1 
  −3 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  +1 Defense 
  Chain 1 
  −3 
  2 
  2 
  • 
  Grapple 
  Shield (small) 0 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  Concealed 
  Shield (large) 2 
  −4 
  3 
  3 
  •• 
  Concealed 
  Knife 0 
  −1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Rapier 1 
  −2 
  1 
  2 
  •• 
  Armor piercing 1 
  Machete 
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  Hatchet 
  1 
  −2 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Fire Axe 
  3 
  −4 
  3 
  3 
  •• 
  9-again, two-handed 
  Chainsaw 
  5 
  −6 
  4 
  3 
  ••• 
  9-again, two-handed 
  Stake* 0 
  −4 
  1 
  1 
  n/a 
  Spear** 
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  4 
  • 
  +1 Defense, two-handed 
  Stun gun (melee) 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Stun; bonus successes don’t add to 
  modifier for damage 
  [END TABLE] 
  Type: A weapon’s type is a general classification that can apply to anything your character picks 
  up. A tire iron might be any metal club, such as an antique mace, a metal baseball bat, or a 
  hammer, while a hatchet might be a meat cleaver or an antique handaxe. 
  Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added to a successful attack. Weapons always 
  deal lethal damage against ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against supernatural 
  opponents. 
  
  Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding the weapon. If using more than one 
  weapon, take the higher penalty and increase by 1. 
  Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a lower 
  Strength suffers a −1 penalty on attack rolls. 
  Size: Size 1 items can be hidden in a hand; two Size 2 items can be hidden in a coat; Size 3+ 
  items cannot be hidden. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  weapon. 
  Concealed: A character that wields a shield but doesn’t use it to attack can add its Size to his 
  Defense, and uses its Size as a concealment modifier against ranged attacks. 
  Grapple: Add the chain’s weapon modifier to grappling dice pools. 
  Stun: Halve the victim’s Size when aiming for the head with intent to stun. 
  Two-handed: This weapon requires two hands. It can be used one-handed, but doing so 
  increases the Strength requirement by 1. 
  * To pierce the heart, a stake must target it specifically (−3 to attack rolls) and must deal at least 
  five damage in one attack. 
  ** The reach of a spear gives +1 to Defense against opponents who are unarmed or wield 
  weapons of Size 1. 
  [START TABLE] 
  Ranged Weapons Chart 
  Type Damage Range Clip Initiative Strength Size Availability Example Special 
  Revolver, light 
  1 
  20/40/80 
  6 
  0 
  2 
  1 
  •• 
  SW M640 (.38 
  Special) 
  Revolver, heavy 
  2 
  35/70/140 
  6 
  −2 
  3 
  1 
  •• 
  SW M29 (.44 
  Magnum) 
  Pistol, light 
  1 
  20/40/80 
  17+1 0 
  2 
  1 
  ••• 
  Glock 17 (9mm) 
  Pistol, heavy 2 
  30/60/120 
  7+1 
  −2 
  3 
  1 
  ••• 
  Colt M1911A1 (.45 
  ACP) 
  SMG, small* 1 
  25/50/100 
  30+1 −2 
  2 
  1 
  ••• 
  Ingram Mac-10 
  (9mm) 
  SMG, large* 2 
  50/100/200 
  30+1 −3 
  3 
  2 
  ••• 
  HK MP-5 (9mm) 
  Rifle 4 
  200/400/800 5+1 
  −5 
  2 
  3 
  •• 
  Remington M-700 (30.06) 
  Assault Rifle* 3 
  150/300/600 42+1 −3 
  3 
  3 
  ••• 
  Steyr AUG (5.56mm) 
  Shotgun**  
  3 
  20/40/80 
  5+1 
  −4 
  3 
  2 
  •• 
  Remington M870 (12-
  gauge)  
  Crossbow*** 2 
  40/80/160 
  1 
  −5 
  3 
  3 
  •••  
  
  Stun gun (ranged)*** 1 
  5 
  1 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Taser Stun; bonus 
  successes don’t add to the modifier for damage 
  Pepper spray 0 
  1/2/3 n/a 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Stun; Penalty, deals no 
  damage 
  Javelin 2 
  Thrown 
  n/a 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  ••• 
  [END TABLE] 
  Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added to a successful attack. Weapons always 
  deal lethal damage against ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against supernatural 
  opponents. 
  Ranges: The listed numbers are short/medium/long ranges in yards/meters. Attacks at medium 
  range suffer a −1 penalty. Attacks at long range suffer a −2 penalty. 
  Clip: The number of rounds a gun can hold. A +1 indicates that a bullet can be held in the 
  chamber, ready to fire. 
  Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding the weapon. If using more than one 
  weapon, take the higher penalty and increase it by 1. 
  Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a lower 
  Strength suffers a −1 on attack rolls. 
  Size: Weapons of Size 1 can be fired one-handed; Size 2 weapons must be fired two-handed and 
  can be hidden in a coat; Size 3 weapons can be fired two-handed, but not hidden on one’s person. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  weapon. 
  Stun: Halve the victim’s Size when aiming for the head with intent to stun.  
  Penalty: Pepper spray inflicts a −5 to all actions, reduced by one for every turn the victim spends 
  rinsing his eyes. 
  * The weapon is capable of autofire, including short bursts, medium bursts, and long bursts. 
  ** Attack rolls gain the 9-again quality. 
  Sample Tomb Traps 
  [ALL THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE CHARTED] 
  Trap Damage 
  Availability Tilts 
  Pressurized Darts 
  1 
  • 
  Scything Blades, Poisoned 
  Choking Sands 
  2 
  ••• 
  Powerful Currents 
  Concealed Holes in the Wall* 1/2/3 •• 
  Swarm 
  Falling Columns 
  2 
  •• 
  Collapsing Ceiling 
  Fire Streams** 
  1 
  •• 
  Scything Blades 
   
  Hidden Pit* 
  1 
  • 
  Concealed Pit 
  Rolling Boulder 
  3 
  ••• 
  Collapsing Ceiling 
  
  Sacrifice Altar n/a 
  ••• 
  Charnel Ground 
  Scarab-Headed Canopy 
  1 
  • 
  Skincrawler 
  Spiked Pit 
  1 
  •• 
  Concealed Pit 
  Statue of the Devourer*** 
  n/a 
  •••• 
  Charnel Ground 
  Sudden Flooding Mechanism* 
  2 
  •• 
  Powerful Currents 
  Swinging Blades 
  1 
  ••• 
  Scything Blades 
  Unholy Fountain 
  n/a 
  •••• 
  Dark Waters 
  [END CHART] 
  Damage: Indicates the amount of damage characters take for each turn of exposure to the trap. 
  The damage is always lethal against ordinary humans unless specified. They type of damage may 
  vary against supernatural opponents- 
  Availability: The cost in Tomb dots applied to Perils needed to acquire the trap. 
  Tilts: The associated Tilts which provides the detailed mechanics of what a trap does when 
  triggered. 
  * Damage from the trap is bashing. 
  ** Dramatic Failures rolled while amid the trap do not cause aggravated damage, but they will 
  ignite anything combustible on the characters. 
  *** The trap tags those who trigger it with the Cursed Condition. 
  Services 
  [ALL THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE CHARTED] 
  Service 
  Availability Die Bonus 
  Academics 
  Historical specialist consulting 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Research assistance from grad students 
  •• 
  +2 
  Translation of a dead language 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Computer 
  Custom phone application 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Digital image enhancement •• 
  +3 
  Graphic design/forgery 
  •• 
  +2 
  Crafts 
  Antiquities restoration ••• 
  +2  
  Auto repair 
  •• 
  +3 
  Custom equipment modifications 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Investigation 
  
  Consultation on evidence 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Investigative photography 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Private investigation/background check 
  •• 
  +2 
  Medicine 
  Black-market surgeon •••• 
  +3 
  Expert medical witness 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Rush plastic surgery •••• 
  +2 
  Occult 
  Esoteric consultant/sage 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Exorcist 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Protective amulets or wards •••• 
  +1 
  Politics 
  Campaign assistant 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Cutting red tape (read: bribe) ••• 
  +2 
  Spin doctor 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Science 
  Fact checking •• 
  +3 
  Falsifying research/coverup ••• 
  +2 
  Lab access 
  •• 
  +2 
  Athletics 
  Meditative assistance ••• 
  +2 
  Personal trainer 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Throwing an athletic competition 
  •••• 
  +4 
  Brawl 
  Arrange underground boxing ring 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Bodyguard service 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Self-defense classes • 
  +1 
  Drive 
  Chauffer 
  •• 
  +2 
  Stunt performance/mock crash 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Tour bus rental 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Firearms 
  Antique gun repair 
  ••• 
  +2 
  
  Cover fire from gangs ••• 
  +3 
  Procuring smuggled military arms 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Larceny 
  Breaking and entering ••• 
  +2 
  Security consulting 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Stealing a protected relic 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Stealth 
  Strategic distraction ••• 
  +3 
  Tailing a suspect 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Targeted vandalism 
  •• 
  +2 
  Survival 
  Field dress and preserve an animal 
  ••• 
  +1 
  Trail guide 
  •• 
  +3 
  Weatherproof a shelter 
  •• 
  +2 
  Weaponry 
  Properly forged sword••• 
  +2  
  Identify wound from obscure weapon 
  ••• 
  +2  
  Training in archaic warfare 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Animal Ken 
  Buy a trained animal ••• 
  +2 
  Identify animal droppings 
  •• 
  +1 
  Rule out natural causes of death 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Empathy 
  “Good cop” interrogator 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Neutral arbitrator 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Therapy session 
  •• 
  +1 
  Expression 
  Document forgery 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Ghostwriting •• 
  +2 
  Motivational speech ••• 
  +1 
  Intimidation 
  Anti-interrogation training 
  •••• 
  +3 
  “Bad cop” interrogator 
  ••• 
  +2 
  
  Deprogramming therapy 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Persuasion 
  Defense attorney 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Hostage negotiator 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Pickup artist ••• 
  +2 
  Socialize 
  Catering 
  ••• or •••• 
  +1 or +2 
  Elocution consulting ••• 
  +1 
  Escort ••• 
  +2 
  Streetwise 
  Arrange a rave or block party ••• 
  +2 
  Black market access •• 
  +2 
  Find crash space 
  •• 
  +1 
  Smuggling contraband 
  ••• 
  +1 
  Subterfuge 
  Amateur actor/actress •• 
  +2 
  Con artistry 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Gambling ringer 
  ••• 
  +2 
  [END OF CHART] 
  Injury and Healing 
  Characters can suffer three types of damage. Fists and feet, along with other kinds of low-impact 
  trauma, deal bashing damage. Brass knuckles, knives, and speeding trucks deal lethal damage. 
  Some horrifying powers deal aggravated damage. When something deals aggravated damage 
  directly, it’s quite obvious. Flesh melts like incandescent wax. Festering boils erupt from the 
  victim’s skin. The site of the injury rots in a heartbeat. 
  The following rules apply to mundane humans and animals. Mummies deal with damage 
  differently (p. XX) and have other methods to heal themselves. 
  Suffering Damage 
  When a rule tells you to suffer an amount of damage, you mark off that many Health boxes, 
  starting from the leftmost side and continuing to the right. A box marked with any kind of 
  damage is called a point. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 187 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Damage Basics 
  • 
  Bashing: Mark bashing damage with a (/) in the leftmost empty box of the Health track. 
  
  • 
  Lethal: Mark lethal damage with an (X) in the leftmost box that is empty or filled with 
  bashing damage. If you mark over bashing damage, move that bashing damage to the rightmost 
  empty box of the track. If no empty boxes are left, that damage is overwritten but not moved. 
  • 
  Aggravated: Mark aggravated damage with an (*) in the leftmost box that does not 
  already contain aggravated damage. If you mark over bashing damage, move that bashing 
  damage to the rightmost empty box. If no empty boxes are left, that damage is overwritten but 
  not moved. If you mark over lethal damage, move that lethal damage to the rightmost box that is 
  empty or contains bashing damage. If no empty boxes or boxes containing bashing damage are 
  left, that damage is overwritten but not moved. 
  • 
  Upgrading Damage: If your character suffers bashing damage but has no empty Health 
  boxes in which to mark it, upgrade each point of bashing damage to lethal damage. If she suffers 
  lethal damage but has no empty Health boxes or boxes marked with bashing damage, upgrade 
  her leftmost Health box that’s filled with lethal damage to aggravated damage. 
  Effects of Damage 
  • 
  Wound Penalties: If your character has any damage marked in her third-to-last Health 
  box, she suffers a −1 penalty to all actions except Stamina rolls to stay conscious. This increases 
  to −2 when her second-to-last Health box is filled, and −3 when her last Health box is filled. 
  • 
  Unconscious: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with bashing or lethal 
  damage, roll her Stamina every turn as a reflexive action. Failure means she falls unconscious 
  until her rightmost Health box is empty. 
  • 
  Bleeding Out: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with lethal damage, she 
  suffers 1 lethal damage per turn until she receives medical attention (p. xx). 
  • 
  Dead: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with aggravated damage, she is 
  dead. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Example of Marking Damage 
  Samira has seven boxes of Health. She’s just taken two points of bashing damage. Her Health 
  boxes look like this:  
  [PRODUCTION: SEVEN HEALTH BOXES, FIRST TWO CONTAINING A 
  SLASH] 
  If an enemy cultist stabs her and deals a point of lethal damage, her Health track looks like this: 
  [SEVEN HEALTH BOXES, FIRST ONE CONTAINS AN X, SECOND AND THIRD 
  CONTAIN A SLASH] 
  If Samira next suffered a point of aggravated damage, her Health boxes would look like this: 
  [SEVEN HEALTH BOXES. FIRST HAS AN ASTERISK, SECOND HAS AN X, 
  THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONTAIN SLASHES] 
  Healing 
  Characters need time to heal once they’ve been beaten to a pulp. Normally, a character can heal 
  without medical attention, though use of the Medicine Skill will help him recover (see below). 
  
  The only exception is if a character has all her Health boxes full of lethal damage — she’s 
  bleeding out. She can’t recover from that without urgent medical attention and emergency 
  surgery. 
  Arisen characters heal faster than mortal characters and can accelerate the process even further 
  (p. XX). 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 188 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Healing Basics 
  • 
  Rightmost Box: Natural healing only affects the rightmost point of damage. Once the 
  rightmost box is cleared, healing time for the next-rightmost box starts. 
  • 
  Bashing: Clear bashing damage after 15 minutes of in-game time. 
  • 
  Lethal: Clear lethal damage after two days of ingame time. 
  • 
  Aggravated: Clear aggravated damage after a week of in-game time. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Example: Samira escapes the ambush and hides, waiting for the right chance to contact her cult. 
  Her health track looks like this at the end of the fight:  
  [SEVEN HEALTH BOXES. FIRST HAS AN ASTERISK, SECOND HAS AN X, 
  THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONTAIN SLASHES] 
  Her rightmost wound heals first. Since it’s a bashing wound, she clears it after 15 minutes. After 
  another 15 minutes, her second bashing wound clears. Her lethal damage then heals over the 
  course of the next two days. Finally, her aggravated wound heals over the course of the next 
  week. In all, it takes a little over a week and two days for her to recover from her injuries. 
  Medical Care 
  Characters can use the Medicine Skill to speed up healing. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 188 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  • 
  Action: Extended and simple 
  • 
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine with a one-minute interval, for emergency treatment; 
  Intelligence + Medicine with a one-hour interval, for long-term hospital care. 
  • 
  Benefits of Emergency Care: Requires total successes equal to total damage the patient 
  suffers. Successful treatment heals one point of bashing damage. 
  • 
  Benefits of Long-Term Care: Successful treatment downgrades one point of aggravated 
  damage to lethal, or one point of lethal damage to bashing. Requires 10 total successes per 
  aggravated wound, 5 per lethal. 
  • 
  Long-Term Care Limitations: Heals the leftmost injury first and can only downgrade 
  one wound per patient per day. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  
  Sources of Harm 
  In addition to damage suffered in fights, characters face peril from a variety of sources. These are 
  just a few of them. 
  Disease 
  Mummies don’t need to worry about mundane diseases as cultists and sorcerers do, but 
  supernatural plagues remain a threat to them all. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 188 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Disease Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: In action scenes, sick characters suffer the Sick Tilt (p. 331). 
  • 
  Moderate Disease: Outside action scenes, moderate sickness might impose a –1 or –2 
  penalty on actions that require concentration or stamina. 
  • 
  Grave Disease: Outside action scenes, grave diseases inflict a certain amount of damage 
  at specified time intervals, as determined by the Storyteller. The sick character’s player makes a 
  reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll to resist; success means no damage this time. 
  • 
  Recovery: Most diseases simply run their course over a certain amount of time. Others 
  require a minimum number of successful resistance rolls, require medical intervention, or merely 
  go into periodic remission as determined by the Storyteller. 
  • 
  Conditions: The Storyteller may represent short term illnesses with Conditions and long-
  term illnesses with Persistent Conditions, which earn players Beats whenever the illness causes 
  significant harm or inconvenience for the character. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Poison 
  Asp bites, scorpion stings and wounds from the blades of a murderous cultists are but a few 
  examples of how poison can end the lives of those who incur in the wrath of the Arisen. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 189 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Poison Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: In action scenes, poisoned characters suffer the Poisoned Tilt (p. xx). 
  • 
  Toxicity: Outside action scenes, the Storyteller assigns the poison a Toxicity rating. The 
  poisoned character suffers lethal damage equal to Toxicity. Mild poisons only inflict damage 
  once. More severe poisons may inflict damage every hour or even every turn for a period of time 
  determined by the Storyteller. 
  • 
  Resistance: The poisoned character’s player rolls Stamina + Resolve – Toxicity every 
  time the poison inflicts damage. Each success cancels one point of damage. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Drugs 
  
