SESSION 4 - BEFORE THE STORM
Session 3 | Log | Quotes | Session 5

Several days passed, and the interrogation of Kali continued, revealing information about her kin in the Courts of Chaos.  Vishnu, the ruler there, appeared generally human, but with blue skin.  He was a sorcerer of great ability.  Shiva was a great warrior, an had a third eye which Kali had never seen him open.  Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, was often adorned with jewelry, but Kali didn't otherwise have a strong impression of her.  Ganesh had the head of an elephant, was the son of Shiva, and was immensely strong.  Indra and Agni were twins, both brothers of Shiva and Vishnu.  Agni was a god of fire, whose skin was charred.  Indra was a warrior who fought with a sword made of lightning.  Hanuman was the son of Agni, and appeared in the form of a monkey.

Shu visited the Land of the Dead, visited with Thoth for a while, and then had a few visions.

Weret helped Wadjet coordinate mourners and other logistics of Osiris's funeral.

Unut and Khonsu went to the Land of the Dead, with the intention of finding their way to the Courts of Chaos, though Anubis warned that they might miss the funeral if they did so.  There they found Smenkharet wandering, her heart and eyes cut out.  She was only able to mutter, "So beautiful...." to herself, but was willing to be led by the hand, so Khonsu and Unut took her along with them.  Unut tried leaving a trail of blood for a while in hopes of drawing out Set, but without success.

On their way through Shadow in the Land of the Dead, Khonsu and Unut reversed an ambush by a half-dozen crocodilian beasts the size of large dogs.  They dispatched them handily, and the corpses evaporated within a few minutes.  Further out, they found a number of spirits who had apparently died during a battle.  Khonsu was able to puzzle out enough of their language to figure out that one side was fighting to defend Leila's realm from invaders.

Finally, Khonsu, Unut, and Smenkharet arrived at a river in the Land of the Dead.  Though they tried to pass it, they found their paths returning to the river, and they were unable to travel any further from Amber.  Khonsu was able to do some limited Shadow-shifting in search of a lens to look under the surface of the water, and came upon a large-eyed fish carcass on one bank.  He used the eye to look into the river, and it seemed that the river had another surface some distance below the surface he was looking through.  The depth varied at different points in the river, being about six feet at the shallowest point.  He was able to see stars on the other side, but he did not recognize their arrangement.  He may have seen small, dark, reflective shapes moving quickly through the river, but it may have been a distortion of the starlight.

After some more exploration, Khonsu and Unut began their return to Amber, Smenkharet in tow.

Back in Amber, Wadjet declared that she would not be able to get much more information from Kali until the prisoner was able to heal for a time.  Anubis kept Kali under watch at his temple, since Fort Geb seemed less secure of late.  The other interrogators split up; Harmakhis returned to the reconstruction of his Temple, while Khnemu paid a visit to Isis's temple, both in the Land of the Dead and in the living world.  He tended to Isis's cult, and decided that there would be no declaration of Isis's death for now, lest it be a trial set up by the White Witch.

At Fort Geb, a large group of refugees arrived.  Keket arrived to meet with their leader, Jacob.  They agreed that his people would be taken into Amber as slaves, but would be treated humanely and would be protected from the Assyrians they were fleeing.  Apparently an Assyrian army of some size - 10,000 soldiers or more - was on a path towards Amber, destroying some of Assyria's local neighbors in the process.  The army traveled under the cover of a hellish storm, and would arrive at Fort Geb within a few weeks.

Shu, wanting to do some reconnaissance in Assyria anyway, approached the storm and found it too dangerous for flying.  He then dropped off Amun via Trump, and flew deeper into Assyria.  Amun scouted the approaching army and brought Weret back a pitted sword, apparently destroyed by the storm, for use in future sorceries.

The funeral of Osiris was then held.  Khonsu and Unut were not in attendance, but the rest of the family paid their respects and listened to Horus give a eulogy to the departed Pharaoh.  Afterwards, the family gathered for informal discussion over beer.  Wadjet spoke to a few people about members of her cult being murdered, but no one had much information on that.  There was also some discussion as to whether Kali should be executed.  Finally, the event wound down and many people returned to Fort Geb to prepare for war.