Human mummy

M human mummy
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Claw 2d4 physical, claw 2d4 physical

M human mummy
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Claw 2d4 physical, claw 2d4 physical
Base level	6
Base experience	73
Speed	12
Base AC	4
Base MR	30
Alignment	−5 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	200
Size	Medium
Resistances	cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance
Resistances conveyed	None
A human mummy: does not need to breathe. is mindless. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is poisonous to eat. does not eat. (*) is undead. is normally generated hostile. has infravision. can leave an old human corpse.
Reference	NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 1580

A human mummy, M, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The human mummy is a type of mummy that lacks the human monster attribute, unlike other mummies that are the same race as their living counterparts, but still behave as other mummies do.

A human mummy has two claw attacks and possesses cold resistance, sleep resistance and poison resistance, along with drain resistance and death resistance like other undead.

Human mummies are poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up when it is digested by another monster—a hero in the form of a monster with a digestion attack has a ⁴⁄₅ chance of taking 1d8 damage from digesting a human mummy, unless they have immunity to sickness.

Generation

Randomly-generated human mummies are always hostile.

Human mummies are the sole quest monster for Archeologists, and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Archeologist quest. Several human mummies are also generated on floors below the home level of the Archeologist quest branch at level creation: one is generated on each of the filler levels, seven are placed randomly on the locate level, and eight are placed randomly on the goal level. Human mummies may also appear among the mummies that are part of the second quest monster class, and makes up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters that are randomly generated there.

Human mummies have a ⁶⁄₇ chance of being generated with a mummy wrapping.

A human mummy leaves behind an aged human corpse upon death.

Strategy

Human mummies are likely to be the first of the faster mummies that a hero encounters, and the two claw attacks may be more damaging than expected, especially if the human mummy is encountered out-of-depth as a result of bones.

As it lacks the corresponding monster attribute, chaotic human heroes such as Barbarians cannot use human mummies for same-race sacrifice, though the method of generating its corpse ensures that eating it still counts as cannibalism for them.

History

The human mummy first appears in NetHack 3.0.0, where most of the various mummies are introduced.

Variants

Some NetHack variants fix the vanilla error that omits the human monster attribute flag from the human mummy's data.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the human mummy is the first quest monster for Undead Slayers and makes up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Undead Slayer quest. Human mummies are also generated on some of the floors of the quest branch at level creation: four are randomly generated on the upper filler level, three are randomly generated on the lower filler level(s), and six are randomly generated on the goal level. Human mummies can also appear among the mummies that are part of the first quest monster class for the Undead Slayer quest and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated there.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, human mummies are given the human monster attribute and made stronger: their difficulty is increased to 8, their claw attacks have double the amount of dice (i.e. increased to 4d4 from 2d4), and they can inflict mummy curses on a hero or monster that kills them—this curse inflicts HP damage equal to the lower between the mummy's level and half the killer's current HP.

The Hmnyw-Pharaoh has a ¹⁄₇ chance of creating a human mummy whenever he summons monsters to his position while he is not visible to the hero (who must have 40 insight to see him). Human mummies generated this way are not treated as summoned or temporary and ignore extinction.

Two human mummies are randomly placed on the "undead" map of the stockade level in the Neutral Quest during level creation.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, human mummies can inflict withering with their melee attacks.

Human mummies feature much more heavily in the retooled Archeologist quest, where they serve as the first quest monster and make up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated there. Several human mummies are also randomly placed on the levels at level creation, and special traps found in the quest can generate human mummies.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, human mummies can inflict withering with their melee attacks similar to xNetHack.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, human mummies can inflict withering with their melee attacks.

Hack'EM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, human mummies in Hack'EM can also inflict withering with their melee attacks as in EvilHack.

Encyclopedia entry

But for an account of the manner in which the body was
bandaged, and a list of the unguents and other materials
employed in the process, and the words of power which were
spoken as each bandage was laid in its place, we must have
recourse to a very interesting papyrus which has been edited
and translated by M. Maspero under the title of Le Rituel de
l'Embaumement. ...
Everything that could be done to preserve the body was now
done, and every member of it was, by means of the words of
power which changed perishable substances into imperishable,
protected to all eternity; when the final covering of purple
or white linen had been fastened upon it, the body was ready
for the tomb.

[ Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge ]