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<blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4008833" data-attributes="member: 31465"><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Adventure #9: Ambush at the Broken Camel</span></p><p></p><p>Early the next morning, something tapping on the window wakes Chang up. The sun has just crested the city skyline. Yawning and stretching, he pulls back the curtain and looks out…</p><p></p><p>…and sees Ma’Moud throwing up small pebbles from the alley below. Ma’Moud waves, smiling, and Chang waves back, about to close the curtain…</p><p></p><p>…when a window directly across the street draws his attention. The curtain jerks back, and with horribly delayed reaction, Chang sees three armed men, two of them feeding a sleeve of bullets into a Gatling gun!</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/gatling.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>“LOOK OU--!” is all he can manage. </p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/sfx/RIFLE SNEAK ATTACK.wav" target="_blank">Hundreds of bullets rupture the morning calm</a>, punching through plaster, wood, and glass as the investigator’s hotel room is mercilessly shredded. Chang falls flat, an arm pierced, but Huey, still groggy in bed, is not so lucky.</p><p></p><p>A bullet critically strikes him between the eyes, and then several more riddle his chest, lungs, and heart, cruelly ending Huey’s fight against the Mythos that not even Action Points can salvage. And he never got to cast “Create Corpse Walker!” <span style="color: red">[another character, dark sorcerer Lucius Lardlover, amends that later]</span></p><p></p><p>Chang leaps to his bed and rips both pistols out. Morty and Arnold have fallen flat and are scrabbling for the door. But Chang has brass balls and he rolls to the window, popping up, sending a retaliatory hail of bullets across the alley. He kills one assassin, but another takes pot shots into their room, hoping to hit someone with blind luck. </p><p></p><p>Morty scrambles out the front door under a haze of misty plaster and paint dust, followed by Arnold, but the killers don’t take more than three or four rounds to conduct their dire business. With the machine gunner dead, they drop their large gear and run. Chang debates leaping across, but the distance is too far. “Downstairs!” he yells. “They’re running out!”</p><p></p><p>Chang glances at Huey’s corpse, but swallows his grief for later. Sooner or later, they knew this was bound to happen. </p><p><span style="color: red"></span></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: The bad guy's chance of actually hitting someone were very slim, but the campaign book suggested that cultist retaliation (such as rifling their hotel) was possible, especially if the cult was aware of them; and critical hits suck.]</span></p><p></p><p>Morty, Arnold and Chang fly through the Broken Camel and burst out the front door, hanging a left into the adjacent alley and see two cultists leaping off a fire escape. Both sides hunker behind trash barrels, pistols raging between them, pinging off brick walls and filling the dirty alley with smoke and confusion. Chang is nicked in the ear, but his attacker is shot twice in the chest, dropping him. The second tries to run, but Arnold chases him down and blasts him in the back. </p><p></p><p>It is only their second day in Cairo, one of their party is dead, the enemy knows who they are, and they’re scared, wounded and gasping for breath in a dingy alleyway with no idea what to do next. </p><p></p><p>Ma’Moud is frantic, screaming and jabbing his finger at approaching witnesses. Not wanting to get caught in the middle of this mess, the investigators retreat to the Broken Camel, grab their gear and exit as quickly as possible. Ma’Moud follows, wringing his dirty brown hands and pointing witnesses in the opposite direction, claiming that the killers ran THAT-A Way. “Go! Go! Go! Bad men that way!” He wants his new American friends to stay free and alive, so he offers misdirection for free. </p><p></p><p>They’re barely able to avoid authorities who raid the Broken Camel and the adjacent building, hunting for culprits. </p><p></p><p>The investigators hoof it back to Ezbekia Gardens and check into the ritziest, most expensive hotel that Arnold can afford, but later that day they are approached by police concerning the murder of Huey Fulton, except that Huey had no identification on him and the police are just following leads provided by witnesses. By now the investigators have approached the U.S. Embassy looking for help, because they’re going to need it. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: I remember some confusion during this part of the campaign over legal ramifications in 1920’s Cairo. Some stuff I glossed over or hand-waved, but these would be excellent facts to research for future games.]