Masks of Nyarlathotep 22

Thursday 19th March

It is dawn as we leave the Pyramid, leaving behind the echoing sounds of howls. We dust ourselves down, and head back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then catch some transport back to Cairo for a proper bath.

By midday, we are ready to head to the museum to meet Dr Ali Karfour. There are also the vizier of the Mosque who have brought the girdle. We have a mix of items that we are going to try and dissolve in Aqua Regia in order to destroy them permanently. Dr Vabreaux, a forensic specialist, is also here. He is the chemist who has been put together the required chemicals that we need.

Dr Vabreaux leaves us to it, not really wanting to know what we’re up to. We get out the mummy head, and Dr Karfour and the others seemed concerned that this is from the missing mummy of Queen Nectocris. However, in it’s burned and damaged state, it’s a bit late to worry about the preservation of archaeological relics.

We are given gas masks, and Clayton is given the task of putting on the safety gear. In doing so, he manages to drop the Girdle of Nectocris. After some fumbling around, I find the Girdle and return it to him. This time he is able to drop it gently into a beaker of Aqua Regia.

It bubbles with a noxious smell that penetrates even our gas masks, but they protect us from the harmful effects.

We then try the gold artefacts, which bubble away with a purplish gas:

• A crown with a gem at the front and ribbons at the back.
• The necklace of Nectocris

Finally, we take the mummy head down to the furnace. Much to other people’s surprise, it fails to burn. Our group isn’t that surprised though. So we take it back up to the lab, and dunk it in acid, where it gradually turns into sludge.

Dr Karfour talks to us about the fragment of the capstone which we found. He had thought it was an eye of light and darkness. It was a powerful ward. When the correct ritual is done and an eye is scribed, a powerful ward will be created. He is doing more research into this, and offers to let us know what he finds. We agree to keep in touch.

Creating such a ritual will require the contribution of a lot of people.

By late afternoon, our work is done.

We get back to our hotel.

There is a telegram waiting for us. It is from our lawyer Carlton Ramsey asking for an update on what we’ve been doing, and information on where we are heading next. We should possibly have set up some encryption plan so we can converse without telling everyone what we are doing. He does remind us that Jackson Elias had notes about what he did in Kenya in his book outline.

We could go to Memphis to talk to Dr Clive, to see where he got his map that showed him where the secret doors into the Pyramid were. We had been told this by the Dutchman. The Clive expedition also had Agatha Broadmoor, an elderly spiritualist. I’m aware of her from the British Museum, where she used to hang around in the library all the time.

There was also James Gardner who believed that there was an underground labyrinth beneath the Sphinx. He may well be right. There was Johannes Specht who was a reader of Hieroglyphics and solver of crosswords.

We need to decide whether we really want to follow up on these leads.

We also need to head to Mombasa, to get to Kenya. The next ship is leaving on Monday 23rd from Port Said, on the SS Kingdom of Fife. Which means we need to leave Cairo on Saturday.

We decide we do want to go to Memphis, and have some questions for Dr Clive:

• Where did he get the map?
• Did they find anything else at that dig?
• Did they find anything else in their current dig?
• Have they seen the design on the cap stone?

Friday 20th March

We head to Memphis with the help of the dragoman Saleed. The dig in Memphis is very heavily guarded. One might call it paranoid. Fortunately we remembered to get Dr Karfour to write us a letter of introduction. Do we think Dr Clive is a cultist? Probably not, but we’re not certain.

We meet with Martin Winfield, who obviously wants to get rid of us. I mention that we have been in tunnels under the pyramids, and are part of the British Museum’s Special Circumstances division investigating various strange goings on. Mentioning the tunnels might be a bad idea, but I wanted to grab his attention.

We are introduced to Johanna Specht, who shows us some of the finds. I actually manage not to butcher some basic German on greeting here. She lends me a German book on Hieroglyphics, and we discuss her translations of the Book of the Dead. She seems to have some quite insightful views on some of the more occult side of things.

Dr James Gardner comes into the tent, and says that they’ve found some more inscriptions. Dr Gardner recognises Carlton, and they start chatting, so myself and Fräuline Specht head off to look at the new inscriptions. As we head off, I hear Carlton and Gardner talking about tunnels under the Pyramids.

Myself and Johanna talk about hieroglyphics, and I learn something.

She talks about the mummy that they found in a Alabaster Sarcophagus, and a collection of Papyrus. The papyrus were in poor condition. I mention that the sarcophagus did look good, and she is puzzled, and asks where I saw it. I mention that it was found in the tunnels.

She tells me not to mention such things here, but maybe later. That are too many Orientals around.

There is some shouting from the tent. It seems Dr Clive is upset that we have interrupted things.

Agatha Broadmoor finds me, and tells me that my colleague is upsetting Dr Henry Clive. We are all shuffled off the dig site.

We get back to our hotel without any more trouble.

That evening, Johanna turns up on a motorcycle.

Dr Clive is extremely annoyed. Martin has an interesting sense of humour, and has left the dig to go somewhere. He is apparently “not safe in taxis”.

Clive and Martin will be gone when the Moon is dark on the 24th. They are often missing during such nights. She provides me a small notebook. Which is in German.

Saturday 21st March

We leave Cairo for Port Said. The following day, we board the SS Kingdom of Fife. As it pulls away, we see Martin Winfield watching us from the dock.