Myrkul is the Lord of Bones, a deity of death and undeath worshiped by Nanny Pu’pu, the hag who dwells in Mbala. While Myrkul himself does not directly appear in the adventure, his influence manifests through the dark ritual known as the Rite of Stolen Life.
The Rite of Stolen Life
Nanny Pu’pu is the only creature in Chult capable of performing this necromantic ritual, which she learned as a devotee of Myrkul. The ritual transforms a dead humanoid into a zombie-like undead creature, allowing fallen adventurers to continue their quest in an undead state.
Ritual Requirements
The hour-long ceremony requires three components:
- A mostly intact humanoid corpse
- A gemstone worth at least 100 gp
- The sacrifice of another living humanoid
Ritual Process
During the ritual, Nanny Pu’pu kills the sacrificed humanoid and captures its spirit within the gemstone, which she then magically embeds in the dead character’s forehead. Through a prayer to Myrkul, the captured spirit gains the knowledge and personality of the deceased, effectively imitating their original spirit.
Game Mechanics
A character transformed by this ritual:
- Regains all hit points and retains their normal statistics
- Becomes undead (not humanoid) and is subject to effects targeting undead
- No longer needs to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe
- Suffers physical decay: their hit point maximum reduces by 1d4 each dawn
- Dies permanently when their hit point maximum reaches 0 (the gemstone shatters)
- Retains all levels and XP if later raised or resurrected, but loses all memory of their time as undead
Cost of the Ritual
Nanny Pu’pu demands significant payment for this service, such as eliminating the pterafolk nest near Mbala, obtaining a lock of Commander Breakbone’s hair and fingernails from Camp Vengeance, or acquiring an iridescent scale from the guardian naga Saja N’baza at Orolunga.