SCENE 01 – Dateline: 16 April 1925 – Picked up directly from the British military base on Cairo, Nigel Wassif takes the artifact back to the Cairo Bulletin offices and secures it in his safe before calling the Investigators.

Wassif explains how he obtained the artifact and wants to help crush the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Although not a Believer, Wassif cannot deny that strange, evil deeds are afoot in Cairo and wants to see the city he loves saved from the grasp of this vile cult.

SCENE 02 – The team heads to the Cairo Library and begins researching a way to power up the artifact. They learn that the artifact requires a tremendous amount of power, and that the pyramids often have intense static electricity around the cap stones as the weather and sand contribute to charge the atmosphere; the artifact, when activated, requires a constant feeding of a person’s essence to keep the portal open, and that a calm and open mind is required to open the portal. The investigators surmise that if they put a lightning rod atop the Bent Pyramid and run wires down into the artifact, that should sufficiently charge the artifact to enable the portal to open.

SCENE 03 – Returning to Shepherd’s, Taylor contacts Ishaq Rahad, who is only too happy to help out the team. Taylor and Moriarty‘s elevated status as Knights of Ibn Tulun, along with the team’s addition of Mohammad Asad, lifelong Knight of Ibn Tulun and attendant to the Nazir, Ahmed al-Dahabi. Asad also carries the sacred relic, the Sword of Ahkmallah, a passkey into many hidden places in the Muslim world.

SCENE 04 – With the plans set, the team intends to ride via camel to the Bent Pyramid on this night; only 5 nights remain before the new moon and the undead sorcerer, Senet/al-Shakti/Hussein Malif performs the ritual to resurrect Queen Nitocris and usher in a new wave of terror in the worship of the Black Pharaoh, Nyarlathotep.

Catriona Crandal/Berenike has spent the past week as a captive of Senet/Malif. True to his promise, Senet has had Berenike attended to by his personal physician and has allowed her to visit with his other captive, Agatha Braodmoor: powerful psychic, friend and instructor to Berenike in a past life, and necessary tool to Senet in the resurrection of Nitocris.

Seeing that Berenike is now well, Broadmoor tells her of a prophetic dream she had, the white way leads to darkness, illumination, and temptation. Broadmoor tells Berenike that she must get this message to the others before it is too late and that she sense Berenike will have an important role in the events to take place next. She urges Berenike to escape through her window as Senet has been missing for days and the compound has become more lax. Berenike says she cannot leave without Broadmoor, but Agatha says if she leaves, Senet will surely come after them but if only Berenike escapes, he will likely wait until after the ritual is completed. Berenike promises to rescue Broadmoor before that happens.

SCENE 05 – Slipping out of the low window, Crandal/Berenike makes her way to the motorcade. She bluffs her way past the two men there telling them that she needs to go to Cairo on an assignment from Malif. The men allow her to take a lorry, which she shakily drives off the compound and then makes for Cairo with all speed …

SCENE 06 – Exiting Shepherd’s the team is shocked to see Crandal pull up onto the sidewalk, the lorry lurching to a stop. Crandal jumps out and gives the key to the lorry to a young dragoman, who eagerly climbs into the truck with several companions and recklessly drives the lorry towards the Old City.

SCENE 07 – Crandal catches the team up on their trek to the Bent Pyramid, but Taylor remains suspicious of the timing of Cradal’s arrival. He does not impede her travel with the party, however.

SCENE 08 – Arriving at the Bent Pyramid some 20 miles south of Cairo, Taylor scales the outside of the structure. One of the large limestone tiles comes loose in his hand as he is ascending, nearly causing him to fall but he recovers in time, the tile careening down the side of the pyramid, smashing itself to pieces in its descent.

Reaching the capstone, the hair on Taylor’s arms stand up as he senses the swirling static electricity in the air around him. He spikes the lightning rod to the capstone, attaches the wires, and climbs down to the otehrs.

SCENE 09 – Crandal correctly surmises that Augustus Larkin will be found in the funerary chamber through the north entrance to the pyramid. Lighting a torch, the team carefully moves forward. The stench of death is strong in the air and upon entering the funerary chamber, they see two dead Cairo policemen, torn to shreds by some creature, their slowly-decaying bodies preserved within the cool, dry air of the pyramid.

Slumped against a wall not far from the dead policemen is Larkin, seemingly asleep, but the smell and nearby paraphernalia confirming that he is high on heroin, slumped against the wall, candles guttering around him.

SCENE 10 – At that moment, they hear the sound of distant thunder and then a CRACK as lightning strikes the top of the pyramid. The charges travels through the wires attached by Taylor and the artifact receives the full blast, throwing Taylor forward and setting his backpack alight.

SCENE 11 – Wasting no time, Crandal puts her hand on the artifact and recites a spell she recalls from the Egyptian Book of the Dead opening passage to the Land of the Dead. A shimmering portal appears in front of her showing a vast, black, ashy plain under a gray, featureless sky; lightning flashes do not illuminate the sky but seem to deepen the nothingness above; the site is dizzying.

The drain on Crandal is immediate, and Moriarity steps in to keep the portal open. Asad and Taylor pick up Larkin, who lets out slurred protests in Dutch as he is hurled through the portal into the Dreamlands. The portal closes and the party catches their breath.

