Entry 7 - Cairo: newspaper to learn of Carlyle group, the legend/prophesy of the Black Pharaoh,

It was a long day having pissed off the locals. All of us uneasy about our London departure without misdirection attempts. So we took shifts on night watch. Guin reporting her early morning notice of footsteps outside our door pausing before continuing down the hall.

Friday February 6^th: a quiet morning given it was a holy day; meaning our hired guide was absent. Norman went across the street to the Cairo Bulletin while James/Yosef/Guin when to the library. Rene, to the police station. Each of us searching for clues: either about the shop burnt down, records on Omar Shakti, or just general knowledge about the archaeological finds in the region.

 
The newspaper office was clean and organized.

The owner/head editor Nigel Wa-kief (pencil mustache, mixed heritage-part white, part dark). Norman started research on the April 1919 fire. Nothing we already didn’t know, although Nigel actually wrote this article. Him a non-believer in magic and the storied “devil come down”. As Norman expanded his research around May 1919, the Carlyle Expedition arrival in Cairo, he noted the upper class articles of pomp and parties. The fancy dinner put on by one Omar Shakti. A wealthy cotton plantation owner, located north of town. More articles of their departure in July. Roger sick and Ms Masters preparing a camera safari to Kenya as a respite. It’s during this time Nigel stopped in to check on Norman. “Oh yes, THAT expedition. Yes, yes. Rude group. Would you believe when I journeyed to their dig site in Memphis, they actually pulled guns on me and ran me off?!

Well, maybe not Roger; he was inside the pyramid at the time. Fine by me. I wanted nothing else to do with them. Just short follow-up articles noting how they moved from the Memphis site to further south to the Dhashur site. Then suddenly both Roger and Masters ill.”

Meanwhile, Rene on the other hand, struck a dead-end. “Omar Shakti? An honorable local citizen, if anything, maybe tax problems. But then we had a fire months ago and lost all our records regarding the northern sector of town.”

As for the library trio: a long day with their noses dusting the inside covers of volumes of books. Everything you’d want to know about pyramids and pharaoh dynasties. Just ask the museum curator Ali Kafour at the Egyptian Museum. Occult articles about the Black Pharaohs. Stuff that would put the normal man to sleep. But not the tails that patiently waited outside till the trio returned to the hotel. “I think we’re being followed by 3 arab looking fellows.”

So they quickened their pace to the hotel and public viewing before taking a seat outside for tea, waiting for the others to arrive. One tail left. When Rene arrived and was informed, he slipped around the building to then sit beside the tails sitting at their own table across the street. Initially startled, then resolved, “You took our book” referencing the ledger found below the Mirs island mansion. They know we took it because the telegram from London described us perfectly. How their boss, Omar, wants his book. He being Gavigan’s boss. It’s not long before the rest of the group crossed the street. James honestly claiming he knows nothing of any book. Yosef taking a direct approach, “We want in. Obviously profits; we want a cut. We’ve seen your magic and would like that too. But I’m only willing to give the book to Omar himself. Where can I find him?” They confirm Norman’s discovery of the cotton plantation. A lot of threats back and forth.

And that’s when James leads the group, tails in tow, to the British outpost station. “See those 2 A…rabs? They’ve been harassing us good British citizens.” And thus their arrest and lockup. Which gives us time to change hotels in disguise. Two groups each getting a room, one above the other so we can listen in to the lower room should someone come a calling.

Time to peruse the ledger to reason what is so important. But just shipment records: Metal rods shipped to Shanghai, Egyptian antiquities to Cairo, Excavation gear to Australia. Records we’d already noted. As precaution, Norman suggests we cut the middle pages out of this ledger and swap them with same-sized pages out of Mr. Shipley’s painting ledger.

 
Saturday 7^th: We depart early to go cloth shopping to blend in with the locals. Then off to the Egyptian Museum

where James and Yosef give their real names when asked. Hello? Blend in. Misdirection. Make up a different name no-one is asking about. Anyway, Yoseph and James track down the curator Ali (short, thin, grey hair, 60ish with small glasses). James goes for interest in occult while Yosef asks if he knows the departed Elias. But when the topic changes to the Black Pharaoh cult, Ali hushes all and hustles us into his office closing the door behind. “Careful what you say. You are in the heart of the Black Pharaoh.”
 

Asking permission, Ali places his palm on Yosef’s forehead to get a magical read, “You are an honest man. We work together for a common goal.” Hours pass as Ali explains the evil before us. The evil the Carlyle Expedition encountered, if they didn’t unleash it themselves!

 
"The Black Pharaoh was an old god that Nephren-Ka revived the worship of.  In time they became indistinguishable from each other in history.

Nephren-Ka

amulet of Black Pharaoh

The Black Pharaoh's voice was carried on the Black Wind which destroyed at a whim. Nephren-Ka was overthrown by Sneferu

who was helped by the goddess Isis who established the 4th dynasty. Still, the followers of Neph attempted to build a pyramid in Meidum but it collapsed in ruins. They built another pyramid in Dhashur upon unstable ground; could not hold its shape, thus called “the bent pyramid.”

Meanwhile, Sneferu ordered the construction of the Red Pyramid in Dhashur meant to hold in “the Black Wind.” In time, all the worshipers of the Black Pharaoh were driven from Egypt, fleeing to South of Sudan."

 

Ali delved into the rise of the cruel queen Nitocris; she trying to re-establish worship of the Black Pharaoh. She was entombed at Memphis. “There is already another Penhew dig going on now in Memphis. The Clive Expedition digging around Queen Nitocris’ pyramid.

They unearthed a mummy thought to be the queen herself. But the mummy was recently stolen. Now guards with guns run off any inquiries. Seems they ran off one of their archaeologists. A Dutchman named Janwillen Vanheuvelen accused of drunken debauchery. He’s somewhere here in town.”

"Add that to the fact the Carlyle group damaged the Red Pyramid in Dhashur,

a capstone engraved with a warding seal now missing. Breaking its ability to protect the world from Nephren-Ka's evil. And yet I knew Aubrey Penhew. A good man who changed once in Dhashur. And now you tell me he is in league with this Gavigan. Unbelievable. Well, before he changed. Now? What has he done? What has been done to him? What does he intent to do?!”

Ali mentions hieroglyphic tables that prophesy Nephren-ka's return “after the fingers and toes of the great good one (Jesus?) are counted.” Does each digit represent a century? How he will assume the new name, Nyarlathotep.

 
[I don't get it. Both Gavigan and Aubrey Penhew are natural born englishmen. Were they weak-willed, or is this evil so corrupt to turn a Brit against his own country?! And what of Jack Brady they are so intent on finding? Did he escape with the missing capstone or artifact they need in some ceremony?]

So what’s our next direction? Omar’s thugs hot on our heels gives us mere days if not just a day to track down this Dutchman to learn what else is going on at the site. While maybe returning to Faraz with coins to open his mouth to tell us what he held for Roger Carlyle. Then get the hell out of Cairo before more scary shit comes our way.