The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Egypt part 5

The Private Diary of John Jamil Zwaiter

Saturday 11th October 2008

We learnt that there was an attack on the Ibn Tulum mosque last night, with 6 people killed by the police and several others in hospital. After asking around, we learnt that Samir Muhammad who had shown us around the mosque was one of those in hospital. To discover more about the attack we went to the hospital, with large bunch of juicy grapes as a gift. I just about managed to talk us past a very vigilant nurse (failed Persuade 91%!) as an official visit with condolences from the British Embassy. When we reached Samir’s bedside, Abdul Salim was also there. He was the alim (teacher) at the mosque who had been alarmed at us, saying that we had no souls. They both had an arm in a sling but Samir was more injured, with a black eye and bandages round his ribs.

Abdul overcame his suspicion of us to tell us what had happened. The four tourist police and other guards were slow to react and the robbers had taken the girdle from the khizanah. I felt that our visit to the mosque had probably not helped and had maybe tipped off the opposition that there was something interesting there. The robbers, of course, were not ‘normal’ robbers. They were accompanied by a ghostly thing from the desert. This had taken Abdul’s grandson Kharis and the sword that he was using to defend the khizanah treasures. The reason for using a sword, rather than a modern weapon, was because it was reputed to be Al-adb, ‘the sharp’, one of the swords of the prophet, and thus should be especially effective against mystical threats.

I’d initially become involved through instructions to trace the causes of old deaths, but people were continuing to be injured and die. Seeing Abdul’s concern for his grandson, I told him that we would get Kharis back. Maybe that was a rash promise, but I would do all I could to fulfil it. I was being drawn into the world of the spooks from the UK which was definitely different from normal antiquities smuggling or bribery for export concessions.

Over the next four days we prepared. Sandy, Dr McQueen and the other spooks were convinced that an entrance between the Sphinx’s paws was our best destination to rescue Kharis, retrieve the sword and encounter the people who were behind all the events. Alex and Adam spent time alone in preparation. We all practiced shooting out in the desert. I’d had some training before being posted to North Africa but felt more confident with a pistol after this recent practice and advice from Syed. We also put together appropriate clothing and equipment. I obtained body armour, helmets, head torches and light sticks for us all from the Embassy and military stationed there. We all took guns and knives. Syed and Sandy had found light intensifying goggles to wear. We also took climbing gear.

Saturday 18th October 2008 – night

We arrived at the Pyramids around 1 am after the light show had finished. At the stele, one of them spoke foreign words and it glowed, then became semi-transparent as a space that was wide and high enough for a person to step through. We walked through this opening into a wider tunnel of masonry walls and roof but a rough floor. From the light of glow-sticks our view stopped at a bend a short distance away but we could see that it intersected a straight corridor. Glowing fungus on the walls were just about enough illumination and the low-light goggles made the scene almost as clear as daylight.

After we negotiated a crevice in the corridor floor that we had to jump over, we kept an even more careful look-out and so spotted a group of ghouls before they attacked us. Indeed they smelt so terrible that that alone would have given us warning. They were about the size of children and wore animal masks. The fight was brief but intense, led by Sandy, Alex and Syed. We continued along the corridor, and stayed in it even though Sandy saw a ghoul in a side corridor hewn from the natural rock. He shot and hit it and, while waiting to listen for a further possible attack, the doctor and I became convinced that blood was dripping from the ceiling. That was disturbing, adding to the strangeness of the place. We then moved on, heading further along the corridor that now had paintings on plaster rather than plain masonry walls. There were more side corridors, but after very little discussion, we decided to stay with the main corridor.

The dim lighting, enclosed space, constant fear of attack and definite un-natural feel of the place was getting to me more and more so that when there were howls from ahead and I saw a further group of ghouls that attacked us.

I totally lost it. I realised that the supernatural creatures that the spooks had hinted and spoken about really existed and were much more dangerous and important than anything else in HM Government’s agenda. That realisation made me both terrified and resolved. I was mortally afraid of the creatures but sure that I should do all I could to defeat their aims. If this meant leaving the FCO, I would have to do so. I was sure that my family would support me and indeed that I should make sure that at least one of them knew everything and could warn the world if anything happened to us.

I was totally caught-up in this revelation which put my memories of the recent events in Egypt into a completely different context. To the others, who were still fighting against the ghouls, it must have been a shock. Adam later told me I’d been actually been trying to climb up the wall. He’d managed to calm me with his healing skills (which I now realised were equally real and not a ‘new age’ pose) so that I realised where I was, the immediate danger we were in and that I should put some of my thoughts about this revelation to one side until we had left this underground maze.

Along with the sudden revelation of the reality of the ‘big picture’ I also knew, with complete confidence, that there was an underground temple ahead containing the body of the pharaoh that we could not destroy, along with objects like the crown and girdle that were needed to bring it back to life. Simultaneously I knew that we could not destroy them – it was totally beyond our capacity. Consequently, there was no point going into the temple. Indeed, we should instead put all our efforts into trying to counter an even bigger problem – the child of Nyarlathotep that would be born.

