WARNING: These recaps contain heavy spoilers for the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition.

Dateline: Saturday, 4 April, 1925 – SCENE 01 – THE CLIVE SITE

After receiving a letter from her friend, Agatha Broadmoor, Catriona Crandal travelled by camel from Cairo down to Memphis, accompanied by Mufasa Al-Sedat, curator of the Egyptian Museum.

Following the scandal of the stolen sarcophagus from their previous dig in Giza, the Clive expedition moved to a new site south of Cairo.

Arriving at the site, both Crandal and Al-Sedat note that aside from missing barbed wire and machine gun embankments, the camp resembles a military base more than a dig site. Crandal also notices something odd about the guards at the gate but is unable to place her finger on it.

After being let inside, Crandal and Al-Sedat are greeted by Martin Winfield, a young archeologist and most senior member of the expedition after Dr Clive. Winfield escorts them to a tent where they can rest and drink water before escorting them to Broadmoor’s tent. Crandal gets the impression that Winfield is being overly nice and that something is subtly off, but she still cannot ascertain why she feels that way.

SCENE 02 – AGATHA BROADMOOR – Agatha is thrilled to see Crandal and explains that she is under close watch by Clive and not allowed to leave the camp — not that she would if she could, because she has received powerful psychic emanations and visions telling her that Clive is about to unleash some great evil and that she is supposed to somehow stop it. She tells Crandal and Al-Sedat that the only two people she thinks are somewhat trustworthy in the camp are James Gardner, a middle-aged English archeologist, and Johanna Specht, a German archeologist. Unable to answer questions pertaining to why Clive changed locations after the discovery of the sarcophagus, Agatha suggests that they speak with Gardner.

SCENE 03 – JAMES GARDNER – The trio goes to Garnder’s tent and Gardner very openly states that he thinks digging in Memphis is a waste of time; being down here does nothing to support his theories about tunnels beneath the Sphinx at Giza. Gardner believes that the Sphinx is a marker of some kind.

When asked about the sarcophagus, Garnder says there is little doubt as to who it is (Queen Netocris) but he’ll be damned if he can figure out how a several-thousand pound stone sarcophagus was taken from the burial chamber.

Along with the sarcophagus was a gold-covered chest. Gardner says he saw the contents but it was pretty worthless stuff; he suspects that Clive swapped the actual contents with other pieces in an effort to hide the whereabouts of the secret tunnels.

Al-Sedat asks if they have any photos of the contents and Gardner says, of course; Witherspoon, the expedition’s photographer, took photos. Gardner takes them round to Witherspoon’s tent after giving them a tour of the dig site. Neither Broadmoor’s psychic ability, nor Crandal’s access to her previous life in ancient Egypt bring up any stirrings as they walk this site; it is almost intentionally bland and boring…

SCENE 04 – WITHERSPOON – Arriving at Witherspoon’s tent just before the supper bell rings, Witherspoon is entirely happy to shift through his highly disorganized tent to show them the photos he took of the chest’s contents.

Al-Sedat instantly recognizes the pieces as worthless trinkets from the 13th dynasty — whereas the chest and sarcophagus are from the 6th dynasty. Both Crandal and Al-Sedat know immediately where Clive likely got these worthless bits of junk from: Faraz Najjar, an antiquities dealer in the Old Quarter. Najjar hasn’t been seen around for the past several months and Al-Sedat assumed he retired after the fire in his shop, as he had heard rumors that Najjar had fallen on tough times since then.

Just then, the supper bell rings…

SCENE 05 – DR CLIVE – Dr Henry Clive has dinner every night with the principals of the expedition and tonight is no exception. He is as charming as he can be and patiently answers all of Crandal’s questions; he seems to be genuinely honored to have such a celebrated Egyptologist visiting his humble dig site. Also present at the dinner is the very attractive Johann Specht, tho she has a rather aloof and condescending air about her.

Clive explains that after the scandal with the missing sarcophagus, his permits were withdrawn from him and he had to file a new permit to keep the expedition going. He is saddened that they cannot continue their dig in Giza but hopes they can return there one day.

Both Clive and Specht openly disagree that they can say categorically the sarcophagus belongs to Netocris; they never had the chance to open it and the sarcophagus, like everything else around Mycerinus’ pyramid, was completely unmarked.

Clive asks Crandal how long she is staying and Crandal says that, sadly, she must return to Cairo in the morning.

SCENE 06 – Dateline: Sunday, 5 April 1925 – PARTING GIFT – Just before Crandal and Al-Sedat leave the site, Witherspoon hands Crandal a package wrapped in twine and canvas: the original photo plates from the golden chest. He says that he hopes these may help solve some of the mysteries surrounding the cursed dig site at Giza.