So my party killed a mummy lord and instead of destroying the heart (being unaware they needed to) they for some strange reason picked it up and put it in a bag of holding.
Now I love the idea of it regenerating in the bag and when they next open it there's the mummy lord ready to pop out from the other dimension it regenerated in.
Is this too silly? Is there a way you'd do it better? Just throwing ideas around about brining the mummy lord back.
Let me start by saying this: It's your world. It's your game. You can do anything you want.
I'd have fun with this. The passage of time inside a BOH has been discussed ad nauseum in these forums, but I want to make one point. There's no definite rule about this. The heart is in a demiplane, but that doesn't mean that in your world you can't make time pass more quickly or slowly. That is, the mummy lord might regenerate in 24 hours inside the bag/demiplane, but it's only 5 minutes in the Prime Material Plane world it came from. (I know there are rules about the air in the bag that can sustain breathers for X hours, but that's X hours measured in the Prime Material Plane. It might be 2X hours in the demiplane from their experience. Again, it's your world.) What I'm saying is that it's possible for you to restore the mummy lord in 5 PMP minutes if you want. It might be fun or funny. Maybe not.
Another idea is that the RAW for a mummy lord says that the new body forms 5 feet from the heart. Is that 5 feet inside the demiplane or 5 feet from the BOH? In your world, the body could form 5 feet from the bag.
Coupe these together, and the new mummy lord body could form outside the BOH in 5 PMP minutes. If the DM says it does, then it does. Wave your hands and say, "magic." If it's fun and the players roll with it, then it can turn into its own adventure.
Also depending on what is already in the bag, the reformation of the Mummy Lord will destroy the bag when the weight or size limit is exceeded. This will suddenly dump the mummy lord and all the bag of holding belongings out in one spot as the bag is destroyed. Then the players roll for initiative :)
P.S. I would be cautious about changing the time flow properties or other things in a bag of holding since you will need to continue to use them to be consistent. If you increase the passage of time in the bag and effectively reduce the amount of time a character could survive in the bag then they could not use it to hide characters temporarily for the amount of time listed in the books. This might cause a mismatch between your player expectations and how you are running your game unless you spell out how bags of holding work in your world. I would tend get that information to the players before releasing the mummy just to make the explanation appear consistent with information you have already given them. Explaining afterward ("but in this world time in a bag of holding passes at X rate") sounds like the DM making something up to justify a plot point - so if you plan to make changes like this it is best to subtly let the players know prior to it becoming a plot element.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
It should work fine as long as the Bag of Holding's limitation are not surpassed. If they stored it away for later, the party is likely to pull it out in a time and place where they won't be expecting combat so this should be fun! ☺
The mummy lord awoke to find itself in unfamilar surroundings, small amounts of treasure littered the floor around it. As it contemplated recent events a small purple shimmer appeared in the air near it and a humanoid hand appeared out of it accompanied by a muiffled exclaimation of "50 gold coins". As the mummy lord watched a small pile of coins levitated up form the floor and floated into the waiting hand before disappeaaring through the shimmer but before the mummy lord could act the shimmer faded and disappeared. The mummy lord kept watch and several more times the shimmer appeared and either somethign was taken out or put into the strange little wrold it occupied and then the mummy lord struck. The shimmer appeared and a hand came through and the mummy lords hand shot out to grasp it and in a decayed and pestilent breath it uttered the words "With this curse form my palm I smite thee now with virulent harm" and sent a wave of necrotic energy into the hand. A muffled cry of anguish made its way through the shimmering portal and if it were possible the mummy lord would have smiled.
Outside of the bag of holding......(insert character name) recoiled in horror as their hand and arm turned black and the darkness spread up their arma nd gasp of terror erupted at teh sight of mummy rot taking hold.
Out of Chracter...Mummy lord uses the harm spell plus a legendary action to make a surprise attack on the hand.
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It wasn't a Handy Haversack, so that arm reaching in for 50 gp will have to rummage around a bit to find the coins.
-- Edit: Oh, 5E have nerfed the Handy Haversack to take the same time as a Bag of Holding, so the line "the item is always magically on top" is irrelevant.
The mummy lord awoke to find itself in unfamilar surroundings, small amounts of treasure littered the floor around it. As it contemplated recent events a small purple shimmer appeared in the air near it and a humanoid hand appeared out of it accompanied by a muiffled exclaimation of "50 gold coins". As the mummy lord watched a small pile of coins levitated up form the floor and floated into the waiting hand before disappeaaring through the shimmer but before the mummy lord could act the shimmer faded and disappeared. The mummy lord kept watch and several more times the shimmer appeared and either somethign was taken out or put into the strange little wrold it occupied and then the mummy lord struck. The shimmer appeared and a hand came through and the mummy lords hand shot out to grasp it and in a decayed and pestilent breath it uttered the words "With this curse form my palm I smite thee now with virulent harm" and sent a wave of necrotic energy into the hand. A muffled cry of anguish made its way through the shimmering portal and if it were possible the mummy lord would have smiled.
Outside of the bag of holding......(insert character name) recoiled in horror as their hand and arm turned black and the darkness spread up their arma nd gasp of terror erupted at teh sight of mummy rot taking hold.
Out of Chracter...Mummy lord uses the harm spell plus a legendary action to make a surprise attack on the hand.
This is awesome!
