Gate One: Waiting Room of the Dead

We followed the Solar Barque to the First Gate in Duat, this massive stone structure spanning the river. The Barque docked, so we were able to do the same and follow Andrew's invisible thread to Imhotep. We hoped to get him and go so we could stick close to the Barque and not make ourselves a target for what lives in the river.

I noticed Lexi looking uncomfortable. That wouldn't be a thing all on it's own, but Kenny flinched. Andrew picked up on it and let us know how Duat works. Basically, the further down river we go the harder the realm will make it for us to proceed. Its like a test of the soul. Fun.

We met a Goddess in charge of the souls who'd gathered at the gate; Kebauet. She answered a question I'd had about the non-egyptian souls I saw. She prepares the dead so they may start their journey down the river. Which includes the same kind of funerary rites we did to enter Duat. She was pleasant and directed us to Imhotep.

Imhotep himself, well, he was the "too absorbed in his work to care about anything else" sort of genius... I guess. More like he'd stopped giving two-shits about the Pesedjet and what happened to them. So, we all (but mostly Andrew) appealed to his sense of... community? We pleaded with him to help for the sake of the Egyptian people. That worked.

And, you'd think it'd be nice, just once, to accomplish our goal and not have anything go wrong. Nope, "simple" is not in the "Life of a Scion" lexicon. Some serpents, or something started charging through some water filled pipes that connected to the room. The fastest way out is through Kebauet's waters. And we'll come out changed, according to Imhotep. Great, I already feel the tug of Jotunheim in my ichor (though no longer as strong), what will this do to me? I'm not looking forward to it.

I'll have to kiss Lexi to give her the ability to breathe water so she can make the journey. Not an unpleasant prospect, but I'm going to catch so much shit from everyone else....
Bah, they're just jealous.

Another Underworld

We'd all been suspecting it and it turned out to be true. I seem to recall asking someone if we were going to be expected to go to Duat, and I was assured that wasn't the case. Yeah, bullshit.

I'm getting ahead of myself again. We'd made camp near the lake and did some planning as we waited for sunset so we could "enter the tomb" at the appropriate time. As the sun set I split the water of the lake so we didn't have to swim (and I got some surreal mental imagery having to do with opening a wound). The red sunset on the water must have reminded me of Hel's pool of blood in Helheim.

My "parting of the red sea" trick revealed a sunken funeral barge. That's when it all clicked. Everyone boarded the vessel (I overheard some sprites or something shouting at Claire in ancient Egyptian when she tried to command the helm) and our tag-alongs revealed why they were there. Basically, to enter the underworld the Egyptian burial rites had to be performed and our new friends sacrificed for the purpose of guiding us through Duat and, so long as everything went perfectly, they could be let out again.

Kennedy did a great job of commending their sacrifice, which pretty much covered anything I wanted to say. It felt kind of hollow to essentially say "What she said" but there was no way I was going to do better.

We took our places and Hal led the ritual. I think it would have been more appropriate for Andrew to lead, but Hal had the right connection to Death and had his perfect memory to make sure he got everything right. And so, we dropped into Duat.

We entered the great river in the Egyptian underworld. Before us was Ra's solar barge with its godly guardians. I moved to a spot on the deck of our barge so I could defend in any needed direction, though, I suspect the creatures in the river would be more interested in attacking Ra's barge. Though we still had to coax Lexi away from the rails.

You know, that's two trips to the underworld in very recent memory, but at least we're alive. Part of me doubts we'll have the same kind of time dilation down here as, if memory serves, this is the trip the solar barge takes every night, so I figure, if the barge ever overtakes us, that's a good sign for how many "real" days have passed.

Clash of the Titans

Or at least, that's what it made me think of when those big ass scorpions burst out of the ground. Though these things weren't composed of crappy CGI effects. They ambushed us next to a wall of rock that would have had us pinned in. But we weren't mortals.

I gave Diane some of my blood (and spit) to shield her in a portion of my silver armor, but by the time I'd finished doing that and getting us off the horse to do battle, everyone had scurried up the rock face to the top. Hal flew himself, his charge, and his horse up to the top, Claire jumped, Rufus jumped, and Lexi led the rest straight up the cliff, on horseback.

My delay nearly got Diane's leg taken off. I felt really really stupid. Just as I'd scooped her up and leaped up to the top of the cliff, one of the scorpions burst out from under us and left a nasty gash in her leg.

When I reached the top of the cliff, Hal let loose like the stories of lighting throwing storm gods. He threw several bolts of lightning down upon the scorpions, flash-cooking the bastards. Kenny and I would have gotten caught in that too, had we not scooted up to the cliff. Hell, I was a perfectly good lightning rod at the time.

Then some vulture-like harpies (or whatever the hell they were) flew overhead and... couldn't see us. Andrew said he'd pulled on Fate's strings (which didn't sit well with Claire). So, we were able to get into Sudan very easy. No monsters, no human patrols, nothing spotted us.

Diane got healed up by her companions and also got some good natured ribbing as well when Lexi invited her to ride on her horse with her (since ours got snapped below the surface). I consigned myself to traveling on foot. Conversation also turned to what our first adventure was. Yeah, like I need a reminder of that. Any time I know I should be cold is reminder enough.

Before too much longer, we got ourselves to the lake. Finally, a large body of water. Deserts make me uncomfortable.