  At times used as rewards or tools of control over cultists, drugs can lead both to bliss or a sudden 
  demise. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 189 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Drug Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: In action scenes, drugged characters suffer the Drugged Tilt (p. 328). 
  • 
  Effects: Drugs can have a wide variety of effects, ranging from dice penalties to 
  imposing Conditions. Most drugs last for a scene, but some burn through a character’s system 
  more rapidly or linger for more time. 
  • 
  Resistance: A drugged character can shake off the effects temporarily by succeeding on 
  a reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll. Depending on the potency of the drug, this roll might be 
  required every hour, scene, or even turn. 
  Overdose 
  • 
  Poison: Characters who overdose on drugs treat the drug like a poison, with a Toxicity 
  somewhere between 3 and 7. The drug inflicts damage once per hour. 
  • 
  Duration: The overdose typically runs its course after (8 – Stamina) hours, though the 
  Storyteller may adjust that. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Electricity 
  Electric shocks inflict damage based on the strength of the current. 
  [THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE CHARTED] 
  Source Damage 
  Minor; wall socket 
  4B 
  Major; protective fence 
  6B 
  Severe; junction box 8B 
  Fatal; main line feed/subway rail 
  10B 
  [END OF CHART] 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 189 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Electricity Basics 
  • 
  Damage per Turn: Electricity inflicts damage every turn if the current is continuous. 
  • 
  Breaking Away: Characters in contact with a continuous electrical current must succeed 
  on a reflexive Strength roll to pull away. 
  • 
  No Armor: Worn armor provides no protection against electrocution. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  
  Extreme Environments 
  The human body is not built to withstand extreme heat, cold, air pressure, and other harsh 
  weather. Extreme environments are rated with a level from 1 to 4, depending on the severity of 
  the environment. While characters are exposed to these conditions, they suffer the level of the 
  environment as a dice penalty to all actions. After a number of hours equal to the character’s 
  Stamina, he takes bashing damage equal to the environment’s level once per hour. In the case of 
  a Level 3 exposure, the damage is lethal instead of bashing. Level 4 environments cause lethal 
  damage each turn after a number of turns equal to the character’s Stamina. 
  Any damage caused by levels 2-4 exposure leaves lasting marks, scars, and tissue damage. 
  Damage caused by extreme environments cannot heal until the character is back in a safe 
  environment. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 189 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Extreme Environment Basics 
  • 
  Penalty: Characters suffer a penalty to all actions equal to the environment’s level. 
  • 
  Level 1-3 Damage: After (Stamina) hours of exposure to level 1-3 environments, 
  characters suffer damage equal to the environment’s level for every hour. At levels 1-2, the 
  damage is bashing. At level 3, it’s lethal. 
  • 
  Level 4 Damage: After (Stamina) turns of exposure to level 4 environments, characters 
  suffer 4 lethal damage every turn. 
  • 
  No Healing: Characters cannot heal damage from extreme environments until they are no 
  longer in an extreme environment. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  [THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE CHARTED] 
  Environment Levels 
  Level Example Environs 
  1 
  Light snow, heavy storms; too cold to sleep safely; air pressure causes shortness of 
  breath; sweltering sun can cause first-degree burns 
  2 
  Heavy snow; cold causes physical pain and potential hypothermia; sun quickly causes 
  first-degree burns, can cause second-degree burns with time; minor radiation poisoning 
  3 
  Desert exposure; heat rapidly causing second-degree burns; moderate radiation exposure 
  4 
  Desert sandstorm, severe hurricane, tornado, tsunami 
  [END OF CHART] 
  Falling 
  Even as immortals with the power to cause earthquakes and call down meteors from the sky, 
  mummies still need to respect the laws of gravity no less than those of the Judges. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 190 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  
  Falling Basics 
  • 
  Damage: Falls of less than 30 yards/meters inflict one point of bashing damage per three 
  yards/meters fallen. Falls of 30 yards/meters or more inflict 10 lethal damage. 
  • 
  Armor: At the Storyteller’s discretion, armor may reduce damage from falls of less than 
  30 yards/meters. 
  • 
  Reduced Damage: If there’s a reasonable way for a character to slow her fall, she makes 
  a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics roll. Each success reduces damage from a fall of less than 30 
  yards/meters by one point. 
  • 
  Soft Landing: Landing in water or snow, or on another soft surface, may automatically 
  reduce damage from falls of less than 30 yards/meters at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Fire 
  Fire automatically inflicts lethal damage per turn of exposure (no attack roll is required). The 
  damage inflicted depends on both the size and intensity of the flames. 
  [THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE CHARTED] 
  Size of Fire Damage 
  Torch 1 
  Bonfire 
  2 
  Inferno 3 
  Heat of Fire Damage Modifier 
  Candle (first-degree burns) 
  — 
  Torch (second-degree burns) +1 
  Bunsen burner (third-degree burns) +2 
  Chemical fire/molten metal +3 
  [END OF CHART] 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 190 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Fire Basics 
  • 
  Combustion: Exposure to fire for longer than a turn ignites anything combustible on the 
  character; he continues to take full damage even after escaping the source of the flame. 
  • 
  Firefighting: Fighting a fire typically requires an instant action but no roll. At the 
  Storyteller’s discretion, an action might immediately put out the fire (e.g. diving into water) or 
  reduce its size by one level (e.g. stop, drop, and roll). 
  • 
  Armor: Most armor can block its general rating in fire damage automatically for a 
  number of turns equal to that rating. 
  
  • 
  Uncontrolled Blaze: If an area containing flammable objects is set on fire, it may 
  acquire the Inferno Environmental Tilt (p. XX). 
  [END OF TABLE] 
  Teamwork  
  When two or more characters work together on a single action of any kind, one person takes the 
  lead. He’s the primary actor, and his player assembles his dice pool as normal. Anyone assisting 
  him is a secondary actor, and rolls the same pool before the primary actor does.  
  Secondary Actor Roll Results  
  Success: +1 die to the primary actor’s roll for each success earned, cumulative for each 
  secondary actor’s success.  
  Exceptional Success: As success.  
  Failure: Primary actor receives no bonus dice.  
  Dramatic Failure: As failure, and −4 dice to the primary actor’s roll, cumulative for each 
  secondary actor’s dramatic failure. Primary actor must continue.  
  The primary actor’s roll results are as normal for the action the group undertakes.  
  More participants don’t always mean better results, however. Every action has a point of 
  diminishing returns at which too many cooks are in the kitchen. This number usually ranges from 
  three to six, depending on the action, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Excess participants’ rolls 
  grant no bonuses to the primary actor’s pool, and may levy penalties instead at the Storyteller’s 
  discretion.  
  Objects 
  Objects such as lead pipes, walls, and cars have three traits: Durability, Size, and Structure. 
  Mostly, these relate to how easy the object is to destroy.  
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 191 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Object Traits  
  • 
  Durability: How hard the object is to damage. Subtract Durability from any damage 
  inflicted on the object. Durability has no effect against attacks that inflict aggravated damage.  
  • 
  Size: How large the object is. Objects smaller than Size 1 can fit entirely in a person’s 
  palm.  
  • 
  Structure: An object’s Structure equals its Durability + Size.  
  Damaging Objects  
  • 
  Damage: Each point of damage removes a point of Structure. Objects do not differentiate 
  between bashing and lethal damage.  
  • 
  Reduced Functionality: Once it’s taken more damage than its Durability, anyone using 
  the object suffers a −1 die penalty.  
  • 
  Destruction: When an object’s Structure hits 0, it is destroyed.  
  
  • 
  Repair: Repairing objects is typically a Wits + Craft roll, with time interval and required 
  successes determined by the Storyteller. 
  [END TABLE] 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Object Traits 
  Durability 
  Material 
  1 
  Wood, hard plastic, thick glass 
  2 
  Stone, aluminum 
  3 
  Steel, iron 
  +1 
  per reinforced layer 
  Size 
  Object 
  1 
  Pistol 
  2 
  Crowbar, sawn-off shotgun 
  3 
  Assault rifle 
  5 
  Door 
  10 
  Sports car 
  15 
  SUV 
  [END TABLE] 
  Equipment 
  Equipment, tools, and technology help to solve problems. Having the right tool for the job can 
  mean the difference between life and death — and in Mummy: The Curse, the difference 
  between triumph and the wrath of the Judges. A list of sample equipment can be found in 
  Appendix 2: Equipment, starting on p. xx.  
  Equipment is divided up by the Skills it typically assists with. Mental equipment typically assists 
  with Mental Skills, for example. 
  [LAYOUT: PLEASE LAY THE FOLLOWING IN THE SAME STYLE OF THE 
  TABLE ON P. 191 OF CHANGELING: THE LOST SECOND EDITION.] 
  Equipment Traits 
  • 
  Availability: The minimum level of a relevant trait a character must have to acquire the 
  equipment with a single roll. Resources is the most often used trait, but other Social Merits or 
  Skills may work at the Storyteller’s discretion (e.g. Larceny to steal it). 
  • 
  Size, Durability, Structure: See Objects (p. XX). 
  • 
  Dice Bonus: The bonus the equipment adds to relevant actions. 
  • 
  Effect: Any special rules that apply to using the equipment. 
  [END TABLE] 
  
  Social Maneuvering  
  Social Maneuvering allows characters to resolve things socially instead of physically. This could 
  cover all kinds of social interactions, from arguments, to negotiations, to gaining someone’s 
  trust. Use social maneuvering when you want to get into the complexities of social interactions 
  and use dice to mediate the outcomes. It’s especially useful when characters are entering a party, 
  need to interact with political intrigue, or if there is just some social conflict that could be 
  represented in the mechanics. 
  In a social maneuver, a player first determines what they want their goal to be at the end of the 
  maneuver. Something like “gain the cult’s trust” or “convince the patron to support our cause”. 
  Once the Storyteller and player are in agreement that the goal makes sense, the social 
  maneuvering will begin with a series of challenges to overcome the other person’s resistance to 
  the characters ideas. It will create a back and forth conversation where the player opens “doors” 
  for further conversation leading forward. How often doors open is dependent on the impression a 
  character makes on the person they’re trying to socially sway. 
  Consent in Social Maneuvering 
  Whenever players are using social maneuvering mechanics, there should be some 
  discussion of consent involving their actions. There’s a fine line between 
  manipulating someone to do something they don’t want to do, and convincing 
  someone to change their mind about something. This can best be handled when 
  setting the goals of the exchange. For consent best practices, goals should never 
  involve coercing someone into something romantic or sexual, gaslighting someone, 
  or convincing someone to harm themselves or others.  
  Consider having a larger consent discussion at your table for what players are 
  willing and not willing to engage in. Different players will have different 
  boundaries with what is and isn’t okay. One on one discussions will get the most 
  honest answers, because there is less social pressure to go along with what everyone 
  else is comfortable with even if one person is uncomfortable. Even if you have a 
  consent discussion and everyone agrees, content in your game could come up and 
  someone could be surprised with their discomfort around it. Be ready to pause your 
  game and go a different direction with your content if this could happen, and check 
  in with that person after the game to see if they want to talk about it or not. 
  Goals 
  The first step of social maneuvering is to state the character’s goal. At this point the player 
  doesn’t have to know how they’re going to get to that end goal, but just to state it. This helps 
  direct the scene toward that goal, and so both the Storyteller and the player can collaborate in 
  getting the characters toward it or obstructing it as the dice dictate. 
  Goals are best when specific and clear, and something that can be accomplished in that scene. 
  Goals that are larger or that might take a lot of time (months for example) to work toward aren’t 
  appropriate for social maneuvering challenges.  
  Doors 
  
  The next step is to determine the scope of the challenge, which is represented through the 
  metaphor of Doors. At the beginning of the maneuver, all the Storyteller character’s Doors are 
  closed, and it’s the goal of the player’s character to figure out how to open them in order to make 
  them more amenable to whatever idea they’re presenting. Each Door is a resistance, and could 
  represent skepticism, mistrust, withdrawal, or ignorance. Think about what might be a mental or 
  emotional block for the Storyteller character preventing them from getting on board with 
  whatever the player character is selling. 
  Calculating Doors 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Baseline: The subject starts with the number of Doors equal to the lower of their Resolve 
  or Composure. 
  • 
  Breaking Point: If the stated goal would be a Breaking Point for the subject, and the 
  subject is aware of that fact, add two Doors. 
  • 
  Aspiration: If the stated goal is in opposition to the subject’s Aspiration, and the subject 
  is aware of that fact, add one Door. If the goal would clearly help with their Aspiration, remove 
  one Door. 
  • 
  Virtue: If the stated goal is in opposition to the subject’s Virtue or Balance, and they’re 
  aware of it, add one Door. 
  • 
  Adding Doors: If things change such that the Breaking Point, Aspiration, Balance, or 
  Virtue rules above apply during the Social maneuver, add Doors to the remaining total (two for 
  Breaking Point, one each for Aspiration, Balance, or Virtue). If your character goes back on her 
  word during the maneuver, add two Doors. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Breaking Points 
  Breaking Points are where an individual reaches a point where they’re at risk of 
  losing Integrity (or in a mummy’s case, Memory). For most mortals, this occurs 
  after another character has broken through a sufficient number of their Doors, or 
  after they commit an act that goes against their moral compass. Mortals must roll 
  Resolve + Composure (with a modifier or penalty based on the severity of the blow 
  to their Integrity) to see if they lose a dot of Integrity. Mummies must roll their 
  Memory in these cases, to withstand losing a dot of that same Trait (see Losing 
  Memory, on p. XX). For more on Breaking Points, see p. 73 of Chronicles of 
  Darkness. 
  Impression 
  The impression level is the Storyteller character’s impression of the player character. Depending 
  on how the subject regards the character is how many times they’ll be able to roll to open Doors. 
  It’s based on the past history between the characters, their previous interactions, the 
  circumstances of their meeting, and generally how the storyteller character feels about them. It 
  doesn’t have to be actions in the far past that influence Impression either… it can be at the 
  beginning of the social maneuver that the character can try to set the impression they want to 
  
  gain. The could buy the subject dinner, bring them a gift, support a cause they care about, or do 
  any other number of things they know the subject would look upon favorably. The Storyteller 
  has final decision on the impact these things have on their storyteller character, but they certainly 
  can’t hurt to try! 
  Impression level determines how frequently the player can roll to open the subject’s Doors. The 
  more they’re inclined toward your character, the more you can roll. If the impression is too 
  hostile, the player might not be able to roll at all. 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Impression  
  Time Per Roll 
  Perfect One Turn 
  Excellent 
  One Hour 
  Good One Day 
  Average 
  One Week 
  Hostile Cannot Roll 
  [END TABLE] 
  Adjusting Impression 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Favorable Circumstances: A comfortable environment, the right company, or similar 
  pleasant situations can raise the impression level by one. From Hostile to Average, for example. 
  • 
  Actions: Success on an appropriate action, like Wits + Socialize action to create the 
  perfect guest list for a party can raise the impression level by one. 
  • 
  Soft Leverage: A bribe, gift, or offer of service raises the impression level by one. 
  • 
  Vice Leverage: An offer that indulges the character’s vice can raise the impression by 
  one level. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Opening Doors 
  Depending upon the outcome of your impression intervals, characters can roll once per interval 
  to open Doors and move closer to their stated goal. The rolls themselves could be different each 
  time depending on how the character wants to approach open those Doors.  
  As a Storyteller, feel free to be creative with the dice pools in order to keep the challenges 
  dynamic as time goes on. Consider using contested or resisted rolls as well, depending on how 
  the storyteller character feels about each particular encounter. Most resisted actions or contested 
  rolls use either Resolve or Composure, or a combination of the two, but don’t let that stand as a 
  limit. Contested rolls don’t necessarily require a Resistance trait. For example, Wits might be 
  used to notice a lie, Strength to help a character stand up to threats, or Presence to protect and 
  maintain one’s reputation at a soiree. 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  
  Roll Results 
  • 
  Success: Open one Door. 
  • 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and open an additional Door. 
  • 
  Failure: Open no Doors. Subsequent actions as part of the social maneuver suffer a 
  cumulative one-die penalty. The Storyteller may choose to lower the impression level by one 
  step. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: The social maneuver fails utterly. No further rolls can be made. Any 
  attempt to achieve the same goal must start from scratch, likely with a worse impression. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Resolution 
  The outcome of the social maneuver is either success or failure. 
  Success 
  Once the character has opened all the Doors, the subject must act. Storyteller characters abide by 
  the intended goal and follow through as stated. How they feel afterwards might vary, but they 
  will always do what the player and the Storyteller agreed on. 
  Failure 
  A Social maneuvering attempt can fail utterly under the following circumstances: 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: The player rolls a dramatic failure on an attempt to open a Door. 
  • 
  Deception: The subject realizes the character is lying or being manipulative. This does 
  not apply if the subject is aware the character is trying to talk him into something; only if he feels 
  betrayed or conned. 
  • 
  Bad Impressions: The impression level reaches “hostile” and remains so for the rest of 
  the current story. The character can try again during the next story. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Investigation  
  When you want an investigation to play a large role in the tale, with entire scenes, chapters, or 
  even stories dedicated to a single mystery, you can use this system rather than boiling it down to 
  a single action. Characters uncover Clues they can use to benefit later actions the investigation 
  enables — for instance, learning that a particular Lifeless in the chronicle is after the ancient 
  relic in your character’s possession can later be used as a lure to trap their enemy.  
  Investigation Basics  
  • 
  No Hard Answers: The Storyteller doesn’t need to come up with all the potential Clues 
  and answers ahead of time. Letting the players fill some of them in themselves as they succeed in 
  finding Clues gets them invested in the outcome and creates “a-ha!” moments. If players put 
  Clues together to reach conclusions that don’t match the outcome the Storyteller had in mind, she 
  can consider changing it to match.  
  