SCENE 12 – With the greater threat (so they think) behind them, the party makes their way to the west entrance. A deep tunnel leads to a false funerary chamber in the very middle of the pyramid.

Entering the false funerary chamber, the party sees a pile of stones in the middle of the chamber, though they cannot figure out where they pile came from and are loathe to move the stones and discover what lies beneath.

On the far wall are two alabaster columns of purest white. Crandal recites what Broadmoor said, the white way leads to darkness, illumination, and temptation. The party is certain that ahead lie answers to many of their questions …

Taylor discovers a secret door hidden in the right hand column. Opening it, they see a narrow staircase ascending upwards into the heart of the pyramid. Lighting another torch, Asad leads the party forward into the darkness …

SCENE 13 – After 20 steps, the party follows several cramped ramps winding their way to just below the capstone of the pyramid. There they see another chamber: a throne room. A large throne sits upon a raised dais, and six 5-foot pillars adorn the odd-shaped chamber. Set into the top of each pillar is an alien gem stone, unusually large, and unidentifiable. The walls of the chamber are covered in strange bas-relief glyphs, a mixture of Egyptian heiroglyphs, hermetic and occult symbols, and others which are totally alien.

Slumped in front of the dais are two unmoving bodies dressed in desert garb, perfectly preserved in the throne room. Taylor flips one of the bodies over to look for identification and they discover that these are the bodies of Morello and Mohammud, last seen entering the black pit below the pyramid of Mycerinus beofore the Black Sphinx attacked. They are both dead. The party is shocked to find their bodies here, but steels themselves for the task ahead and sets to decyphering the glyphs.

The wall behind the throne depicts a prophesy which states that the child of Nyarlathotep will be born under the Mountain of the Black Wind. Moriarty feels that he has heard of this place before but cannot recall where. Consulting the astrological charts and her ephemeris, Crandal discerns that the date of the birth is 1 May, 1925 — in just fifteen days!

The other walls depict a total solar eclipse which will travel across the Indian Ocean on 14 January, 1926. There are three locations noted with uncut rubies set into the depiction: one in the East China Sea, one in central Kenya, and one in western Australia.

The party is now armed with actual timeline behind the machinations of the Cult of the Black Pharoah: the resurrection of Queen Nitocris; the birth of the child of Nyarlathotep; and the solar eclipse.

SCENE 14 – Before the team can process this information or deal with Morello’s corpse, the gems atop the pillars suddenly spring to light, throwing off a blue flame and giving the throne room and otherworldly, underwater feeling.

Materializing in the throne is a 7-foot tall black man dressed in the ancient Eqyptian garb of a pharaoh. Removing his funerary mask reveals a handsome face and eyes that seem to contain the universe within them. The man stands up, a glittering aura of pure malice surrounding him, striking intense fear into the hearts of the party. Two shimmering forms surround the man, Asad recognizing them as cloaked forms of the creature that attacked the Knights of Ibn Tulun the night the Girdle of Nitocris was stolen: Hunting Horrors, the hounds used by Nyarlathotep to exact his judgement.

Taylor’s sanity is shattered by the presence. Screaming incoherently, he bolts for the exit, which is now blocked by stone as if it never existed, and running headlong into the wall, falls to the ground unconscious.

SCENE 15 – Standing before the party is the Black Pharoah in the flesh: the Crawling Chaos, the Skinless One, the Bloody Tongue — NYARLATHOTEP.

Nyarlathotep mocks the dumbstruck investigators and animates the corpses of Morello and Mohummed, and lifts Taylor off the ground as well with a gesture, standing wavering like grotesque marionettes.

Rage fills Berenike and she impotently strikes out at one of the gemstones; Moriarity tries to topple over one of the columns — but it is useless.

Nyarlathotep offers the party the fulfillment of their deepest desires, all they have to do is follow him. He explains that even if they deny him, they cannot be in three places at once and cannot stop the plans set in motion: Nitocris will rise, his child will be born, and a New Age will begin.

Nyarlathotep shows the party a vision of the past, of the Carlyle expedition in Kenya, being torn apart by Hunting Horrors. Diseased mockeries of humanity crawl out of the earth and twisting foetid colums of black plasticity assail the camp, murdering them with hellish glee. The scene is enough to shatter even the strongest minds, the senseless depravity and cruelty on display utterly vomitous. LOOK AT THE FATE OF THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE YOU, AND SEE HOW THEY PROSPERED, Nyarlathotep sneers.

Crandal and Moriarty fall to their knees, closing their eyes and covering their ears, intoning whatever they can to try and fill their minds with something other than the thoughts and presence of Nyarlathotep, his aura washing over them like warm, befouled water of unfathomable depth, threatening to drown them forever in the chaos of his voice.

Nyarlathotep lifts all of the party members with a gesture and opens their eyes. The shimmering scene beside him changes and he intones, IF A VISION OF THE PAST WILL NOT CONVINCE YOU, THEN I SHALL SHOW YOU A VISION OF THE FUTURE.

The party is hopeless to prevent the vision from entering their minds …