The Masks of Nyarlathotep:
The Diary of Syed
Hussein
The party return to the Embassy where there are messages waiting
for David Wiltshire. Robert Sale sends information requests to
I spend the morning at the Embassy going through mugshots, which proves to be a worthwhile activity as I
discover some interesting information.
The associate of Gamal Mubarak whom I saw talking to Clive is one Rifaat Abaza. He is a businessman
with principal interests in shipping. He was involved with Gamal
in setting up a company called Medinvestments
Associates which is a private investment fund registered in
Rifaat has no apparent political
interests, it seems that he is a personal friend of Gamal
and they both share a genuine interest in Egyptology. I get hold of a photo of Rifaat and ask the Embassy staff for any information about Rifaat’s recent shipping activities. This will take some
digging so they will get back to me. It seems to me that if someone wants to
remove a stolen artefact from
Meanwhile Edward, Daniel and Stephanie are meeting with Ali Khafour at the
The group asks Ali Khafour about the Red
Pyramid – why was it built? The official version is that Snefru
intended to be buried there or maybe actually was buried there. The pyramid was
possibly too early for the inclusion of a large sarcophagus, which is why none
was found there, and this led to the uncertainty as to its purpose. Khafour’s theory is that Snefru
built the Collapsed Pyramid in order to incarcerate the Black Pharaoh who had ‘conquered
death’. Officially the Black Pharaoh never existed, but Khafour
believes him to have reigned been between the third and fourth dynasties and
then been defeated by Snefru. All these pyramids,
pharaohs and dynasties are making my head spin!
The party meets up again at the Embassy in the late morning to
compare notes.
Fatima, Edward and I take a walk around Old Cairo for some
exercise and when we get back John has found that Warren Besart
is buried in a Christian cemetery in
Night falls on October 4th and the party has plans!
Robert and Stephanie intend to climb the Red Pyramid so I suggest that they
take night vision binoculars with them in order to observe the Bent Pyramid.
Daniel and Edward will remain in the hotel whilst Fatima, John and I will return
to the cemetery and dig up Besart’s grave – God help
us!
We dig up Besart’s grave and
Carlyle asked Besart to act as an agent,
buying ancient artefacts from a dealer and shipping them illegally to the
The expedition was interested in Dashur,
specifically the Bent Pyramid. One day another expedition employee, Jack Brady,
claimed that the expedition leaders: Carlyle, Masters, Aubrey and Dr. Houston
vanished into the Bent Pyramid. Brady and the diggers searched and found
nothing. Wild rumours spread causing the diggers to flee and Brady and Besart got “dead drunk”.
The expedition leaders returned the next day, but “changed for the
worse”. Besart questioned them about what had
happened but Aubrey got angry and told him to leave.
Two of the diggers, a priestess named Ayesha
and her son Ahmed, said that the Europeans had lost their souls to something
called the Messenger of the Black Wind. Ayesha told Besart to seek proof at the Collapsed Pyramid at the dark
of the moon. Besart went to the Collapsed Pyramid,
hid in the dark and saw the Europeans and a black woman in a mad ritual with
100 cultists!
Twelve prisoners were staked down and the desert ‘came alive’.
Skeletal monsters rose up and killed the sacrificial victims by tearing out
their throats. Then an elephant-sized monster with five heads came out of the
desert and ate the sacrifices then trampled the cultists to death. Besart fainted and, when he came to, he wandered in the
desert for a time. At dawn he saw “black sphinxes lined up waiting to be loosed
upon the world”.
He was mad for a while and was tended by Ayesha
and her son until he recovered. Then six men with hooked clubs came to Ayesha’s home and beat Besart and
Ayesha for a night, keeping them revived with water
to continue the torture. Ahmed returned in the morning and found them. Besart died of his wounds, but Ayesha
survives and she has something that the party wants at her home in Al Wasta. Besart wants revenge and
the thwarting of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh.
