D&D 5E Bag of Beans killed 2 PCs, solo bosses suck, and where to go from here....

[toucanbuzz]

Good point. Did the OP use the Mummy Lord's legendary and lair actions, I wonder?

I did. The lair action is nasty (near impossible to cast spells).

If a pyramid would be too off-putting in the campaign setting, I might have it appear as an "iceberg"... meaning just the very top might be visible with the bulk of it underground. The pyramid certainly creates a bit of a side quest but, IMO, that's part of the wackiness that can ensue when the bag of beans gets introduced into a campaign.

The bag of beans pyramid was really small (60') for a base, so Mr. Mummy has abandoned it for an upgrade.

 

[toucanbuzz]

As above - the mummy starts gathering minions, setting up traps to deter intruders, using divinations to orient itself, and determining what it's going to do next.

It's a mummy lord, an intelligent and OLD undead. What does it want, in the context of your game?
-Is it a researcher of some sort? Astronomy? Alchemy? Arcane symbols?
-Does it just want to kill people and make them undead?
-Does it want to shut down necromancy and secure dead bodies as dead?
-Does it want to become a new pharoah?
-Who does it worship? In past editions of D&D, mummies with magic often had clerical magic.

All good ideas. He or she is where they don't belong (forested setting) having just been attacked with a weapon from a gawd that hates undead.

In this world, the original ruling race eons ago were cyclops, and a weakened lich is planned to awaken in a year or so (game time). They enslaved the "lesser" races, and from this enslavement, sorcery and blood magic emerged as races found ways to free themselves. This mummy lord could be a devoted servant. The group has already had a taste of this several real-time months ago when they visited fey land and crossed paths with the spirit of a halfling servant who eons ago had served the cyclops empire. He had "drank the kool-aid" so to speak and was enamored with his former overlords.

I had dropped this in for future foreshadowing, so maybe this fits...

 

[toucanbuzz]

The Mummy Lord was the random result of a Bag of Beans.

Needed that reminder!

I didn't set this encounter up at all. The players were doing inventory on their "stash" and found a mysterious unidentified bag with beans. They sent off for a wizard and got it identified. When they talked about planting beans, the wizard wanted to write a scholarly paper about the effects, since so little was known about it other than the beanstalk legend and magical treasure in the skies.

 

[MarkB]

Needed that reminder!

I didn't set this encounter up at all. The players were doing inventory on their "stash" and found a mysterious unidentified bag with beans. They sent off for a wizard and got it identified. When they talked about planting beans, the wizard wanted to write a scholarly paper about the effects, since so little was known about it other than the beanstalk legend and magical treasure in the skies.

How long until they plant another one, under the principle of "there's no way we'd get two Mummy Lords in a row"?

 

[J.Quondam]

(Nothing to add at the moment except: This whole situation sounds glorious!)

 

[aco175]

Over the next few weeks, monoliths begin to pop up around the kingdom with strange writing. These are tied to the mummies plan to take over the kingdom or corrupts the land to form it to his homeland. The players may stumble upon one or hear tales about one forming not too far away. They can try and figure out the problem or deal with another problem first, but once they are all in place, the mummy's power is cemented and he is that much more powerful.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

As the Mummy Lord establishes his grip the lad around begins to wither and desertify becoming more an more like the Mummy's native land and if unchecked that area of the Feywild will begin to detach and drift toward the Shadowfell where eventually it becomes a Domain of Dread.

 

[Stalker0]

I just wanted to note for the record.... Mummy Lords suck. They are very bad monsters for their CR, straight up. I've used them a few times, and every time it was a waste of effort how quickly they died. I'm not surprised at all that your 5th level party almost took it out.

So I wouldn't base your thoughts on CR 16s vs 5th level players based on that monster. I agree with the premise that high level monsters are generally over CRed....but the mummy lord is not the monster to use as any evidence....its just bad.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

Give the mummy some goals outside of terrorizing locals and amassing power. Maybe he wants vengeance on the people who mummified him and turned him into a magic bean. I’d also rip off The Mummy and have the ML steal the life force of his victims so he can reach full power.

 

[J.Quondam]

Does the bag of beans still have any beans left? If so, perhaps the mummy lord knows for certain that two other beans are also mummy lords (or something), who happen to be more powerful siblings/friends/mentors of his. One of his goals could be to locate the PCs to get his hands on the remaining beans. In this way, he hopes to gain some familiar allies in this strange new world he's been awakened into.