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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9652557" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Unmasking the Skull/Death on the Nile by Kenneth Hite.Giula dove behind the moldering stuffed animals, the sound of rifle fire splitting the air. “SHOOT! WIN!” said the sign.The session started with a snack run and ended with someone being punched so hard their heart exploded.JP and Captain Ivanova were holding a housewarming party at their place in the Treme. Luckily, stuntwoman Lala Santanella helped them race to the store for snacks. This left Japanese investigator Zelda Saeki with the party’s dimwitted acquaintance Lorna Geary. But the ‘lovelorn bimbo’ routine was just an act. One that hid Geary’s real duty: spying for the Kempeitai! As the daughter of a general, Zelda could be trusted to keep her nose clean and under no circumstances go after ‘Takagi’.With snacks provided, the shindig was a success. JP answered too many questions from young reporter Candace "Candy Kisses” Kessler. She wanted to know what he knew about the Sinister Skull. Hmmm…But things can't stay quiet too long in the Crescent City. JP's sister-in-law Alice was kidnapped and taken to Baron Sunday’s, an abandoned amusement park outside of town. Lala found herself by herself when both detectives, Saeki and Diamond, decided they were self-starters who worked best on their own! It turned out The Sinister Skull was letting lesser crime lords pay him for the privilege of participating in the Most Dangerous Game, and Alice was today’s unlucky contestant! And of course, everyone was on their lonesome.Lorna made contact with Zelda Saeki. After a cryptic conversation, the Japanese detective intuited that the Sinister Skull was Japanese operative Ito Takagi! After his seeming assassination in Hawaii (during Slicin' Sand!), he had his pate scientifically repaired. Once he healed, he requested reassignment to a place where he could hurt America the most. Being a mysterious crimelord was perfect.JP snuck through another section of the park, nearly getting caught by his nemesi. The twin palookas Mr. Black and Mr. Blue were his physical equal, and they knew it. So instead of delivering a beating on the undying detective, they'd take out their frustrations on the much more vulnerable Zelda.At the midway, gangster “Two Tone” Brophy was having the time of his life, standing on a booth and taking pot shots. Lala tried to stay out of his way, but couldn't get to his vantage point. On top of the Ferris wheel, Lorna confronted the Sinister Skull! The Empire was upset with how much attention he had drawn. Causing chaos was fine, but why exactly had he decided to tangle with  the world’s greatest detectives? He just laughed and told her to watch the plan.Below, Brody put his crosshairs on Zelda and pulled the trigger. BLAM! Luckily, the Tokyo-born hipster had been wearing body armor, so she was only bruised and knocked into a pile of sawdust, instead of slain.Seeing a Japanese citizen in danger, Lorna killed Brophy.JP was still searching for his sister-in-law, and found her tied to a roller coaster cart! Lala jumped on her stuntbike, using all her focus to race the vehicle, nearly losing her bumper as she hooked it and tried to slow it down.back on the ground, Black and Blue advanced on Zelda, who was in for a beating. Lorna took aim at them too, until The Skull snapped her rifle over his knee. It was looking dire, until JP tricked the twins into the Hall of Mirrors. They were tough, but they weren’t thinkers. Their numbers advantage backfired.The Skull, seeing the way things were going, fled the scene. The players rescued Alice. One step closer to ending the Skull’s reign once and for all. With a public identity, it will be easy to make him a public enemy… but they still had to beat feet before Mr. Black and Mr. Blue “solved” the Hall with bullets.***Early February in Cairo. Lala and Zelda were joined by millionaire industrialist Raphael Lancaster and the Jade Jaguar himself, lawyer Tácito Uriel Velasco! They had been hired by Yale University and Carter Dudley, miscreant archaeologist (last seen in The Doom of the Lost Library!). Unlike all the other dummies, though, he decided to hire a security team before there was a problem.Well, the lack of a problem solved itself. Tácito, fighting over the gorgeous and alluring Zita Freund, gave his jacket to a prissy archaeologist. Half an hour later, that archaeologist was found dead, head caved in and chest ripped open, next to romantic hieroglyphics written in his blood. Good thing the Mexican boxer was also a lawyer.Over at the Mena House hotel, Zita’s father Dr. Freund was stacking bills with his "past life regression" scam. All of Cairo's socialites were eager to pay for his flim-flam, with Lancaster especially spending his way into the good doctor’s affections. It was all fun and games, until a suspicious Tácito tried it… and was summoned into a past life!Then he awoke. The group hit the books till they hollered. Turned out Nitocris was a sorceress of uncommon beauty and cruelty. Her brother-husband was killed by the priests of Osiris, for uncovering their sacred rites of immortality (at her bidding). Nitocris used the arts of mummification to make herself immortal.Tácito had a hunch though, one that saved months of archaeology. In his vision, he could see the area outside the tomb… Which, judging by modern landmarks,  meant it would be easy enough to find again! The expedition moved, digging and uncovering the tomb as the sun set. Carter, who had previously retained the ZSS to uncover an ancient civilization destroyed by carnivorous apes, was more than willing to trust the investigators' weird claims. Inside, the ruin was fetid. The walls were covered in hundreds of mummified jackal men, staring eyelessly out of every niche and inlet. The Jade Jaguar called on his ancient memories, following them to the room they needed to enter. Unfortunately, millennia of neglect meant the door needed to be repaired before it could be opened.That's when Anankaresh sent his first mummy. Giulia and Rafe repaired the door as the Mexican boxer and the Japanese shootist dealt with the undead.The first one wasn't a problem. Neither was the second. The tenth, though, decided to fling itself at the door mechanism, covering the assembly with viscera. Tácito had Dudley translate his jibes into ancient Egyptian, rattling the sorcerer slightly…And before they could be overrun, the five of them entered the secret room.Inside, the hidden chamber of the braziers was much like Tácito’s vision, with two exceptions. First, there was an enormous stone sarcophagus in the middle of the room; its cover showed a man in a jackal mask.The second major change was that the middle wall now showed a painted relief. At the top, Nitocris and Nemty-em-Saph challenged the priests of Osiris and then exchanged their hearts’ blood. Then, the relief depicted a priest stabbing Nemty-em-Saph, Nitocris’ drowning of the feasters in revenge, and then Nitocris consulting with Anankaresh. Nitocris looked into the light of a brazier and seeing Tácito, depicted in 1930s garb but labeled with the cartouche of Menthuophis. Anankaresh had shown with his ba rising out of his heart and traveling into a mummy; the rest of the relief showed the events of the adventure. The final image was Nitocris walking into the chamber of braziers and flinging herself through the light into Tácito’s body, followed by a gigantic Nitocris looming over many worshipful slaves at the Mena House Hotel!The party, upon realizing this, did their very best not to go insane. Dudley whimpered as causality and linear time were proven to be nebulous. Lala, international actress, denied the impossible. That painting of her bore no resemblance.The stone sarcophagus contained Anankaresh’s body. The shocked group used the stone to block the doorway, but when it opened, Anankaresh possessed his own corpse, roaring with fury and strength! He nearly wrang Tacito’s neck, leaving a deep bruise, but the mystic’s strength was also his vulnerability. The group grabbed the mummy, restraining its limbs, shooting at its kneecaps, and setting it on fire. Even so, its punches shattered stone. It reared back to kill Lala… when Tácito put a glowing fist through it.4000 years prior, Anankaresh's heart exploded from his chest. Back in 1935, a very faint blood stain appeared below the Jade Jaguar. The mural, which had predicted the victory of the sorceress, was now smashed in rage. All that was left was a gory trip out of the pyramid. And very long showers back at the team’s base.The book art:[ATTACH=full]404703[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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