On April 1st, Onyx Path published Sothis Ascends for Mummy: The Curse. I can honestly say that it was one of the most enjoyable projects that I’ve done. So, fair warning, I’m going to be a bad author and gush about my own product. I can’t help it. I’m very proud.

First of all, I love the cover.

In Mummy: The Curse, characters endure cycles where they wake with little memory and great power, but over time as they recover their memories, their power wanes. It’s an analogy for life. As we gain wisdom and experience over time, we eventually have to face that our abilities decline.

Sothis Ascends allowed me to reach back to my days at American University and draw on some of my ancient history studies. I was able to write about ancient Egypt and spend time perusing all sorts of wonderful history books in the process. The interesting and frustrating thing about ancient history is how much we really don’t know. Archaeology helps immensely, but even those discoveries leave us wondering and speculating about their meaning. Nonetheless, I was able to spend time rediscovering the Phoenicians, visiting Canaan and of course, exploring Egypt.

My favorite section to write was on Storytelling. With immortal characters in Mummy: The Curse, Storytellers can run sessions with flashbacks or even set entire sessions in the past. I was able to unleash my inner Gallifreyian (a Doctor Who reference for any non-Whovians out there), and give guidelines for telling stories and setting chronicles that warp time where events of the present impact the past and struggles in ancient times could determine the fate of the future. It was invigorating to draw on techniques that I had used running my own games in fantasy worlds with rich histories and with the past lives of werewolves and the dim memories of vampires.

There are twisted new antagonists for mummies in the book from each of the different eras. Without ruining anything, they are creative and interesting. Even though they may be assumed to be gone in the present, I can come up with dozens of reasons for their return. All of the authors did a great job, and a special thanks to Colin Suleiman for his development work and inspiration. So far, it has two five star reviews and four five star ratings. There is material in this book that could be useful for any World of Darkness game.

Again, it was a fun project.

Sothis Ascends is available in pdf format (print coming soon) at DriveThruRPG. Here’s the link.