  • 
  No Binary Rolls: Failing to find information crucial to the characters’ progress when 
  players fail rolls only slows the game down to no satisfying end. Instead, the Storyteller should 
  raise the stakes or introduce complications when a roll fails. Failure doesn’t mean the players 
  didn’t find a Clue — instead, it means they miss out on extra benefits success would have 
  afforded them and must adjust to new challenges.  
  • 
  Frame the Action: The Storyteller can intersperse Clue-finding actions with other events 
  in the story to keep the momentum going and give players opportunity to choose which set of 
  heightening stakes to address first.  
  • 
  Clues: Clues are a specialized type of equipment that represent objects, facts, and 
  deductions. They have elements that players can spend for benefits, either to solve a particular 
  mystery or to stockpile for other uses: leverage in social maneuvering, proof of supernatural 
  influences in someone’s life, etc.   
  Scope  
  First, the players declare a goal to accomplish via investigation. Decide how many total Clues 
  the characters need to uncover to achieve their goal. For smaller-scope investigations, this 
  usually falls between one and five Clues. For broad investigations spread out across the 
  chronicle, the total should equal at least half the number of planned chapters, and can range up to 
  twice the number of planned chapters in a strongly investigation-focused chronicle.  
  Interval  
  Each roll to find a Clue is an instant action, but takes some amount of time based on the kind of 
  action the players take. The Storyteller can add challenges and obstacles to these attempts to turn 
  simple die rolls into interesting scenes of their own. If they perform particularly well in these 
  efforts, the Storyteller can offer bonuses to the roll to uncover the Clue.  
  Uncovering Clues  
  Once the characters get where they need to be, they roll to uncover the Clue.  
  Action: Instant  
  Dice Pool: Varies. Players can use any pool that matches the action they take to uncover the 
  Clue. The Investigation Skill is appropriate to case a scene or search through files and evidence, 
  while other Mental Skills can be used to perform research, experiments, or autopsies.  
  The pool suffers a cumulative one-die penalty each time the same Skill is used again in an 
  investigation. However, if characters use teamwork to uncover Clues, only the primary actor 
  suffers this penalty, and only his roll contributes to further such penalties in the same 
  investigation.  
  Roll Results  
  Success: Clue is uncovered, with one element plus one more if the character has 4 or more dots 
  or a Specialty in the relevant Skill; each Specialty or Skill can only contribute to extra elements 
  once per character per investigation.  
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the Clue gains one bonus element; character gains a 
  beneficial Condition.  
  
  Failure: Clue is uncovered but incomplete: Its elements may only be used to uncover other 
  Clues.  
  Dramatic Failure: Clue is uncovered but tainted. Each accumulated tainted Clue forces the 
  player to ignore one success rolled on any future actions pertaining to the investigation; these are 
  cumulative, and all apply to each such roll. The Storyteller may impose a negative Condition as 
  well.  
  Clue Elements  
  Players can spend Clue elements to add a one-die bonus per element to any roll pertaining to the 
  investigation, including but not limited to rolls to uncover more Clues. A player can only spend 
  elements from one Clue at a time, or Clues equal to her character’s Investigation dots, whichever 
  is higher. She may spend any number of elements at a time from a single Clue.  
  Elements from tainted Clues impose a two-die penalty when spent instead of a bonus; however, 
  this is the only way to get rid of tainted Clues, since once all its elements are spent, it sheds its 
  tainted nature.  
  Uncovering the Truth  
  Players don’t need to roll to put their Clues together once the investigation is over. Once they 
  accumulate the requisite number of Clues specified by the investigation’s scope, the characters 
  learn the truth.  
  Players may choose to uncover the truth before they’ve accumulated enough Clues, as long as 
  they have at least one that isn’t tainted. If they do, they still learn the truth, but the Storyteller 
  introduces one major complication per Clue they fall short.  
  Clash of Wills  
  If two supernatural abilities act in opposition to each other, such as a supernatural sense contends 
  with supernatural concealment, players roll dice pools related to their characters’ powers.  
  The character backed by the most successes has her power activate as usual. The character with 
  fewer successes suffers his power’s nullification. A mummy’s Clash of Wills dice pool is their 
  Sekhem + character rating in the highest Pillar requirement for an Affinity or their Utterance 
  level (see “Sekhem Effects,” p. XX).  
  Ties reroll until one character has accrued more successes than all others. The effect invoked by 
  that character wins out and resolves as usual, while all others fail. The victory of one power in a 
  clash does not mean the immediate cancellation of the others, save in cases where only one 
  power can endure (such as competing for mental control).  
  Characters can spend Willpower to bolster the contested roll, but only if they are physically 
  present and aware that powers are clashing. Certain abilities, such as those with longer durations, 
  are more enduring in a clash.  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Duration 
  Additional Die 
  Daylong (or nightlong) 
  +1  
  Weeklong 
  +2  
  
  Monthlong 
  +3  
  A year or longer 
  +4 
  [END TABLE] 
  Cults 
  Cults are an extension of the Arisen, just as the Arisen are an extension of their Judge. They are 
  the mummy’s eyes, ears, and fists, even when she lies in henet.  
  A mummy always rules a cult, but their relationship is more symbiotic than the name implies. 
  Cults provide mummies protection, access to the current era’s sources of power, and the 
  languages and etiquettes necessary to adapt to changing times. In return, mummies provide 
  wealth, power and purpose that exists well beyond a cultist’s lifetime.  
  Cult Traits 
  Cults are organizations of individuals called to serve a mummy and their agenda. They operate 
  not only as individual characters, but as a unified force providing mummies with knowledge and 
  access. Cults are represented with game terms, just like a character. 
  Attributes 
  Cults don’t use the Attributes individual characters use. Instead, they use two Attributes: Reach 
  and Grasp. These Attributes provide a highly abstracted summary of the cult’s qualities and how 
  it prefers to act, no matter what era the game is currently set.  
  Reach measures a cult’s presence and spread. Cults with low Reach prefer to stay in one city or 
  region, and cults with high Reach have agents all over the world, and perhaps even beyond. 
  Reach is used to take legal or socially acceptable actions. These include business acquisitions, 
  access to private events and politically important figures, and expedited means of travel. 
  Grasp measures a cult’s ruthlessness. Cults with low Grasp are hesitant to do a mummy’s dirty 
  work, and cults with high Grasp will do whatever it takes to achieve their master’s will, laws and 
  morals be damned. Grasp is used for illegal or socially unacceptable actions. These include 
  falsely incriminating someone, acquiring a contraband trade route, or committing an act of mass 
  violence.  
  Cult Attributes 
  • 
  Rating: Attributes are rated from 1-5 dots. Cults with high Dominance (p. XX) may have 
  Attributes rated at 6 or more dots.  
  • 
  Use in Actions: Most cult actions use Attribute + Dominance as their dice pool.      
  Merits 
  Merits represent the collective abilities of the cult. They aren’t a generalized statement of the 
  capabilities of every single member. A cult with four dots in Status (Federal Government) 
  doesn’t solely consist of members a mere heartbeat away from the president’s ear but may 
  instead represent a powerful political front group, or a very influential politician who pays the 
  cult tribute.  
  Every cult provides the Scorpion Cult Initiation Merit (p. XX) in exchange for membership. 
  
  Cult Merits 
  • 
  Rating: Merits are rated from 1-5 dots.  
  • 
  Not a Cult Action: Using a Merit is not a cult action, and not subject to the limitations of 
  cult actions (p. XX).  
  • 
  Dice Pool: Merits with the Cult tag have an entry denoting what dice pool, if any, to roll.    
  Doctrines 
  Doctrines are the goals, ideals, and orders that define the cult’s identity. Acting in accordance 
  with a cult’s Doctrine grants them Cult Beats, which allows players to further entrench their 
  power into the world.   
  Their power has a price. Even the most compartmentalized Conspiracy must hold to their 
  Doctrine, especially ones that a Judge directly grants. They are difficult to change without ceding 
  power. Violating them leads to mistrust and distress in a cult. Violating a Judge’s Doctrine can 
  also lead to the presence of emanations and avatars (p. XX). 
  Doctrines 
  • 
  Pillars of Faith: Cults have up to three Doctrines. Two are phrased as active tenants of 
  the cult’s faith. One is the Judge’s Doctrine, phrased a Judge’s goal or agenda.  
  • 
  Cult Beats: At the end of the chapter, for every Doctrine the cult has advanced or 
  actively lived by, the cult takes a Cult Beat. The entire group decides whether the cult has 
  advanced its Doctrines.   
  • 
  Redefining Doctrines: The cult may sacrifice a dot of Dominance to re-write one of their 
  Doctrines. Doctrines may also be redefined in the wake of a mutiny (p. XX). When a Judge’s 
  Doctrine is redefined, it is phrased as a new goal or agenda of the Judge and must continue to be 
  appropriate to the Judge the cult serves.   
  • 
  Broken Doctrines: If a cult action (p. XX), a player’s character, or a Storyteller 
  character with Scorpion Cult Initiation •••+ openly violates one or more Doctrines, the cult gains 
  the Shaken Faith condition.   
  • 
  Wrath of the Judges: Violating a Judge’s Doctrine can serve as a justification for an 
  emanation (p. XX), if a suitable benbenet candidate exists to anchor it. This emanation usually 
  focuses on punishing the transgression but may continue and expand its purpose after the 
  transgression is punished. This may happen even if the rest of the cult is unaware of the 
  violation.   
  Virtue and Vice 
  Virtues and Vices are how a cult acts when it lives out its Doctrines. A cult’s Virtue represents 
  its best quality, or what drives it to pursue its goals. A cult’s Vice represents its worst quality, or 
  indulgences that hold it back from fulfilling its orders. 
  Virtue and Vice 
  • 
  Virtue: Fulfill Virtue: All participating cultists regain all Willpower, twice per Chapter.  
  • 
  Vice: Fulfill Vice: All participating cultists regain 1 Willpower, once per Scene.  
  Fidelity 
  
  Instead of Health, a cult has Fidelity, calculated by adding 5 + Lowest of Reach or Grasp. This 
  measures a cult’s loyalty, morale, and overall well-being. Damaged Fidelity represents cultists 
  losing faith, questioning the truth behind its Doctrines, or being too injured to serve.  
  Dominance 
  Dominance represents the collective power a cult wields in a mundane and supernatural sense. 
  This trait fluctuates throughout the ages, especially when a cult’s mummy lies in repose.  
  Dominance ranges from 1 to 10 dots, but cults with more than five Dominance are rare. 
  Maintaining high Dominance requires immense time and attention, made more difficult by their 
  master’s intermittent sleep. Cults that push these limits are either possessed with an extraordinary 
  zeal or led by a mummy that refuses to return to slumber.  
  Mechanically, Dominance determines the amount of actions a cult can safely attempt. Cults can 
  push past this limit at the risk of their cohesion. A cult that takes actions beyond their Dominance 
  limit takes 1 lethal damage for every roll made to generate Effort.  
  Dominance 
  • 
  Cult Actions: This indicates how many cult actions (p. XX) the cult can undertake 
  during a story.  
  • 
  Task Limits: This indicates how many Tasks (p. XX) a cult action can comprise.  
  • 
  Attribute Maximum: This indicates the maximum value of a cult’s Attributes (p. XX).  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Dominance 
  Cult Actions Task Limits 
  Attribute Maximum 
  1 
  1 
  3 
  5 
  2 
  1 
  3 
  5 
  3 
  2 
  5 
  7 
  4 
  2 
  5 
  7 
  5 
  3 
  7 
  9 
  6 
  3 
  7 
  9 
  7 
  4 
  9 
  12 
  8 
  4 
  9 
  12 
  9 
  5 
  9 
  15 
  10 
  5  
  10 
  15 
  Cult Actions 
  Cult actions are projects a mummy tasks his followers to achieve an outcome he couldn’t do 
  alone. They are always long-term projects. Opposed rolls or an activation roll for a cult Merit 
  never counts as a cult action.  
  
  Cult actions span time and space and is the abstract representation of cultists doing multiple 
  things at once to achieve their goal. It is centered on gathering Effort as cultists complete smaller 
  steps toward the action’s completion.  
  When a cult engages in a cult action, they bring the full power and resources of the cult to bear 
  on the situation. This is usually in accordance with the cult’s Doctrines (p. XX).  
  Step One: Determine Desired Outcome 
  The mummy must decide what his cult should accomplish. This is a clear, stated goal, such as 
  “Get me an audience with the Senator,” Take ownership of the Markhaus Building,” or “make a 
  film that promotes Iremite virtue.” 
  Step Two: Determine Complexity 
  Actions that one character could complete in a scene or two, such as convincing a museum 
  curator to set up a private tour, is relatively simple. More dramatic tasks, like constructing a 
  temple to a Judge in the middle of Times Square, are far more complex.  
  Complexity 
  • 
  Rating: Along with player input, the Storyteller sets the action’s Complexity. 
  Complexity is rated between 1 and 10.  
  Step Three: Determine Tasks 
  The cult determines how it will achieve its goal using several steps equal to the goal’s 
  Complexity. If the cult cannot think of any means to achieve their goal, the cult may need to use 
  this cult action to gather information on tackling the goal as a first step. If the goal has more 
  Tasks than a cult’s Task limit, the goal may need to be broken down into smaller, individual cult 
  actions.  
  Tasks 
  • 
  Defining Tasks: Determine several Tasks equal to the goal’s Complexity. 
  Step Four: Establish Structure 
  With its steps defined, the cult must now translate the first Task into game mechanics. Along 
  with the Storyteller, the cult must determine how long the tasks will take in the world of the 
  game, and whether they are contested. The cult must determine the necessary dice pool for the 
  task. Finally, the cult must decide the order of the Tasks they take.  
  A Task is never an extended action, as a cult action is already a kind of extended action.  
  Structure 
  For each Task, determine the following:  
  • 
  Action: Simple or contested.  
  • 
  Time Required: Determined by Storyteller. Tasks should at least take one hour.  
  • 
  Task Order: Based on the described Tasks, determine which, if any, must be completed 
  first.  
  
