Amara, Unique Mummy
“In the bright beam of his flashlight, he saw more than he wanted to: arms and legs like sticks, bulging points, red hair falling in glossy swatches; a gaunt and eyeless face…its mouth opened wide…those godawful white teeth…framed my black, dead lips. The creature attacked, arms reaching out…eyes twin pits of darkness.” — Richard Laymon, To Wake the Dead
During her breathing days, Amara was queen to Pharaoh Mentuhotep I. When she bore their first child, the Pharaoh only had to look at the child, and knew by the boy’s inhuman, serpentine eyes Amara had been unfaithful. In exchange for immortality, Amara let Set into her bed, and let him plant his seed in her womb. Set planned on for his son to succeed Mentuhotep as Pharaoh, so that he may plunge Egypt into darkness. This machinations never came to bear, as Mentuhotep punished Amara’s infidelity by mummifying her and the child alive.
Set kept his word; as their mummified bodies slowly withered, Amara and her son continued to live. For nearly four-thousand years mother and child were content to lie in their tomb, Amara holding her son. In the mid-19th century, grave robbers pillaging Amara’s tomb foolishly removed the child from her arms. She sprang to life, murdering one of the robbers before the others escaped, carrying her son away.
Only a special ritual known as the Seal of Osiris can force Amara to sleep. Otherwise, Amara wakes every night to search for her child. For Amara, any infant of the same age as her son will do. However, she is not a very attentive mother, any baby taken by her will be handled will less competence with less confidence than a child with a rag-doll, and suffer far more accidental abuse. Anyone older than an infant Amara encounters will meet a fury of claws and fangs. The living but dead Amara seeks the flesh and blood of the living, though it is doubtful she needs these to survive; this is probably another of Set’s “blessings”.
In the early twenty-first century, Amara’s body found its way to LA’s Charles Ward Museum, where once again the Seal of Osiris was broken. Every night she rises, seeking out her child, and slaughtering all in her path.
Amara, the Unliving
STR 14 CON 25 SIZ 10 INT 11 POW 14 DEX 18
Mov 6 – HP 19
Weapons: Grapple 25%
Claws: 60%, damage 1d6
Bite: 40%, damage 1d6+6
Armor: None, but impaling weapons do 1 point of damage, and all other weapons do minimum damage. Fire does damage as normal,as do magical attacks. Amara can be hacked apart, each piece will act independently as able. Outside of being completely obliterating her, the only way to stop Amara is the Seal of Osiris ritual.
Skills: Hide 80%, Stalk Quietly 65%
Sanity Loss: 1/1d8 to see Amara
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
