Dateline: Wednesday, 8 April, 1925 – SCENE 01 – BATTLE UNDER THE PYRAMIDS

With the ritual of sacrifice interrupted and al-Shakti shot and turned to dust, the team now focuses on trying to escape the Great Chamber of Nyarlathotep.

Muntz flees the chamber, clutching the scepters, which are giving off a faint glow and are growing incredibly hot to the touch, burning into the flesh in his hands and fusing them together; the smell of burning flesh reaches his nose and Muntz tries to extricate himself from the scepters, but it is no use: they are fused fast and growing hotter by the minute. Muntz can feel his vital energy being siphoned off by the scepters and fed into them, leaving his skin with a slick, slimy sensation.

Running down what he perceives to be the main passageway, Muntz is attacked by two Children of the Sphinx, animal-human hybrids from another plane of existence. Abasi, how was turned around in another side passage, hears the sounds and runs towards them, thinking it is the way out. He stumbles across Muntz, surrounded by the croc-headed monstrosities.

The Children of the Sphinx attack Abasi, who successfully dodges on of them, and as another goes for his legs, is able to break its eye socket with the butt of his rifle. He is backed into the passage wall by the creature and his leg is bit clean off, severing a major artery and killing him instantly.

Morello, assisted by Mahmoud, run to the rear of the Great Chamber and hide within the strange, black space rent into the chamber wall. Within, there is no light, and no sound, only blackness; they stumble forward into the pitch, the feeling of a slick, oily sensation covering their skin, and their life force being tugged away from their bodies.

Taylor runs out of the chamber and is able to get his bearings fairly quick; he proceeds to exit as quick as possible.

Kabir, along with Gardner, Crandal, and Broadmoor, run from the chamber and are quickly lost amongst the twisting passageways. Four more Children of the Sphinx jump out of a side passage and are able to capture Broadmoor with ease.

Morello and Mahmoud continue to work their way back into the deepest recesses of the black space, the feeling of a standing wave creating pressure upon them, and as if they were stood in front of a barrier; the sensation of a slick, oily film covering their body and filling their nostrils, or entering their mouths when they try to speak, becomes overwhelming, and a sudden feeling of their psychic energy being torn from their bodies drops them to their knees.

In the very back of the cave, a gateway opens. Vistas of the Crawling Chaos, the realm of Nyarlathotep, are visible to Morello and Mahmoud, the endless blue-black and purple expanse giving way to a massive eye, the eye of Nyarlathotep, stares down upon them, plucking them from the Waking World, and pulling them into the Crawling Chaos, their minds shattering instantly.

And then, something escapes from the gateway: an unfathomably large creature, a grotesque parody of the Sphinx of Giza: the Black Sphinx. A single paw the size of a hippo shoots forth from the cave entrance. Instead of claws, the paw ends with multiple heads, each head with multiple mouths with tentacles sprouting from them. The tentacles scoop up confused cultists and drag them into the many maws of the creature.

Taylor gets pinned in a very narrow passageway and gets the distinct impression that the chamber is breathing, somehow, the walls flexing in and out in time with the breath of a giant being. Muntz, now burning up and the scepters glowing white-hot, gets stuck behind Taylor. “Don’t let them get the scepters!”, Muntz yells just before his head explodes, spattering brain matter and skull fragments everywhere, the scepters turning to dust and blowing away in a sudden wind.

Inside the chamber, Ishaq Rahad and the last two mercenaries, make their way towards the main passage and catch up to Taylor. They all proceed towards the burial shaft together.

Kabir and Co. get helplessly lost within the passageways and come upon an area with an intensely foul stench. Crandal immediately falls ill and begins to vomit from the overpowering stench. Kabir urges the group further and further until they reach a dead end. They are then set upon by cultists, left with no way out.

Taylor, Isahaq Rahad, and the others are almost free when four more Children of the Sphinx, two with falcon heads, one with a croc head, and another with a bull’s head, leap from a side passage. Taylor, Ishaq Rahad, and Mabasi are able to kill all four of them, but another mercenary is killed in the attack.

Making it to the steep burial shaft which will lead back to Mycerinus’ pyramid, Taylor is able to swiftly climb his way out, Ishaq Rahad direcly behind. Mabasi has trouble negotiating the shaft and he feels something grab him by the ankle. Mabasi is dragged screaming back into the chamber at the bottom of the shaft.

Taylor and Ishaq Rahad flee back to Cairo, stopping to wash up in the Nile before returning to the city. Ishaq Rahad swears vengeance upon the Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah and declares Taylor his blood brother.

Taylor returns to Shepherd’s and passes out…