  • 
  Dice Pool: Default: (relevant cult Attribute) + Dominance. If a player or Storyteller 
  character leads the task, they may use a dice pool relevant to the task. In a contested roll, the 
  Storyteller determines the opposing dice pool.  
  Step Five: Generate Effort 
  Cults perform Tasks to generate Effort. When a cult successfully completes a Task, they gain at 
  least one Effort point to represent their progress. Failed Tasks do not provide Effort, but instead 
  generate complications that arise when the cult action resolves.  
  Generate Effort 
  Action: Determined by Task.  
  Dice Pool: Determined by Task.  
  Suggested Modifiers: Observed by authorities (−2), interference from rival cult (−3), thorough 
  planning (+1), limited timeframe (−2), cult has specialists in completing Task (+1), Task is a 
  cultist Breaking Point (−1 to −4), working with a mummy or other high ranking cultists (+3). 
  Success: The cult generates a point of Effort.  
  Exceptional Success: The cult generates two points of Effort and creates a Condition relevant to 
  the Task.  
  Failure: The cult generates no Effort. The Storyteller applies a Complication immediately. If the 
  Task was a prerequisite for other Tasks, those future Tasks suffer a −2 penalty.   
  Dramatic Failure: As failure, and the cult takes a negative Condition of the Storyteller’s choice. 
  If the Task was a prerequisite for other Tasks, the cult lowers its Task limit (p. XX) by 1 for this 
  cult action.  
  Effort 
  • 
  Exclusive: Effort can only apply to the cult action for which it was generated. Effort lasts 
  until the end of the story.  
  • 
  Complete Action: If the cult accumulates Effort for the scale of the project, they have 
  successfully completed the cult action.  
  • 
  Spending Effort: A character may spend Effort, one for one, to gain temporary dots of a 
  Social Merit related to the cult action. These temporary dots last for a chapter.  
  Step Six: Repeat 
  Once the Task is completed, repeat steps Four and Five for any remaining Tasks.  
  Step Seven: Resolve Action 
  When a cult resolves all its Tasks, the cult action finishes. Cult actions always succeed unless 
  they are abandoned. This step determines the cost of the outcome and any lingering fallout of the 
  cult’s activities.  
  Resolve Action 
  • 
  Effort: If the cult generated enough Effort equal to the action’s Complexity, the cult 
  action succeeds with no further Complications.  
  
  • 
  Shortfall: For every point of Effort short of the action’s Complexity, the cult action adds 
  a number of Complications to make up the difference.  
  Example Complications 
  • 
  The cult makes an enemy of someone negatively affected by the cult action.  
  • 
  The cult action severely taxes the cult’s Fidelity. The cult suffers 2 lethal damage.  
  • 
  The cult draws the attention of a hostile organization.  
  • 
  The cult action has its intended outcome, but with unforeseen side effects. The cult gains 
  a negative Condition.  
  Playing with Multiple Cults 
  Mummy: The Curse supports different group playstyles. While one group may play an Arisen 
  and her most important cultists, another may play mummies with their own individual cults.  
  Assisting in Cult Actions 
  When a player undertakes a cult action, other players with cults may assist him in fulfilling the 
  cult action’s Tasks. Cults aiding each other are uncommon, but not impossible. While individual 
  cults may have incompatible structures and surface worldviews, all Arisen serve the Judges. 
  Cults help each other in many ways. Two Enterprise cults can engage in a temporary partnership, 
  creating a subsidiary that purchases a plot of land important to the Lifeweb. A Conspiracy can 
  provide a Tribe with the unclassified information necessary to blackmail a politician. Tribes can 
  lend translators and occult experts to help decipher ancient texts than an Enterprise or 
  Conspiracy would find difficult to read.  
  However, no matter how friendly a meret’s cults might be with each other, assisting in each 
  other’s plots is always a risk. A friend today may not stay one after a Descent, and cults that help 
  each other are open to the consequences of each other’s actions.  
  Cult Action Assistance 
  • 
  A Helping Hand: At the Storyteller’s discretion, cults may help other cults with Tasks 
  during another player’s cult action.  
  • 
  What Friendship Provides: During Step Five (p. XX) of a cult action, the assisting 
  player describes how his cult performs a relevant activity to aid the Task. If the Storyteller and 
  player enacting the cult action approve, the Task’s dice pool receives a +2 bonus.  
  • 
  Cult Vulnerability: Cults that aid another’s cult action may have the action’s 
  Complications inflicted upon them.  
  • 
  Assistance Limit: Cults may only aid in a number of Tasks equivalent to their 
  Dominance.  
  Cult Versus Cult 
  When cults encounter each other, they may fall into conflict. Some find their ideological 
  differences overcome their base similarities, or they are urged by their masters to battle each 
  other as a proxy war over old grudges.  
  
  A cult war is rarely one resolved in a single, dramatic battle. Cult wars can last for centuries and 
  may be fought long after anyone remembers why it began. They are also more than street fights. 
  A mummy may order her cult to subvert her rival’s, so he wakes from henet in an abandoned 
  tomb. Another may send his cultists to thwart another cult from obtaining a vessel.  
  Waging war on a cult or similar organization is a cult action with no set Complexity. Every point 
  of Effort generated by the action deals 1 lethal damage to the cult’s Fidelity. The war continues 
  until one cult is destroyed, or one of the mummies leading the cult decides to stop fighting. If a 
  cult action generates enough Effort equal to the enemy cult’s Fidelity, the action immediately 
  incites a mutiny in the enemy’s cult (p. XX).  
  Unlike regular cult actions, every Task in a war cult action is contested between rival cults, and 
  only the winner of the roll inflicts the Effort generated as damage.  
  Cult wars are dangerous. Not only are they distractions from a mummy’s greater task, the pain 
  and sadness they create open the door for the Arisen’s enemies to seduce their cultists away from 
  them.  
  Harm, Healing, and Mutiny 
  Fidelity damage represents more than bruises and scrapes. Bashing damage denotes a slipping of 
  loyalty and faith as personal cultist agendas rise to the surface. Lethal damage represents a 
  significant blow to loyalty, with cultists whispering amongst each other about their master and 
  frustrations towards their leaders. Aggravated damage serves as members fleeing the cult, or 
  outright cursing their master for all to hear.  
  These rifts are slow to heal, especially if the mummy does not have the Memory to ease their 
  concerns. Fidelity recovers at the following rate:  
  • 
  Bashing: One point per week.  
  • 
  Lethal: One point per two weeks.  
  • 
  Aggravated: One point per month.  
  When a cult’s Fidelity is filled with lethal points, it enters a mutiny, a time when the other most 
  influential members of a cult revolt against the mummy in hopes of enacting change. The 
  mummy must act quickly, or else the cult will fall apart. The mummy normally has two options 
  for ending mutiny:  
  • 
  Punish: The mummy demonstrates the fate of those who would dare oppose him. It 
  makes cultists think twice about crossing the mummy, even when they would otherwise be 
  ruthless. The cult permanently loses a dot of Grasp but clears all damage from Fidelity.  
  • 
  Banish: The mummy exiles the mutineers from the cult, stripping them of status and 
  power. This reduction of members interrupts the cult’s chain of command, reducing their utility. 
  The cult permanently loses a dot or Reach but clears all damage from Fidelity.  
  At Memory 8 or above (p. XX), the mummy receives a third option:  
  • 
  Mediate: Even the most headstrong Arisen has the knowledge of millennia, and the 
  mummy uses it to ease the rift in the cult. It won’t solve everything, but the cult maintains its 
  strength. Only half of the cult’s Fidelity is cleared, but the cult loses neither Reach nor Grasp.  
  
  If a mummy avoids every option or lies in henet as his cult wallows in mutiny, the cult implodes. 
  The cult loses the ability to make cult actions and takes 1 aggravated damage. If the mutiny 
  continues, the cult takes 1 aggravated damage a day as cultists abandon the mummy and turn the 
  cult’s trappings to their own purposes. When the Fidelity track is filled with aggravated damage, 
  the cult becomes an independent entity. The mummy retains cult Merit dots as per Sanctity of 
  Merits but loses all dots of Dominance. The cult must be built anew. The mummy’s former cult 
  still exists in the world, either as a sorcerer’s cult, or a more mundane Mystery Cult. Perhaps one 
  day, the mummy’s new cult must do battle with the old one.  
  Cult Conditions 
  Cult Conditions represent factors affecting the entire organization. They are gained from the 
  Complications of cult actions (p. XX), when the cult’s Fidelity is filled with damage, or when an 
  individual’s actions have repercussions affecting the entire cult. The following conditions are a 
  very small sample to be used as a guide to improvising Conditions appropriate for the story.  
  [THIS IS A CONDITION] 
  Shaken Faith (Persistent) 
  The cult is troubled, and questions everything it believes in.  
  Effects 
  • 
  Whenever cult members fulfill the cult’s Virtue, they only regain a single point of 
  Willpower.  
  • 
  At the start of each chapter, the Storyteller rolls (10 – Dominance) and keeps any 
  successes. When she accumulates 10 successes, replace this condition with the Heresy condition. 
  If another action inflicts this condition a second (or subsequent) time, immediately replace it 
  with the Heresy condition.  
  Possible Sources 
  • 
  The cult learns that one of its leaders violated a Doctrine.   
  • 
  The cult’s Fidelity track is filled with bashing damage.  
  Resolution 
  • 
  The cult gains a dot of Dominance. 
  • 
  The problem worsens, and the cult gains the Heresy Condition.  
  [END CONDITION] 
  [THIS IS A CONDITION] 
  Heresy (Persistent) 
  A contradictory, potentially blasphemous belief spreads in the cult.  
  Effects 
  • 
  The cult gains a temporary Doctrine describing their specific heresy. When the cult 
  indulges in the heresy and uses it to gain a Cult Beat, the Storyteller notes it.  
  
  • 
  All cult action tasks become contested actions with a dice pool of (Attribute + 
  Dominance) versus (the number of Cult Beats generated from the heretical Doctrine). If the 
  Heresy wins, it receives Effort instead of the cult action. If the Heresy has more Effort than the 
  cult action after all tasks are resolved, the Storyteller replaces one of the cult’s Doctrines with the 
  Heresy.  
  Possible Sources 
  • 
  The cult’s Fidelity track fills with aggravated damage.  
  • 
  The Shaken Faith condition worsens.  
  • 
  The cult experiences a supernatural epiphany without the characters present.  
  Resolution 
  • 
  The cult falls into mutiny.  
  • 
  The heretical faction of the cult is destroyed.  
  • 
  The heresy is adopted as a new Doctrine.  
  Beat 
  • 
  The cult advances the heretical Doctrine.  
  [END CONDITION]   
  The Descent 
  The core of Mummy is the Descent. It’s the period in which the character is active — a state of 
  being the Arisen call “Semektet.” When first summoned, mummies are at their mightiest; 
  brimming with occult life force, the Deathless is inhuman, hideous and unstoppable. Yet, the 
  bright fire within burns out as the world is fighting back against the effort of enforcing the 
  Judges’ will onto this world.  
  Mummy: The Curse is an occult horror game, and horror is always about powerlessness. To be 
  Arisen is to constantly feel the sand draining from the soul’s hourglass, time dripping away like 
  blood leaking from a slow belly wound. Delay is the enemy, and it is constantly growing 
  stronger. Yet at the same time, even as her sheer might drops, the mummy’s freedom increases 
  — and it is the measure of the Arisen’s changing power. It’s indirect, but there’s a tension 
  between Sekhem (necessary for existing as an immortal avenger) and Memory (the personal, 
  human goals that even the sorcerers of Irem could not erase from their servants’ souls). As 
  Sekhem drops, the body operates as flesh and blood again, and with a human appearance come 
  the complications of dealing with people as a person. These complications are often welcome, 
  even when they interfere with the will of the gods.  
  The longer the mummy is awake, then, the more latitude she has in her actions. This is fortunate, 
  because if her resurrection is due to more than an incautious urchin sneaking into her tomb, she’s 
  going to need to adapt and improvise to navigate a strange and dangerous realm. The central 
  conflict of a mummy’s existence is that the more she can do, the less time she has. 
  Sekhem Drops 
  The Arisen’s Sekhem drops constantly. When it’s high, she’s mighty. When it’s low, she’s 
  somewhat less so. When it’s out, she’s back in storage. 
  
  Some actions immediately drop a mummy’s Sekhem by a dot, but this is rare. Returning to the 
  world after dying from a surfeit of aggravated damage reduces Sekhem by a dot. Certain other 
  external forces can force these rapid decreases, as well. Perhaps the most common form of 
  Sekhem drop is self-inflicted.  
  When an Arisen fulfills his first purpose, he loses one dot of Sekhem immediately. After the first 
  drop, it’s a race against the clock to fulfill one’s duty as time slips like sand running one’s 
  fingers. The only way he can reliably slow his accelerated Descent is by draining relics. 
  Mummies can, if they wish, pillage their own Sekhem. Dropping one dot of Sekhem restores an 
  Arisen’s Willpower points to their maximum. It means converting the inhuman, impersonal 
  might of the Rite’s energy into selfish, personal motivation. It’s more common in Arisen with 
  high Memory, but anyone with a Sekhem rating can do it. 
  As with so many Descent decisions, this one involves a bit of a Catch-22. If one has many 
  Sekhem dots, burning one for Willpower probably won’t be necessary. When the Arisen is worn 
  down and needs any advantage she can beg, borrow, or steal, that’s when a sudden burst of 
  Willpower can be the difference between success and humiliating failure — but that’s also when 
  Sekhem is a lot scarcer and more valuable. Horror is helplessness, after all.  
  How Does it Feel? 
  Sekhem dots are a way to convey the urgency of time and part of the game. The Arisen 
  themselves don’t speak of “dots” any more than normal people speak of “having dots in the 
  Occult Skill,” or “numbers of health points remaining” when at the hospital. 
  Mummies can feel the Sekhem flowing through them, and the amount affects both the Arisen’s 
  demeanor and power.  They know when it’s strong, they know when it’s weak, and they know 
  when it changes. Different mummies feel the force differently, depending on who they were and 
  who their Judge is. A common description likens it to a smooth, warm encasement that seeps 
  down into their flesh and even extends outward during Utterances and the use of Pillars. As it 
  fades, they feel colder, stiffer, and clumsier.  
  At dots 9 and 10, they can’t feel much else: Before the restoration of the sahu’s nerve tissue, 
  everything they sense is mediated through their wrappings of occult energy. With high Sekhem, 
  colors seem sharper and sounds are crisply separate. As it drops, the world looks gray, and 
  conversations are still clear but less…musical. The sense of touch is an abstract thing at high 
  Sekhem, but a sensual treat at dots 6 to 8, slowly numbing to a mundane and unexciting 
  impression at Sekhem 3 to 5. At Sekhem 1 or 2, mummies aren’t numb, they just don’t take 
  much pleasure from touching most things. 
  A Sekhem drop is a shock, like having a hunk of hair suddenly ripped out. A Descent roll is like 
  having it pulled out slowly, one hair at a time. If the roll fails, that chill recedes. If the roll 
  succeeds, the loss crescendos in an icy convulsion, leaving the mummy just a bit more dead. 
  A reset, on the other hand, is usually accompanied by a brief, warm relaxation. It’s not as intense 
  as a drop or even a Descent roll, but it is physically perceptible. 
  Thus, every mummy knows when she is on the right path… or the wrong one. 
  Descent Rolls 
  An Arisen’s struggle doesn’t end with the trials in Duat. A mummy’s time is forever fleeting, 
  and she will lose Sekhem overtime by the Descent rolls. It’s the reminder that time is limited 
  
  even for an immortal being, and when the dice are in the player’s hands, it’s the one roll they’ll 
  want to fail. 
  When the time comes (as determined by one’s Sekhem dots, shown on the chart below), the 
  player rolls a pool of dice equal to the Arisen’s current Sekhem rating. If she succeeds, the 
  Arisen loses a dot of Sekhem. So, for example, if one is at Sekhem 10, one rolls 10 dice for the 
  Descent roll. If even one die comes up 8+, the Arisen descends to Sekhem 9. The higher one’s 
  Sekhem dots are, the odds of failing a Descent roll aren’t great, but when one’s clinging on at the 
  lower dots of Sekhem 1 or 2, one can delay the inevitable for quite a while.  
  Descent rolls are a big deal, and it’s up to the individual Storyteller do decide how they wish to 
  handle them. Some will have the players resolve the roll at the end of the scene, while others will 
  stop the game until the roll is made to emphasize the centrality of the deed and the immediacy of 
  the response. Neither’s right nor wrong; they both work fine, and you can choose to do 
  whichever feels appropriate at the time. Either way, the results of the roll will resolve at scene’s 
  end. An Arisen shouldn’t drop dead the mid-fight because they were scheduled for a Descent 
  roll. 
  The base schedule for Descent rolls is as follows: 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Sekhem 
  When You Make a Descent Roll 
  Failing the Roll Adds 
  10 
  After a scene (12 hours) 
  One scene (12 hours) 
  9 
  After two scenes (One day) One scene (12 hours) 
  8 
  After three scenes (Two days) 
  Two scenes (One day) 
  7 
  After a chapter (Five days) 
  Two scenes (One day) 
  6 
  After a chapter (10 days) 
  Three scenes (Two days) 
  5 
  After two chapters (20 days) Three scenes (Three days) 
  4 
  After three chapters (40 days) One chapter (Five days) 
  3 
  After a story (60 days) 
  One chapter (10 days) 
  2 
  After two stories (100 days) Two chapters (20 days) 
  1 
  After a chronicle (160 days) One story (40 days)  
  [END TABLE] 
  Players can’t spend Willpower on a Descent roll or give it an equipment bonus, except for a few 
  certain rolls (see below). Some relics might improve the odds a little by penalizing the pool, but 
  they’re rare and coveted, if the Storyteller decides they exist at all.  
  Ways exist, however, to alter the schedule (see Slowing Down the Loss of Sekhem on p. XX). 
  The Descent Agenda  
  The mummy normally starts with the maximum dots in Sekhem, 10. Based on the circumstances 
  of her awakening, she might lose a dot immediately; but by and large, players are going to make 
  Descent rolls to see if their Arisen are going away or sticking around.  
  