</span></p><p></p><p>They’re finally released after denying all knowledge of anything, but are afraid that they’re in far over their heads in dangerous territory. Huey’s loss is a difficult ordeal, but the corpse is never claimed or identified. They want to wash themselves clean of any connections. Their lives may very well depend on it. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: although the players never directly learned this, Edward Gavigan had sent warning to Cairo that a group of American vigilantes were on the move, and they should be killed as soon as possible if spotted.]</span></p><p></p><p>Jonah Kensington is contacted back in New York and they give him the bad news. Kensington agrees to tell Huey’s father, Huey Fulton Sr., that he’ll have to run his occult bookshop by himself from now on. His son, unfortunately, won’t be returning home. </p><p></p><p>They decide to lay low and avoid Faraz Najir for a few days, and by chance wind up at the Cairo Museum across the Nile River. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/museum.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>There might be a connection between the Egyptian Exhibits at the Penhew Foundation in London and the extensive collections here in Cairo, so they politely ask to speak with the curator, and are introduced to a gentle elderly man who speaks English very well: Dr. Ali Kafour. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/ali.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>“Dr. Kafour,” says Morty carefully, “we’re travelers and…historians from America. We’re looking for any knowledge you might have about Jackson Elias, the Penhew Foundation, or a man named Roger Carlyle. He would have passed through here about five years ago.” </p><p></p><p>Ali Kafour’s eyebrows arch. He glances around as if the walls have ears. “I know of these people. Gentlemen, let us speak in private. Come with me.” </p><p></p><p>Ali places a quick call on an interior phone line, and then leads them through the museum, past lavish exhibits of ancient masonry and crumbling stone hybrid animals, and other representations of Horus, Isis, Bast and Tutankhamen. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/exhibits2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>He leads them down into steel-lined vaults to an office that is quiet, remote, and decorated with curious knick-knacks and an ornate red Persian rug. A young Englishman is waiting there and he nods at their arrival. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: this is Leo’s new character, a sorcerous scholar and devotee to Ali Kafour who had been created as a backup character; technically, everyone was supposed to have a backup character]</span></p><p></p><p>“Gentlemen,” Dr. Kafour says kindly, “please ask any questions you have. And if you don’t mind, my assistant Neville Thornbottom will remain with us. He has a vested interest in these affairs, and is a keen academic with the…occult.”</p><p></p><p><em>The occult.</em></p><p></p><p>Wonderful. Not quite sure what they’ve gotten themselves into, yet again, but Morty, Chang and Arnold segue into a story about murder, corruption and lies, feeling safer and safer as Ali Kafour barely flinches, and they finally start pulling out the Big Guns, babbling about hidden death cults and black brotherhoods and zombies and the lost Carlyle Expedition which may not really be lost, and, and, and—</p><p></p><p>“Wait!” barks Dr. Kafour. Sweat dampens his forehead and his hands jitter with nervous excitement. “Neville, shut and lock the door.” Neville does so and sits back down, his face equally flushed. “Dear sirs,” whispers Ali Kafour, “I know the horrors of which you speak. You have stumbled, quite unwittingly it seems, upon a great conspiracy. A global abomination. A plan of some sort of which I am only partially aware. But I will tell you what I know. We should be safe here from prying ears. Magical or otherwise.” </p><p></p><p>And that is all they wanted to hear. </p><p></p><p>WHAT DR. KAFOUR KNOWS:</p><p></p><p>He is a source of awful, enlightening information, and the investigators are shell shocked (and Sanity slammed) by his story:</p><p></p><p></p><p>1) Ali believes that in 1920 the Carlyle Expedition uncovered a secret about the Black Pharaoh that led to their vanishing in Kenya. The investigator’s friend, Jackson Elias, discovered this secret and was silenced too. In some circles, The Black Pharaoh is also known as…</p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'"><span style="color: DarkOrange"></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'"><span style="color: DarkOrange">…NYARLATHOTEP. </p><p></span></span></span></p><p>A dark god with many faces who is all too real and involved with mankind. In fact, this god has so many aliases that they are known as Masks.