Dr. Kafour was at first rather shocked to see we had it, then his demeanor shifted to one of realization as he explained it was indeed a protective symbol, known as the Elder Sign. It was believed by some ancient cultures to protect against evil spirits and magical attacks, and that there had been records of vandalism attempts on some ancient temples that used the symbol as a form of desecration. Well, that got all our wheels turning - we knew it had some effect as a ward, we'd seen the Spirit of Sekhmetkemsef use it while in Miss Wittingham's body to ward her temple. If that was the case, could it be used to possibly destroy the Girdle of Nitocris, or at least to keep it from being useful as a ritual element? Ewan in particular, quick on the draw, realized later that this symbol could be used for other things as well - maybe we could put it on a knife to make it useful against monsters, or something. Good thinking Ewan, I just hope you're right and this isn't you losing your mind.
That question resolved, we turned our discussion to the amulet we'd recovered from Faraz Najir's body, curious as to what it was. It didn't match any of the other amulets we had found on and in the corpse, in fact it looked a bit evil almost. We weren't sure if it was a blessing or a curse, or nothing at all. We weren't even sure if we were hallucinating that it looked like one of those flying snake things, or referred to some Arabian demon or mythical spirit. Dr. Kafour seemed similarly confused, but said that it seemed familiar and left us for a bit to look up some information... and to our surprise, proceeded to walk into a room no larger than a big closet. As the door shut behind him, we heard mechanical clicking engage, and then the sound of someone descending concrete stairs. None of us knew what it was, but Ted suggested that maybe he had a hidden store room with special conditions for storing documents, and Clayton confirmed that was an actual thing that was done. We agreed that made sense, and waited for Dr. Kafour's return.
He eventually did, after about 15 minutes, and when we checked the closet he walked out of with our eyes, we saw nothing that could account for the mechanical noise we heard before. What he told us about the amulet was that it was apparently used for protection or safety, and was intended to ward off a certain kind of demon referred to as Voices of the Messenger - or alternately, Hunting Horrors. In certain legends about the Black Pharaoh, it was believed these beings were his servitors, and could be sent in lieu of the Black Pharaoh himself to deliver proclamations and demands to his followers. He would apparently also send them to hunt down those who displeased him, something like an attack dog.
Great. The Black Pharaoh, or Nyarlathotep, or whatever his name is now, has attack dogs. Ones that are six-eyed, attack in the dark, and whisper in creepy voices. And, you know, also apparently are gigantic draconic beasts that warp and twist shape erratically. Of course, we didn't tell Dr. Kafour we had seen this being, but all of us quickly realized the application of having an amulet that kept the beasts away. We didn't exactly trust the look in his eye as he handled the amulet, almost like he was somewhat jealous or possibly unhealthily interested in it, or at least Clayton didn't.
"Such an amulet, of course, would be exceedingly rare," Dr. Kafour pointed out, his gaze shifting behind his glasses. "I didn't believe such a thing existed myself, until you showed me it. Where on earth did you find this?"
Ted went to explain, but Clayton covered it with a cough, and quickly formulated some excuse about needing a glass of water. When Dr. Kafour stepped out to obtain the water, Clayton turned to us sharply, and mentioned he didn't trust Dr. Kafour. The rest of us realized that not trusting him until we knew him more intimately was likely the best option, and from there we hushed up about the amulet. Our questions resolved for the most part, we headed on our way out, and none too soon - the sun was starting to set over Cairo, and the streets would soon be dark... and possibly, very dangerous. Then, Ewan had an idea. He realized that one amulet may not be enough to protect us all if we got split up, and that Najir may have had more on him back at his shop. If we could get into the shop, we might be able to find some more amulets, or at least something else of use there. Clayton brought up that it may be a good means of finding evidence on Najir that the Brotherhood may have wanted, and after that everyone except for maybe Bridget agreed.
In hindsight, it was a stupid and greed-fueled idea and we never should have listened to Ewan. But, we did, and damn us all, he convinced us. He convinced us, and it caused us to have one of the worst possible nights of our lives since the Brad Incident. And that was how, in the middle of the night, we ended up breaking into a dead merchant's shop in Cairo, Egypt.
Cairo apparently has a curfew for its residents and tourists of about half past one in the morning, because we found the streets near the late Faraz Najir's shop crowded with several people observing a snake charmer and tamed cobra. Pretending that we were watching the show, we managed to sneak everyone into the shop without getting caught, except Bridget who is unable to sneak about anywhere to save her life. The antiquarian made the wise choice to cover for the rest of us outside, as did Clayton and yours truly, while the others snuck into the shop.
