Part 2 - The Binding

Present: Bernard (Jamie), Cooper (Ian), Felix (Kevin), Gazala (Richard), Jacob (Chris), Jean (Jeff), Mesmer (Shane), Wonton (Darryl)

Marmalading – Fleur (Steven) 

We arrived back to the army camp to find them breaking camp. The state of emergency was over. No more Ghoul creatures had been seen or found for days, and the widespread unrest had settled down totally. Jean's authority to order artillery strikes had been rescinded, and the residents were returning to Tunis to clean up and recover. Heroux also noted that no cloves or other spices had been appearing around the camp for days.

The Mythos Containment Field

Based on the information Mesmer obtained from Tariq's private library, we commissioned a stone mason to carve the three power symbols into the sarcophagus. Three pairs of symbols, each pair on opposing faces. According to Mesmer, this arrangement should generate a mythical containment field and bind the baby skeleton and its powers into the sarcophagus.

Once the carving was completed, Mesmer and Wonton both checked the results with their Detect Mythos ability. 

"Oh" exclaimed Wonton, "Dis now extreme big source of mythos power. Everyone see"
"But is it working?" wondered Mesmer.

That night there was only the mess tent and a few bunkroom tents left, most of the army had relocated back to the Tunis barracks. After a small dinner we crowded into our assigned bunkroom tent and consulted Tala in her magic mirror.

"Oh" Tala exclaimed, "This is definitely very strong evil now. But I cannot tell if the containment effect is working. And anyone who is attuned to the mythos world will be able to see this. It's a huge beacon!"

"Oh no. I like not veacon 'fect" squealed Wonton.
"Don't we have a tracker thing?" asked Cooper. 

Jacob dug the skull out of his backpack and donned the amulet. The skull immediately spun around and stared in the direction of the sarcophagus. With a bit of experimentation, we confirmed that the tracking power of the skull was definitely active, with an apparent unlimited range of effect! A lot of discussion regarding our next steps followed. It was decided that first thing in the morning we should get mobile and bury the sarcophagus way way way out in the desert.

Goodbye rifles ...

In the morning, Heroux requested that we return all the army equipment, including guns and ammunition, that we had been issued with. Our special investigation team was being decommissioned!

"It is too soon" shouted Bernard, "There is one last mission to undertake"
"And we will need lots of dynamite for it" noted Gazala hopefully.

We handed in all the rifles, three pistols, Hubert's sub-machine gun, and eleven of the grenades. We did not disclose that a further thirteen grenades are stowed in the truck. Gazala received a box of dynamite and fuses, which she handed over to Cooper. Jean also retained his navy issue sub-machine gun.

"No rifles" muttered Bernard, "We must remedy that immediately"

Bernard and Gazala determined to take the old Citroën into Tunis and obtain a rifle or two from the black market, while the rest of us would take the truck and head south into the desert to get some distance away from the camp area and keep the sarcophagus on the move, for now. Gazala got a couple of the remaining legionaries to load her old family tent into the truck.

"Look after this with your life" she commands Jean.

Trusting that Bernard and Gazala would be safe, and successful, the rest of the group loaded into the truck with supplies for a week and headed south. After quite some hours, we found a place to set up camp, before it got dark, and settled in to wait for the others to arrive. They arrived, with a rifle!

After an uneventful night, we loaded back into the truck and headed deeper into the desert. We were searching for a totally isolated, rugged, and deserted area where we might hide the sarcophagus in an old cave, or similar hiding place. Towards the middle of the day, we found some rocky outcrops with a system of small canyons cut up into the rocky hillside. At the edge of the desert, just before the rocky outcrops, we stopped to explore further up the canyons. 

Gazala's family tent

Gazala hauled her family tent out of the back of the truck and had us set up a basecamp, so we could start searching from there, with somewhere to return to for rest and water.

We spent the rest of the day searching up the various rocky canyons that ran up into the surrounding hills. We didn't find an appropriate resting place for the sarcophagus that day, although we confirmed that the area was totally deserted. 

"For sure no one lives anywhere around here" stated Gazala, having searched for tracks and signs of life while the rest of us had been looking for caves.

Again, we had an uneventful night. No strange dreams, no appearing spices, no peculiar possessions.

In the morning, Cooper cooked up a good feed and after sating ourselves we headed back into the hills. Of course, we couldn't leave the sarcophagus at the camp without a decent guard, and we were too nervous to split the group, so we lugged the huge stone sarcophagus around with us on our search. It was pretty damn heavy, so it was slow going manoeuvring the thing up the canyons as we searched.

"I need to carry this delicate dynamite" complained Cooper, "You lot will have to carry the sarcophagus"
"Mutter, mutter" grumbled Mesmer.

A cave opening in the hillside

Just after midday, Jacob popped out from a narrow gut he had scrambled up and yelled.
"Hey, over here. I found the perfect place" he called. "A small cave opening into the hillside"

Sure enough, apart from trying to get the sarcophagus up the narrow gut to the cave entrance, the spot looked perfect. Reasonably hidden, hours away from the nearest vehicle access, and totally able to be collapsed with the sarcophagus inside.

While we lugged the sarcophagus as deep into cave as possible, Cooper assessed the cave entrance for his dynamite charges, and Bernard clambered up to the top of hills with his rifle and binoculars to take a look around and make sure there was no one anywhere nearby.

After about fifteen minutes, Bernard, preceded by a small avalanche of stones and rocks, arrived hurriedly back at the cave entrance.

"Vehicle" he puffed, "there is a vehicle ... heading towards the camp ... from over by the .. road"

Bernard explained that he had seen the vehicle through his binoculars, driving slowly back and forwards along the road, and then stopping and leaving the road, heading slowly across the desert, straight towards our camp and the truck. Obviously tracking us somehow.

"We'll need to run" he concluded.

Leaving the sarcophagus lodged into the back of the cave, and the box of dynamite behind some rocks just inside the cave, we raced back down the canyon, hoping to arrive at the camp before whoever was approaching did, and set up an ambush for them. 

The Arabs new Citroën AC4 Hardtop

But it wasn't to be. When we finally emerged from the canyon, with the camp about two-hundred meters away, we saw a new model Citroën AC4 slew to a halt about two-hundred meters on the far side of the camp, and two Tuareg Arabs clutching rifles leap out and start running towards the camp. Bernard threw himself prone on a small dune while the rest of us continued the race to the camp.

We won. The two Tuareg Arabs dropped and disappeared into ground cover, and we did the same beside the tent. From Bernard's dune behind us, he took a shot towards them, and killed a puff of sand. Cooper and Gazala yelled out for them to surrender and give themselves over to our mercy. One leapt up and ran back towards their Citroën. 

Bursts of gunfire rang out. A crack from Bernard's rifle behind us on the dune, a crack from Gazala's pistol, and a thunderous stutter from Jean's sub-machine gun. The Arab flew forward to the ground and didn't move. Just then the second one also leapt up and ran for their Citroën.

"Stupido" chuckled Mesmer as Bernard's rifle shot took him through the back of the head.

The two Tuareg trackers lay dead in the sand beside their Citroën. Searching their bodies revealed two old photographs, one of Bernard, taken way back at the magic artifact auction and published in our own newspaper, the Calomnie de Tunis ("Slander of Tunis"), and the other of Gazala, a more recent picture, but still taken some months ago. Nothing else, no papers or identifying documents, no money, and our Detect Mythos spells revealed no magic of any kind.

Now we had two extra rifles, extra ammunition, a spare Citroën, complete with reserve petrol and food supplies, and two bodies which had to "disappear".