</p><p></p><p>2) During 3rd dynasty Egypt a mortal sorcerer named Nephren-Ka came to</p><p>power and revived the worship of a primordial deity known as the Black</p><p>Pharaoh. Over time, distinction between man and god blurred into one. The Black Pharaoh was finally thwarted and killed by Sneferu, a powerful king, and all traces of the Black Pharaoh were stricken from the land, or buried in the Collapsed, Bent, and Red pyramids, located in Dhashur and Meidum. </p><p></p><p>According to legend, the Red Pyramid at Dhashur is said to guard the land lest Nephren-Ka rise from the dead to rule the world… </p><p></p><p>2 a. When questioned in more detail about this Black Pharaoh, Ali Kafour tells them this:</p><p></p><p>1. Nephren-Ka’s voice could travel the land as a Black Wind</p><p>2. The Black Pharaoh would return one day to destroy the world.</p><p>3. Inhuman worshipers of the Black Pharaoh are said to lurk in the dark</p><p>4. The Great Sphinx of Giza has an important—and unknown--relation to Nitcrosis.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Nitcrosis? [pronounced “Night – Crow – Siss” in this campaign] Who is that? they ask, getting even more confused. Ali Kafour elaborates on this elusive person from Egypt’s dark past; an ancient and cruel queen of the Nile Valley who tortured her subjects. Little is known about her reign, but she and the pharaoh Nephren-Ka may have had a connection. </p><p></p><p>3) The CLIVE EXPEDITION is the current Penhew Foundation dig active in Egypt, but recently they had a new mummy stolen from a pyramid at Giza. The mummy, who Ali believes was NITCROSIS, coincides with a prophecy that foretells the return of the Black Pharaoh. But the mummy has mysteriously vanished from Giza’s smallest pyramid Menhaura, right out from under the nose of the Clive Expedition and the stationed guards. </p><p></p><p>4) Ali Kafour doesn’t know where the Clive Dig is now, but a man named Janwillen Vanheuven might. He was publicly fired from the dig several months ago for alcoholism and maybe other reasons. The local paper archives have all the details. If they can track him down, he might know where the Clive Expedition has gone. He might even know more than that…</p><p></p><p>5) Ali Kafour has always respected Sir Aubrey Penhew, Director Edward Gavigan and the Penhew Foundation itself, but ever since Sir Aubrey’s death there has been numerous expeditions to Cairo accompanied by mysterious deaths, disappearances and suicide, following the same symptoms established by the Carlyle Expedition. The whole region seems cursed. </p><p></p><p>The PC's are quick to tell Ali that Gavigan was a cultist <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> and nearly killed them, to which Ali replies</p><p>that their group is in dire danger, and they face threats greater than any imagined. Ali suspects that the dead Mummy Queen Nitcrosis plays a vital role in upcoming events, but he knows not how. His co-worker Neville Thornbottom volunteers to join their fledgling group and use his extensive Mythos knowledge to help them.</p><p></p><p>And Neville knows potent and reality-altering magic, like the extraordinary Bodywarping of Gorgoroth, magic stronger than the rest of the party has ever seen. </p><p><span style="color: red"></span></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: Ali Kafour, unknown to them, is an accomplished magician too, but his secret skills are not revealed. He remains in the background as their financial connoisseur, eventually replacing Jonah Kensington in New York as the core party is destroyed, driven mad, and replaced by new heroes opposed to the Mythos…except for Chang Chin, the longest running survivor]</span></p><p></p><p>Morty, Chang, Arnold and Neville step out into the sunshine near the Cairo Museum, their Egyptian guide Ma’Moud smiling up at them. He is so trusting, and the players (not just the characters) feel a deep compulsion to keep him safe and alive. They now possess a greater understanding of the terrible plans that Jackson Elias had unearthed. There is a plot at work here, the reins held by a dark and malevolent deity that they can barely comprehend. And this deity commands hundreds if not thousands of worshippers who will slay them to keep their secrets hidden. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cairoparty.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/party_cu.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Using Ma’Moud, they finally attempt to find The Street of Jackals and one Faraz Najir, an antiquities dealer who dealt with Jackson Elias in the past. It takes three hours, but their meandering path leads them to Old City and the crumbling edifices of ancient Cairo. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cairo-street_egypt.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>But Najir’s old shop is a burned out shell.</p><p></p><p>Bummed, the investigators discuss what they should do. They have no idea where to find this man. Speaking fluent Arabic, Neville Thornbottom asks a local shop owner where they can find the former resident of this location. