16/07/2023 – A Strange Day (9)
Tiger is convinced that they will be attacked in their hotel rooms. He puts a table on its side and sits behind it with several shot guns at hand for a while, before having Alex take over.
Saturday, 16 March 1935
Splitting Up the Girdle
They have bad dreams that night about the monster coming for them and a general feeling of foreboding, but morning comes without incident. Tiger gets up early and goes to buy a new handgun, a .455 Webley Mk 6. Jeziah packages half the Girdle up and posts it off to Alex’s shop in the UK at the Cairo post office. When he gets back, Zalkador takes the other half of the Girdle to the Egyptian Museum, accompanied by everyone else.
They speak to Dr Ali Kafour, who takes them into the vault, asking “his young pilgrims” how their quest against the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh is going. He has heard about the attack on the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and they confirm rumours of a monster are true, along with the details of the attack. Zalkador shows Dr Kafour the half of the Girdle and he agrees to lock it in the vault.
Ancient Sword
Alex shows Dr Kafour the Sword of Akmallah and he says that, although it is said to date back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed, he thinks it dates back to an almost mythical time possibly before the ice age, from a land called Hyborea. It is said to be enchanted against the powers of Darkness. Dr Kafour impresses on Alex he has a responsibility to look after the sword and ensuring it is passed onto a member of the faith.
Tiger asks if he kills vampires, to Cassandra’s incredulity. No one else saw Tiger’s run in with the invisible creature and they are sceptical. Dr Kafour asks what they will be doing next and they say they plan to visit the Bend Pyramid in Dhashur, but they are restricted by the Police prohibition to leave Cairo. They discuss whether they could get away with a day trip to Dhashur.
The Mycerius Pyramid
As they leave the museum, Cassandra worries that it lacks serious security protection, if the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh attacked. She notices a few odd-looking Egyptians staring at her, but they do not do anything. They decide to visit the Mycerius pyramid in Giza and investigate where the Clive Expedition found the sarcophagus of Queen Nitocris. They return to the hotel and get Van Heuvelen to come with them, while Mahmood and Jeziah hire two automobiles to get there.
When they get to the Mycerius pyramid, it is guarded by armed soldiers. Mahmood shows them the permit they have to look at pyramids in Dhashur and the guard nods them in. Mahmood says he thinks the guards cannot read, just recognise authentic documents.
Search Reveals Nothing
Van Heuvelen gets into his element and tells them a lot of history about pyramids getting desecrated over thousands of years. He takes them into the secret chamber they found, which is now open, where the remains of Queen Nitocris was found. They see the area where the sarcophagus was and realise it must have been big and heavy. There was no way that it could easily have been stolen.
Van Heuvelen tells them about James Gardner’s theory that there are secret underground tunnels under Giza, but Dr Clive never believed that and discouraged looking for them. Alex decides that there is a possibility they exist and begins tapping the walls to look for another secret door, but finds nothing.
Alex then decides to search the rest of the pyramid, heading further down into the lower chambers. Tiger tries to help him, but they do not find anything. Alex starts to realise it will take days to find a secret passageway.
“The Emperor” Is Intervening
Meanwhile, Cassandra speculates that Agatha Broadmoor was able to help Dr Clive find Queen Nitocris. Zalkador is encourages to use his abilities to help find the tunnels. He points out that his skill is fortune telling, not finding lost things. He does a reading though, but it gives a very strange outcome. It suggests some “Emperor” figure is intervening and is playing with the past and the future – or time? They do suggest something is definitely hidden at this pyramid, but the answer is not here, it is at the Bent pyramid. It holds terrible danger but also answers to their questions.
Around 4pm they start to get hungry and thirsty as they forgot to bring any food or water. They head back to the hotel and have dinner. Van Heuvelen starts to drink, expecting to be rewarded for being so helpful today. They are covered in dust from the desert and return to their rooms to wash. When Zalkador looks into the bowl of water, he seems an image of himself in the water, but he has green tentacles growing out of his face. He is spook by this and decides not to wash.
Things Starting to Repeat
Over dinner that evening they begin to feel strange. It is like the day has been going for a long time, or that perhaps things have happened before. They seem to recall that they forgot last time to bring food and water – but that does not make sense as they have not been to that pyramid before.
After dinner, Zalkador tries another Tarot reading to understand what is going on. Almost the same cards come out that came out earlier in the pyramid. Even more disturbingly, when he draws more cards to answer questions, the cards continue to mostly repeat themselves.
Zalkador interprets this as something big is happening and their “destiny” is now that they need to go to Dhashur as soon as possible. It is the dark of the moon and the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh will be performing their rituals. The “Emperor” figure comes out again and he wonders if this is the dark god that Dr Kafour mentioned, Nyarlathotep. Everyone then feels something walk over their grave.