  Players make Descent rolls depending on the Arisen’s current Sekhem rating. Other factors like 
  how long she’s lingered there, and whether or not she’s acting within the parameters of her 
  inhuman mission also change when the Arisen has to make a Descent roll.  
  High Sekhem is hard to maintain and burns out fast. Everything else being equal, a mummy with 
  Sekhem 8 is going to risk Descent far more often than one at Sekhem 4, simply because the high-
  Sekhem mummy has more to lose. 
  The Descent agenda is based on two scales. One’s very concrete: Days and hours and weeks. 
  One’s very loose, subject to heavy Storyteller interpretation and oriented toward scenes, stories, 
  and chronicles (See the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, p. XX). The Storyteller has the 
  freedom to switch back and forth freely between those scales; not to capriciously torment 
  players, but in order to maintain the sense of urgency. The unexpected Descent rolls are the ones 
  that arise from player choices, like the decision to tell a Judge to go get stuffed, or the decision to 
  raise one’s Memory rating. Successfully failing a provoked Descent roll means the roll had no 
  impact on your Descent or Sekhem rating. 
  There are a few things a mummy must not do to avoid receiving a provoked Descent roll. The 
  biggest risk is any behavior that counters the Arisen’s purpose — being their own person. One 
  can be a pretty evil in the eyes of mortals without imperiling one’s status in Duat.  
  If an Arisen character does one of the following, they face a Descent roll right away: 
  • 
  Blasphemes the gods of Irem, or lets someone else do so in her presence uncorrected.* 
  • 
  Creates a lasting account of her deeds that gives glory to herself alone. 
  • 
  Destroys a relic in order to cannibalize its Sekhem. 
  • 
  Dramatically fails any non-kepher action that uses the mummy’s Sekhem rating as a dice 
  pool.* 
  • 
  Increasing one’s Memory rating by a dot. 
  • 
  Interacting with a Lifeless without obvious enmity.* 
  • 
  Mocking or decrying her Judge — especially by name. 
  • 
  Profanes the tomb of a fellow Arisen who serves her Judge. 
  • 
  Verbally professes her highest love to another, be it a mortal or supernatural being who’s 
  not serving the Judges, using the language of Irem. 
  • 
  Telling someone her own true name to any outsider.  
  * A player can spend a Willpower point to subtract three dice from the pool for this Descent roll. 
  Falling Up 
  Though many will feel relief over failing a Descent roll, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to 
  worry about anymore. 
  When you fail your Descent roll at any given Sekhem rating, it’s as though the gods and the 
  Judges are permitting your existence — You’ve earned your continuance active service.  
  When you attempt your next scheduled Descent roll at the end of your bonus time, the number of 
  dice rolled goes up by +1. This pattern continues with each continuous failure, to a maximum of 
  
  10 dice, thus making it more likely the roll succeeds. When you finally succeed and fall forward 
  into your new, lower Sekhem rating, all penalties disappear. The Judges have their own agenda, 
  and letting one Arisen run around for too long is dangerous. You can see the decreased success 
  threshold as the Judge’s patience running out, and the realization that cannot risk a mummy 
  uncovering more memories and deciding to leave their servitude.  
  Note that these cumulative penalties do not apply to Descent rolls caused by the player or 
  Storyteller, only those scheduled as per the Descent table (see above). Likewise, resets have no 
  impact on these penalties one way or the other. 
  Once one drops to Sekhem 5, an Arisen’s got two chapters of game time to enjoy access to Level 
  Five Utterance effects before a Descent roll imperils them. But when that time’s up, the player 
  has to roll her five dice. If she gets a success, her Arisen drops to Sekhem 4. If she fails the roll, 
  her mummy remains at Sekhem 5 for three more scenes.  
  Remaining at a particular rating of Sekhem for a longer time does not make the character 
  stronger than a mummy who’s just recently reached the same number of dots. They will both 
  have to roll the same number of dice at their next Descent roll. 
  Slowing the Loss of Sekhem 
  An Arisen is a tool to serve his chosen Judge, so by advancing his Judges’ agenda, they might 
  slow the Sekhem loss. The Rite of Return is a complex framework, custom-tailored to an agenda. 
  Arisen who serve their Judge unquestionably hemorrhages less Sekhem than those who resist 
  and strain against their purpose.  
  A reset won’t take an Arisen back to Sekhem 10, it resets the time until the next Descent roll.  
  For example, assume an Arisen’s at Sekhem 3 and has lingered there for two stories. In the 
  course of her duties, she comes across a greater Amkhat and destroys it. Pleased with her actions, 
  her Judge presents her with a reward, and her countdown at Sekhem 3 resets. Instead of facing a 
  roll at the end of the story, it’s delayed back out to two stories. If a mummy can just find enough 
  greater Amkhata to slay, she just might stay alive indefinitely.  
  Resets buy more time at the lower values of Sekhem, which is when an Arisen’s at her weakest 
  and therefore least able to earn a reset. Note that individual Judges also have personal agendas. 
  The Arisen who serve them might find renewal through certain other, narrower imperatives. 
  Acting in accordance to your Judge can grant you Sekhem, or other rewards. At the Storyteller’s 
  discretion, they can choose to gift players with a reset for acting accordingly.  
  Beyond the immediate concerns of specific Judges, the following actions are general ones not 
  tied to a particular Judge and might potentially receive a reset: 
  • 
  Constructing a monument to the glory of Irem that has the potential to last 1,000 years. 
  • 
  Destroying a powerful enemy of the Judges, such as a flawed immortal, or one of the 
  Shuankhsen. The Storyteller can decide if it’s only the mummy who dealt the killing blow or 
  contributed the most who wins the reset when there are multiple characters in combat. 
  • 
  Exacts a horrifying revenge on someone who has violated her tomb. Not applicable 
  during temporary arisings that begin with such a violation. 
  
  • 
  Dedicating the killing of an enemy in front of witnesses and addressing her Judge by their 
  name.  
  • 
  Saves the unlife of a fellow mummy who serves the same Judge. The list of 
  commendable behaviors is a little bit shorter than those for which one will be punished, but the 
  Judges tend to prefer driving with the lash to leading with a promise.  
  Sybaris 
  Mummies are both alive and dead, empowered by a mystical rite of the Shan’iatu. Sometimes, 
  the necromantic energies from the rite leak from her body into the body of a bystander. This 
  exposure changes him. He becomes aware of both his fleeting reality and the eternal reality of 
  Duat. The crushing truth of his mortality falls upon him.  
  The moment ends. He rationalizes his experience, but his fear of death and visions of Duat 
  remain. These lingering anxieties and visions are a phenomenon that the Arisen call Sybaris, or 
  “sickness.” Mummies consider it a necessary evil, a security measure the Shan’iatu placed within 
  them.  
  Sybaris is a handy tool. It makes humans too frightened or too busy contemplating mortality to 
  interfere with a mummy’s work. The afflicted are easier to manipulate. When a bystander fears 
  death, joining a mummy’s cult becomes a tempting proposition.  
  However, it provides diminishing returns. Further exposure drives mortals to expose or destroy 
  mummies and their cults. It may even open them to possession by the fiends of Duat (p. XX).  
  Contracting Sybaris  
  The following is a list of some situations that cause a character to contract Sybaris:  
  • 
  Direct physical contact with a mummy.  
  • 
  Entering a mummy’s tomb.  
  • 
  Touching a vessel in a mummy’s Lifeweb.  
  • 
  Witnessing the beginning of a Descent (p. XX).  
  • 
  Witnessing a mummy’s resurrection.  
  • 
  Witnessing a mummy spend a dot of Sekhem or a Pillar point.  
  • 
  Witnessing the use of some Utterances and Affinities (p. XX).  
  When these situations occur, the character attempts to resist Sybaris. His will battles with 
  overwhelming hallucinations and intrusive emotions.  
  Resisting Sybaris  
  Action: Instant 
  Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure – Sekhem 
  Suggested Modifiers: Mummy inflicting Sybaris has Memory 8+ (+1), mummy inflicting 
  Sybaris has Memory 3 or lower (−2), character is in the presence of multiple mummies (−1 for 
  each mummy present beyond the one inflicting Sybaris), the character has the Sybaris Condition 
  (−1), the character is a sorcerer (+3).  
  
  Success: The character does not experience Sybaris. If he already has the Sybaris Condition (p. 
  XX), it remains at its current stage.   
  Exceptional Success: As Success and the character recovers a point of Willpower.  
  Failure: The character gains the Sybaris Condition, or advances to a further stage if he already 
  has it. If he is already at Stage 3, the character immediately performs one of the actions that 
  would grant a Beat for that stage. This does not grant any additional Beats after the first time in a 
  chapter.  
  Dramatic Failure: As Failure and the character loses a point of Willpower.   
  Suffering Sybaris 
  When a character fails to resist Sybaris, he gains the Sybaris Condition (p. XX). The Sybaris 
  Condition is a special, three-stage Condition that represents a character’s increasing fear, 
  paranoia, and panic while afflicted with Sybaris.  
  Overcoming Sybaris 
  Those afflicted with Sybaris can overcome it in three ways:  
  • 
  Time: Without further exposure, Sybaris dissipates with time. Stage One Sybaris ends in 
  one week, Stage Two in two weeks, and Stage Three in a month.  
  • 
  Join a Mummy’s Cult: Pledging loyalty to a mummy and serving in her cult in 
  accordance with its Doctrines (p. XX) will immediately end Sybaris at any stage. A cultist with 
  Scorpion Cult Initiation ••+ never suffers Sybaris if they hold to their cult’s Doctrines.  
  • 
  Interpret a Sybaritic Omen: Sybaris brings terrible visions, but they are filled with 
  consistent symbolic imagery. Interpreting the omen at the source of a character’s visions eases 
  his Sybaris, sometimes reducing it stage by stage.  
  Sybaritic Omens 
  The Sybaris-afflicted can understand the root of their torment through meditation, lucid 
  dreaming, or reflection. Untangling the chaotic pattern of emotions and waking dreams brings 
  comfort and can eventually dissipate the sickness. 
  A Sybaritic Omen involves a significant situation unknown to the character. It might be a future 
  event, a forgotten secret from the past, or a hidden circumstance in the present. If the omen is a 
  future event, it will come to pass unless the character intervenes.  
  Interpreting Sybaritic Omens 
  Action: Extended (7 successes required. Each roll takes 6 hours).  
  Dice Pool: Composure + Occult 
  Suggested Modifiers: Cultists or sorcerers assist character (+2), Use of fortune telling 
  instruments (+1), Distracting noise or lights (-2).    
  Success: The character decodes the omen’s basic structure, or a key detail if the basic structure 
  was already decoded. The character may behave as if they do not have the Sybaris Condition (p. 
  XX) for the rest of the chapter.   
  
  Exceptional Success: As Success, and the character gains the Sybaris Condition at one level 
  lower than the level the character currently has. If this reduces the Condition level to zero, the 
  Condition resolves immediately.  
  Failure: The character receives no useful insights.  
  Dramatic Failure: As Failure, and the character suffers a Breaking Point (p. XX). 
  The Rite of Investment 
  Loyalty has its benefits. The Arisen can grant their cultists a fraction of their power through the 
  Rite of Investment. Invested cultists are always under their master’s observation. A mummy can 
  take an Invested cultist’s body as her own after death, hollowing out the cultist’s soul and 
  replacing it with her own.  
  The Rite of Investment 
  • 
  Action: Instant action. Mummy must touch her target. The mummy’s player removes a 
  Pillar point (p. XX) of her choosing from her character’s sheet. The target’s player places the 
  mummy’s Pillar point on their character’s sheet.  
  • 
  Cost: 1 Pillar point.  
  • 
  Pillar Recovery: Reflexive action. A mummy may remotely reclaim an unspent Pillar 
  point from target. Target’s player removes Pillar point from their character’s sheet. The 
  mummy’s player places the Pillar point on her character’s sheet.   
  • 
  Mortal Decree: Invested Mortals receive the benefits of their masters’ decree (p. XX).  
  • 
  Sorcerous Rites: Invested sorcerers may spend imbued Pillar points to power Rites (p. 
  XX). Sorcerers also receive the benefits of Mortal Decree.  
  • 
  Sadikh Soul: Invested Sadikh may manifest Soul Affinities (p. XX).  
  • 
  Immortal Power: Invested immortals may use Tier 1 Utterances using the invested 
  Pillar. 
  • 
  Constant Observation: Mummies are roughly aware of the condition, direction, and 
  distance of Invested cultists.   
  • 
  Ultimate Sacrifice:  A mummy may choose to reincarnate into the body of an Invested 
  cultist. The mummy resurrects with the Memory Bleed Condition and her previous Memory, 
  Merits, Traits, and Sekhem. The mummy’s player may choose to reshuffle her character’s Traits 
  to represent the abilities of the new body. The Sanctity of Experience (p. XX) applies. 
  The Rite of the Engraved Heart 
  The exact methods of the Rite of the Engraved Heart differ between guilds, but each requires an 
  exchange between the mummy and their intended Sadikh. This exchange has to be something of 
  true worth, such as each participant’s true name, the sacrifice of a loved one, or a permanent self-
  mutilation. The mummy must then cut open their target, and inscribes their eternal name on the 
  Sadikh’s heart. The chest wound magically heals itself shut, but leaves a scar symbolizing the 
  mummy, their guild, or their Judge. 
  The Rite of the Engraved Heart 
  