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cultist1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The man invokes Allah at the mention of Faraz Najir, and tells Neville that “a demon made of fire came years ago and set the shop aflame. The owner barely escaped alive.” However, the informant knows where Faraz set up a NEW shop, and for a few coins greasing his palm, he tells them.</p><p></p><p>Kahn El-Khalili is a crowded marketplace bustling with vendors and buyers, and the new address is on the Street of Potters. Ma’Moud is able to competently lead them there, and within an hour, they have found their man. </p><p></p><p>Amidst dozens of similar markets is a door marked in several languages, one of which states “Faraz.” Neville and Morty enter, pretending to browse while Arnold and Chang remain outside. Ma’Moud rubs his toe in the dirt and watches his new, bizarre American friends. </p><p></p><p>The shop is filled with worthless junk, even the newcomers can see that, and lording over this house of rubbish is a hideously scarred man slouched behind a counter: Faraz Najir.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/faraz.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Old burns scar half of his flabby face, and he raises a weak hand in greeting. </p><p></p><p>Drawing closer, Neville calmly asks if Faraz has any knowledge regarding a man named Roger Carlyle, leader of an expedition that passed through this region roughly five years ago. Or perhaps a man named Jackson Elias, an American writer? </p><p></p><p>Faraz’s eyes grow wide. “Blasphemers!” he hisses. “Leave this place! Leave now! You go! Go! GO! GO! GO!”</p><p></p><p>He shoos them away with a broom, but when Neville and Morty continue to press questions, Faraz picks up a cheap bronze urn and chucks it at them. “Help!” shouts Faraz. “HELP ME!”</p><p></p><p>The investigators don’t wait around. Apologizing, they scramble out as curious onlookers note them. Morty tosses some coins to the ground, and the last thing they see is Faraz Najir bending down to pick them up, biting a silver between his teeth…</p><p></p><p>Discouraged, but not beaten, the investigators send Ma’Moud back to watch Faraz and see if he goes anywhere. The boy happily obliges, and they wait at a local cafe for any word. A few hours later Ma’Moud runs up and tells them that Faraz has gone to a restaurant. They decide to pay the man off for information, and approach Faraz again, telling him they just have some simple questions! And money!</p><p></p><p>“We mean no harm!” Neville insists in Arabic.</p><p></p><p>Arnold Silvermine throws a silver coin down. Faraz stands up, about to run, but scowling, asks,</p><p></p><p>“WHAT in Allah’s holy name do you want?” </p><p></p><p>“Just questions answered, kind sir; a moment of your time,” Neville answers. </p><p></p><p>“Time is money,” the shopkeeper spits. They flip him another coin. He waits. They flip him two more. “I will answer, but not here, not now. Meet me at the El Hussein Mosque the day after tomorrow. 5 in the evening. I will answer your questions only there, under the merciful eye of Allah.”</p><p></p><p>Thanking him, the investigators leave and travel back to Ezbekia Gardens, hoping that this lead will pan out, and wondering just how merciful Allah truly is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nebulous, post: 4008833, member: 31465"] [SIZE=3]Adventure #9: Ambush at the Broken Camel[/SIZE] Early the next morning, something tapping on the window wakes Chang up. The sun has just crested the city skyline. Yawning and stretching, he pulls back the curtain and looks out… …and sees Ma’Moud throwing up small pebbles from the alley below. Ma’Moud waves, smiling, and Chang waves back, about to close the curtain… …when a window directly across the street draws his attention. The curtain jerks back, and with horribly delayed reaction, Chang sees three armed men, two of them feeding a sleeve of bullets into a Gatling gun! [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/gatling.jpg[/img] “LOOK OU--!” is all he can manage. [url=http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/sfx/RIFLE SNEAK ATTACK.wav]Hundreds of bullets rupture the morning calm[/url], punching through plaster, wood, and glass as the investigator’s hotel room is mercilessly shredded. Chang falls flat, an arm pierced, but Huey, still groggy in bed, is not so lucky. A bullet critically strikes him between the eyes, and then several more riddle his chest, lungs, and heart, cruelly ending Huey’s fight against the Mythos that not even Action Points can salvage. And he never got to cast “Create Corpse Walker!” [color=red][another character, dark sorcerer Lucius Lardlover, amends that later][/color] Chang leaps to his bed and rips both pistols out. Morty and Arnold have fallen flat and are scrabbling for the door. But Chang has brass balls and he rolls to the window, popping up, sending a retaliatory hail of bullets across the alley. He kills one assassin, but another takes pot shots into their room, hoping to hit someone with blind