Dateline: Monday, 6 April, 1925 – SCENE 01 – Adler, Moriarty, and Miss Shosenberg head to the Egyptian museum to consult w Al-Sedat, who has plans to meet with Crandal and go through the gold chest recovered from the Giza dig by the Clive expedition.

It requires only a cursory glance for Al-Sedat to identify the tablets as not being original to the chest; they are from the wrong time period, the quality is quite inferior, and they are taken from various sources.

The chest itself is gold-covered wood, the exterior covered in heiroglyphs. Neither Crandal nor Al-Sedat see anything unusual about the chest itself but after removing the contents, Al-Sedat discovers that the bottom of the chest is false. Recovering tools to properly remove the false bottom, with Crandal’s assistance, Al-Sedat is able to access a hidden compartment in the bottom of the chest: the secret holding place for the Necklace and Crown of Nitocris; no evidence of the girdle having been kept in the chest exists.

SCENE 02 – Adler and Shosenberg team up and begin researching everything they can about Queen Nitocris. Shosenberg learns that there was an uprising soon after the death of Nitocris to wrest power from the vizier, Senet, and return Egypt back to their old gods — the leader of this rebellion was named Ra-Hotep.

Ra-Hotep was able to cast down Senet, but not before he completed the burial rites for Queen Nitocris: a blasphemous ceremony that bound her soul to her decaying flesh for when he was ready to resurrect her. Before Senet could raise Nitocris from the dead, however, the revolt swept through Egypt and he was killed.

Ra-Hotop took the Girdle of Nitocris and entrusted his followers, the Knights of Ibn Tulun, to safeguard it.

SCENE 03 – Moriarty researches into the shared dream from the night before and learns that there are multiple ways to return to the Land of Dreams; one such way is to sleep atop one of the great pyramids with a Dream Crystalizer close by; another is to obtain a Key to the Gates of Wonder.

There are also said to be specific places, objects, and paintings that can convey a person from the Waking World to the Land of Dreams.

SCENE 04 – Conferring over lunch, Crandal tells the group that she has never heard of the Knights of Ibn Tulun, but there is an old mosque – the oldest mosque, in fact – 10 miles outside of Cairo, now a hospital and insane asylum, called the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.

SCENE 06 – Taylor and Khaled venture into the Old City to look for the Street of Jackals and the shop of Faraz Najjar. They find the ruins of his old shop, travellers invoking the name of Allah as they pass by. Learning that he has a new shop on the Street of Potters, Taylor pays Najjar a visit. Najjar is obsequious and Taylor shops his wears, all rather tawdry knick-knacks. Taylor buys a small worthless statue of Bast for 2 Pounds.

Taylor and Khaled follow Najjar after he closes down his shop. His first stop is to a small cafe where he gets tea, and then he proceeds to a nearby mosque where he enters and prays. They follow him back to his shop/home and then return to Shepherd’s to meet with the others.