  • 
  Action: Instant action. The mummy must have made the exchange of value and cut open 
  their target. The mummy’s player removes a permanent Willpower dot from their character’s 
  sheet. The target’s player adds a permanent Willpower dot to their character’s sheet.  
  • 
  Cost: 1 permanent dot of Willpower.  
  • 
  Descent Risk: Reflexive action. The act of creating a Sadikh offends the Judges, causing 
  any mummies to suffer a Descent roll for their hubris.  
  • 
  Only One: A mummy may only have one Sadikh at a time. That Sadikh does not age. 
  The Sadikh falls and rises in linear time, which means a mummy can create another Sadikh at a 
  point in time before their last Sadikh was made, or long after their last one was destroyed. 
  • 
  Rise and Fall: Sadikh stay awake for a number of chapters equal to their permanent 
  Willpower, following the mummy’s Descent to henet. If they wish to stay awake beyond this, 
  they must succeed at a Resolve + Composure roll each scene, at −1 die for the next scene, the −1 
  growing to −2, −3, etc. for each subsequent scene, until the Sadikh’s player only rolls one die to 
  remain awake. The Sadikh rises as the mummy does so.  
  • 
  His Master’s Will: Sadikh possess a telepathic bond with their mummy master and may 
  broadcast their location and immediate feelings, such as danger, joy, excitement, etc. with no 
  roll. The mummy can do the same in return. Via this telepathic bond, the mummy has power 
  over the Sadikh’s will. With the expenditure of a Willpower point, the Arisen can prevent the 
  Sadikh from overly countermanding any of his master’s efforts or wishes, with discreet actions 
  against the mummy acting at a −2 dice modifier.  
  • 
  Resilient Body: Sadikh suffer damage as mummies do, but recover from wounds like 
  mortals unless another trait modifies this rate. They do not die when their Health track is filled 
  with lethal damage, instead falling into a repose and waking when the mummy next wakes. If 
  further damage is inflicted to the sleeping Sadikh, or their Health track fills with aggravated 
  damage, they die and leave no ghost, as their soul becomes Sekhem and their body becomes a 
  vestige (see p. XX). If this vestige is drained, the Sadikh is gone for good. If it is returned to 
  Duat, the Sadikh joins their master for one final journey. If the mummy wishes to resurrect a 
  fallen Sadikh, they must spend a permanent Willpower dot, which causes the Sadikh to form 
  from Sekhem. This Willpower dot does not get added to the Sadikh’s character sheet. The 
  reformed Sadikh bears scars from the wounds that killed him, but no damage to his Health. 
  • 
  Blessed Memorial: Once per story, when a mummy attempts to recall a point in history 
  during which their Sadikh was present, the mummy can call on the Sadikh’s true name and gain 
  +2 dice to their remembering. This benefit also applies if the mummy is at a Breaking Point and 
  at risk of losing Memory, conveying the +2 dice to their Memory roll. 
  • 
  Entwined Fates: Sadikh possess a Sekhem rating equal to half of their master’s current 
  total, rounded up, for the purposes of resisting in a Clash of Wills (see p. XX). This resistance is 
  rendered inert against the Sadikh’s Arisen master. 
  • 
  Sybaris Immunity: The Sadikh is immune to all Sybaris Conditions. 
  • 
  Power Channeling: Once per scene, a Sadikh may use any one of his master’s Affinities, 
  or one of his master’s Utterances, providing he has seen the Utterance used. Pillar and Willpower 
  costs for use of these powers are paid by the Arisen, though any dice pools except for Pillar 
  
  ratings are made up from the Sadikh’s Traits. Pillar ratings are derived from the mummy’s 
  character sheet. 
  • 
  Devoted Heart: A Sadikh whose master has a Pillar rating of Ab 5 gains +2 dice to resist 
  or overpower a character who attempts to sway the immortal servant from his master. The 
  Sadikh may give his master any Willpower he recovers from fulfilling his Virtue or Vice, instead 
  of gaining the benefit himself. 
  • 
  Loyal Soul: A Sadikh whose master has a Pillar rating of Ba 5 incurs no penalties when 
  blinded or in darkness. The Sadikh conveys a +2 modifier to his master’s initiative rolls when 
  they’re together, as the immortal servant acts as the mummy’s eyes and ears. 
  • 
  Perfected Body: A Sadikh whose master has a Pillar rating of Ka 5 may exchange up to 
  4 bashing wounds or 2 lethal wounds to or from his master, with permission from the mummy, 
  as a Reflexive action. The Sadikh cannot accept further wounds if he has any aggravated 
  wounds. This power is effective irrespective of distance but the two must occupy the same space 
  in time. 
  • 
  Reverent Name: A Sadikh whose master has a Pillar rating of Ren 5 shares a true 
  telepathic bond with his master and can mentally communicate in whole sentences with the 
  mummy after speaking the Arisen’s name. The Sadikh cannot communicate in this way if he has 
  suffered any aggravated wounds. This power is effective irrespective of distance but the two 
  must occupy the same space in time. 
  • 
  Shadowed Hand: A Sadikh whose master has a Pillar rating of Sheut 5 gains +2 dice on 
  all Stealth and Larceny rolls, and for the cost of one Willpower point can magically shift the 
  appearance of his face as a Reflexive action. This shift cannot imitate another person, but makes 
  the Sadikh appear distinctly different from before. The shift remains in place until the Sadikh 
  wills it to end. Multiple facial shifts prevent reversion to anything but the most recent facial 
  appearance. 
  Timelessness and Experience 
  The Arisen do not experience time linearly. A mummy Descends in 2097 and awakens in 1545 
  in the same way that a human goes to bed and rises in the morning. As a Mummy game leaps 
  through history, players may find themselves in time periods where the dots on their sheet seem 
  inappropriate or useless.  
  Because of this, mummies have a special quality, a Sanctity of Experience. Much like Sanctity of 
  Merits, a mummy always takes Beats and spends Experiences as normal, no matter what time the 
  character currently resides in.  
  When a mummy is first awakened in a new century, or plays in a flashback or flash-forward for 
  longer than a scene, the player may “reshuffle” the Attributes, Skills, Merits, or Pillars of the 
  character using their currently spent Experiences, creating a character build more fitting for the 
  era. All Advantages (p. XX) should be re-calculated accordingly. 
  At the end of an extended flashback or flash-forward, when the setting returns to what the 
  Chronicle currently establishes as the “present,” the player may again “reshuffle” her sheet using 
  their currently spent Experiences, including whatever Experiences were spent during the 
  flashback or flash-forward. 
  
  Sanctity of Experience 
  • 
  Beats: A mummy always takes Beats and spends Experience as they receive them, even 
  during flashbacks and flash-forwards.   
  • 
  Reshuffle: When the mummy begins play in a different time era, her player may 
  rearrange her character’s Attributes, Skills, Merits, or Pillars using their currently spent 
  Experience. This occurs when the mummy first awakens at least a century before or after the 
  previously played Descent, or at the beginning and end of an extended flashback or flash-
  forward.       
  Tombs 
  Tombs have three components: Geometry, Perils, and Provisions. 
  Geometry 
  No matter where they lie, tombs are always built or remodeled according to the Nameless 
  Empire’s sacred geometry. Tombs draw Sekhem from their surroundings, creating a special, 
  internal Lifeweb from which the Arisen gains Pillar points.  
  Every dot of Tomb (p. XX) applied to Geometry provides a bonus die to regaining Pillar points 
  (p. XX).  
  It also serves as the tomb’s overall health. Should a tomb’s Geometry become 0, it is destroyed, 
  and the Arisen gains the Disinterred Condition (p. XX). The player retains the tomb’s original 
  rating due to the Sanctity of Merits.  
  Perils 
  Tombs need security, and the Arisen have many options. History provides a myriad of nasty 
  devices to punish intruders, but there are also Curses from returned vessels (p. XX) that float 
  within a tomb’s Lifeweb, waiting for use.  
  Each dot of Tomb (p. XX) applied to Perils serves as a dot of Cost towards Trap equipment (p. 
  XX). Each dot of Peril may also anchor a Curse from a recently returned vessel to the tomb. 
  When the tomb is attacked, the player may choose to remove a dot of Peril instead of a dot of 
  Geometry, inflicting a Trap or Curse on the attackers. The player retains any removed Peril dots 
  due to the Sanctity of Merits.  
  Provisions 
  Provisions make tombs unique and provide a vast number of benefits beyond energy and 
  security.  
  Each dot of Tomb (p. XX) applied to Provisions serves as a dot of Cost towards equipment (p. 
  XX). Any aspect of a tomb that does not serve as part of its sacred geometry or its security 
  qualifies as a Provision.  
  When the tomb is attacked, the player may choose to remove a dot of Provision instead of a dot 
  of Geometry, losing access to a piece of equipment. The player retains any removed Provision 
  dots due to the Sanctity of Merits.  
  Harmonic Centerpiece 
  
  If a mummy has at least one relic connected to their tomb’s Lifeweb, they may choose one to be 
  their harmonic centerpiece. This relic balances the energies of the tomb, making it just as 
  important as the tomb’s physical structure.  
  If a harmonic centerpiece is within a tomb’s Lifeweb, the mummy receives a bonus die to 
  regaining Pillar points (p. XX) in addition to a tomb’s Geometry. If the harmonic centerpiece is 
  destroyed or stolen, its absence damages the tomb, removing a dot of Geometry from the Tomb 
  Merit.  
  Attacking Tombs 
  Some of the Arisen’s enemies know they must strike at their tombs. While it is possible to 
  survive without one, a destroyed tomb can leave a mummy defenseless and without an easy 
  method of regaining power or returning vessels to the Judges.  
  A tomb is only truly destroyed when its sacred geometry is ruined beyond repair. This is a great 
  undertaking, accomplished by a cult action (p. XX), with explosives (p. XX), an appropriate 
  Utterance (p. XX), and lengthy, dedicated assaults by individuals. One point of Effort, one point 
  of lethal damage, or one point of aggravated damage removes one dot of Geometry from the 
  Tomb Merit. Dots of Peril or Provisions may be removed instead, if available.    
  Vessels 
  The lost tools of Irem. Storied treasures with fantastic powers. Experiments gone wrong. 
  Physical embodiments of painful memories. All these and more are vessels, the mystical trinkets 
  that keep the Arisen to their eternal duty. 
  The attachment mummies have to vessels goes beyond mere admiration of craftsmanship. 
  Whether it was forged in an Iremite workshop thousands of years in the past or improvised on an 
  active battlefield three days ago, the Arisen believe there is only one rightful owner of these 
  vessels: the Judges. No human alive can fully control a vessel’s power, as tragedy after tragedy 
  throughout history has proven. Therefore, all vessels must return to Duat, to restore power to the 
  Judges and ensure humanity’s safety.  
  Vessels Defined 
  A vessel is any item that holds a significant amount of Sekhem. Most were created thousands of 
  years ago using the lost and sacred arts of the guilds of Irem. Many also came into being long 
  after, either as the result of sorcery or accidental creations birthed from an unforgettable moment. 
  Sekhem is anchored to a vessel by implanting it with a memory. This central memory is also a 
  filter, shaping the potential of life into a clearly defined purpose and function. Anyone who 
  activates a vessel calls upon the memory inside, releasing the Sekhem within in the form of a 
  distinct and unique Power. However, without the proper training guilds and sorcery provides, an 
  unwitting user is unable to handle even a filtered form of pure life force. He is then exposed to 
  the vessel’s Curse, a negative feedback from the sudden release of powerful energy. A Curse is 
  also filtered by the vessel’s defining memory, often inflicting ironic fates upon the user.  
  Arisen divide vessels into two categories: vestiges and relics.  
  Vestiges 
  
  Vestiges are a vessel’s basic form. They can take the form of any object on Earth. Since the 
  Lifeweb is everywhere at once, Sekhem constantly flows out from living things into inanimate 
  objects as they use them. Every day, the toys, tools, and precious items of humanity go through a 
  natural ebb and flow of Sekhem.  
  When an item is present in a moment filled with strong emotion, the moment may imprint on the 
  item as a memory, sealing the Sekhem it holds and transforming it into a vestige. Any emotion 
  can create a vestige, but the six most common emotions in their creation are anger, despair, hate, 
  joy, passion, and love. When a vestige forms, the raw Sekhem inside it splits into two distinct 
  patterns based on the emotion that filters it. The first pattern is its Virtue, the highest, most 
  constructive form of the emotion that defines the memory. The second pattern is its Vice, the 
  lowest, most destructive form of the emotion.  
  Vestiges existed long before Irem and will exist long after. In addition to the many vestiges 
  created by history, sorcerers know a rite that guarantees their creation, though the process may 
  be time consuming and emotionally draining (p. XX). Creating vestiges is important for 
  sorcerers. Not only are they easy access to magical power, the Sekhem inside them can be further 
  broken down and extracted as Pillars (p. XX), important magical components. 
  A Vessel’s power is attractive, but they can provide so much more. When their Virtues or Vices 
  resonate with their owner’s Anchors (p. XX), vestiges can help strengthen the will, or even the 
  soul. Some mummies hesitate to immediately return their vestiges to Duat and instead let them 
  linger in their tomb’s Lifeweb for a few centuries.  
  Vestiges 
  • 
  Rating: Naturally created vestiges are rated from 1-5 dots. Sorcerers can create vestiges 
  rated from 1-6 dots.  
  • 
  Object: A vestige is an object (p. XX), and has Size, Durability, and Structure. 
  • 
  Incorruptible: Vestiges are immune to ordinary wear and tear caused by the passage of 
  time.   
  • 
  Virtue and Vice: Vestiges have a Virtue and a Vice.  
  • 
  Resonance: When a character’s Anchors, such as a mummy’s Balance or Burden (p. 
  XX), is synonymous with or matches a vestige’s Virtue or Vice, the vestige resonates with the 
  character.  
  • 
  Willpower Refresh: If a resonant vestige is kept on a sleeping character’s person, the 
  character refreshes extra Willpower points after a full night’s sleep. The character refreshes 1 
  extra Willpower point per Virtue or Vice that is synonymous with or matches the character’s 
  Anchors, to a maximum of +2 Willpower points. Any resonant vestiges kept in the Lifeweb of a 
  mummy’s tomb (p. XX) provides this benefit no matter where the mummy rests inside the tomb, 
  to a maximum of 2 extra Willpower points.    
   
  • 
  Soul Refresh: When a mummy mediates in her tomb to refresh her Pillar points (p. XX), 
  each resonant vestige in her tomb’s Lifeweb provides a +1 bonus to the dice pool, to a maximum 
  of +5.  
  • 
  Pillars: Vestiges provide a number of Pillar points equal to their dot rating.  
  
  Relics 
  Relics are the prized creations of the Nameless Empire. The Shan’iatu taught their subjects the 
  secrets of Sekhem, how it could be grasped and forged into instruments of power. For many 
  years, the Iremite guilds toiled in their workshops, creating countless relics. Most served the 
  empire’s needs, some were made to entertain its people, and a few were created for their own 
  sake, so that its crafter would have something to last for all time.  
  An exact, reliable method to create a relic is unknown, but the differences between a relic and a 
  vestige are obvious once someone knows where to look. The first is that a relic is an object 
  holding a distilled form of Sekhem, which radiates with a greater amount of power. Pure Sekhem 
  is easier to anchor to an object, and the memories used for relics do not need to be as emotionally 
  intense as the kind that anchors a vestige. Instead, the guilds of old used memories of Iremite 
  cultural touchstones, important values or the Nameless Empire, and the lives of its famous heroes 
  and infamous enemies. The Arisen sometimes find memories of themselves within a relic.  
  The second difference is that unlike vestiges, relics appear in very specific forms. The guilds of 
  the Nameless Empire developed their own secret methods to create relics, which they never 
  shared. The five best known relic forms are those of the Arisen guilds: Amulets, Effigies, Regia, 
  Texts, and Uter. The clearly defined form of the relic shapes the Sekhem just as much as the 
  memory that holds it, and thus a relic has a Power that enhances things related to the form’s 
  purpose, and a Curse that serves as a side effect to intense Sekhem exposure.  
  The final difference is that the Sekhem within the relic holds together even during extraction. A 
  mummy that drains Sekhem from a relic finds that they’re able to stay in the living world for a 
  little while longer, though they risk punishment from their Judge for doing so. Immortals (p. XX) 
  can feed on relics with no such consequences. Sorcerers are unable to absorb Sekhem from a 
  relic, but can contain the energy in another object, potentially transforming it into a vestige.  
  Almost all relics come from the Nameless Empire. Many have returned to the Judges, but most 
  still reside on the Earth, waiting to be discovered. A few relics were created well after the 
  Empire’s dissolution. These modern relics are often the product of a mortal’s inspiration and 
  passionate dedication, and their creation is a once in a lifetime event. Rarely, Judges expend a 
  portion of their immense Sekhem to forge a brand-new relic, sending it to the earth along with a 
  mummy rising from henet. While an Arisen is bound to a Judge, they are unable to create new 
  relics of their own. 
  Relics 
  • 
  Rating: Relics are rated from 1-5 dots.  
  • 
  Object: A relic is an object (p. XX), and has Size, Durability, and Structure. 
  • 
  Incorruptible: Relics are immune to ordinary wear and tear caused by the passage of 
  time. Relics created by Eternals (p. XX) are an exception to this rule and are at risk of natural 
  decay over time.    
  • 
  Form: Relics have a unique kind of Power and Curse, based on its form.  
  • 
  Sekhem: Relics provide a number of Sekhem dots equal to their dot rating. Relics 
  created by Eternals provide a number of Sekhem dots equal to twice their dot rating.   
  Using Vessels 
  
