The Necropolis

THE NECROPOLIS (UNDER THE KAZZAH ZIGGURAT)

Essie Vance [Whitney]: suffers from Ablutomania (compulsion to washing/cleanliness) and Taphephobia (fear of being buried alive or of cemeteries).

Peter Graves [Jordan]: lucky soul- no current fears or ticks.

Phillip Vance [Aaron]: suffers from Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and frayed nerves that require Liquid Courage (suffers penalties when his flask of alcohol runs dry).

Conclusion of Armored Angels: They had battled their way into the ziggurat (more run inside to avoid threat of attack from the flying MiGo outside). Where they closed a dimensional gate to prevent more other-worldly creatures from appearing. And came across the MiGo scientist who orchestrated it all. Only to back him down a passage where he created his own singular gate and escaped. [But not before casting a spell of Void Light.]

The Passage: Complete darkness! Unnerving, unbalancing. Essie panicked, reaching for anything. Peter also blindly reached out to find the nearest wall he remembered. Phillip dug the lighter out of his pocket to light his lantern. But no spark came from the lighter. Was it damaged during the battle? Out of fuel? He too panicked when he heard Essie exclaim, “Ewe, spider webs.” Peter tried his flashlight but no light-beam appeared.

They formed a congo-line with Peter in the lead as the others held onto the shoulder of the one ahead. Shuffling forward as Peter used the wall as guide under the chorus of Essie’s “Whatta we do? Whatta we do? What, what?” Essie’s voiced quivered as she felt as if she in a tomb/coffin. Phillip flinched when something landed on his shoulder… his mind raced to the thought of a nest of spiders. Long, scary minutes till their eyes began to see dark greyness instead of complete darkness. And light from Peter’s flashlight suddenly gave vision to all. [He had absentmindedly left it on, and the MiGo’s spell finally dissipated.] Phillip quickly brushed his shoulder to rid himself of spiders, only to realize it was flakes of sandstone fallen from the ceiling. Probably loosened from the bombing above.

Essie’s fears melted away when she gazed upon the walls and recognized a mural full of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Memories of the times she accompanied her husband Richard on his Archaeological explorations. She looked backwards to realize they barely shuffled away from their prior position. The stone-door that had crashed down behind them also covered in etchings she translated, “A ward against those who would rob this tomb.” The men lit their lanterns to cast away the shadows, allowing Essie to try to read the wall mural. “Something about a Pharaoh who appears to possess great powers beyond those of ordinary mortals. From the pictograms, you can see him towering over his subjects. Some prostrate in supplication, some bowing in honor, others being whipped, some dead- beat to death.”

Suffocation? The light also revealed cracks in the wall. Not linear as if seams of the stones. Peter smashed at it with his brass-knuckles trying to loosen what looked like plaster. Essie offered her crowbar. Soon, they opened a cavity that held a small, wrapped package Essie recognized as “mummified animal. Probably the Pharaoh’s pet or offerings to their gods.” Intrigued, Essie returned to studying the murals along the walls. “Quit playing with the light; shine it over here.” And that’s when they realized the lanterns’ light was flickering. First thought: running out of fuel. Till Peter shook his lantern to hear the slosh of oil and realized, “We must be running low on oxygen!” And that’s when Phillip lifted his flask to his lips only to realize it empty and him running low on courage.

Peter turned off his lantern and tried to hurry them along, “We need to find a way out.” Essie continued to translate as she was pushed along, “This Pharaoh didn’t believe in the afterlife. Proclaimed it held nothing compared to the sights and visions he could unveil in this waking world.”

They each remembered the text Professor Powell had studied that led him to this tomb. “The dark priests of Kizzah followed someone named Lugalzaggisi who also spoke of great powers thru his own religion. Could he be this Pharaoh?!”

