Trail of Cthulhu: "Have you got a light old chap?"

So we are back for the penultimate chapter in our Egyptian escapade. We left our heroes outside the entrance to the tomb of Nitocris, having tracked a creature there through the desert towards the Nile. The great river is shimmering in the distance as the investigators contemplate what to do next.

Appearing in this chapter are:

• Humphrey Roade, formerly Military (WW1), now acting as a Butler and Valet to Pearce Topless (below); Roade and Topless met in France in 1917. His drive is Duty.
• Pearce Topless, a Dilettante with the drive of Arrogance, he served without distinction in the Great War and now seems to be remembering odd things about Egypt.
• Filian Thrope, an Alienist from Ireland, he is the nephew of a nurse that Topless and Roade knew in France, he has come to Egypt to consult with another 'specialist'.

Not appearing in this episode is private dick, Clark Fable, whose player was pulling pints in Brighton Marina. It was decided to send Fable back to the camp to look after Zita.

While the investigators were pondering what to do, the door to the tomb opened of its own accord, causing one of the Arab diggers that had accompanied them to flee. The other felaheen started praying in terror.  The investigators debated whether they should all return to the dig to get help, but eventually decided to send the Arabs back to get Muharab and some reinforcements.

Acting on his Arrogance drive, Topless decided enter the tomb. Roade and Thrope opted to follow (or face losses of 4 Stability each for going against their own drives). Inside they found the walls of the tomb lined with strange mummies in alcoves, which looked like they had the heads of jackals. Some steps led to the west, down towards another door, while a large passage stretched off into darkness to the south.

A hidden and unsuspected realm...

Thrope set about investigating one of the mummies, convinced that it was somehow a composite of a jackal head grafted onto a human body. He found, however, that it seemed to be a natural being (Stability loss), perhaps some form of mutant or genetic anomaly? At this point another mummy across the room came to life and stalked towards Thrope. Spotting it, Roade shot it with his .303 rifle and saw the bullet go right through it, causing little damage.

The mummy attacked Thrope as he turned around and started savaging the alienist. Roade and Topless converged on them, Roade bashing at the mummy with his rifle. Topless solved the problem by setting light to the creature with his cigarette lighter, and they watched it go up in flames as they dragged the seriously wounded Thrope to safety outside the tomb.

Topless and Roade worked on the bleeding alienist and managed to stabilise him (liberal use of First Aid), although he remained in poor shape. They had, however, plenty of experience patching up battlefield casualties in 1917-18. 

Topless was badly shaken up by the attack of the mummy, so he and Thrope helped themselves to cocaine from the Irishman's medicine bag to keep them going. Thrope then hypnotised Topless - something Topless has rejected on several occasions, but now agreed to.

Not quite human, not quite dead....

Using hypnotism, Thrope managed to get Topless to recall a previous life, when he was pharaoh of Egypt, Meren-Ra, married to his sister - and queen - Nitocris. He remembered ruling Egypt with an iron hand, supported by soldier priests who seemed to have the heads and hind legs of jackals, and trying to compel the people to turn to the worship of a new god called Yog Sothoth.

He also recalled performing a ritual with Nitocris which bound their souls together for all eternity. They were helped in this by a jackal-headed priest called Anankaresh. What the consequences of this were was unclear from his memories.

Now thoroughly shaken, the investigators considered their next options. Roade was for returning to the camp regardless, but Topless was feeling some kind of mysterious pull towards the tomb, particularly the southern corridor. They finally agreed to go back in and using a makeshift torch (Preparedness check), Topless began burning some of the mummies along the south wall of the entrance chamber. Thrope stayed outside to rest. It was not long, however, before another mummy animated and attacked Topless.

With the room filling with smoke from the burning carcasses, Topless fought the mummy off using a bayonet (burning through his Weapons pool), while Roade charged it and tried to rugby tackle it without success (failed Athletics contest). Thrope ran back into the tomb and shot the mummy in the head with his pistol. Roade picked himself up, grabbed his lantern, and smashed it across the mummy's back, whereupon it turned into a burning pillar and was quickly consumed to ash (a 6 on his damage roll).

"I can dream of the old days...life was beautiful then."

Coughing from the poisonous smoke (I should have asked for Health checks here), they quickly piled the mummies into the centre of the room, sprinkled them with kerosene, and set light to them before retreating to wait for the fire to run its course...

Next time - the thrilling finale of the Egyptian expedition!