luck. Morty scrambles out the front door under a haze of misty plaster and paint dust, followed by Arnold, but the killers don’t take more than three or four rounds to conduct their dire business. With the machine gunner dead, they drop their large gear and run. Chang debates leaping across, but the distance is too far. “Downstairs!” he yells. “They’re running out!” Chang glances at Huey’s corpse, but swallows his grief for later. Sooner or later, they knew this was bound to happen. [color=red] [GM Note: The bad guy's chance of actually hitting someone were very slim, but the campaign book suggested that cultist retaliation (such as rifling their hotel) was possible, especially if the cult was aware of them; and critical hits suck.][/color] Morty, Arnold and Chang fly through the Broken Camel and burst out the front door, hanging a left into the adjacent alley and see two cultists leaping off a fire escape. Both sides hunker behind trash barrels, pistols raging between them, pinging off brick walls and filling the dirty alley with smoke and confusion. Chang is nicked in the ear, but his attacker is shot twice in the chest, dropping him. The second tries to run, but Arnold chases him down and blasts him in the back. It is only their second day in Cairo, one of their party is dead, the enemy knows who they are, and they’re scared, wounded and gasping for breath in a dingy alleyway with no idea what to do next. Ma’Moud is frantic, screaming and jabbing his finger at approaching witnesses. Not wanting to get caught in the middle of this mess, the investigators retreat to the Broken Camel, grab their gear and exit as quickly as possible. Ma’Moud follows, wringing his dirty brown hands and pointing witnesses in the opposite direction, claiming that the killers ran THAT-A Way. “Go! Go! Go! Bad men that way!” He wants his new American friends to stay free and alive, so he offers misdirection for free. They’re barely able to avoid authorities who raid the Broken Camel and the adjacent building, hunting for culprits. The investigators hoof it back to Ezbekia Gardens and check into the ritziest, most expensive hotel that Arnold can afford, but later that day they are approached by police concerning the murder of Huey Fulton, except that Huey had no identification on him and the police are just following leads provided by witnesses. By now the investigators have approached the U.S. Embassy looking for help, because they’re going to need it. [color=red][GM Note: I remember some confusion during this part of the campaign over legal ramifications in 1920’s Cairo. Some stuff I glossed over or hand-waved, but these would be excellent facts to research for future games.][/color] They’re finally released after denying all knowledge of anything, but are afraid that they’re in far over their heads in dangerous territory. Huey’s loss is a difficult ordeal, but the corpse is never claimed or identified. They want to wash themselves clean of any connections. Their lives may very well depend on it. [color=red][GM Note: although the players never directly learned this, Edward Gavigan had sent warning to Cairo that a group of American vigilantes were on the move, and they should be killed as soon as possible if spotted.][/color] Jonah Kensington is contacted back in New York and they give him the bad news. Kensington agrees to tell Huey’s father, Huey Fulton Sr., that he’ll have to run his occult bookshop by himself from now on. His son, unfortunately, won’t be returning home. They decide to lay low and avoid Faraz Najir for a few days, and by chance wind up at the Cairo Museum across the Nile River. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/museum.jpg[/img] There might be a connection between the Egyptian Exhibits at the Penhew Foundation in London and the extensive collections here in Cairo, so they politely ask to speak with the curator, and are introduced to a gentle elderly man who speaks English very well: Dr. Ali Kafour. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/ali.jpg[/img] “Dr. Kafour,” says Morty carefully, “we’re travelers and…historians from America. We’re looking for any knowledge you might have about Jackson Elias, the Penhew Foundation, or a man named Roger Carlyle. He would have passed through here about five years ago.” Ali Kafour’s eyebrows arch. He glances around as if the walls have ears. “I know of these people. Gentlemen, let us speak in private. Come with me.” Ali places a quick call on an interior phone line, and then leads them through the museum, past lavish exhibits of ancient masonry and crumbling stone hybrid animals, and other representations of Horus, Isis, Bast and Tutankhamen. