The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Egypt part 3

The Diary of Syed Hussein

Wednesday 8^th October 2008: It has been a few days since I last made a journal entry. What a few days! I will fill in the gap shortly.

I do not know what is real anymore! What I thought the world was now seems a pale illusion. It is impossible to describe the feeling as the illusion shatters. Reality tore open, I stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back, ha ha!

Nyharuthotep, the Black Pharaoh – are we his hand? Even if we are, does this make us bad? Should we not still strive against the forces of evil, even if this is what he wants? How could he be defeated, or even thwarted? Not by conflict it seems. Perhaps a possibility may present itself if I can bring myself to contemplate the events of the last few days.

Which reminds me, I should record my recent experiences before I get too far ahead of myself, (which could literally happen, given what I have just learned!)

Monday 6^th October 2008: It is late morning and we head off to Meidum to meet Ahmed and get shown around the Collapsed Pyramid. Sandy and I get out of the car before the village to check for ambushes. There is a group of men approaching Ayesha’s house and we soon work out that this is a funeral party. Ayesha’s body is carried out of the house and Ahmed leads the funeral procession to a nearby cemetery. We tag along and, when we file past to pay our respects, Ahmed recognises us and is not happy to see us. We arrange to meet in the early afternoon to tour the pyramid.

Ahmed does his tour guide bit – he says that the construction of the pyramid was begun by Huni, the last Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and then Snefru took over. When the pyramid collapsed Snefru decided to start again with the Bent Pyramid and then the Red Pyramid. This is the “official” history, but Ali Khafour tells a different story. Snefru built the pyramid to house the Black Pharaoh and it collapsed soon after completion. The Black Pharaoh had some sort of power over the area which allowed him to break the pyramid “from beyond the grave”. Snefru’s vizier, Kagemni, advised him to build the Bent Pyramid and then the Red Pyramid to “watch over” it as well as to house Snefru’s body.

We thank Ahmed and pay him generously, then drop him back at the village.

While we are having our day out Fatima is in the museum doing some last minute research into the Bent Pyramid and Adam stays in the hotel playing with cards – something called tarot?

We plan to visit the Bent Pyramid in the morning and we also plan to tell Ali Khafour to be ready in case we find the stolen sarcophagus inside. While we are having dinner Adam tells us about his “tarot reading”, but it sounds like rubbish to me. Looking back now I wish I had paid more attention.

Tuesday 7^th October 2008: We go to the museum first thing and talk to Ali Khafour. He doubts that the stolen sarcophagus is inside the Bent Pyramid due to the nature of the interior, but he tells us to inform him if we find anything. We collect Fatima and head off to the Bent Pyramid.

Fatima shows Ali Khafour’s letter to the guards and we are admitted to the Bent Pyramid. A party of American tourists try to gain entry at the same time and we leave them arguing with the guards. The Bent Pyramid has cedar scaffolding inside which is original. There is a modern ladder going up a fifty foot shaft. We climb the shaft and enter a passageway four to five feet high and one person wide. Fatima takes the lead followed by Sandy, Eliza, Adam and John – I bring up the rear.

We enter another passageway containing many pits which makes it hard to move quickly. There are two blocking stones, one at either end of the passage. One has a hole cut in it, the other looks unused and is held in place by cedar planks. We enter the main chamber which is about twenty-five by ten feet. There is a corbelled ceiling, plain stone walls and more scaffolding. It looks unfinished, there is no plaster or paint. At the north end are two alabaster columns with a movable stone section between them. Eliza and I open the door into a six-foot square chamber with steps going up and a faint breeze blowing upstairs. The floor is bare stone and dust-free, there are no tracks. Twenty steps lead up to a series of ramps which spiral upwards for hundreds of feet.

At the top of the ramps is a misshapen archway with an irregular chamber beyond, measuring about twenty by thirty feet. In the chamber is a black stone throne which seems too big to fit into the top of the pyramid. At this time the realisation hits us that we have climbed to a point which must be beyond the pyramid’s summit. This revelation is about to be supplanted by something even more bizarre and horrifying.

The throne is of black obsidian inlaid with precious stones. Six black columns are set around the room, each topped with some sort of gem. The walls are covered with carvings and bas-reliefs. Sandy, John and I enter the chamber and start exploring. I look at the gems on the throne – they look very valuable and extra sparkly. John is checking the walls and Sandy goes behind the throne. Shortly afterwards, the rest of the group enter the chamber.

The bas-reliefs are hard to make out as they are black on black, but Fatima recognises one as being a depiction of the solar system. There is a larger carving beside it – is that a star map? The left wall has the solar system plan and star chart, the wall behind the throne is covered with hieroglyphs and the right hand wall shows some kind of map.

At this point I decide to sit on the throne and I am immediately hit by a vision of myself sitting on the throne writhing in agony as something bursts out of my chest, “Alien”-style. I pass out. As I sit catatonic on the throne my mind is filled with the strangest thoughts and images I cannot describe. I have shared the dreams of Nyharuthotep! I am only alive through his benevolence. Suddenly several things become clear to me.

