Game summary for October 19, 2024, Curse of the Forgotten Pharaoh campaign, Dread Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Alabama Johnson (Academic Scholar played by John Edmonds), Clarence DuBois (Journalist with an Occult Twist played by Casey Scruggs), Elias Vesper (Occultist played by Parker Harmon), Jimmy Harlow (Investigative Journalist played by Andrew Renfrow), Marcus Flint (Big Game Hunter played by Preston Harmon), Nigel Blackwell (Academic Scholar played by Josh Jenkins), and Samuel Bishop (Investigative Journalist played by Ted Rinehart). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
An eclectic team of scholars, investigators, and adventurers gathered on behalf of Dr. Evelyn Stark to follow an ancient map and seek out the legendary tomb of Pharaoh Ankhatep to prove if he actually ever existed. However, their efforts were discovered by the Cult of the Black Sun, and dangerous group worshiping the dark pharaoh and seeking his resurrection.
The group met with their contact in Cairo, Jamal, and negotiated for supplies and camels. He told them he needed a few hours to gather the goods, and they sought out the local library to see if they could do more research on Ankhatep and the cult. In the library, they split up to watch the doors while the scholars did research. Marcus noticed a delivery man that looked sketchy who disappeared from the group. He rushed to gather the team together for safety. While he was getting them together, the delivery man attacked the scholars, but they knocked him out with a large book! They tied him up and found him tattooed with a black sun. They left the room and began suspecting the librarian. They attacked him and ripped open his shirt but discovered he had no tattoo! Screaming for help, the team realized they made a terrible mistake. They fled the library out into the street.
The team went into the market and started looking for authentic trinkets. They shopped around a bit and found a vendor selling items he claims were from the tomb of Ankhatep. They bought a gold ring with an amber insect stone. Next, they headed to a bar to kill some time and stay in public. Alabama pretended to drink a beverage including a cobra’s venom sack. Men began filtering into the bar, and the group realized the cult was trapping them in. Alabama knocked one of them out, and they went running into the evening streets fleeing the pursuing cultists.
They arrived back at Jamal’s who was eager to send them on their way. They paid him the remaining funds and headed out on their camels. They kept only a single shuttered lantern as light and traveled across the sands. Hours later they noticed lights behind them in pursuit. They extinguished the lantern, setup a false camp, and hid in the darkness to observe. Their pursuers also extinguished their lights. About an hour later, two dozen robed men entered the camp and tore it apart looking for something. Not finding it, they drifted off into the darkness. The team snuck back in, gathered their things, and fled toward the tomb.
Shortly before dawn, they found the tomb half buried in sand. Using their shovels, they dug it out and succeeded in opening the tomb with a hidden lever. The team could see the robed men approaching from afar as the tomb began to open. The stone slid into the darkness, and the group went within while trying to read the hieroglyphs. They spoke of the great Ankhatep, but there was a heart-like glyph Nigel could not recognize or translate. His best guess was it presented power or authority.
Within they found an astounding labyrinth sprawling beneath the sands. They cleverly marked the route they took and setup several false trails. They found several broken alcoves marked with prayers to Anubis. The alcoves had been broken from the inside and filled with claw marks. Soon they began hearing the howls of jackals within the catacombs. After a while, they came across a massive seven-foot bipedal jackal that chased them through the darkness. Sam thought maybe cats, as guardians of the underworld, might scare them, so he meowed and hissed at the creature. It shocked it for just a moment, giving them time to get a head start. They stumbled upon some of the cultists, and the jackal beast tore one apart!
The group fled deeper and found a chamber with a large stone bridge spanning over an expanse of sand. They figured out the sand came from large ducts and were how all the stones had shifted above. Two cultists emerged behind them with weapons and called for them to halt. A naked man came up behind them and suddenly shifted form! He revealed himself to be a were-jackal! He killed the cultists while the team fled.
Ahead in the darkness they heard some cultists talking about looting a sarcophagus. They opened one of three to reveal one of the Ankhatep’s mummified brides. She animated and ripped the man’s head off while the others fled into the darkness. The team lit the mummy on fire and fled while the other two sarcophagi rattled and shook from within.
Further in the darkness they found a crossing corridor and a long trail of blood. They learned a huge stone had rolled down and flattened a man. They quickly moved on by. Beyond they came into a massive chamber with four chanting cultists standing over the body of a fifth on an altar. They had removed the man’s heart in a ritual that was raising Ankhatep from the dead! The powerful mummy burst forth from his coffin surrounded in burning black and purple flame. Pits of fire glowed from within his empty eye sockets. He stretched out his hand blasting the four with unholy power. He sucked up their life forces and began to grow stronger! The team ran back down the hall and saw the burned mummy and another coming up the hallway. They soaked robes in oil and started a while of fire.
They darted down the hallway from where the stone roller and come and found a flattened cultist. Further down they found one dissolved by salt acid. Pressure plates were the obvious cause. They figured out the pattern and proceeded to the end of the hallway. There was a stone door covered in heart glyphs. Beside was a small round opening in the stone. Marcus went back and cut out the heart of the dead cultist and shoved it into the hole. Or at least, he tried. Within he found a lever he could just pull. The door slid open to reveal a partially flooded chamber and more hieroglyphs. They depicted jars filled with organs. Way across the deep water, they could see some kind of stone container. Alabama swam across and found the box marked with similar glyphs. The mummies were coming down the hallway, so the group dropped many of their supplies, Sam threw his notebook in a corner, and the group swam across. Jimmy made the trip holding his camera above the water.
They opened the box and found canopic jars which they smashed and then set on fire with oil. Everything burned except the heart. They snatched it up as the half mummy emerged from the water. In the distance they heard howling jackals. The group found a back exit from the chamber and rushed out. It led to the bride tomb which was still occupied! Behind them, a large splash sounded, a were-jackal in pursuit! The team took rope and clotheslined the bride mummy ahead of them and lashed her to a pillar.
They continued down the hallway and found Ankhatep rushing them! They tried to stab and destroy the heart with no effect. Running, they came across the slaughtered cultists at the sand bridge. They soaked the heart in the blood, and it restored and was beating in Marcus’ hand! He took a knife and began viciously stabbing it as the mummy charged! Right as he reached Marcus, he exploded into black soot! The were-jackals surrounded them, shifted back into human form, and disappeared into the darkness. The group quickly fled into the safety of the dessert sunlight!
