Dateline: Saturday, 4 April, 1925 – SCENE 01 – THE CHASE – Bursting from the laundry with the papyrus scrolls stolen from Van Heuvelen, the party (Taylor, Morello, Dr Kafour, Miss Shosenberg, and Khaled) manages to stay together in the densely crowded, late afternoon streets of the Old City.

Dr Kafour quickly falls behind, with Van Heuvelen at his heels, when a large puma-like cat jumps down from a nearby roof, cutting them off. The cat lunges at Van Heuvelen and knocks him down to the ground. (The cat, is in fact, Neris, the priestess of Bast)

Meanwhile, three large cats under Neris’ control, leap down from rooftops, creating instant confusion in the streets, to say nothing of the dozens and dozens of domestic cats running everywhere and getting underfoot. Two mountain lions lunge at Morello and Khaled, who are in the lead of the party, but Morello is able to dodge behind a cart and temporarily fight off the cat with a laundry basket.

Khaled climbs onto a hiding spot where he can witness the carnage on the street but is out of view; Morello and Shosenberg run down a random alley to escape the big cats and Van Heuvelen; the cats take to attacking random people on the streets triggering a small riot as people swarm the street with whatever weapons they have to hand (largely, brooms and such).

Neris, seeing Dr Kafour run off with the papyrus scrolls clutched in his hand, leaves Van Heuvelen and gives chase. Dr Kafour does not make it far, Neri’s razor-sharp claws and teeth instantly killing him.

Neris does not see Van Heuvelen, who was not killed by her attack and rallied by his obsession to have the scrolls, limp up behind her and pull out his .38 revolver. With shaking hands, he pulls the trigger, mortally wounding Neris. He then pulls the papers from Dr Kafour’s hand and attempts to flee.

Still under Neris’ now-diminishing control, one of the big cats tackles Van Heuvelen and kills him just as Neris’ control breaks; the cat then attacks random people in the crowd. Khaled seizes this opportunity to sprint down from his hiding place, grab the scrolls from Van Heuvelen’s dead hands, and race off into the streets …

SCENE 02 – THE TEMPLE OF BAST – Terrified and shaken, Khaled runs off into the Old City, not even consciously aware that he has been making his way towards the temple of Bast. He knows that if he returns the scrolls to the base of the statue, the Plague of Cats, and this deadly attack, can be stopped.

Approaching the temple, Khaled feels compelled to take his sandals off and is overtaken by a feeling of vast calmness. A voice works its way into his head, as if it were his own thoughts, and he knows what he must do. Opening the secret drawer from between Bast’s feet, Khaled sees a small cat-shaped figurine within: a Token of Bast’s Regard. Khaled places the papyrus scrolls within the drawer, dons the figurine around his neck by way of its plaited leather thong, and leaves the temple, and all of this madness, behind.

Dateline: Sunday, 5 April, 1925 – SCENE 03 – THE MIRROR AND THE NOTE – Catriona Crandal and Mufasa Al-Sedat arrive at Cairo as the westering sun is disappearing behind the nearby pyramids at Giza.

As Catriona is unloading her saddle bags, she notices that something was hastily placed inside one of them and she catches a glimpse of metal within. Waiting until she is safe at home, Crandal opens the saddle bag and inside is a note from Agatha Broadmoor, Crandal’s friend and psychic currently part of the Clive Expedition, as well as a peculiar candlestick/mirror. Crandal instantly recognizes it as the mesmeric mirror that Broadmoor uses to mesmerize Crandal and learn about her past life as Berenike, priestess of Isis.

The note explains that Broadmoor could not speak openly when Crandal visited due to being watched, but if she enters a mesmeric trance, Broadmoor can communicate with her directly at their usual meeting spot: a shaded hut along the Nile river during the Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

Crandal lights a candle, gets comfortably seated in front of the mesmeric mirror and goes through the exercises Broadmoor taught her to enter a mesmeric trance …

SCENE 04 – ANCIENT EGYPT – Crandal/Berenike finds herself in a wide-bottomed boat being steered by Broadmoor in her past life persona, Naunet. Naunet is providing a lesson on proper court decorum to Berenike and several others in the boat with her. Naunet claps her hands, waking the dozing passengers, lulled to sleep by the sun reflecting off the Nile and Naunet’s droning voice.