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/exhibits2.jpg[/img] He leads them down into steel-lined vaults to an office that is quiet, remote, and decorated with curious knick-knacks and an ornate red Persian rug. A young Englishman is waiting there and he nods at their arrival. [color=red][GM Note: this is Leo’s new character, a sorcerous scholar and devotee to Ali Kafour who had been created as a backup character; technically, everyone was supposed to have a backup character][/color] “Gentlemen,” Dr. Kafour says kindly, “please ask any questions you have. And if you don’t mind, my assistant Neville Thornbottom will remain with us. He has a vested interest in these affairs, and is a keen academic with the…occult.” [i]The occult.[/i] Wonderful. Not quite sure what they’ve gotten themselves into, yet again, but Morty, Chang and Arnold segue into a story about murder, corruption and lies, feeling safer and safer as Ali Kafour barely flinches, and they finally start pulling out the Big Guns, babbling about hidden death cults and black brotherhoods and zombies and the lost Carlyle Expedition which may not really be lost, and, and, and— “Wait!” barks Dr. Kafour. Sweat dampens his forehead and his hands jitter with nervous excitement. “Neville, shut and lock the door.” Neville does so and sits back down, his face equally flushed. “Dear sirs,” whispers Ali Kafour, “I know the horrors of which you speak. You have stumbled, quite unwittingly it seems, upon a great conspiracy. A global abomination. A plan of some sort of which I am only partially aware. But I will tell you what I know. We should be safe here from prying ears. Magical or otherwise.” And that is all they wanted to hear. WHAT DR. KAFOUR KNOWS: He is a source of awful, enlightening information, and the investigators are shell shocked (and Sanity slammed) by his story: 1) Ali believes that in 1920 the Carlyle Expedition uncovered a secret about the Black Pharaoh that led to their vanishing in Kenya. The investigator’s friend, Jackson Elias, discovered this secret and was silenced too. In some circles, The Black Pharaoh is also known as… [SIZE=4][FONT=Lucida Console][COLOR=DarkOrange] [CENTER]…NYARLATHOTEP. [/CENTER][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] A dark god with many faces who is all too real and involved with mankind. In fact, this god has so many aliases that they are known as Masks. 2) During 3rd dynasty Egypt a mortal sorcerer named Nephren-Ka came to power and revived the worship of a primordial deity known as the Black Pharaoh. Over time, distinction between man and god blurred into one. The Black Pharaoh was finally thwarted and killed by Sneferu, a powerful king, and all traces of the Black Pharaoh were stricken from the land, or buried in the Collapsed, Bent, and Red pyramids, located in Dhashur and Meidum. According to legend, the Red Pyramid at Dhashur is said to guard the land lest Nephren-Ka rise from the dead to rule the world… 2 a. When questioned in more detail about this Black Pharaoh, Ali Kafour tells them this: 1. Nephren-Ka’s voice could travel the land as a Black Wind 2. The Black Pharaoh would return one day to destroy the world. 3. Inhuman worshipers of the Black Pharaoh are said to lurk in the dark 4. The Great Sphinx of Giza has an important—and unknown--relation to Nitcrosis. Nitcrosis? [pronounced “Night – Crow – Siss” in this campaign] Who is that? they ask, getting even more confused. Ali Kafour elaborates on this elusive person from Egypt’s dark past; an ancient and cruel queen of the Nile Valley who tortured her subjects. Little is known about her reign, but she and the pharaoh Nephren-Ka may have had a connection. 3) The CLIVE EXPEDITION is the current Penhew Foundation dig active in Egypt, but recently they had a new mummy stolen from a pyramid at Giza. The mummy, who Ali believes was NITCROSIS, coincides with a prophecy that foretells the return of the Black Pharaoh. But the mummy has mysteriously vanished from Giza’s smallest pyramid Menhaura, right out from under the nose of the Clive Expedition and the stationed guards. 4) Ali Kafour doesn’t know where the Clive Dig is now, but a man named Janwillen Vanheuven might. He was publicly fired from the dig several months ago for alcoholism and maybe other reasons. The local paper archives have all the details. If they can track him down, he might know where the Clive Expedition has gone. He might even know more than that… 5) Ali Kafour has always respected Sir Aubrey Penhew, Director Edward Gavigan and the Penhew Foundation itself, but ever since Sir Aubrey’s death there has been numerous expeditions to Cairo accompanied by mysterious deaths, disappearances and suicide, following the same symptoms established by the Carlyle Expedition. The whole region seems cursed. The PC's are quick to tell Ali that Gavigan was a cultist :):):):):):):) and nearly killed them, to which Ali replies that their group is in dire danger, and they face threats greater than any imagined. Ali suspects that the dead Mummy Queen Nitcrosis plays a vital role in upcoming events, but he knows not how. His co-worker Neville Thornbottom volunteers to join their fledgling group and use his extensive Mythos knowledge to help them. And Neville knows potent and reality-altering magic, like the extraordinary