One question: If the Mummy Lord could speak, what would it say? In other words, what's its catchphrase?
Hey guys,
So my party killed a mummy lord and instead of destroying the heart (being unaware they needed to) they for some strange reason picked it up and put it in a bag of holding.
Now I love the idea of it regenerating in the bag and when they next open it there's the mummy lord ready to pop out from the other dimension it regenerated in.
Is this too silly? Is there a way you'd do it better? Just throwing ideas around about brining the mummy lord back.
Thanks DMs!
As long as the mummy lord weighs less than 500 pounds then go with it!
Let me start by saying this: It's your world. It's your game. You can do anything you want.
I'd have fun with this. The passage of time inside a BOH has been discussed ad nauseum in these forums, but I want to make one point. There's no definite rule about this. The heart is in a demiplane, but that doesn't mean that in your world you can't make time pass more quickly or slowly. That is, the mummy lord might regenerate in 24 hours inside the bag/demiplane, but it's only 5 minutes in the Prime Material Plane world it came from. (I know there are rules about the air in the bag that can sustain breathers for X hours, but that's X hours measured in the Prime Material Plane. It might be 2X hours in the demiplane from their experience. Again, it's your world.) What I'm saying is that it's possible for you to restore the mummy lord in 5 PMP minutes if you want. It might be fun or funny. Maybe not.
Another idea is that the RAW for a mummy lord says that the new body forms 5 feet from the heart. Is that 5 feet inside the demiplane or 5 feet from the BOH? In your world, the body could form 5 feet from the bag.
Coupe these together, and the new mummy lord body could form outside the BOH in 5 PMP minutes. If the DM says it does, then it does. Wave your hands and say, "magic." If it's fun and the players roll with it, then it can turn into its own adventure.
Sure sounds like fun.
Also depending on what is already in the bag, the reformation of the Mummy Lord will destroy the bag when the weight or size limit is exceeded. This will suddenly dump the mummy lord and all the bag of holding belongings out in one spot as the bag is destroyed. Then the players roll for initiative :)
P.S. I would be cautious about changing the time flow properties or other things in a bag of holding since you will need to continue to use them to be consistent. If you increase the passage of time in the bag and effectively reduce the amount of time a character could survive in the bag then they could not use it to hide characters temporarily for the amount of time listed in the books. This might cause a mismatch between your player expectations and how you are running your game unless you spell out how bags of holding work in your world. I would tend get that information to the players before releasing the mummy just to make the explanation appear consistent with information you have already given them. Explaining afterward ("but in this world time in a bag of holding passes at X rate") sounds like the DM making something up to justify a plot point - so if you plan to make changes like this it is best to subtly let the players know prior to it becoming a plot element.
Or the Mummy Lord escapes to the Astral Plane, simply by cutting the edge of the bag with sharp claws:
Or the Mummy Lord appears within 5 ft of the person carrying the bag of holding:
(and let the caster's debate between each other the mechanics of interior/exterior dimensions of a bag of holding :-)
When will they learn...
Love the Idea
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Could be a good (and terrifying) introduction to the Bag Man.
The party hear something coming from the bag of holding - depending on how you depict it, it might be jumping around a bit too.
Then the mummy lord whips open the top and starts trying to climb out, only for a large, clawed hand to reach up and drag him back in.
The party find some of their stuff damaged, but the bag is now empty of mummy heart, and their hearts are full of concern!
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It should work fine as long as the Bag of Holding's limitation are not surpassed. If they stored it away for later, the party is likely to pull it out in a time and place where they won't be expecting combat so this should be fun! ☺
a small aside from inside a bag of holding.....
The mummy lord awoke to find itself in unfamilar surroundings, small amounts of treasure littered the floor around it. As it contemplated recent events a small purple shimmer appeared in the air near it and a humanoid hand appeared out of it accompanied by a muiffled exclaimation of "50 gold coins". As the mummy lord watched a small pile of coins levitated up form the floor and floated into the waiting hand before disappeaaring through the shimmer but before the mummy lord could act the shimmer faded and disappeared. The mummy lord kept watch and several more times the shimmer appeared and either somethign was taken out or put into the strange little wrold it occupied and then the mummy lord struck. The shimmer appeared and a hand came through and the mummy lords hand shot out to grasp it and in a decayed and pestilent breath it uttered the words "With this curse form my palm I smite thee now with virulent harm" and sent a wave of necrotic energy into the hand. A muffled cry of anguish made its way through the shimmering portal and if it were possible the mummy lord would have smiled.
Outside of the bag of holding......(insert character name) recoiled in horror as their hand and arm turned black and the darkness spread up their arma nd gasp of terror erupted at teh sight of mummy rot taking hold.
Out of Chracter...Mummy lord uses the harm spell plus a legendary action to make a surprise attack on the hand.
It wasn't a Handy Haversack, so that arm reaching in for 50 gp will have to rummage around a bit to find the coins.
-- Edit: Oh, 5E have nerfed the Handy Haversack to take the same time as a Bag of Holding, so the line "the item is always magically on top" is irrelevant.
This is awesome!
One question: If the Mummy Lord could speak, what would it say? In other words, what's its catchphrase?
(e.g., "Supplies!")
No surprise attack via a legendary action, simply a readied action to attack the next thing put into the bag.
"Supplies!" sounds like a good catchphrase.