Alive? Yes. But also very Corrupt. They did a lot of talking and attempted negotiations with demons and cultists, drawn forward by greed and the promises of great treasure. With assorted "mummy curses" and cursed items and traps throughout the adventure, I made them make Corruption saves in lieu of some of the D&D spell-like effects. One character, a Zingaran pirate of all things, ended the campaign with something like 7 or 8 points of corruption, looking skeletal and down in Str but up in Dex, and as a special effect I gave him a chronic dry cough -- every time he coughs, a small puff of sand comes out. His crew was scared to death of him before....
SPOILERS
I'm giving away plot point and encounter info below, so avert thine eyes if you don't want to know.
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I kept "strange creature" encounters down to 1 per game session to keep things from being monster-heavy and more in the spirit of Howard's Conan. I replaced a lot of smaller creatures with really big snakes, or crocodiles, or other "natural" creatures.
The 7 Magic Artifacts weren't magical at all, just ceremonial items, but I kept the players guessing about that -- every time they though about trying to figure out how to use one, I reminded them of Corruption saves and asked how many point they thought a major artifact would inflict upon their souls.
I got rid of all but 2 spellcasters, Rahotep himself and the priest of Set in the village (who kept coming back and following them through later encounters and adventures, heh heh, I loved spending that point and not allowing the players to find a body).
The werecreatures I turned into cultists and thieves in masks trying to scare off graverobbers from Rahotep's tomb, using sneaky commando tactics to psych the players out rather than fighting head-on, but no one knew that until the killed one and unmasked him.
