Mummy

The mummy is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase M glyph (M). Mummies are designated internally by the macro S_MUMMY.

The monster class contains the following monsters:

• M kobold mummy
• M gnome mummy
• M orc mummy
• M dwarf mummy
• M elf mummy
• M human mummy
• M ettin mummy
• M giant mummy

Common traits

Mummies are chaotic, mindless, humanoid undead that are similar to zombies, and possess unbreathing and infravision. Mummies are also inediate and have cold resistance, sleep resistance and poison resistance, like all undead. Compared to the "equivalent" zombies, mummies tend to have increased HD, speed, AC, and damage.

A hero that is in the form of a monster with a digestion attack and engulfs a mummy has a ⁴⁄₅ chance of taking 1d8 points of damage unless they have sickness resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated mummies are always hostile. Digging up a grave has a ¹⁄₅ chance of generating a mummy.

The mummy is the second quest monster class for Archeologists, and makes up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Archeologist quest. Random mummies are also generated on several floors of the Archeologist quest branch at level creation: two are placed on the home level outside the door to the College of Archeology, two are placed randomly on the locate level, three are placed randomly on the lower filler level(s), and one is placed randomly on the goal level.

Mummies are generated among the monsters placed in the central room of the Castle containing its throne at level creation. Four random mummies are generated in the Valley of the Dead at level creation.

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

Though all monsters in this class are designated as corpseless in monst.c, mummies are special-cased to leave an aged corpse of their living counterparts behind upon "death" if a corpse would be dropped normally, e.g. a gnome mummy leaves an old gnome corpse when "killed" by HP damage. This means that listed nutritional values for mummies are primarily placeholders: corpses left behind by mummies use the normal nutritional values for that corpse, though they are usually (but not always) too old to be eaten safely without a tinning kit.

Player characters killed by a mummy will leave behind a mummy of the corresponding race instead of a ghost if a bones file is created - the mummy will be carrying that character's inventory, and usually must be killed to retrieve their former items.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

The mausoleum themed room may have a randomly generated mummy sealed and meditating within its central subroom.

As of commit 3c421da7, a mummy left behind in bones will have the same intrinsics as the former character.

Strategy

While bones mummies are unable to use the deceased player's weapons or attack wands, a well-armored player mummy can still be very difficult for low-level characters to hit.

History

Most of the mummy monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, with the dwarf mummy being added in NetHack 3.3.0.

Origin

A mummy is a corpse that has been preserved through either environmental factors that prevent or slow decomposition, such as low temperature and lack of moisture or oxygen (e.g., bog bodies), or else through deliberate preparation and embalming of the corpse (generally referred to as mummification). Though the popular image of the mummy frequently features them wearing wrappings, not all cultures that practiced mummification used wrappings - the wrapping commonly associated with mummies in Ancient Egypt is used as part of the embalming and preservation process for burying the deceased.

For Ancient Egyptians in particular, careful dehydration was performed to ensure that the body was completely dried out without being too stiff, then washed and wrapped in many layers of linen cloth. These linen bandages were covered with a gum that acts as a waterproofing agent and an antimicrobial agent - Egyptian priests placed small amulets within them to guard the deceased from evil in the afterlife. Once the mummy was completely wrapped, it was coated in resin in order to keep the threat of moist air away.

Literature and other fiction centered around the mummy as a focal point or 'genre' goes back to the 19th century, when Egypt was being colonized by France and Victorian Britain. A majority of early "mummy fiction" often focused on female mummies as a form of romantic (and romanticized) interest that would carry into the modern era - the 1930s saw the emergence of the "monster mummy" genre, pioneered by the 1932 movie The Mummy featuring Boris Karloff; here, the mummy was re-imagined as a supernatural undead creature on the level of classic Gothic monsters such as Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. The rituals and charms intended to guard the deceased in the afterlife served as significant inspiration for the idea of a "mummy's curse" brought about by disturbing the dead.

Dungeons & Dragons naturally features several types of mummies: the very first edition features the "standard" human mummy as a lawful evil undead monster that seeks to destroy any living thing it encounters, and its state of undeath makes it quite strong. A mummy's attack could inflict "mummy rot" that would slowly kill a victim over a course of months - the rot severely impedes natural healing and blocks all "cure wounds" spells, and could only be removed with a spell of "cure disease". The mere sight of a mummy was enough to paralyze individuals with fear pending a save versus magic, though this was less likely against groups of people. Mummies could only be affected by magical weapons, which dealt half-damage, but were also vulnerable to fire and holy water. Later editions introduce more varied forms of mummy, both supernatural and (relatively) mundane.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM introduces one new monster to the monster class:

• M troll mummy

Player gnomes and dwarves in the Gnomish Mines will find most of the ordinarily peaceful denizens from NetHack replaced with zombies and mummies, ensuring that all player roles and races must contend with a dangerous descent through the branch. Specifically:

• G Gnome lords become M gnome mummies
• h Dwarf lords become M dwarf mummies

The Lost Tomb is a single-level branch that contains eleven random mummies at level creation, and several of the monsters randomly generated in the branch will be either mummies or zombies.

The mummy monster class is the first quest monster class for Undead Slayers, and makes up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Undead Slayer quest. Two mummies are also generated randomly on the goal level at level creation.

GruntHack

GruntHack replaces the mummies with a mummy racial monster - a mummy can be generated as any of the playable races.

dNetHack

dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack adds several new monsters to the monster class:

• M drow mummy
• M half-dragon mummy
• M chiropteran mummy
• M mummified android
• M mummified gynoid
• M alabaster mummy
• M soldier mummy
• M priest mummy
• M pharaoh
• M Nitocris
• M Ghoul-queen Nitocris
• M strange corpse

Most mummies generate with a guaranteed mummy wrapping, and some mummies may generate with special wraps as well. Several of the monsters in this class, including the mummies retained from NetHack, can inflict mummy curses on their attacker upon death.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, mummies can inflict withering with their melee attack. Being killed by a mummy has a ¹⁄₈ chance of allowing play to continue by causing the character to arise as a mummy of their corresponding race and giving them intrinsic unchanging.

Monster generation in the retooled Archeologist quest heavily favors mummies compared to NetHack - they are now the first quest monster class, and make up ¹²⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated there. Several mummies (particularly human mummies) are also randomly placed on the levels at level creation, and special traps found in the quest can generate human mummies and other mummies.

SpliceHack

SpliceHack adds one new monster to the monster class:

• M adherer

All mummies can cause withering with their melee attacks except for the adherer, who can instead disarm attackers with its sticky melee attack and passive attacks.

EvilHack

EvilHack adds two new monsters to the monster class:

• M hobbit mummy
• M drow mummy

Mummies can cause withering with their melee attacks, similar to xNetHack.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM adds two new monsters to the monster class:

• M drow mummy
• M ogre mummy

Hack'EM

Hack'EM adds a few new monsters to the monster class, including some from other variants:

• M hobbit mummy
• M centaur mummy
• M adherer
• M troll mummy

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 ]