Masks of Nyarlathotep 21

Tuesday 17th March

I don’t recall much of what happened, but I wake up with vague memories of dark dreams and needing bigger guns. We are staying at a guest house near to Al Wasta, and I stagger down to breakfast to meet everyone else.There are plantains and eggs for breakfast.

From what we saw in the Pyramid, there were three sites of interest to the cult – Kenya, East China Sea and Australia. Given that Kenya is the closest, we might need to head there next and find out what happened to the previous expedition.

But before we leave Egypt, there is also the issue of the missing mummy of Netocris on the pyramids of Giza, and also a second dig site of the Clive Expedition.

Our plan is to head to Giza first, and back to the hotel to get a proper bath. I also need to go to a gun shop. They have elephant guns, so I buy one, and arrange to have a permit.

Wednesday 18th March

We are heading to Giza, and arranging a tour in order to get an idea of the lay of the land. There are three large Pyramids, including the Pyramid of Menkaura which is where the Clive Expedition found a mysterious hidden chamber from which they took the mummy of Netocris.

There are hand drawn maps for sale of the Pyramid interiors, and they even include the new chamber. There is a tour of the new chamber, so we take it. We organise things from the Mena House Hotel, where we rest up and have tea whilst waiting for our camels.

Eventually, we head to the Pyramids, and take a tour into the Pyramid of Menkaura. Clayton seems to get distracted as we head into the burial chamber, spending a lot of time trying to push and slide parts of the wall. There are no signs of anything heaving having been dragged along the passage.

Monty seems to find something real though, so I keep our tour guide distracted whilst he manages to open a secret door, and briefly vanishes out of sight. On the way back to the hotel, Monty mentions that he found passages behind the door, but hadn’t explored them.

Most of the security that had been around the Pyramids has been removed, which means that we may be able to sneak in at night.

That night… we are back at the Pyramid, and now have guns. The Pyramid is locked, but Lefty is able to pick the lock. There are some guards on patrol, but they are far enough away to not notice us. We head inside. It is dark and silent. We quietly make our way to the secret door which Monty found.

There is a ‘button’ on the wall. Pressing it, a doorway opens. Beyond is a tunnel with a lever. We pull the lever, and close the door behind us. We carefully head down the passage, with Clayton leading. He seems to have started acting out his ‘Tarzan’ character from films. Suddenly there is a scream, and Clayton vanishes into the ground. There seems to be a pit in the middle of the passage, about three metres deep, and one and a half metres wide.

“Tarzan can climb out”. “Tarzan need a hand”.

I mark the hole on the map that I am drawing.

We come out into a wider passage. A weird growling chuckle is heard from down the passage. We head towards it, with me carefully pointing my big gun forward. There is warm liquid dripping from the ceiling. I assume it’s just rust stained water, but it seems to be blood. There’s a lot of it oozing out.

There are now voices, in Arabic, coming from somewhere ahead. There are panels of images. People with heads of animals. Animals with human limbs. It seems to be the reverse of the journey to the Field of Reeds. Obscene human figures being shown heading towards the realms of obscene gods. I don’t recognise any of the gods, except for the Black Pharaoh.

We’ve been walking for about half an hour, and heading down, so we must be a long way outside of the region of the Pyramid itself. There are lots of minor passages, but we continue on the main passage.

The passage opens out into a huge space which our torchlight doesn’t fill. The space is filled with pillars, and there are some torches. There are some spiral stairs going down, a strange ruby mist floating up from them. What looks like some sort of altar is towards the back. There is a pool of water as well.

There are some hideous shrieks coming from down below, which sounds like shrieks of pain. The water is black and featureless, and a set of steps leading down into it. I walk forward, brandishing my rifle. There seems to be a small boat on the water.

The water heaves, and a metre long leech with multiple mouths breaks the surface of the water, before vanishing below again.

Beyond, there is a white marble altar. There is a large alabaster sarcophagus. Glistening on the altar is a headband and a necklace. The necklace has the face of the Black Pharaoh on the main stone.

Beyond the altar, is a large throne, carved with horrifying creatures doing terrible things to each other. Looking at things closely, the throne is designed for two human sized figures. There are some hieroglyphics, which I don’t recognise, so I take a rubbing of them.

There is a bridge heading from the raised from throne to the top of a stela. There are hieroglyphics there as well, which seems to be a sort of invocation, maybe to open a passage. I take a rubbing.

At the very back of the cavern, is a hole in the wall about thirty metres across. It’s pitch black. The region inside seems to consume all light. The hole is flanked by two large statues, distorted and unsettling figures.

There is a strange howling scratching noise coming up from the passage that we came in.

A man with a hippo head, a man with a crocodile head and a man with bird beak. There are two additional beast men dragging a captive towards the watery pool.

Clayton hollers out a cry, and I raise my heavy rifle and take a shot. I miss, but make a lot of noise. Lefty and Clayton open up as well, with Clayton hitting one of the beast men. The victim is let go, unfortunately in the direction of the pool of water. Monty seems to have sneaked off into the darkness.

The strange headed creatures start running towards where the three of us are standing up by the sarcophagus. They run past Monty, who shoots the hippo headed one in the arm.

Lefty takes a shot at the same one, taking it down. I take aim at the crocodile man, saying a quick prayer for luck, and with a loud bang I take off its leg. It goes down. I start reloading, whilst Clayton finishes off the third one.

The remaining beast creature seems to be trying to throw his wounded companion into the pool, as Lefty tries a shot at him. A well aimed shot hit its leg.

Monty finishes off the final one. There are glorping and blorping noises coming from the pool.

Turning back to the sarcophagus we see that the lid is off. Inside is resting a mummy. As we step forward to have a look, the braziers on the alter flare up. One arm is across its chest, the other down the side. This is the standard pose for an Egyptian Queen. Clayton pours some Glandulike onto it, and sets it on fire. This consumes the bandages, but the body within seems still intact.

Monty notices that this mummy hasn’t had the usual incisions. Clayton shoots it in the head, but his round just seems to bounce off. So I point my elephant gun at its head, and there is a loud bang. The round bounces off.

We put the other bodies in the pool. Lefty takes a swing with his holy sword, and the head comes off.

We take the headband and necklace into my handbag, and the head goes into a sack.

Monty considers going down the stairs, but thinks twice about it.

We head out of the Pyramid, emerging into the dawn. Later today, we have a plan to dissolve the other ritual items that we had found, so we can add these new ones to the list of items to destroy.