  Vessels are powerful objects. For many, they provide quick access to magical power. They also 
  aid the Arisen and are an important part of their cycles of life and death.  
  However, holding a massive amount of Sekhem in one place, refusing to return it to the Lifeweb, 
  tends to bring about terrible fates. Many learn that in order to wield great power, one must bear a 
  terrible curse.  
  Invoking Vessels 
  Vessels are invoked through two methods. The first is to touch the vessel and perform an action 
  in sync with its underlying memory. A vestige of protection born from an act of affection is 
  invoked through a sincere declaration of love. An amulet relic forged from a memory of harsh 
  weather is activated when worn during a rainstorm.  
  The second method is to touch the vessel, call out its name, and activate it by force of will. This 
  invocation demands a sacrifice from its user, either in the form of a Pillar point or a Willpower 
  point.  
  Once a vessel is invoked, its user receives a vague or alarming vision related to the memory 
  buried within it. The vessel’s Power and Curse begin immediately after.  
  Vessel Invocation 
  • 
  Action: Invoking a vessel is an Instant action.  
  • 
  Cost: Invoking a vessel costs either 1 Pillar point or 1 Willpower point.  
  General Powers and Curses 
  A vessel’s dot rating determines the mechanical basis of its Power and Curse. In general, a 
  Power is mechanically represented by a bonus, and a Curse by a penalty. Where the bonus or 
  penalty is applied depends on a vessel’s type.  
  Each individual dot in a vessel’s rating can grant the following:  
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Power Curse 
  +1 dice pool bonus 
  −1 dice pool penalty 
  +1 Armor 
  −1 Armor 
  +1 Defense 
  −1 Defense 
  +1 Attribute rating 
  −1 Attribute rating 
  +1 Skill rating −1 Skill rating 
  1 positive Social Influence shift 
  1 negative Social influence shift 
  [END CHART] 
  When designing mechanical bonuses and penalties for vessels, their bonuses and penalties can be 
  mixed and matched, using pool of points equal to the vessel’s dot rating, plus 1. For example, a 
  two-dot vessel has three points and could give a user two dots in Empathy but remove one dot of 
  Streetwise. A five-dot vessel has six points and could imbue a user with three points of Armor 
  but remove three dots of Stamina. A one dot vessel has two points and could give a user 1 
  
  positive Social Influence shift but remove one die from a combat dice pool. A vessel’s Power is 
  never higher than half the pool’s points.   
  Powers and Curses 
  • 
  Bonuses and Penalties: Powers and Curses inflict a set of bonuses and penalties on a 
  vessel’s user.  
  • 
  Design: A vessel’s dot rating provides a pool of points equal to its dot rating plus 1. 
  These points are spread between the vessel’s Power and Curse. A vessel’s Power never has a 
  mechanical bonus higher than half of the point pool, rounded up.  
  Vestige Powers and Curses 
  Vestiges are the embodiment of an emotional memory. That memory forms the basis of its 
  Power and Curse.  
  A vestige’s Power is a mechanical representation of its underlying memory and its Virtue. An 
  Honest vestige might grant bonuses to Performance or improve Interrogation dice pools.  
  A vestige’s Curse is formed from its underlying memory and its Vice. The Honest vestige is also 
  Headstrong, and may apply penalties to Common Sense dice pools, or even reduce its user’s 
  Composure.  
  The highly personal memories that vestiges hold ensure that the only person subject to its Power 
  and Curse is its current user. They are also short lived, and their Powers and Curses last for a 
  Scene. The only exception is when an active vestige is close to an active relic. When this occurs, 
  the vestige activates a special kind of Curse: it broadcasts its core memory to other people, 
  inflicting them with its emotion. How far and long this broadcast lasts is based on the Area 
  Affected aspect of a relic’s dot rating (p. XX). 
  Vestiges are useful in any situation, but their Sekhem shines brightest when invoked during 
  moments that resonate with the event that created them. This may give a vestige additional 
  effects.   
  Vestige Powers and Curses 
  • 
  Magnificent Virtue: A vestige’s Power is based on its Virtue.  
  • 
  Vice’s Curse: A vestige’s Curse is based on its Vice. 
  • 
  Familiar Moments: Invoking vestiges in situations that align with their rooted memories 
  may grant additional mechanical effects.   
  • 
  Range and Time: A vestige’s Power and Curse is active for one Scene, and only affects 
  its user.  
  • 
  Amplification: Active relics can amplify the emotions of active vestiges and influence 
  others with them.  
  Relic Powers and Curses 
  The refined Sekhem within a relic brings new, more consistent powers and abilities. In addition 
  to basic bonuses and penalties (p. XX), relics have their own unique Power and Curse options 
  that can break the limits of what is possible.  
  Amulets 
  
  The Maa-Kep designed their amulets to preserve ideas and principles. They were so successful 
  that Iremite thought lives on in a world ill-suited for it.  
  Amulets have the Power to instill knowledges and abilities. These are usually represented by 
  new Skill dots or Mental Merits but can also provide more specific boons such as knowledge of a 
  lost military technique, or even a rite (p. XX).  
  The Amulet’s Curse programs its bearer with concepts and morals to make their thinking more 
  harmonious to the Nameless Empire’s culture. The Curse may be broad and obvious, such as 
  changing a character’s Virtue, Vice, or Aspirations, or a subtle as praising a Judge beneath one’s 
  breath as they wake in the morning.  
  Effigies 
  The Tef-Aabhi constructed their Effigies to maintain order and harmony. Now, the ignorant 
  threaten to use them to spread chaos.  
  An invoked Effigy unleashes the Power to manipulate people, objects, or concepts. This might 
  be as simple as inflicting a Tilt (p. XX) on a target. It could also be new Social Skills and Social 
  Merits for more subtle manipulation. It could even grant its user a Supernatural Merit, such as 
  Telekinesis (p. XX).  
  An Effigy’s Curse is that it manipulates as well. They pull power from their surroundings, 
  weakening people and environments around it. Some sap away at Structure, others consume 
  Willpower, and a few drain Sekhem. The most dangerous Effigies weaken the border between 
  worlds, creating doors to the Nehter-Khertet and even stranger places.  
  Regia  
  The Mesen-Nebu used their superior alchemy to make the world more beautiful. Unfortunately, 
  even the finest splendor rots and rusts.  
  Regia’s Power is to enhance physical things into a more perfected state. Weapons enhanced with 
  Regia may do more damage or be able to harm creatures normally impervious to them. Imbibing 
  a potion brewed with Regia may grant a user Physical Attributes or Physical Merits.  
  What the Nameless Empire considered “perfected” vastly differs from our modern conception of 
  perfection. A Regia’s curse corrupts physical things around it. It could just poison users, but it 
  might also warp its subjects in unexpected ways, twisting bodies and objects into shapes more 
  useful to the Judges.  
  Texts 
  The Sesha-Hebsu hoped to rescue stories and culture with the power of the written word. Now, 
  these lost tales unfold all over the world, bringing people to unhappy endings.  
  Texts hold records of grand events inside them, and their Power manifests these events in our 
  reality, rearranging it with incredible phenomena. A Text might create an Environmental Tilt (p. 
  XX) at an opportune moment or transport its user across the globe in the blink of an eye. Any 
  story can lie within a Text, and thus it is the most abstract and unpredictable of the relic forms.  
  What isn’t unpredictable is how they Curse the mind. Reading a Text wreaks havoc on the 
  unprepared. They might sap away a user’s Integrity, or even open them up to possession by one 
  of Duat’s fiends.  
  
  Uter 
  The Su-Menent desired to show the divide between life and death for the illusion it is. Today, 
  perhaps they have their wish.  
  Uter have the Power to enhance qualities that already exist within a person or an object. These 
  enhancements may go far beyond mere bonuses. Doing a familiar activity could become a Rote 
  Action (p. XX). A user could have the Inspired Condition (p. XX) when the Uter is within her 
  grasp. She may even develop Specialties (p. XX) she never had before.  
  As Uter are unchanging, so too is the Curse that follows them. Uter preserves its users, 
  preventing any beneficial change in their lives. A user could stop receiving Willpower from a 
  restful night’s sleep or be unable to increase her Integrity. It may affect a user in more subtle 
  ways, such as falling into rigid daily patterns or refusing opportunities she would usually take. 
  Bane Relics 
  Like the Judges that she despises, Ammut the Devourer can create her own relics. Unlike her 
  enemies, Ammut is more than willing to make as many as she can, gifting Bane Relics to her 
  most prized Shuankhsen (p. XX). 
  Bane Relics appear in all guild relic forms but bear visible signs of Ammut’s corruption. These 
  signs are usually monstrous or blasphemous art and spider web-like runes. Their Powers and 
  Curses are the same as the relic forms they parody, but only the Lifeless can use these 
  nightmarish trinkets safely. Rumors state that if one of Ammut’s children can hollow out an 
  Arisen’s chest and place a Bane Relic inside the cavity, the Arisen is condemned into becoming 
  the Devourer’s servant.    
  The Shuankhsen know rites capable of twisting ordinary relics into Bane Relics and do so with 
  fervor. The Arisen are urged to return Bane Relics to the Judges like any other vessel, which can 
  be a dangerous task. These twisted relics wreak havoc on the sanctity of a mummy’s tomb, 
  harming Arisen and their loved ones alike. 
  Eternal Relics 
  A special kind of relic belongs to the Eternals (p. XX), immortals who sealed away their death in 
  handmade works of art. Eternal Relics always contain the memory of the immortal’s would-be 
  death. Such a vivid memory is enhanced by a Sekhem even further distilled than any other 
  known relic form. 
  Eternal Relics’ Powers and Curses are always centered around their creator. Their Power grants 
  eternal life and other strange abilities that immortality might bring. However, their Curse is just 
  as powerful: Eternal Relics are not inherently incorruptible like other Vessels, and their bearers 
  must share in whatever fate befalls the relic. When the relic is destroyed, the Eternal dies.  
  Relic Dot Ratings 
  If they hold to a form’s archetype, relics can have Powers and Curses beyond those suggested 
  here. The following table is a guideline to the subtlety, length, and area relic Powers and Curses 
  are capable of. Relics are not required to match every category level attached to their dot rating, 
  but usually conform to at least one.   
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  
  Dot Rating 
  Subtlety 
  Length of Time 
  Area Affected 
  • 
  Nearly Undetectable 1 Turn User Touching Relic 
  •• 
  Noticeable by Passerby 
  1 Scene 
  Everyone in User’s Sensory Range 
  ••• 
  Visible to Everyone 1 Chapter 
  Most of a Community 
  •••• 
  Blatant to Everyone 1 Story  
  Everyone in a Community 
  ••••• 
  Undeniable to Everyone 
  As Long as Relic is Active 
  Everyone in a Region 
  [END TABLE] 
  Relic Powers and Curses 
  • 
  Form and Function: Relic Powers and Curses have access to more game effects based 
  on their form.  
  • 
  Range and Time: Relic Powers and Curses have a time and range based on their dot 
  rating.  
  Curse Immunity 
  The Arisen are completely immune to all vestige Curses. The vessel’s raw Sekhem is always 
  overpowered by the stronger concentration of life force within the mummy’s body. They have a 
  limited immunity to relic Curses: a guild member never suffers their relic form’s Curse, and only 
  suffers a fraction of the Curses of other relic forms.  
  A cult’s Tepi (p. XX), or hierophant, is immune to the Curses of her master’s guild relic form. 
  Sorcerers (p. XX) are immune to the Curses of the vestiges they create. 
  Only the Shuankhsen (p. XX) are immune to Bane Relic Curses. Everyone else, including 
  Arisen, receive the full force of the Curse.  
  Curse Immunity 
  • 
  Vestige Immunity: Vestige Curses are not inflicted on the Arisen. Sorcerers do not 
  suffer the Curses of vestiges they themselves create.  
  •  
  Relic Immunity: Arisen and their Tepi do not suffer the Curses of their guild’s relic 
  form. Arisen suffer a reduced form of the Curse of other relic forms. This is either half the 
  penalty, rounded down, or a less debilitative version of any narrative effects. No one is immune 
  to Bane Relic Curses except for the Shuankhsen.   
  Vessels and Resurrection 
  Vessels provide an additional way to return from the sleep of ages. They are components of the 
  simplest Open Rite (p. XX), known as the Call.  
  The Call requires a leader, usually a sorcerer or a hierophant, several cultists, and as many 
  vessels in a tomb’s Lifeweb (p. XX) as possible. The cultists encircle the sleeping mummy with 
  their vessels, and the leader starts a chant, imploring his master to arise and aid the cult. With 
  enough time and no pressing danger, the vessels’ Sekhem flares, and the mummy revives. Such 
  an intense blast of life energy overloads the vessels and renders them unable to be invoked (p. 
  XX) for the rest of the story.  
  
  If a mummy has no vessels connected to their tomb’s Lifeweb, the cult must obtain at least one 
  vessel elsewhere in the world. Without the tomb’s mystical connection, the foreign vessel is 
  destroyed.  
  The Call 
  Action: Instant 
  Cost: 1 vessel 
  Dice Pool: Player leaders: Presence + Occult; Storytelling character leaders: Reach + Grasp. 
  Suggested Modifiers: The cult uses vessels (+1 for each vessel beyond the first vessel 
  sacrificed), held in mummy’s Tomb (+3), More than 20 cultists present (+2), Incense or other 
  ritualistic trappings (+1), Cult is in mutiny (-2), mummy unfavored by Judge (-3).  
  Success: The mummy rises from death. If the mummy has risen for the first time in this story or 
  was forced to return to henet in the previous Death Cycle (p. XX), the mummy typically begins 
  with Sekhem 10. All Lifeweb connected vessels used in the Call cannot be invocated for the rest 
  of the story. If any vessel used was not connected to the Lifeweb, it is destroyed. Vessels 
  destroyed this way release their memory but provide no Pillar points or Sekhem.   
  Exceptional Success: As Success, except all Lifeweb connected vessels cannot be invocated for 
  the rest of the chapter.  
  Failure: The mummy does not rise from death. All vessels used in the Call cannot be invocated 
  for the rest of the story. If any vessel used was not connected to the Lifeweb, it is destroyed. 
  Vessels destroyed this way release their memory but provide no Pillar points or Sekhem.    
  Dramatic Failure: As failure, and the mummy’s cult suffers 1 lethal damage to Fidelity. 
  Reviving Arisen 
  • 
  The Call: Cultists may sacrifice any number of vessels to return their patron mummy 
  from death. Sacrificed vessels are either disabled for the duration of the story if connected to the 
  Tomb’s Lifeweb or destroyed if unconnected.   
  • 
  Dangerous Times: In dangerous or time-pressed situations, a dice roll (p. XX) is 
  necessary. In safe or time-ideal conditions, the Call automatically activates as if the cult had 
  rolled a Success.  
  Tracking Vessels 
  Irem’s guilds were well-trained in magic and craftsmanship. The Rite of Return heightened those 
  techniques to such a degree that Arisen can detect vessels from across the world. This is through 
  a special sense called the kepher, or “manifestation.” 
  The kepher is a special type of Investigation (p. XX). The Clues that kepher provides are not just 
  objects, facts, and deductions that lead to the vessel’s location, but may also be hints toward the 
  vessel’s Power or Curse, snippets of the memory that created it, or the identity of its current user.  
  Unlike other Investigations, the mummy begins with significant advantages. When a Judge 
  commands a mummy to find a specific vessel, or if the mummy first becomes aware of a vessels’ 
  existence, he receives the first Clue in the Investigation as if he rolled a Success to uncover it. 
  They are also aided by the flow of Sekhem as he uncovers further clues.  
  
  The kepher of some vessels are stronger than others. The design flaws of vestiges make them 
  easier to track, and the telltale traits of a guild’s relic form are unmistakable to its members.  
  When a kepher Investigation ends, the mummy knows everything about the vessel it seeks, from 
  its name to its exact geographical location. All they need to do is take it.  
  Kepher 
  • 
  Investigation: The kepher is an Investigation (p. XX) 
  • 
  Clues: A kepher Investigation has a Scope equal to twice its vessel’s dot rating in Clues.  
  • 
  Sekhem: A mummy always adds their current Sekhem to the dice pool to uncover a Clue 
  during a kepher Investigation.  
  • 
  Vestiges: Tracking a vestige always adds a +2 bonus to the dice pool to uncover a Clue 
  during a kepher Investigation.  
  • 
  Relics: Characters tracking relics from their guild always roll to uncover a Clue as a Rote 
  Action (p. XX).  
  Consuming Vessels 
  All vessels will one day be consumed, either by returning them to the Judges or cannibalizing 
  them.  
  Returning Vessels to the Judges 
  When a vessel is brought to a mummy’s tomb (p. XX), it is attached to its sacred geometry and 
  becomes a part of its Lifeweb. The vessel remains attached to the Lifeweb if it stays in the tomb. 
  Placing a Bane Relic (p. XX) into a tomb’s Lifeweb grants the tomb the Lifebane Condition (p. 
  XX).  
  When a mummy ends his Descent and rests in his tomb, his player may select any number of 
  vessels within the tomb’s Lifeweb and declare that his mummy will return them to the Judges. 
  These vessels become regular objects, can no longer be invoked (p. XX), and cannot provide 
  Sekhem or Pillar points if cannibalized (p. XX). Some cults donate former vessels to museums, 
  while others sell them to private collectors for high prices.  
  Though the vessel is powerless, components remain. The Arisen returns to Duat (p. XX) 
  wielding the vessels he took with him, recreated from their Sekhem. The vessel’s Curse remains 
  in his tomb’s Lifeweb for a story, eventually attaching itself to an object, person, or settling into 
  the tomb as a Peril (p. XX).  
  Cannibalizing Vessels 
  Arisen, Amkhata, immortals, and sorcerers can cannibalize vessels, draining them of their power.  
  When a vestige is shattered, those nearby can grasp its broken pieces and draw its energy within 
  themselves. Sorcerers do this to quickly gather components for rites, Arisen do this to gain a 
  burst of power with no consequences, and Amkhata eat whatever life energy comes their way.  
  Relics are cannibalized in the same way but have a more dramatic effect. Cannibalizing a relic is 
  a grave betrayal to the Judges, and the Arisen will face a Descent roll (p. XX) for each dot of 
  Sekhem consumed. Amkhata not only feed on the Sekhem, they can transport the excess back to 
  their masters. Sorcerers can trap the escaping Sekhem in another object to turn it into a vestige. 
  
