Cairo Summary (Session 3)

17^th March 1925

The party strongly suspected that the Clive Expedition (whom they also believed to be cultists) had recovered the last of a set of three artefacts required to resurrect the long-dead evil Queen Nitocris. It was her mummy that the party suspected the expedition had found and then deliberately allowed to be “stolen”.

The party split into two groups. The first comprised Fingers and Lucius who headed off to the Giza plateau (the suspected location of the resurrection ritual) the rest of the party formed the second group who’s bold objective was to attempt to assassinate Omar Shakti on his way to carry out the ritual.

Fingers and Lucius moved covertly to an area near the Sphynx where suspicious cultist activity had been observed. Here also stood an ancient stone obelisk with unusual heiroglyphs carved into it – lending further weight to the theory that this was to be the location of the ritual later that night. The pair found a suitable point amongst some ruins from which they could secretly observe the obelisk and train their sniper rifle on to anyone standing near it.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the party began to realise that perhaps they did not have sufficient firepower for the assassination attempt on Omar Shakti. Lucius’ sniper skills, they felt, might have been more usefully employed in this mission. Nevertheless, the bold investigators moved into position outside the gates of Shakti’s plantation.

At dusk, Shakti’s car pulled away from his mansion and began to move toward the gates. The plan was for Bill to ram his car into Shakti’s as it left the gates. Unfortunately, Shakti’s driver spotted Bill’s car and stopped short (assuming it would drive past). At this point, the others opened fire with everything they had. The driver and front seat passenger will killed instantly in a hail of bullets, immobilising the vehicle. Bill then rammed the car from the right but was injured in the crash. As he sat bleeding in the front seat, a strange blue-green energy bolt shot out from the rear of Shakti’s car and into Bill’s chest – killing him.

Rupert and Chris moved to flank the right hand side of the vehicle and shoot out the windows, whilst George flanked on the left and rolled a grenade underneath it. Unfortunately, this rolled out from the other side and exploded too far away to do any serious damage. From the corner of his eye, George spotted Shakti’s little white cat jumping out of one of the shot out windows but paid it no heed. He swiftly got out his gun, and like the others, focussed on putting as much lead as possible into the back of the car (and hopefully into Shakti).

Suddenly, George heard a strange growl from behind him and turned to see Shakti’s cat transformed into a unearthly and horrific lion-demon walking eight feet tall on its hind legs! It opened its fanged maw and, with lightning speed, shot out a long, scratchy tongue and wrapped it around George’s neck. He was unable to prevent it from reeling him in toward its vicious claws. George’s sanity was already fragile and this experience was driving him almost to a mindless panic, but he managed to writhe free and run away.

The creature, obviously toying with him, chased him down and attacked with its tongue again, this time from behind. Rupert broke off from attacking the car and, despite almost running in terror himself, managed to let off his shot-gun at point blank range into the back of the beast. Incredibly, this wasn’t enough to kill it but was enough to drive it howling into the bushes. George was barely able to speak after his experience.

However, when they re-examined the car Shakti had already made good his escape. The bodies of three other men were found. Having failed in their mission, the group withdrew taking Bill’s shrivelled body with them. . . .

Meanwhile, on the Giza plateau, Fingers and Lucius were observing the arrival of a group of cultists. To their dismay they did not begin setting up around the obelisk but somehow managed to physically enter it and disappear. Fingers thought that he heard some chanting immediately beforehand, and closer inspection through the scope of the sniper rifle showed that the obelisk had become partially transparent. Bravely, the two resolved to follow their quarries into the unknown.

The remainder of the group (George, Rupert, Chris and Saleem) met with Dr.Ali Kafour; who had agreed to help them thwart the resurrection. They then journeyed to Giza expecting to rendezvous with Lucius and Fingers. Of course, when they arrived, the others were nowhere to be seen.

Abdul’s earlier stroke of genius, to have some replica cultist robes made, proved its worth as a large and agitated group of cultists approached. The party hastily donned the robes and followed the worshippers into the obelisk! Inexplicably, they found themselves transported to a dark chamber with a single exit. They later discovered that this was part of a labyrinth of underground tunnels deep below the pyramids.

It was a relatively simple matter to follow the cultists through the tunnels, although the party began to get increasingly concerned about how they would find their way out. The labyrinth itself was a deeply unpleasant place to be. The sense of claustrophobia was overpowering and at times the walls themselves seemed to come alive like the bronchial tubes of some vast creature. At other times, the ceiling dripped blood or the walls were decorated with horrifying frescos.

Eventually, the terrified group found their way into a vast chamber; so large that the roof and walls could not be seen in the dim, red glow that illuminated it. At this point, the true power and extent of the Egyptian cult was realised, for the chamber must have contained no less than a thousand crazed cultists, some of whom had a distinctly inhuman look about them.

What followed was a ceremony, led by Shakti in full Egyptian regalia, of unimaginable horror, vileness and evil. Agatha Broadmore (a medium in the Clive Expedition) contacted Nitocris’ spirit before being sacrificed horribly. Other victims were hurled into a pit filled with bloodsucking leeches. The resurrection was achieved, and Nitocris’ first action was to lead the worshipers in a chant to summon their god. What followed can barely be comprehended, as the Black Sphynx itself appeared through an enourmous hole in the far wall of the chamber. The party fled. . . .

Getting out of the labyrinth proved difficult, for the main group at least (Fingers and Lucius managed to deduce a simpler route out – for they also witnessed the ceremony from another hidden position).

Barely escaping with their lives and sanity, the intrepid investigators came to the conclusion that Egypt had become too dangerous for them and that they now must journey to Kenya in order to locate the Mountain of the Black Wind and prevent the birth of the child of Nyarlathotep – as prophesised in the inscription found in the secret chamber in the bent pyramid.