Treasure or Trap: And that’s when the light reflected from something ahead. Items shimmered on the ground in front of a sealed archway. Scattered gold coins, brightly colored gems, and a golden chest about 2ft long. The light also played across a small opening dug into the bottom left of the archway… wide enough for someone to crawl through. Peter drawn to the treasure. Phillip remembered the sigil warning Essie had earlier read, “Not so fast. It could be trapped. Maybe whoever stole this from beyond the archway lay dead from poison.” Phillip used his boot and rifle butt to move loose sandstone chips from around the chest. He was certain he’d find bones of the earlier thief. Nothing. Peter scoffed as he kicked the chest on its side, spilling its contents: more coins and jewelry to set himself up for an easy life!

And that’s when more sandstone chips fell from the ceiling! Essie now panicked, “It’s a cave-in; we’ll be buried alive!” She dropped to her knees and began to crawl thru the small opening. Peter paused to consider filling his own pockets with treasure before he too got on his knees to follow but with his flashlight on. Phillip brought up the rear as he pushed the lantern in front of him.

The Antechamber: Essie entered another dark coffin till she climbed completely out of the hole to let the flashlight beam give some illumination. Phillip’s lantern revealed all. They stood in another room filled with a king’s treasure. A chariot made of gold stood in the northwest corner of the room along with a rowboat. There was: a couch, a king’s litter chair, tables, stone tablets, statuettes, musical instruments, tapestries, vases, sealed, bowls, ostrich-feather fans, and more chests. Some knocked over and broken as if someone recent may have stumbled in the dark. And more frescoes painted on the walls that repeated the story of the Pharaoh-god entombed.

Essie moved about the room trying to understand this Pharoah’s kingdom. Phillip just wandered with his jaw dropped in amazement. Peter looked for weapons! He remembered the things outside that bullets barely touched. He found what he was looking for in the hands of 2 guard statues either side of another stone-door (Much like the stone-door that fell behind them, trapping them in this tomb). One held a battle-axe while the other held a sickle-like sword (khopesh). “Look at these creepy statues.” Essie came to inspect along with Phillip offering light. They gasped when they all realized the men not statues but actual mummies. And not men but rather… human bodies but their heads replaced: one with that of a crocodile and the other with that of a jackal! Each propped up with a spear run through their spine! “What unholy, blasphemous, distorted religion do they profess?! Who IS this pharaoh?” The fresco painted above the stone door depicted a black-robbed Pharaoh entombed. Essie stumbled backwards through another archway to the north.

The Annex: Peter relit his lantern as they looked upon the scene painted on the northern wall. A city in turmoil. An army of horrific creatures rampaging throughout the city. Two types: bodies of men with heads of animals, and bodies of animals with heads of men. And standing upon a ziggurat in the center was the black-robbed Pharaoh with raised hands directing it all. Back tendrils burst from the sky and ground, tearing the city and its occupants apart. More scenes of the animals feasting on the true humans.

Essie had to turn her head to shut out the vision. Only to see the southern wall mural that depicted the Pharoah holding an oversized set of scales. On which a heart was being weighed against a platter of dead animals. “What perversion! The glyphs talk about a trial. Forever they shall be tied to this earth through their faithful beating heart, strong of body, awaiting the return of their master.  This is but a desecration of the true Egyptian Weighing of the Heart ceremony where the gods judged if a person could enter the afterlife. Surely this Pharaoh is mocking the gods.” 

The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart recorded all of the good and bad deeds of a person’s life, and was needed for judgment in the afterlife. After a person died, the heart was weighed against the feather of Maat (goddess of truth and justice). The scales were watched by Anubis (the jackal-headed god of embalming) and the results recorded by Thoth (the ibis-headed god of writing). If a person had led a decent life, the heart balanced with the feather and the person was rendered worthy to live forever in paradise with Osiris.

Peter stepped out of the room to smoke. To regroup. Leaving Phillip and Essie unable to shut their eyes to all revealed. The eastern wall continued the theme with hundreds of tentacles reaching out from the symbol of an inverted ankh. They stared in disbelief. Too long. Essie, averted her gaze, “Did you see that too?! As if the tentacles moved!” Phillip saw but wouldn’t admit, thinking it a mirage, a trick of the mind. Minds that slowly were being drained of all sanity. He tried to distract Essie by pointing out an actual inverted ankh statue on the table before the mural. Essie gladly took the bait, “The ankh is a symbol of life, but its inversion speaks of willful desecration and malign intent.” Essie’s words fell on deaf ears as Phillip was more focused on the body that lay before the table. A skeleton clothed in decaying tatters. “This must be the thief who extracted the chest and came back for more.”