What to make of this? I have never seen or heard anything like
this in my life! If this was some sort of trick by
We fill in Besart’s grave and I take
John and Fatima home. I leave a message at the team hotel to meet at the
Embassy after breakfast.
Sunday 5th October 2008: When we meet at the Embassy in
the morning Robert and Stephanie report that something has been removed from
the top of the Red Pyramid – ‘something magical’ that was associated with the
pyramid but is now gone. Daniel says that the Red Pyramid was designed to watch
over the Bent Pyramid. If I had listened to this conversation two days ago I
would have said that this lot had caught far too much sun, but after what I
think I saw last night who can say what is real anymore?
The conversation continues in similar vein as Edward and Daniel
say that they both had a dream last night of a place called Ulthar.
Edward learnt how to “augur using cartomancy”
(whatever that means) and Daniel seems happy with his dream.
Incidentally, it seems that ‘Daniel’ is a pseudonym as a few times
he has been referred to by members of the group as ‘Alec’. I suspect that the
others may also be using assumed names since ‘Robert’ does not always respond
to that name. After what I saw last night it doesn’t surprise me that these
people want to keep their true identities secret. I repeat, what the hell have
I got myself into here? Give me pirate hunting any day over this weirdness!
We decide on a day trip to Al Wasta to
look for Ayesha and also take a look at the Collapsed
Pyramid as it is nearby. We gear up with climbing equipment and weapons and
after a two hour drive from
Asking around we are directed to Ayesha’s
house, but before John and Fatima can knock on the door the rest of us are
approached by a ‘young’ man who looks prematurely aged. He demands to know who
we are and what we want with his mother – this is obviously Ahmed. ‘Robert’
says that we are friends of Warren Besart at which
point Ahmed spits on the ground and says that
At this point Ayesha appears in the
doorway of the house. She is in her sixties and is severely disfigured. Her
lower arms and bottom jaw are missing and her legs are severely beaten. She is
moaning and wailing and we can’t understand what she is trying to say, but
obviously Ahmed does. She points out into the fields and Ahmed reluctantly
picks up a digging tool and heads off. He tells us to remain here and not
bother his mother.
Whilst Ahmed is away John tries to speak to Ayesha.
She turns away and goes into the house, returning with a piece of jewellery
which she gives to John. It is a necklace of some sort in the Egyptian style –
an opal set in jet upon a silver chain.
Ahmed returns with something wrapped in cloth and covered in dirt
which I take from him. It is a pinkish piece of stone about seven inches by
nine with an eye design on it. It looks like the capstone from the Red Pyramid.
‘Robert’ claims that the stone and the necklace are ‘magical’. There are some
pictograms on the back of John’s amulet but they are not Egyptian hieroglyphs.
We send pictures of the pictograms to
Ahmed has offered to guide us to the Collapsed Pyramid tomorrow
but we decide not to bother him anymore and we drive out to the pyramid
ourselves. Edward takes a funny turn as soon as he looks around. He falls to
the ground but as soon as I mention that
We examine the pyramid for a while. ‘Robert’ decides that it is
not worth trying to climb the pyramid and Fatima and Stephanie begin to feel
uneasy so we decide that it is time to return to
On our return to
When we ask Khafour about the stone he
fetches a book. He refers to the stone as the ‘‘Eye of Light and Darkness’’
which is placed in a high place somewhere which is to be warded. It is a
powerful device against the “Outer Gods, Old Ones and their minions” and
prevents summoning within its influence. More weird shit! Apparently this is a
specialised Egyptian version from the Red Pyramid.
The Carlyle expedition was working on the Bent Pyramid. The
liaison officer from the museum believed that some damage had been done to the Red
Pyramid, but nothing was discovered. Khafour believes
that the removal of this stone was the damage which was done and that it was
designed to watch over the Bent Pyramid. Not all of the stone is here and it
may not be reparable without the remainder.
Khafour says that he has permission
for us to enter the Bent Pyramid via the north (guarded) entrance. We have a
letter to get us past the guards whenever we want as long as