This is Nyharuthotep’s chamber – it is not part of the “real world”, it only exists by Nyharuthotep’s will. Nyharuthotep is the Black Pharaoh. The information on the walls is “future history” as Nyharuthotep exists out of time. The events and situations depicted have already happened from a certain space/time perspective. The hieroglyphs tell a prophecy of the birth of the child of Nyharuthotep who will wreak great destruction upon the earth. The place of this birth is in the Mountains of the Black Wind, as shown by the map on the right hand wall. These mountains are about two thousand miles to the south – possibly Kenya, where the Carlyle expedition disappeared? The solar map shows a solar eclipse which will occur on 22^nd July 2009. The son of Nyharuthotep will be born before this.

As I regain consciousness I can see the gems atop the columns are beginning to glow and I know that Nyharuthotep approaches! He appears on the throne with star vampire servitors in attendance. Nyharuthotep is of normal human stature with jet-black skin and a gold mask. Beneath the mask there is the hint of something deeply disturbing.

Nyharuthotep speaks. He tells us that this is no prison, but his home which he uses when he is here. He claims responsibility for the advancement of the human race and for certain technologies in particular such as the internal combustion engine and plasma televisions. He asserts that by promoting conflict between humans he spurs on the development of the entire race. If society stagnates then there can be no advancement, therefore conflict and damage are necessary to stimulate growth and development. He is worshipped in many different forms and by many different cults and these often work behind the scenes and apparently against each other in order to increase strife and conflict. He hints that our group may be one of these “cults” or “faces” of Nyharuthotep. Disturbingly, this seems to make sense!

Eliza asks what happened to the Carlyle expedition? Nyharuthotep asks us if we want to see what happened to them. When we agree, the right hand wall of the chamber turns into a giant plasma screen. It displays an African scene with a safari expedition. Suddenly winged creatures (somehow I recognise these as hunting horrors) rise up from an extinct volcanic crater and out of the undergrowth; ghouls, shoggoths and other creatures all attack the safari party. We watch the scene in horror and fascination as the entire party, black and white alike, are torn to shreds.

Nyharuthotep then grants his gifts to each person present. We are each offered access to knowledges of our choice which Nyharuthotep possesses. Eliza is the only one to refuse this gift. I choose insight into human nature, figuring it will aid in infiltration missions, and I am immediately granted extensive knowledge of psychology with particular reference to insanity! I can’t help but think that this will prove especially useful under the present circumstances! After this Nyharuthotep departs, leaving behind a sceptre and a flail on the throne. Adam takes the sceptre and I take the flail. The door to the chamber is now open so we all leave.

When we return to the main chamber with the alabaster pillars there is no sign of the doorway between them – only a blank wall remains. It appears that we are back in the Bent Pyramid and the chamber of Nyharuthotep has ceased to exist by his will.

Upon our return to Cairo there are some shenanigans at the embassy. Eliza is acting very suspiciously, Sandy as well. Eliza leaves and does not return for some time until Sandy fetches her back. Eliza gives me a card with a telephone number on it – the person at the other end may be able to help me come to terms with what I have seen and learned. There is no name on the card, but maybe it is a shrink? Eliza is a doctor after all. I have avoided head shrinkers for a long time, but perhaps it is time for that to change?

Fatima, Adam and I go to the museum so that Ali Khafour can check out our artefacts. Fatima says that we cannot remove them from the country, but I point out that we were not in the country when we acquired them and Khafour agrees. I tell Fatima that we need to speak to the ghost of Faraz Najir (don’t ask me how I know this!). She says that is OK as long as she can do tests on our artefacts so I agree.

We go to the graveyard where Najir is buried to check it out, then that night we return to dig him up. Fatima performs the ritual to summon his ghost. This suddenly seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do and only very slightly weird. How the world has changed in just one day! Najir tells us that he was killed for stealing from a priest of the Black Brotherhood. It comes as little surprise to learn that this priest is our old acquaintance, and friend of Henry Clive, Rifaat Abaza. The items stolen were a bust of the Black Pharaoh, a strange circlet and a drum. The thieves were attacked while in Abaza’s house in the Maadi district by a “dead man”. Najir supplied the items to the Carlyle expedition. Najir had a corrupt policeman, Omar Shafiq, working for him. The day after the robbery Shafiq said that Abaza met a crowd and they all headed off for the Sphinx. Shafiq lost them there – they must have gone through some sort of secret door. Two weeks later Abaza came to Najir’s shop demanding the circlet back. Najir tried to get it back, but it had already gone with the Carlyle expedition. The circlet was the crown of the Black Pharaoh. It seems the Brotherhood were also after an item from the Ibn Tulun mosque. Later the Brotherhood came for Najir. They beat him senseless and then burnt down his shop.

Wednesday 8^th October 2008: We all meet for breakfast at the hotel and decide to visit the Ibn Tulun mosque to try and find out what the Brotherhood were after. There had been an attack on the mosque a few days earlier so there were armed tourist police at the mosque. Our presence was seemingly unwelcome, but there was one teacher who spoke with us. He said the attack on the mosque was not by conventional terrorists. They were armed with spiked clubs and were after the treasures of the mosque which were locked up. We will need to find out what is in the mosque treasury, but this is likely to prove especially difficult given the recent security scare. Even a look at the catalogue of contents might be helpful, but this may also prove tricky – if such a thing even exists. At any rate it would seem that the Brotherhood are still after something from the mosque and they have apparently still failed to acquire it with this latest attempt.