My crossposter still isn't working, but I know people are enjoying the Cthulhu writeups, so I'll at least repost this one here manually...

***

I was sick the last two gaming sessions, and in my absence, Our Heroes gathered a lot of information, and...lost a hero.

Dillon, who if you will recall from the end of the England adventure, came away with compromised lungs, was caught in a cloud of icy lung-sucking horribleness, which worked as advertised, and killed him dead.

Of the various players and DM, it appears that Ted (Dillon's actual player) was the only person even KIND of emotionally prepared for this possibility, and even he was a little rocked by it. We're about to find out how everybody reacts in character (spoiler: Alice is going to have HUGE GUILT because Dillon was there in the first place because her father hired him to keep an eye on her. Never mind that it's now been YEARS since that happened and Dillon was definitely there of his own volition at this point; Alice is not exactly stable, and this isn't going to help O.O).

Okay. ONWARD.

Summerset says a few kind words about Dillon's bravery and how he'd have been honored to serve with him in the war. Teddy vows to avenge his best friend ever, Dillon. Alice stares into the distance, mute with guilt. Evelyn (whose player isn't available tonight) drinks herself insensible. Calliope, who doesn't really know any of us yet, studies while the rest of us are sad.

It transpires that the crew who have returned alive have also taken possession of a girdle from one of Alice's visions. Summerset, as he relates this information to Alice, adds a desperate, "Please do not put it on, it is very very cursed."

Me: I feel like I need a wisdom check on this one.

GM: You can roll luck.

Fortunately I rolled high and did not make bad choices. ::laughs::

The next morning, a Mysterious Stranger appears...

Mysterious Stranger, at the front desk: I am in search of a Dr Smith or a Dr Calliope (I can't remember her last name).

Summerset, overhearing: There's a man looking for us. We should either run away or go talk to him. Alice?

Alice looks over & sees this man:



Alice, apparently recovering her wits: We should definitely go talk to that incredibly handsome man.

Summerset: -eyes Teddy, down the table nomming his breakfast and oblivious- (mumbled) Poor Teddy. (aloud) Yes, very well, let's go talk to this gentleman, Alice.

We retire to the rooms, where we learn this gentleman's name is Arad al Fey and he'd like to know what the hell happened a couple nights ago, although much more politely framed. Summerset explains people were brutally murdered, including our Dillon and what turns out to be most of Fey's compatriots. Alice begins to cry at the reminder that DILLON IS DEAD.

Fey is shocked, but recovers. Summerset shows Arad al Fey the scimitar he was given by an imam at the site of the fight to help him survive, and offers it back to Fey. Fey tells him to keep it and asks about the above-mentioned girdle, whether they saved it and whether it's safe.

Alice, upon hearing the girdle mentioned: GASP A vision! She's looking at me! She looked at me and vanished!

Summerset: So I'm very sorry your friends are all dead, Mr Fey.

We discuss a plan of attack which ends up, somehow, with our concierge, Seleem, bringing poor Teddy up to the room, announcing that he's taken too much sun ("HOW?" Summerset demands, "IT'S MORNING!"

"Yesterday, sir," says Seleem. "When he was otherwise unattended he went out walking in the sun. Without water. All day."

"Of course he did," Summerset moans. "Go take a nap, Teddy."

"I don't feel so well, Summerset," Teddy admits. "A nap sounds good."

"Also," says Seleem, "A Mr Frederick Bosingworth* is here. Miss Evelyn's affianced, I believe?"

"Oh, good," Teddy says wearily, "Freddy can come sleep with me."

Summerset's player: HE SAID IT OUT LOUD, IT'S CANON, IS IT CANON IF EVELYN ISN'T HERE?

DM: No, sorry

Summerset's player: BUT PLEEEAAAAAASE

Summerset: fine. we're going to go talk to this guy. Teddy, I'm putting a chest in your room--

Teddy: Is there a body in it?

Summerset: NOT IN FRONT OF THE NEW GUY, TEDDY, WE DON'T PUT BODIES IN CHESTS EVER WE NEVER DO THAT and i want you to not open the chest, not put the thing in the chest on, and if anybody comes in and wants to open the chest, shoot them in the face

Teddy: And put the body in the chest?)

We went to see a couple of horribly maimed people who worked on the Giza dig for the people we're looking for. They're, like, HORRIBLY maimed, we have to roll to not go into shock from seeing them, but we succeed and they gave us a Mysterious Tablet, then carried on to Memphis, where

:: GLEEFUL SCREAMS ::

DR WILLIE PRESTON ENTERS THE CHAT

Willie: I just got fired for being a rogue element in the archaeology dig. A wyld stallion, if you will.

Me: ::screams laughing::

Summerset: Very well, I'm also a fan of unorthodox methods, perhaps we can be (I can't believe I'm saying this out loud) wild stallions together.

Me: ::SCREAMS::

We send Willie into town to stay at our hotel while we go try to shake some information out of the dig expedition that we believe might Know Stuff. It gradually becomes increasingly clear that they're incredibly untrustworthy and that Willie might know more than they do with his crazy theories about labyrinths under Giza. Alice does talk to the woman she had a vision of, who gives her a cryptic phrase to remember, and while she's doing that Summerset realizes that one of the dig members is a proto-Nazi. Not that we know what Nazis are yet, in 1925, but WE know, and decide it's best to get out of there since they're not helping with any info on what happened to the stolen alabaster sarcophagus they're complaining about having lost.

This, in fact, is why Willie got fired: he fell asleep and the sarcophagus got stolen. Along with a number of Egyptian police who are presumed dead, but we're not entirely sure about that, so we're going to go back to Giza and see if there's any labyrinths under the pyramids. Also, almost as an aside, we learned that when Willie fell asleep, he dreamed of a queen--

Alice: was she wearing my girdle?

Summerset: it's not YOUR girdle, Alice, and also we have to be very careful about taking things out of Egypt, they're really cracking down on that kind of thing--

Me: you're worried about this in 1925?

Summerset's player & the GM: That's WHEN they started cracking down, was in the 20s! After decades of looting! It's the one thing they're really able to do in that era!

Me: Huh! Okay then!

Summerset: --and so we absolutely definitely can't be caught with it. You might have to wear it to get it out of the country.

Alice, dreamily: okay

Summerset: NO WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN THAT--

Thus far, we have not yet managed to introduce Willie and Teddy, because, since Calliope and Evelyn's players weren't available this evening, we decided the three of them had been left in Cairo to do "a side adventure I wasn't planning on running anyway," said the DM. :D

BUT I HAVE FAITH THAT THE WYLD STALLIONS WILL BE (RE?)UNITED!

*I don't remember Freddy's actual last name. Something like that. :)