Peter retuned to see Phillip kneeling over a body. Phillip announced, “Dead maybe 10 years. And look at these indentations on his arm and leg bones. As if he feasted on like the people attacked by creatures in those paintings!” Realization that made Phillip clutch his pistol as comfort. As Essie stood back and watched, Peter approached to empty a sack near the body: jewelry tumbled out. Phillip reached for a satchel that contained: a trowel, flask of fetid water, a passport, and a stick of dynamite with fused attached (which he pocketed).

Peter rolled over the body to find a leatherbound journal from which he read, “Doctor Gerald Sutton from London. Dates from 1910 to 1916 of his last entries. Rubbings of some of the symbols we found. Translations that agree with Essie’s reading of the murals. Mentions taking the first chest out and coming back for more when he heard something. Quote, ‘Something else is here with me.’.” And that’s when they felt a tremble. Thoughts bombing still going on outside. But then they heard scrapping sounds from the other room! They looked at each other before slowly, cautiously returning to the Antechamber. Where they saw the stone-door between the mummified guards being pushed outwards.

It Awakens! Peter, with his khopesh in his right hand and lantern held high in his left, stood behind the northern mummy-guard to see behind the door. Essie stood behind him with her bow ready. Phillip… thinking the door on tracks, moved around the door to verify. No tracks on the floor, his gaze rose to the fetid breath before him. 

A huge muscular man draped in decaying linen. Its skin slick with pus and bile leaking from open sores. Its head that of a large African golden wolf, with glowing red eyes burning with hatred for all life. It rose from its crouched position to tower over Phillip. [Sanity failure- lost 6 points but failed his INT test to not succumb to a Bout-Of-Madness]. Phillip dropped his lantern which burst into flames at the feet on the Abomination!

Even shaken, Phillip was able to shoot the thing point-blank. A solid hit… gapping hole… that slowly began to heal! “Oh SHIT!!” Phillip ran. Peter switched to his pistol but knelt in supplication hoping the creature understood his posture. Essie twanged an arrow that embedded in the skull of the mummy-guard. Peter yelled, “The dynamite! Throw it!” Phillip paused to do as commanded: lit the fuze, tossed it, and ducked behind the stone door prepared for the blast. His last vision was the stick hitting the creature and falling to the floor still hissing. The 6-inch fuse slowly burning. Peter saw it all and briefly thought of retrieving and rethrowing the stick, but shuffled backwards instead. Essie notched another arrow and scored a hit.

But the creature focused on its first attacker and pushed the door outwards to edge around its south end. Time slowed to a crawl as Phillip considered his options: Hide? Peter’s lantern still illuminated the room. He aimed his pistol and fired 3-rounds as he yelled, “Douse your lantern so we can hide!” His first bullet hit with the same regenerating closure. His other shots took chunks from the door. His last vision of the creature ready to slash with its claw… when the lights went out! Blinded except for the heavy breathing of the creature oh so near!

Burial Chamber: Peter used the opportunity to slip into the inner room, whispering Essie forward. Then suddenly remembered the dynamite!! [Spot- 09 extreme] Oh so fortune to see an inch of slow burning fuse remained. He snuffed it out between his fingers before stomping out the remaining embers of Phillips busted lantern. Now complete darkness. He and Essie shuffled deeper into the Burial Chamber they had briefly seen. Busted wood (that had been an outer shell of the sarcophagus) creaked and cracked under their feet. “SNAP!!” Essie froze when the board broke, almost drowning out the sounds of the creature beyond the stone-door. Movement near the door… it must have heard her! She readied another arrow in the blind, Peter readied to light the dynamite, till a whispered voiced queried, “Are you guys in there?”

