Part 1: The end and the beginning.

The evening is cool and calm as you leave the hospital and make your way to the university. The sun set is gorgeous; vibrant oranges and reds color the horizon and for a few minutes you each feel at ease despite what you have all seen in the past few hours.

Passing by the Egyptology department, you find it dark and locked up; not surprising for this last in the evening on a Sunday. Shrugging, you make your way to Max's office. He unlocks the door, flips on the lights, and you take your seats at a small round table away from his desk. Max walks to the back of the room and turns on a small hotplate for the kettle. You all stare in silence at the leather-bound book in the center of the table, lost in your thoughts. A few minutes later the whistle of the kettle cuts through the emptiness. Three cups are laid out and tea bags, a high quality Earl Grey, are dropped in.

Opening the book you find pages filled with journal entries from June 1881 to March 1882. The ink is very faded in sections, but never so much you can't read it. A number of sections particularly catch your eyes:

A group of friends. playfully calling themselves the Dark Brotherhood held their first meeting in the early spring of 1881. Rupert Merriweather became their recording secretary. The members numbered six induding Marion Allen. the founder and their nominal leader.

You all look up to realize that nearly two hours has passed since you began reading the book. You pause to reflect.

In June of 1881 they purchased an old farmhuuse outside Ross's Corners, a place where they could conduct their experiments in privacy. Representing themselves as a student literary fraternity, they cleaned and furnished the place while Marion Allen carved special warding (protective) signs over the wooden doors and windows. At the time, the others were amused at such precautions.

There are sections dealing the attempts (all failures) at contacting the dead and spirit worlds.

An entry dated February 1882 notes Marrion's acquisition of an Egyptian artifact. A small sarcophagus containing a piece of amber entrapping a specimen of some species of arthropod. Allen is very excited as this box matches a description he found in a reference book in the library. He continues on to say that a thick book written in Latin, the de Vermiss Mysteriis explained that the creature in the box was "an aid to the spirit world" A date is then set to conduct this "experiment" in mid March.

You are just about to move to the library when you each come to the realization that it is quite late, and the library will be closed since it is a Sunday. Taking a sip of tea, you turn back to the journal to finish the last fifty pages or so.

Journal

OOC: It is nearly midnight when you finish reading through, digesting, and discussing what you have just read. You each gain one mythos point but lose 1d2 sanity.

Max looks at Sven quietly for a moment, takes a deep sigh and fills his pipe, then lights it.

"Rupert is not the joking kind, and though eccentric he had his full faculties. I have... seen some things in the War, and crazy as it sounds I think Rupert has laid a heavy and real burden on us. Because he trusted us. I would bet this is in fact that artifact. And I am not looking forward to it, but we have to go to that place."

He thinks longer.

"I think a refreshing sleep is in order... Or, if we can't sleep, at least restful meditation. "

Sleeping arrangements are made and each of you settle in for the night, your minds racing with a cacophony of images, thoughts, and ideas. What has Rupert gotten us into? you each think more than once. Eventually, you drift off to sleep. Although restless, you awake the next morning feeling mildly refreshed. Max makes tea as you decide your first course of action for the day.

Sun filtered though the light shades in the hallway of offices for Miskatonic's department of Egyptology. At 9.00 am, it was a bit early for most of the faculty to be in but Max was certain Erman would be in. Johann Peter Adolf Erman; professor of Egyptology, expert in the grammar of the Middle Kingdom. Even in his seventies, Erman came to the office early and worked a full day.

"Max? Is that you?" Adolf said, obviously surprised to see him. After the small talk, Max quickly produced the sarcophagus and placed it on a small table in front of Erman, littered with pieces of papyrus and note paper. The old man's eyes lit up immediately and quickly began looking the piece over, deciphering the symbols. "Middle Kingdom for certain," he mumbled, turning the piece over in his hands. "Yes, Middle Kingdom." He stared intently at the symbols inside the box, a quizzical look etched into his wrinkled skin. "These markings here, on the inside. They are not any form of Egyptian," he said, looking up at Max. "Where did you come across this piece?"

Adolf lowers his head in respect upon hearing of Rupert's passing. "I am sorry," he states after a minute. He stares out the window of his office for a minute before turning back to the box. "I can't be certain of most of it," Adolf says after a few more minutes of inspection. "However, this marking here looks like the sign of the Mu an occult group in the Pacific islands." he furrows his brow at the markings.

"I believe I have read about this box," he says, rising and going to a shelf near by overflowing with books. He picks a slim volume off of a shelf up high and flips through the pages. "There!" he exclaims, laying the book down to a page with a sketch of the box. "The best theories state that this box belonged to Nophru-Ka, a would be usurper to the throne. It is believed the box was given to him by the gods themselves containing spirits he could call upon to aid him in his taking of the throne. He flips through a few more pages before resting the book down yet again. "It was supposed to contain an insect preserved in amber but the box was last seen in 1874." He points to a few lines of inscription on the right side of the box:

Seeker of Wisdom, Seeker of Setheth

Deliverer of the Slaves of the water,

Bearer of the spirit of NarLothhotep,

child of Thoth, Seeker of Wisdom

"Not the most uplifting verse," he adds with a wry smile.