  If a vessel is pulled away from the character cannibalizing it, and repaired within a week, the 
  vessel keeps its undrained portion of its mystical power. Otherwise, any remaining Sekhem 
  detaches from the broken vessel and it becomes the remains of an ordinary object.  
  When a vessel is fully cannibalized, the memory within it is released into the world. The full, 
  clear memory broadcasts into the mind of the cannibalizing character and everyone within her 
  sensory range. If the cannibalizing character is a mummy, she receives 1 Reminisce Beat after 
  experiencing the memory. If no one is present to absorb the memory, it dissipates forever.  
  Cannibalizing Vessels 
  • 
  Sundering: A vessel can be cannibalized when its Structure becomes 0. 
  • 
  Time: Draining 1 dot from a vessel is an Instant action.  
  • 
   Repair: If a cannibalized vessel receives at least 1 Structure within a week of its 
  sundering, the vessel survives at a new dot rating equal to its undrained dots.  
  • 
  Vestige: Draining a vestige provides mummies 1 Pillar point for each vestige dot drained. 
  Arisen may place Pillar points in any unfilled Pillars. Sorcerers take 1 Pillar point per vestige and 
  must select a Pillar before draining.  
  • 
  Relic: Draining a relic provides mummies and immortals 1 Sekhem dot for each relic dot 
  drained. None can absorb more than their Sekhem Trait Maximum (10 for mummies, 5 for 
  immortals). Draining an Eternal Relic (p. XX) provides mummies and immortals 2 Sekhem dots 
  for each relic dot drained.   
  • 
  Memory: Completely cannibalizing a vessel provides mummies with 1 Reminisce Beat. 
  Completely cannibalizing an Eternal Relic provides mummies with 2 Reminisce Beats. 
  Relics 
  Relics are closely linked to the guilds responsible for their creation, though mummies of other 
  guilds and other creatures capable of channeling Sekhem might attempt to use one and risk its 
  curse. As per the vessel activation rules, invoking a relic costs either 1 Pillar point or 1 
  Willpower point. The following are example relics. 
  Amulets 
  Master’s Tool (••) 
  Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4 
  The elaborate engravings on this well-worn tool don’t hinder its proper function. 
  Power: This tool preserves the memories of a long-dead master of a single Skill. When spending 
  Willpower to enhance this Skill on rolls utilizing this tool, the character gains the 8-again effect 
  on the roll. 
  Curse: Using the tool is highly addictive. For the remainder of the chapter, whenever the 
  opportunity to use the tool’s power presents itself, the character suffers the Deprived Condition if 
  they refuse. The Arisen resist its lure after a scene. 
  Bronze Serpent Medallion (•••) 
  Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4 
  
  A stylized asp surrounded by intricate Iremic hieroglyphs glows in the sunlight. 
  Power: This amulet imparts the reflexes of a snake, allowing the higher of Wits or Dexterity to 
  determine Defense. Additionally, any melee attack the bearer lands inflicting lethal damage also 
  imposes the grave Poisoned Tilt for the remainder of the combat.  
  Curse: Mercy and diplomacy become foreign to the bearer. Failures on Empathy, Persuasion, or 
  Socialize rolls become dramatic failures. Arisen only suffer the penalty on Empathy rolls. 
  Effigies 
  Miniature Mausoleum (•) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  This model mausoleum incorporates Iremite architectural techniques. 
  Power: When activated, the mausoleum grows large enough to house up to four people if they 
  don’t mind being close. It protects from naturally occurring Environmental Tilts related to 
  prevailing climate and weather conditions. 
  Curse: Echoes of ancient times and the unyielding grind of eternity haunt guests in the 
  mausoleum. Sleep provides no Willpower within its walls, nor may it be regained through one’s 
  Virtue or Vice until they’ve rested elsewhere. The Burden and Balance of mummies are 
  unaffected, but meditation within the mausoleum restores only their defining Pillar. 
  Sapphire Frog of Swenett (•••) 
  Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4 
  The frog’s crystalline eyes seem to hold the primordial waters within.  
  Power: When activated, the bearer gains the effects of the Psychokinesis (Water) Merit for the 
  scene. They don’t require further expenditure to control water during the scene, but sacrifice 
  their Defense on any turn they do so. Fluids within living bodies aren’t valid targets for this 
  power. 
  Curse: Water affected by this Relic assumes the Dark Waters Tilt for the chapter, and ghosts 
  affected by it become hostile toward the bearer. Arisen don’t provoke the wrath of the dead. 
  Lovers’ Aegis (••••) 
  Durability 3, Size 0, Structure 3 
  This matching pair of platinum swan rings once bound the hearts of star-crossed lovers separated 
  by an ocean. 
  Power: These rings only function when worn by two people, but may be activated by either 
  party for the scene. When suffering injury, the wearer reflexively divides the damage between 
  themselves and their partner however they wish. A single point of damage transferred is 
  downgraded. Both parties suffer any Tilts affecting the other.  
  Curse: Each time the character is injured, the transfer consumes a Willpower point. Upon 
  reaching 0 Willpower, the character gains the Fatigued Condition. Arisen suffer no Willpower 
  loss from attacks inflicting bashing damage. 
  Regia 
  
  Alkahest Flask (• to •••••) 
  Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4 
  This silver flask produces a liquid that becomes highly corrosive upon exposure to air. 
  Power: Each activation produces enough liquid to dissolve Structure equal to the vessel’s rating. 
  Living flesh suffers lethal damage equal to its rating, but mummies and Relics are unaffected. 
  Curse: The reaction produces a noxious cloud, inflicting bashing damage equal to its rating on 
  the user and all within arm’s reach and imposing a −2 penalty to Stamina rolls for the scene. 
  Mummies suffer no penalties to Stamina. 
  Wanderer’s Clay (••) 
  Durability 4, Size 1, Structure 5 
  With each item holding the potential of an arsenal, wanderer’s clay allowed for light travel and 
  easy infiltration for the forces of lost Irem. These objects seem carved from iridescent nacre. 
  Power: When activated, wanderer’s clay becomes a white, malleable substance capable of being 
  sculpted into a different object of the same Size with an Intelligence + Crafts roll. Failure yields 
  an ordinary object of its type, while success increases the equipment bonus by 1, or 2 on an 
  exceptional success. 
  Curse: The malleability of the clay spreads to the flesh of its shaper, twisting their features into 
  disconcerting new forms. The character’s impression level drops by 2, and failed Social 
  Maneuvering attempts impose the Spooked Condition. The effects remain for the chapter’s 
  duration. Subsequent uses double this duration. Arisen suffer no increased penalties for 
  subsequent uses. 
  Medusa’s Spear (•••••) 
  Durability 4, Size 4, Structure 8 
  This serpent-engraved spear, crafted of amethyst exhibiting an unnatural green radiance, was a 
  failed attempt to duplicate the Kher-Minu. 
  Power: When activated, the wielder’s flesh takes on a stony texture, granting 1 Armor but 
  inflicting a −2 penalty to Dexterity rolls, Initiative and Speed for the scene. Foes struck by the 
  weapon find their flesh transmuting similarly. Every two points of lethal damage inflicted by the 
  weapon upgrade to a single point of aggravated damage, and grant the same effects experienced 
  by the wielder. These effects are cumulative for each point aggravated damage. At 0 Speed, the 
  foe suffers the Immobilized Tilt until they heal a point of the damage. If slain by this weapon, the 
  foe’s body permanently transmutes into stone. 
  Curse: The character suffers a −1 penalty to Dexterity rolls, Initiative, and Speed for the 
  remainder of the chapter even after the weapon is sheathed. This is cumulative with each scene 
  the weapon is activated. Arisen only suffer penalties to Initiative. 
  Texts 
  Song of Sorrows Unspoken (••) 
  Durability 1, Size 1, Structure 2 
  
  The aged vellum sheet is covered with musical notation comprehensible to any, shifting in the 
  hands to match the instrument available. 
  Power: When playing the song, all within earshot find their emotions intensifying. For the 
  remainder of the scene, while the song plays, all who hear it suffer a −3 penalty to Composure 
  rolls as their passions surge. This drops to −2 once the music ends. Attempts to influence people 
  by appealing purely to their emotions gain an exceptional success on three successes. 
  Curse: The raw honesty forced by the song permits no falsehoods. All Subterfuge rolls by the 
  performer are reduced to a chance die. Arisen only suffer a −2 penalty. 
  Codex of Forgotten Secrets (••••) 
  Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 3 
  A favorite of traitors, this massive leather-bound codex ends with several blank pages of 
  parchment. 
  Power: When written onto the blank parchment, the memories of a secret or occurrence vanish 
  from the minds of everyone in the community, settling into a new Vestige somewhere in the 
  affected area. The writer, mummies with Memory 8 or higher, and ghosts remain unaffected. If 
  the Vestige is consumed or destroyed, the secret is released, and everyone becomes aware of the 
  writer’s identity. While the secret remains protected, attempts to uncover it, magical or 
  otherwise, suffer a −4 penalty. 
  Curse: The writer gains the Cursed Condition related to an aspect of the hidden memories for 
  the remainder of the story. Arisen suffer it only for the current chapter. 
  Profane Tablet (•••••) 
  Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 3 
  Each of these Relics is a clay tablet inscribed with forbidden sigils and the twisted visages of 
  fiends. 
  Power: A profane tablet contains the power of a single Utterance, which may be unleashed when 
  read aloud. No additional effects from Pillar ratings apply. Higher Tier Utterances require 
  additional Pillars beyond the activation cost. Beings without Pillars instead suffer lethal damage.  
  Curse: The blasphemous words taint the area with the Unhallowed Ground Tilt, and open the 
  reader to possession by a fiend. The Sekhem level normally required to unleash the chosen Tier 
  determines the fiend’s Rank. Mummies immediately shunt the fiend out into the world. 
  Uter 
  Bone Ankh (•) 
  Durability 1, Size 1, Structure 2 
  This bone ankh was the Morticians’ attempt to master the Maar-Kherit’s lost art. 
  Power: When activated, the wearer heals as though sealing the flesh for three turns and can’t 
  bleed out during the scene. Arisen add three turns to the duration when sealing the flesh with 
  Pillars. 
  
  Curse: The ankh borrows life from the future to function. For the remainder of the chapter, 
  natural healing times are doubled. Arisen may shrug off this curse by sealing the flesh without 
  the ankh. 
  Oracle Eye (•••) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  Easily mistaken for an amulet, this engraved eye is stained with the blood and ocular humors of 
  seven seers. 
  Power: The wielder gains access to the Clairvoyance and Omen Sensitivity Merits. 
  Curse: The character’s eyes turn white, tears of blood flowing incessantly, and they suffer the 
  Blind Persistent Condition for a chapter following activation. Arisen recover after a scene. 
  Sah of Per-Bast (••••) 
  Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 3 
  With a twitch, the mummified cat stretches and rises, awaiting her master’s bidding. 
  Power: When activated, the Relic functions as a cat under the effects of the Beast Companion 
  Affinity for one chapter. The cat perceives Neter-Khertet and obeys orders perfectly. The undead 
  beast inflicts Sybaris on observers.  
  Curse: The cat’s mystical bond disrupts social connections, lowering impression levels by 1 and 
  rendering them impossible to raise. Mummies may still improve impression level. 
  Vestiges 
  Vestiges activate automatically without cost in situations resonant with their embedded 
  memories. Otherwise, they follow the same rules for activation as other vessels, costing either 1 
  Pillar point or 1 Willpower point. The following are example vestiges. 
  Dark Lantern (•) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  A single tear cut a streak through the dust on the trapped miner’s cheek as the flame flickered its 
  last, the light joining his fellow miners in death. 
  Power: (Tenacious) +1 Stamina 
  Curse: (Hopeless) −1 Resolve. Doubles penalty underground. 
  Stolen Necklace (•) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  The teenager startled as the doors snapped shut. Nobody suspected a thing, but the necklace in 
  the pocket grew heavier with each step. 
  Power: (Agitated) +1 Larceny. Gains 9-again effect in major retail establishments. 
  Curse: (Guilty) −1 Manipulation. Doubles penalty against security officials. 
  Game Ball (••) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  
  Triumphantly holding the ball aloft, the athlete basked in the cheers and adoration of the 
  gathered crowd. 
  Power: (Proud) +2 Athletics. Doubles bonus in front of crowds greater than 50 people. 
  Curse: (Competitive) −1 Empathy 
  Stalker’s Blade (••) 
  Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4 
  He stared at the unfamiliar car parked in his ex’s drive. “It’s over when I say it’s over. If I can’t 
  have you, nobody can.” He drew his knife, slipped in the open window, and went to his bloody 
  work. 
  Power: (Furious) +2 Weaponry. Gains 9-again effect when targeting loved ones. 
  Curse: (Jealous) −1 Composure 
  Disoriented Compass (•••) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  Far from civilization, the giggling collegians stripped out of their clothes and dove into the 
  bubbling spring. A false smile concealed their guide’s distress. “Have fun!” he called. “For 
  now,” he added quietly. The compass needle continued spinning wildly. 
  Power: (Intrepid) +1 Presence, +1 Subterfuge. Gains 9-again effect in unfamiliar locations. 
  Curse: (Worried) −1 Survival, −1 on rolls to navigate. If used in the wilderness, the user suffers 
  the Lost Condition. 
  Violated Diary (•••) 
  Durability 1, Size 1, Structure 2 
  The pages of her open diary rustled in the wind, quietly mocking her. Her friends wouldn’t meet 
  her gaze, their silence deafening. “So now you know...” 
  Power: (Candid) +2 Expression. Doubles bonus when revealing a personal secret. 
  Curse: (Ashamed) 1 negative Social Influence shift, −1 Subterfuge 
  Father’s Belt (••••) 
  Durability 2, Size 1, Structure 3 
  Tears flowed from the first metallic jingle of the buckle. The pleading began as he cracked open 
  the yellowing pages and began reading, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son...” 
  Power: (Zealous) +2 Intimidation, +1 Resolve. 
  Curse: (Fearful) −1 Composure, −1 Persuasion. Loses 10-again effect against authority figures. 
  Tyler’s Robot (••••) 
  Durability 2, Size 2, Structure 4 
  “Nobody wants to play with your stupid robot! Or stupid you!” The other kids began hurling 
  rocks. Tyler hunkered down, clutching the toy to his chest as he ran away in tears. 
  
  Power: (Nimble) +1 Armor, +2 Dexterity. Doubles bonuses against children. 
  Curse: (Lonely) −1 Manipulation, −1 Presence. Doubles penalties when dealing with peers. 
  Fallen Bouquet (•••••) 
  Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 3 
  The revelry faded as she rushed toward her falling bride. The bouquet tumbled to the ground, 
  forgotten as the perfect wedding became the precursor to a funeral. 
  Power: (Jubilant) +1 Presence, +2 Socialize. Gains 9-again effect at weddings. 
  Curse: (Mournful) −2 Composure, −1 Wits 
  Singing Harlequin (•••••) 
  Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 3 
  He carefully cradled the coveted doll. “It’s finally mine,” he whispered, twisting the key. He 
  stepped over the cooling corpse, hurrying toward the door as the haunting music played. 
  Power: (Enticing) +1 Composure, +2 on rolls to convince a person to violate their personal 
  morals. Gains 9-again effect while the music plays. 
  Curse: (Obsessive) −1 Defense, −1 Resolve, −1 Wits. If the user obtained the doll through 
  deception or violence, they suffer the Apprehensive Condition toward it for the remainder of the 
  chapter.  
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/CofD/Mummy - The Curse/Mummy The Curse KS Manuscript Preview 3.pdf