The sounds of their own heartbeats kept volume with the creature rampaging in the other room. Essie could only imagine the priceless antiquities being destroyed. Till the sound changed from breaking wood, and crunching metal, to more of a pounding as the walls shuddered. Thumping. God only knew what it was doing! Peter risked use of his flashlight to get a bearing. Essie used the opportunity to look into the stone sarcophagus. And regretted the visual of just how big the creature was! “Oh hell, no!” She almost knocked Peter over as she rushed past under an archway to another room revealed by the light.

Treasury: Another room filled with an assortment of treasures: fragile artwork, sculptures, ceramics, small boats and chariots made from gold, and even a model of an entire Egyptian city. They momentarily forgot about the creature as they gazed upon the untold wealth. Till a new sound refocused them! “Do you hear that?!” Phillip and Essie strained to imagine what the creature was doing now as more pounding and crashing echoed into the room from far away. The walls shook and dust and flakes fell from the ceiling. But Peter heard more, “No, not that. A heartbeat.” Essie blushed thinking hers so loud, even her companions could hear. But Peter began to dig thru the pile of treasure centered in the room. Under stacks of folded linen and rugs and tapestries.

Where he found a large stone chest. Locked. He gently tapped with the crowbar to open it as he knew not what was inside. “CRASH!!” Thankful the noise not from the chest but beyond the room. Then again… bad omen? He pulled back the lid to reveal 5 jars inside. Essie explained, “Those are canopic jars that hold the organs of the deceased. The baboon etched jar-lid means his lungs inside, the jackal head- his stomach, the human head- his liver, the falcon- his intestines. All needed for the afterlife. But that 5^th jar is a perversion. An inverted ankh symbol again?”

Peter leaned over to put his ear beside it and heard the thumping from within. He didn’t bother to tell the others. He pulled the jar out of the chest and threw it hard against the wall. “CRASH!” Porcelain shards flew everywhere but the heart fell to the ground. Still beating. Peter skewered it with the khopesh. Nothing but “Be still my heart. Really? I would have expected a thunderous commotion.”

Back into Sunlight: They cautiously backtracked thru the other rooms to look upon the once plastered archway that had a small crawlspace. Now completed busted open. Weapons ready, they walked thru the initial passage, past the mummified dog slot, only to discover the first stone-door that had locked them inside now destroyed. Light from the ziggurat leaked down into the opening.

They climbed the stairs and stood upon the ziggurat courtyard and looked about to see just a handful of soldiers standing near a lorry, loading bodies. Whether dead or alive bodies… The soldiers stopped their work to answer the questions, “There were more of us till that Abomination appeared and plowed thru our ranks. Last we saw it, it was running towards our airbase.”

[Sanity- lose 1 point] Remorse flooded over the trio as they realized THEY had loosed the creature upon the soldiers. And now those at the airbase! “Quick, signal the recon plane to warn the base.”

EPILOGUE

Turned out, as they drove back to the airbase in the lorries, they came upon a large clump of decaying rags. They could only assume they killed the abomination when Peter drove the khopesh thru the heart.

They returned to the ziggurat within a few days with Essie assigned to take inventory of the new discovery. Many items Professor Powell requested and took to the ziggurat had been damaged or destroyed during the battle. All governments were angered by the news. But the Iraqi consults took solace when they learned of the “never before seen discoveries” of this black Pharaoh and got a share of the discoveries. Even the Miskatonic and London Museums accepted the loss but gain. Which meant increased renown and reward for the heroic trio.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN/THE ABOMINATION

As described in the blog. You were close to bringing it down to zero hit-points. But then it does regenerate (1d4+2) per round. It would have been a short-lived victory that might have gained you more time to plot and plan. Maybe destroy the heart BEFORE it escaped.

The Migo communicate telepathically. The Migo scientist's head flashing with lights was evidence he was communicating with another: a guard you did not encounter. "Meet me at the brain chamber." The Migo scientist used his gate to jump to that chamber as you were trapped behind the stone-door that came slamming down. Together, the 2 Migo gathered their alien tools and the brain cylinders, along with the still alive Edith, and gated back to their world. Leaving no evidence of their existence behind. Those killed in the battle melted as if bug guts. The re-enforcements that had been called for, thwarted from arriving by your closing of the more permanent gate.

Their only existence... in your memories and nightmares!

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