We kept on along the main corridor with the disturbing pictures on the walls. There was a gust of wind from behind us, like the breath of a large animal. Although there were side passages, and both Alex and Syed were sure they saw eyes or dark shapes in them, we stayed on this main route. Then, first Alex and Syed and then all of us saw about 12 people who looked like native Egyptians with hooked clubs, screaming ‘kill’ running towards us along the corridor. The two soldiers opened fire with submachine-gun and pistol. The noise was deafening and several of the Egyptians dropped.

I brought up my gun and shot one, actually killed a man! Even the doctor killed and the soldiers finished them off hand-to-hand. All 12 of the fanatics were dead.

In the quiet that followed, we heard two Arabs talking. Their voices were educated and cultured. To me, one sounded like a native speaker but the other sounded British. They realised that there were intruders and had sent the fanatical men, the ‘children of the sphinx’, to deal (unsuccessfully) with us.

We walked on, still keeping to the main corridor, and still with gusts of wind blowing from behind us. Then the corridor divided and we had to decide whether to up a flight of steps or take a turning to the right. We went up the stairs and from them looked down on a large hall. The surfaces, apart from jet black pillars, were covered in black marble with white flecks. There was a hole in the floor from which came a glow and vapours and there were flaming braziers in a corner. The pillars were octagonal where they met the floor but divided as they rose to meet the ceiling, giving the appearance of sombre trees. Weirdly, after looking for a short time it became obvious that they were swaying in a wind!

Sandy pointed out that there was blood on the steps. I did not like the feel of the hall and he did not either. He looked closely at the blood and told us that in his opinion it was a mixture of human blood and yellow ichor from a dimensional shambler, the creature that had taken Kharis and the sword. I’d vowed that we would return him to his grandfather so it was obvious that we should follow this trail, and it also fortunately did not take us into the temple. The others agreed and we followed it back to the main corridor, avoiding a pit as we went.

The trail took us down a foul-smelling narrower side passage. We became concerned about getting lost or distracted by noise from further side-turnings. Suddenly Sandy and Alex realised that the Ghost of the Desert was there ahead, filling the corridor. Eliza and I initially saw nothing. Sandy opened fire with his gun, and killed it. At the same time, Alex held up a magical weapon. The Ghost died and disintegrated. As it vanished, the sword fell to the ground and we picked it up.

Adam immediately went to help Alex, in the same way that he had helped me, but was unable to do much. The effort against the Ghost together with his much longer knowledge of these terrifying other-worldly creatures, meant that Alex was now only holding on to his sanity by the narrowest thread. We relieved Alex of his gun and he walked calmly at Adam’s side. The doctor took this moment to announce that she had a phobia about slime, but fortunately was not affected by it despite the slimy trail we had been following. We had to continue following the slime to find where the Ghost had been.

We now found ourselves in a corridor made of mortared, not natural, stone. We came to the first of a series of locked doors. Sandy prepared to open it with a spell. While he was doing that, Eliza spotted a cultist. She pointed her gun at him and said loudly ‘drop that stick’. He ran at her, screaming, his club raised to attack her. She fired and injured his leg so that he fell at her feet. In the now opened cell, a man called out in Arabic ‘Do your worst. God will protect me’. We went into it, a large bare chamber and the man was Kharis. We’d found him alive with relatively minor physical damage although he would bear mental scars for life. His fingertips had frostbite from the cold between dimensions as he was carried by the Ghost.

When we went outside again, the injured man had died and a search of his pockets came up with keys for all the other cells. We found 12 people in them, much more physically and mentally injured than Kharis. Two would not move at all and two others could stand but did not respond to us. One had both arms broken, a further 2 would be led and the least injured 4 were willing to follow us. We could not possibly leave them alive in this place but equally could not carry them all. After a short, rather heated discussion, the doctor killed the four who would not move with morphine injections. The others accompanied, or were led, by us and we now aimed to return to the entrance.

Alex now thought that he had gained understanding of how the place worked. He’d told us that he thought the complex was breathing in and out and the draft indicated a hole to the outside. He made a flag to detect the winds, and we followed his lead, resolutely avoiding any noises or side turnings. We managed to squeeze through a very narrow part, and at his lead turned left at a crossroad. We heard voices again that were obviously from people at a distance, saying ‘…order the entity and other children to guard the exit’.

Then we encountered a deep pit across the width of the corridor. We could not cross it so had to turn back. Then we found ourselves going up a ramp and turned back to the pit – which was no longer there! Sandy muttered something about roses growing there. After a sharp right turn we heard scuffling ahead and it was 2 ghouls. Sandy shot at one and then battered in the chest of the other, and in the end killed both.

The corridor went on, at a steeper 45 degree angle with the ground quivering, then it levelled out and we went past a T-junction. Finally there was light ahead, but as we thought we were about to escape, animal-headed creatures appeared. Bird’s heads, ibis and falcon, bull-head, lion-head – we all shot at them and killed them all.

Finally we were at the foot of a shaft and could see stars above as we all climbed out, and found that we were 300 yards north of the Sphinx. In a surreal gesture, Kharis got out his mobile and phoned his grandfather.

After a short, quiet time in the warm dessert night, things started to move quickly. As soon as I looked at the messages on my mobile, I realised that everything was going to change. The texts made it very clear that I should go back to the Embassy immediately and assist with returning the spooks to the UK. Yesterday, I might have done that. Now, I knew that to do so would assist a much greater danger. I would not go back to the Embassy but would do whatever I could to fight the being behind these events in Egypt.