The Assault On Omar Shakti’s House

Take out Omar Shakti? After all that the investigators have faced and achieved this would appear a comparatively simple task. Simple. Simple? The word rings of treacherous deadly complacency. The rancid heat of a day’s hustle and bustle, as the desperate inhabitants of a sprawling metropolis fight to survive, hangs heavy in the early morning air. Myles withdraws his head from the door of the Dark Mistress to escape the stench that assaults and insults his face. A decision must be made about what to do next and there is no time to lose. Memories of the night’s terror are still fresh in the minds of all who were there.

“All of our stuff is still in the truck outside of the mosque,” recalls Donelly.

“We’ll need to get it first.”

A party of Gupta, Myles, Irma and Joseph set out to recover the vehicle while the others remain on the boat to recover. Wesley casts the incantation Heal on Natalja: And it successfully speeds her recovery. Back at the mosque the police are still milling around following the attack of the Cthonians. When the opportunity presents itself the truck is recovered.

Back together again, the investigators swiftly load up with gear and prepare for the journey to the Nile delta. Shipton-Connington is impressed with the level of sheer military organization and action of his new compatriots. However he is less impressed with the plan to pass through Cairo with explosives rigged up to blow…

Getaway truck: Irma driving, Joe shotgun and Myles. Natalja joins them. Injured but she can drive: “I am Russian. I feel no pain. I am strong and fear nothing.”

Explosives truck: Gupta driving, Simon shotgun, Wesley and Trixie in the back.

Exhaustion is beginning to take its toll on the investigators. Every bump in the road feels like a blow from a hammer, except for Natalja who is ensconced in a hammock

Myles to Donelly: “I jumped the gun. I did see some action but it was against Johnny Turk and not the Hun. I feel I should come clean.”

Irma: “Nothing glorious about our fight in the trenches, Limey.”

Shakti’s residence and cotton plantation is built in a pseudo-French Château style. Trixie fails to disguise Gupta as a Cultist driver and merely succeeds in smudging his eyeliner. She does however succeed in disguising Joseph. The belt-fed machine gun is set up on a tripod in the back of one of the trucks. Myles, driving, while Gupta and Irma are disguised as pharaohs. Natalja waits alone in the getaway truck, awaiting a flare signal. A rose-lined straight road leads directly to the house, which backs onto the palm trees gathered along the banks of the Nile. Two cars and two trucks are parked outside. Looks like there will be someone at home… An installation with sandbags and a Lewis gun is in front of the house. Three men stand guard. There are two types of Lewis gun a larger and smaller one. This is larger one, normally mounted on a plane. Not very mobile but deadly when fired. They gesture to stop.

“Stop stop!” Cries one.

“We have the girdle of Nitocris! We are being chased!”

“Pull up! Pull up!” One of them runs into the house. The truck is driven round to the side of the sandbags, conveniently positioned for the investigators’ machine gun.

“Yalla! Yalla! Quick! Come in!”

Gupta, Irma and Myles hop out of the cab and head towards the door.

“Wait here!”

says one of the guards. A few minutes pass before the door opens and a high-ranking cultist steps out of the house.

“Show me the Girdle! Place it on the floor!”

The box is placed on the ground.

“Why did you bring this here?”

“The infidels chased us!” (Myles)

“What is the meaning of this! Who are you——“

All hell breaks loose as the investigators run out of words and switch to bullets. The man in the fez goes down like the Titanic, cold and fast. Gupta fires his shotgun into the priest at point-blank range, scattering his remains across a wide area. Myles drops the machine gunner with an expertly placed double-tap shot.

The others jump down from the truck.

Myles: “The guards have been dealt with old boy!”

Gupta and Simon turn the machine gun to face the door while the others check the bodies. Some shouting in Arabic can be heard from inside:

“What’s happening?”

“Idiot! We are being attacked!”

There is the sound of something heavy being moved inside. Are they trying to barricade the door?

Simon kicks open the door, within three heavily armed guards hiding behind a table. Gupta fires the machine gun and takes down two of them. Joe throws a grenade into the room and the blast injures the last one.

Wesley and Gupta sense a strange presence.

“Something is HERE!” Screams the Professor.

Simon hears the Arabic: “They are here! Kill them! KILL THEM!”

Gupta and Myles get away from the gun. Simon closes the door:

Simon: “Fire in the hole!”

Irma: “What does that mean?”

Simon: “Grenade!, We always say that.”

Cultists appear clutching grenades! One of the grenades makes it through the door before it is shut. Wesley casts Fist of Yog Sothoth, using the Ankh and Sceptre and launches the grenade down the front of the house before it explodes damaging the window and Shakti’s Rolls Royce. Behind the door the other grenades detonate causing Simon to take some damage. Luckily the front door takes the lion’s share of shrapnel, which leaves it partly shredded. Simon jumps through the doorway and starts shooting, or he would have done if his M16 hadn’t jammed:

Simon: “Arrrgh!, Bloody Futuristic Weapons”

Wesley leaps through the gap and guns down three of them about to throw grenades. Meanwhile, Joe jumps up and guns down the others. Irma shoots at the last of the three hiding behind the table: He’s down.

Wesley realizes: That feeling was like drawing on the power of the Ankh and Sceptre. What was that?

Suddenly a grenade goes off, obliterating the remains of the already dead cultists who had just enough time to take the pin out, but not to throw it.

A voice can be heard inside, it says: “Kill them all! But first smash their limbs! Do not allow them to enter any further!”

Something running very fast can be heard. Trixie throws a grenade into the library at some more of the cultists preparing to attack and kills many of them, with the three survivors badly injured.

Irma: “Wesley, cover me!”

One of the cultists runs through the door and Wesley takes him down with his M16. Gupta and Simon grab weapons from the truck and quickly back in through the front door.

Myles and Irma throw grenades towards a door. Counting can be heard from the other side, probably for a synchronized attack: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

The explosion rips through the door and into the cultists beyond, the second detonation finishes off the rest of them barring two. Joe shoots another two who appear through another door. Trixie executes two more cultists so badly injured they can only crawl. From upstairs:

“YALLA! YALLA!”

Gupta has a lightning gun in his hands as he waits in the shattered remains of the front door for the next assault. More cultists emerge and attack Myles and Joe: They are mercilessly gunned down.

Irma prepares to throw another grenade as cultists come flooding in, scrambling over the bodies. Wesley mows down the first group of three and Simon shoots the others. Meanwhile Trixie is moving through the library searching for more targets. Irma throws his grenade audaciously through the doorway and succeeds!

From out of nowhere more grenades suddenly land in the middle of the large reception hall. They explode but as if by a miracle the multiple explosions fail to hit any of the investigators who are hugging the walls and floor of the room.

As the dust and smoke begins to dissipate and the high-pitched ringing and flash-blinded vision of the investigators gradually clears, the status of the entrance hall becomes apparent.

Utter devastation.