Bodywarping of Gorgoroth, magic stronger than the rest of the party has ever seen. [color=red] [GM Note: Ali Kafour, unknown to them, is an accomplished magician too, but his secret skills are not revealed. He remains in the background as their financial connoisseur, eventually replacing Jonah Kensington in New York as the core party is destroyed, driven mad, and replaced by new heroes opposed to the Mythos…except for Chang Chin, the longest running survivor][/color] Morty, Chang, Arnold and Neville step out into the sunshine near the Cairo Museum, their Egyptian guide Ma’Moud smiling up at them. He is so trusting, and the players (not just the characters) feel a deep compulsion to keep him safe and alive. They now possess a greater understanding of the terrible plans that Jackson Elias had unearthed. There is a plot at work here, the reins held by a dark and malevolent deity that they can barely comprehend. And this deity commands hundreds if not thousands of worshippers who will slay them to keep their secrets hidden. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cairoparty.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/party_cu.jpg[/img] Using Ma’Moud, they finally attempt to find The Street of Jackals and one Faraz Najir, an antiquities dealer who dealt with Jackson Elias in the past. It takes three hours, but their meandering path leads them to Old City and the crumbling edifices of ancient Cairo. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cairo-street_egypt.jpg[/img] But Najir’s old shop is a burned out shell. Bummed, the investigators discuss what they should do. They have no idea where to find this man. Speaking fluent Arabic, Neville Thornbottom asks a local shop owner where they can find the former resident of this location. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cultist1.jpg[/img] The man invokes Allah at the mention of Faraz Najir, and tells Neville that “a demon made of fire came years ago and set the shop aflame. The owner barely escaped alive.” However, the informant knows where Faraz set up a NEW shop, and for a few coins greasing his palm, he tells them. Kahn El-Khalili is a crowded marketplace bustling with vendors and buyers, and the new address is on the Street of Potters. Ma’Moud is able to competently lead them there, and within an hour, they have found their man. Amidst dozens of similar markets is a door marked in several languages, one of which states “Faraz.” Neville and Morty enter, pretending to browse while Arnold and Chang remain outside. Ma’Moud rubs his toe in the dirt and watches his new, bizarre American friends. The shop is filled with worthless junk, even the newcomers can see that, and lording over this house of rubbish is a hideously scarred man slouched behind a counter: Faraz Najir. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/faraz.jpg[/img] Old burns scar half of his flabby face, and he raises a weak hand in greeting. Drawing closer, Neville calmly asks if Faraz has any knowledge regarding a man named Roger Carlyle, leader of an expedition that passed through this region roughly five years ago. Or perhaps a man named Jackson Elias, an American writer? Faraz’s eyes grow wide. “Blasphemers!” he hisses. “Leave this place! Leave now! You go! Go! GO! GO! GO!” He shoos them away with a broom, but when Neville and Morty continue to press questions, Faraz picks up a cheap bronze urn and chucks it at them. “Help!” shouts Faraz. “HELP ME!” The investigators don’t wait around. Apologizing, they scramble out as curious onlookers note them. Morty tosses some coins to the ground, and the last thing they see is Faraz Najir bending down to pick them up, biting a silver between his teeth… Discouraged, but not beaten, the investigators send Ma’Moud back to watch Faraz and see if he goes anywhere. The boy happily obliges, and they wait at a local cafe for any word. A few hours later Ma’Moud runs up and tells them that Faraz has gone to a restaurant. They decide to pay the man off for information, and approach Faraz again, telling him they just have some simple questions! And money! “We mean no harm!” Neville insists in Arabic. Arnold Silvermine throws a silver coin down. Faraz stands up, about to run, but scowling, asks, “WHAT in Allah’s holy name do you want?” “Just questions answered, kind sir; a moment of your time,” Neville answers. “Time is money,” the shopkeeper spits. They flip him another coin. He waits. They flip him two more. “I will answer, but not here, not now. Meet me at the El Hussein Mosque the day after tomorrow. 5 in the evening. I will answer your questions only there, under the merciful eye of Allah.” Thanking him, the investigators leave and travel back to Ezbekia Gardens, hoping that this lead will pan out, and wondering just how merciful Allah truly is. [/QUOTE]
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The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep d20
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