Moriarty — no, Qalhata, hand maiden of Queen Nitocris — is startled awake; she has a quickly-retreating memory of being someone else, but seeing her reflection in the still waters and looking at her hands confirms that it must have been a dream. The others in the boat have a similar feeling, roused one by one: Bentanath (Morello), second cousin to the Queen and currently studying at the Temple of Isis; Khendjer (Adler)and Berenike (Crandal), priest and priestess of Isis; and the warrior, Wennefer (Al-Sedat), tasked with escorting this company to the palace.

The entourage peppers Naunet with questions as they approach the palace. A drought and famine has struck Egypt and an increasingly-frustrated Nitocris, unstable under the best of conditions, has taken to ever strong retaliation against the various priests who have failed to bring the waters back to the Nile, now barely half of its normal width, withering the surrounding watis. There is talk of building dams and flooding the southern parts of Egypt, as well as exceedingly harsh punishments being meted out by Nitocris. Court gossip claims that Nitocris has taken on a new vizeer, and consort, named Senet, a priest of a foreign god, who is influencing her sudden turn towards cruelty.

SCENE 05 – THE RECEPTION – Arriving at the outer courtyard to the palace, the party immediately notices the new steps that have been added, ascending to an elevated platform beside an enormous black statue of a pharaoh, though the likeness is of a pharaoh none can place.

Nitocris arrives and questions the members of the party and then, after the feast is over, lights every brazier along the stairs, ascends, and is attended to by Qalhata and Bentanath, who adorn her with gifts given to her by Senet: a crown, necklace and girlde adorned with strange stones and made of strange metals, that seem to shift and change color. Senet stands by Nitocris’ side, his black robes moving though there is no breeze. Many acolytes of this foreign god are gathered below.

Queen Nitocris bids the priest and priestess of Isis come forth and explain why there is no rain. Khendjer and Berenike proffer gifts to Queen Nitocris and explain that when the moon is full, Isis shall give them visions as to what needs to be done.

“The moon is dead!”, Nitocris shouts, pointing up at the darkened sky, a black blot where the moon should be. “The way has been made clear to me that a new god shall arise in Egypt, the Black Pharaoh, Nyarlathotep, and under the dead moon we shall sacrifice and beg him for mercy.”

As Senet’s acolytes move into position, swords drawn, Naunet, shouts, “Your blasphemy will not stand!”, hurling a dagger at Queen Nitocris. The queen falls over, the knife in her chest. Chaos breaks out as the party is tackled by Senet’s acolytes. They overhear Senet say, “Do not worry, my Queen! By means of these holy relics, you will live again!”

Dateline: Monday, 6 April, 1925 – SCENE 06 – ISHAQ RAHAL, DRAGOMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE – The next morning, the party gathers to discuss the shared dream from the night before and make plans.

Moriarty and Adler want to get to the Egyptian Museum to conduct research, as well as speak with Al-Sedat, now that Dr Kafour is deceased.

Meanwhile, Al-Sedat and Crandal read about the ‘freak accident’ befalling Dr Kafour in the pages of the Cairo Bulletin.

After Moriarty and Adler leave Shepherd’s, Morello as the consierge summon Khaled; Morello is looking for a dragoman who will guide them to the pyramids at Giza after dark. Khaled introduces Morello to his cousin, Ishaq Rahal who wants and extortionate 5 Pounds Sterling for the job. Morello pays him a deposit of 3 Pounds.

SCENE 07 – MEETING WITH AL-SEDAT – Moriarty and Adler arrive at the Egyptian Museum and convey their condolences to Al-Sedat and request permission to the museum’s archives. They are surprised to run into famed Egyptologist, Catriona Crandal at Al-Sedat’s office. Crandal launches almost immediately into talk of her past life and the dream she had last night and how she feels this all ties to the golden chest recovered from the dig at Mycernius’ pyramid. Adler leaves to conduct his research and Moriarty stays behind to talk w Crandal and see if she may accompany them to Giza, as her knowledge of the region is unparalleled regardless of her belief that she is the reincarnated Berenike.