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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DanMcS" data-source="post: 590238" data-attributes="member: 6530">The list of addresses proved to be subway stations.  Most were crossed off, three were not.  A subway map told us that one of those did not even exist any more.  We surmised that the crossed off ones had been visited; the three uncrossed stations had not when the list was last looked at.  So whatever they were looking for was probably in one of those three.  Or it was in one of the 8 or 9 crossed off ones, but three was fewer to check than 8 so we started with the three first.One of those was a perfectly ordinary subway station.  We walked in, gawked, talked to some on-duty cops there, and realized we weren't getting anywhere.The next one we checked was the closed station.  There was a gate, but we just stepped over and descended the stairs.***The underground station was fairly decrepit, not in use for several years probably.  We shone our flashlights around, and started to fan out from the stairs to search.  The gunmen at the far end of the station opened up on us with their machine guns.Rae dove behind the station-worker booth, crouched down low hoping it might stop bullets.  She shot at the gunmen.  Isaac ran toward the track, concrete pillars there might provide some cover.  He tossed a grenade as he ran, which at least stopped them firing for a couple of seconds as they maneuvered to avoid it.  Wolfgang and Mason rolled for what cover there was in the bare area, and opened up.A couple more grenades and much ammunition flew this way and that.  Remarkably, none of us were killed, and we got all three of the gunmen.  Raw luck, that.  This must be the place.  We took their guns and remaining grenades, and looked for what they were guarding.It took a couple of minutes, but we found a door built into the back wall, descending down into the gloom.***At the bottom of the stairs, a short corridor.  Big double doors at the end, with light leaking under them.  We nominated Wolfgang to go check it out, the rest of us having been less than stealthy in the past.At the door, Wolfgang listened.  Was that chanting?  No, more like one guy... reciting... something.  Wolfgang didn't recognize the language.  He beckoned us down the corridor.The plan: Wolfgang opens the door a crack, we toss in grenades, and shut the door.  Wait for the boom, and then bust back in and hit them with everything we've got.  Unfortunately, we didn't hear them hear us, and <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> their guns.1 Rae opens door.2 Isaac and Wolfgang toss grenades.3 Rae shuts door.4 BOOM.5 Open door.6 Shoot the survivors.Except that we got interrupted at about five and a half, by two of them who were able to react and hose us with their machine guns.  Everyone got minor wounds from that.  A couple more grenades went in the door and then we went through as the last gunmen crumpled before our stolen artillery.On either side of the door lay bodies, cut and ragged from the fragmentation grenades.  Dead ahead was a large stone box, the Elephantine Casket we presume.  On the other side of that stands Jamjad Abari, reading from a papyrus scroll which crumbles to dust as we watch, horrified.  We're too late.The coffin stirs.  Cracks.  Breaks open.  A huge snout pokes from the rubble.  Great scaled hands brush away stone fragments none of us could lift.  The very image of Sobek, the crocodile-headed Egyptian god, stands before us.He shakes his head, squints, and sniffs.  He turns on Abari, who shrieks a command at it, and it rapidly rends him with claw and snapping jaw.  We look at each other.  This thing can't be released on the unsuspecting city.  Guns and grenades ready, we fire at the monstrosity now feasting on the priest.The bullets get its attention.  It turns and rushes across the room, slamming into Rae, who falls.  Isaac pulls out his second pistol and shoots wildly at it, trying to lure it away from Rae, which works for a minute until it turns on him and bites a huge chunk out of him.  Well, it felt huge at the time.  Isaac passed out and lay bleeding on the floor.Wolfgang had revived Rae with one of the potions we got from the herbalist.  She circled widely around Isaac and got one to him, while it sniffed and hunted for Mason, who was hidden behind the door into the corridor.  Up and mobile again (those potions were good stuff), Isaac limped towards the other side of the room, where another corridor led out.  Maybe there was something down here to use against it, or trick it into a trap.  None of us were shooting at it now.  It didn't seem that bright, and might just leave if not provoked.Bored now, the nine foot crocodile man pawed at the corpse of the priest, then started down the corridor Isaac was checking out.  He scrunched to one side and held his breath as it passed him in the dark, and then it was gone.  We followed it at a long distance, this tunnel connected to a storm sewer, and eventually the sea.  Where it went from there, we don't know.  We caught the next flight out to Columbus.***Rae decided this life wasn't for her, and returned to the comfortable normalness of her job in the national parks.</blockquote>

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