Entry 9 - Cairo: Ritual beneath the pyramid, Yosef's demise, to El-Wasta to meet Nyiti

As Yosef and Norman try to blend in with the cultist procession descending below the Sphinx, Rene and James have found another entrance. With Guin’s blessing (in the form of cast ‘StoneSkin’ spell), she stays behind as they descend a steep incline into the darkness. Flashlight beams barely cut thu the darkness as they test junctions…left leads to distant chuckling sounds encouraging them to turn around…right offers a faint breeze till a gust of wind has James gagging at the putrid smell of rotting bodies. They cover their noses as they forge further. Right, left, backtrack, till they find current footprints that take them to wide stairs where they find Norman crouched. “Where’s Josef?”

Norman points to the 400x500ft expanse before them, “He snuck in there.” Before them 800+ cultists sway to the chants of their leader.

Parallel rows of pillars span the length of the cavern,  a red glow rises from a central staircase leading down, with a watery pool just beyond. Two huge 10ft tall figures flank the pool; powerful slaves of the Dark One. One half man/cheetah, the other half man/ibis. They each work a long pole attached to a cage hovering over the pool; dark-skinned prisoners within each cage.

The back wall of the cavern is pitch black. Unnatural, as if a window unto another plane. Before that is a bridge elevated 10ft above the floor ending in a platform supporting a huge throne. A lifeless mummy slumps in the seat.

And on the bridge stands the leader whom we guess to be Omar Shakti.

An older white-man at his side. The simple nod of Omar’s head directs the creatures to lower their cages into the pool. Minutes before they are raised…the prisoners covered in blood-sucking-leeches! Another dunk and the human sacrifices are dead.  From Omar, “We’ve drawn enough blood. Begin the ritual.”

Only then do we notice the altar between the pool and bridge. A bound Englishman and English woman are pushed closer to the altar. “Agatha, call forth queen Nitocris and we will free you and Jameson.” [We quickly remember the Dutchman describing Agatha Broadmore as the psychic member of the Clive Expedition;  Jameson another member of the same team.] Omar begins to chant as Agatha begins to sway as she seems in a trance.

Whether Yosef chooses that moment to act or James makes his announcement is debatable. “Stop by the decree of the British royalty!” as both James and Norman fire toward the nearest cultists for distraction. As Omar scans the length of the cavern spying the intruders, he signals his followers to eliminate them. James and Norman lead them into the black passages James has memorized, as Rene slinks into the shadows.

But it is the jew who disrupts the ceremony as he has crept closest to the altar. Using the distraction, Yosef cuts Agatha’s bonds trying to free her but her guards intervene. And Omar has spied the true threat…wickedly smiling, he casts paralyzation upon Yosef [pain as if a heart-attack]. But somehow he breaks free, and realizing his plight, and remembering Eddie’s actions, the jew raises his shotgun, “I’m sorry” and blasts Agatha to sway no more. The unfolding scene drives Yosef insane as he holds his weapon in a death-grip pumping shell after shell into the double barrels obliterating one target after another. Until Omar casts again causing the jew to drop unconscious.

Only reviving as he is raised from the pool…he has been locked inside a cage and dipped into the pool earning a robe of leeches! Still clutching the shotgun he blasts the lock and attempts to escape. Oh so close. Except Omar is not done casting. Yosef resists one spell but soon sees his left arm wither away. His final desperate leap toward the pool ledge, but he falls short slipping into the consuming mass of leeches.

Although Norman and James have returned, James attempts to distract Omar failed. Too much confusion and noise to be heard other than by those cultists nearest. Having taken a flare from Norman, James lit the thing tossing it into the crowd yelling in Egyptian, “Dynamite!” The scatter crowd was too meager to be noticed by Omar who caused the death of our compatriot. Reluctantly we navigated the passages to find Guin at the discovered entrance. It’s was a long walk back to the hotel in the dark.

Tuesday, Feb 10^th – we rise early to go to the British garrison to explain the night’s sacrifices, “A British woman was sacrificed. We didn’t wait around to see what happened to the other 4 British citizens.” [OK, we bent the truth] But the sergeant-in-charge had protocols to follow, “We must contact the Egyptian authorities first.” And once again we realize we met an immovable force called apathy.

At least Ali Kafour at the museum takes note, “I will try to get the news to the British agents who support our cause.”

It is James who suggests we return to the Dutchman [him mostly interested in finding the Bast priestess who was stalking JV.] What looks like an unconscious drunk quickly revives at the sound of the sloshing bottle Rene holds forth. The Dutchman too drunk to know Yosef stole his scroll. JV thinking he misplaced it. We soon have him taking us to where he found the scroll in the first place…a temple within the old city, host to a throng of cats that mill about the 7ft statue of Bast.

Then hours waiting for dusk and the arrival of a beautiful priestess

who offers blessings and news, “The Great One has contacted me…part of what you seek can be found south of Memphis. Ask for Nyiti, but be warned she is horribly disfigured.”

Wednesday, Feb 11^th – Kafour offers his car for our southerly travel but also introduces a new member, “Meet professor Korman Vinkman who was sent by your American benefactor Jonah Kinsinton.” Deep claw marks rack his face which makes me wonder if he is related to Nyiti…figuratively.

It’s almost an hour as we drive the 30 miles south, past Memphis and the abandoned Clive Expedition site, past the Red and Bent pyramids of Dhashur, past Median, till we finally stop in a cloud of dust called El-Wasta. It’s sign language and raised voices as James tries to communicate with the Arab-only-speaking villagers. We are soon directed to a mud hovel where a middle-aged man emerges

[her son - What the hell happened to this family: he is horribly scarred, half his face puffed with 3rd degree burns, right arm gouged, missing his right eye.] “Why speak my mother?!” We are led into his abode, where in the flickering oil-lamp light we find Nyiti

her lower jaw burnt away and nubs for her four appendages. But at the sight of Norman she animates, pointing with her nub-of-an-arm to the corner where all can see the broken brick. James gasps, “That is the protective stone…this half the ‘Eye of Light’. The missing half must be the ‘Eye of Darkness’.”

And that’s when Nyiti collapses dead. Her son acknowledging, “She may now seek the comfort of the gods, her mission complete. It was another white-man who gave her this some 6 years ago.” Showing him a picture of the Carlyle Expedition, he points out Jack Brady.

We are left stunned but hopeful as we seem to have direction to seek out Brady. After giving coins for her funeral, we depart. But it is late with dust storms brewing. Thus we pull into Dhashur for the night.