Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

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Another more generic entry. I first remember seeing scroll mummies in 3e where they appeared in the Monster Manual III. I wouldn’t be surprised if they date from earlier editions than that. There’s a bit of an AD&D 2nd Edition vibe to them.

The Lore

Despite the name, these creatures are constructs, not undead. They’re armatures made from magical detritus (broken magic items, shards of potion vials, and so on) wrapped in spell scrolls. They style of the wrapping makes them resemble mummies, so I guess the name stuck.

They are however still undead-adjacent because each one is powered by a lich’s soul. To activate a scroll mummy, you need to destroy a lich and place its soul vessel inside the finished body of the construct before the lich can reform. The lich’s soul is bound as a power source, and the mummy rises to obey its creator like a typical construct.

Scroll mummies are fairly clever as constructs go, and their construction gives them the ability to cast the spells written on their wrappings. In the Vale, the Mages of Saruun know how to create scroll mummies and love using them to guard their private libraries. Most other people who know the secret of their construction are more explicitly evil mages and priests, many of which worship Vecna.

There is, of course, a complication here: if a scroll mummy is destroyed and the soul vessel survives, the lich it belongs to will reform within 1d10 days. It will likely also be pretty angry at whoever decided to turn it into a glorified battery.

The first scroll mummy ever created was named Grisgol, and its heart was the vessel of the lich Asperdies. Legend has it that Asperdies eventually found a way to break out of his imprisonment and took his revenge on Grisgol’s creators. To this day, wizards who are particular about terminology prefer to call these constructs “grisgols” since they aren’t true mummies.

The Numbers

Grisgols are Large Natural Animates with the Construct keyword, and also Level 15 Elite Soldiers with 276 HP. That puts them at about the same power level or a bit higher than a typical lich. Its basic attack is a Paralyzing Claw, borrowing the power of a lich’s touch. It’s Reach 2, does necrotic damage, and immobilizes for a turn.

Once per round as a minor action, the grisgol can cast a spell from one of the scrolls wrapping it. The GM rolls a d6 to determine the effect. All of them are bursts or blasts with different elemental damage types and riders.

  1. Boiling Blood: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, immediate and ongoing fire damage on a hit (save ends).

  2. Ice Barrage: Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex, cold damage, half on a miss.

  3. Lightning Lure: Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex, lightning damage, pulls 4 squares.

  4. Shadowy Tendrils: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, necrotic damage, inflicts necrotic vulnerability (save ends).

  5. Thunderforce Pulse: Close Burst 2 vs. Fortitude, thunder and force damage, knocks prone.

  6. Wave of Madness: Close Blast 5 vs. Will, psychic damage, target must choose between making a basic attack against an adjacent ally or taking extra psychic damage.

I imagine that in past editions these would be standard spells, but here they’re custom.

When a grisgol is reduced to 0 HP, it collapses and releases a cloud of Choking Dust in a Close Burst 2. This attack does both immediate and ongoing necrotic and poison damage (save ends).

Final Impressions

It’s interesting that Vecna, who spreads lichdom rituals, would also be the source of the recipe for scroll mummies. Maybe it was all a scam from the start, or maybe he feels it’s a waste to simply kill all those “competing” liches who are affiliated with Orcus.

I guess this also gives a plausible reason for some shady wizards to not want to become liches. “A lich? You mean like those things I use to power my guards?”

In addition the treasure these things might be guarding, their own bodies might serve as a plausible source of treasure for an encounter. Maybe one of those broken magic items isn’t so broken after all, and maybe you can bring combat scrolls back into 4e by giving them out as consumables that let PCs use one of the grisgol’s spell attacks once.