They spent about fifteen minutes rummaging around in there, finding little of interest and certainly not any amulets, though we did notice Ted tearing apart the couches in what we assume was Najir's upstairs apartment through a window. Why Ted was doing that, I'll never know, but what I did know was that at some point, Clayton heard something and ducked into an alley, pulling us with him as he did so. Before we could say anything, he hushed us and pointed down the alley at several men in black robes, asking questions of the locals and carrying something glinting in their hands. There were seven or eight of them, and they were all starting to close in on the former merchant's shop like a pride of lions circling a kill. I have no idea how they didn't notice us as they passed by and into the building, but I think Clayton tipped the others off by throwing a pebble at the window, because we heard Ewan starting to move faster on the ground floor. Then, we saw the cloaked men go in the building. Then, the yelling and screaming started.
Well, we knew then we were in trouble then, and we did our best to sneak in after them into the back. What we saw was Ewan cornered and being alternately stabbed and bludgeoned by three cultists at the end of the hall and Ted still upstairs. Ewan, the tough bastard, he fended off one of them with a kick to the groin, got pinned by the other who started carving something into his arm, and managed to fight back with his switchblade. Bleeding, he managed to escape to help the others, and even grabbed one of the bastard's clubs in the process. Clayton wasted no time engaging one of the cultists attacking Ewan, grappling with the lunatic. He ended up pretty well battered, but was doing well in dodging with only a few scrapes. At some point he managed to trip the bastard trying to do him in, and he toppled to the floor as they grappled, his club clattering to the floor. As Bridget came to his aid, another cultist came from nowhere and started battling her, but she was much quicker with her fists and knocked the guy out before grabbing the fallen weapon for herself. Now we were talking! We soon made short work of the remaining cultists, and were all feeling pretty good about ourselves... until we realized Ted was alone upstairs. Then we heard the gunshots, and panic mode was fully in action as we ran up the stairs to aid him.
I wish I could say we got to him in time to stop the assault on him, but we didn't. We found Theodore Bates, Bounty Hunter and Tough Customer, knocked out on the floor with two cultists about to deliver the final blow. He hadn't even had time to scream. They were fast, but we were much faster, and the two were shot down with minimal effort. That was around the time we realized Ted was bleeding from the nose and ears, and we all internally panicked, thinking he was dead. We couldn't get him to wake up, and his breathing was labored in the extreme. None of us knew what to do, though Ewan and Clayton tried their best to at least stabilize our fallen compatriot, but help wasn't far away. At that moment, who should arrive but Clayton's newfound friend, Nigel Wassif, to get us all to medical safety. He didn't ask questions about how we got there, didn't press charges, and agreed with us that the police would definitely think this was a calculated attack against five harmless white tourists. We owe him one, even if he is a spook and likely analyzing us for information as much as we've been analyzing anyone in this city.
Most of us got out of it with scrapes and cuts, and a few nasty bruises, but we were seriously worried Ewan's arm might be infected. Incidentally, he has a tattoo, a thistle with some Gaelic text furled around it. He tells me it means "Still Alive", and if that isn't the most accurate thing ever, I don't know what is. Beneath that now is a pretty ugly-looking scar of an unfinished inverted ankh - a reminder of his brush with death that he must have at some point scratched out in an act of defiance with his own knife. He's lucky he kept the arm and isn't in danger of gangrene or anything. I doubt the Brotherhood ever cleans any of their weapons. As for Ted, he must be the luckiest bastard that ever walked the earth, because the doctors told us that he'd had a brain bleed and was surely never coming back, but remarkably... he made it. He woke up a few days later, confused but alive, and recovered over the next few weeks well enough to walk out of the hospital with a bandaged head. The amount of bashing his noggin had taken should have killed him, but I guess you really can't keep a good man down.
All the same, we've noticed some... worrisome changes in his demeanor. He's started complaining of loud noises keeping him awake when he tries to fall asleep, and more than once he's seemed to blank out and snap back after a second, muscles tense. He was in the war... if he had shell shock, we didn't know it. Not until now. And the doctors have told me he's started having minor fits and tremors, an effect of the damage done to his brain. We think it may be best for him to head home, but none of us want to see him go. If it's one thing I hate, it's a tearful goodbye.
But that's in the past now, on to the present. We still have leads to look into, leads that will bring us back to Nigel for help. We have to find out what Warren Besart knows, and fast, before the Brotherhood severs that link too.