The city of Luxur, throne city of Stygia. A sleeping giant waiting to be roused. If you walk down the right alley you’ll find tucked away the Thirsty Camel Tavern. At the end of it’s ebony wood bar most days you’ll see the drunkard Neffer the mountain.
“Close closer young man, hic, I wasn’t always like this you know. I was once like you, as strong as an elephant I was! Barkeep! My new friend here has just offered to buy me another cup of ale. Sit closer as I tell you my tale…”
I was a commander of men in the Stygian army. We were a small elite band of 30 men. Our Khopesh blades sharp and deadly. We had our orders. Deep within the southeastern desert was a pyramid of carved obsidian surrounded by black sands. The witch dwelt there. As soon as our mounts crossed into that cursed part of Stygia they behaved strangely. Skittish and fearful in a way well trained beast should never be. I could see the wide eyed look in my men, the fear, we feared no army of men but this was different. I knew our orders were absolute, we were to capture the witch or die trying. So sayeth King Ctsephon IV. So it was written so it shall be done. It was a bright midday when we approached the glassy Pyramid. Yet when we dismounted we could feel an unnatural chill in the air. Those stones should have been boiling hot to the touch but instead they were ice cold. The front doorway was open and we could see tracks in the black sand leading in and out. We were told the witch lived alone yet the were far too many prints for a single woman. Steeling my soul I ordered my men to follow me inside. As I passed the threshold a cold voice whispered my name and a trickle of cold sweat ran down my back. The darkness stretched out a short ways until I could see a lambent green light emitting from what appeared to be a normal torch. We were both drawn and repelled by that unholy light. Thetmis suddenly cried out breaking the silence " There are faces in the green flames!!" More torches lit up. and we could see agonized souls screaming out silently from the green flames. Though fear gripped me I cursed the men " By Set himself no one runs! Our orders are clear" Then I felt more than heard her voice.
" So many new visitors today" she purred that voice was like the gliding whisper of silk. I ordered her to show herself as we all drew our blades. One of my men drew attention we could no longer see the floor, a clinging wet fog drifted around our legs. I struck my Khopesh against my shield as more torches flared to unlife. She sat poised in a throne of grey stone that fairly glowed with blasphemous energy. Yet this was no witch that I had ever heard of. She was lovely, with smooth coppery skin and luscious dark tresses. Her green eyes were huge and luminous. She fairly slithered to stand looking down at us from a raised dais as we drank in the swell of her breasts and curve to her hips. I thought this can’t be the creature we were sent to capture. " Who sent you?" she demanded " Ctsephon! Mek-Kamoses? Thoth Amon?" Taking what was left of my courage in the face of this beguiling sorceress I ordered her to surrender herself in the name of Stygia herself. " Allow me to introduce you to the last men who came to my lands uninvited" She said as she raised her arms her eyes rolled back in her head and she intoned an unholy prayer. Before our very eyes clawing their way from the foggy ground we could see the wrapped mummified bodies of men. Their dead eyes fixed upon us. One of my men lost control of himself and wet the floor at the mere sight of them. I stopped thinking all together. Training and discipline took over I gave the orders we fought against these dead men who felt not the bite of our blades nor the strike of our shields. The room spun around us in the mists as she summoned serpents made of smoke to strangle us and the shrieking wails of dead men filled our ears. The mummies feasted upon the flesh of my brothers in arms yet I was spared that day. i know not how but I managed to fight my way to her and landed a striking blow with my broken Khopesh. She fell to the ground and sanity slowly returned to us. Thirty one men entered that cursed place. Four returned I stood over the unconcious woman and could see her now without her illusions. Her skin grey and purtrid her face more serpent than human. I swear to you I would have killed her in that moment had I the strength. I raised my broken blade but my arm would not strike. Instead like a dream I clasped the special bracelet around her wrist as I had been bidden. We stripped her nude and hung a placard around her neck with some crimes she must have committed. It was the year of the snake and she would trouble our lands no more.
Neffer looks at you with bleary eyes and says " But just before she was placed on the slave caravan to the exiled lands never to return, her eyes flew open and her cold reptilian stare pierced me to my core. I can no longer sleep for she haunts my dreams. I can see her undead spirits in every darkened shadow. Only the drink, the drink lets me continue. Beware the name Abalach Re and damn that Thoth Amon for ever sending us on that mission!"
Neffers head drops to the bar, his drink pouring onto the floor. A tortured man if ever there was one.
