It was an inscription that elucidated that to open the path down the key in the ghoul's heart must be used.

Foreign inscriptions just barely evaded Kaiya's grasp as she glanced over the beast from her position of safety above it. Instead of getting closer, she left the woman to her task and set about wiping her blade clean.

Ruqqayah groaned softly to herself. "Literally...?" She pushes up her sleeves and then turned the ghul over to check its chest, seeing if it had been recently cut into. Between learning about medicine and her peoples' fondness for red meat, she didn't shy away from handling the dead creature.

There was a sewn up incision just beneath left side of the rib cage that would otherwise be most likely missed.

Ruqqayah took out her knife and opened up the stitches, reaching in to retrieve the heart and the key inside.

After the stitches were removed acrid embalming fluids poured out; the flesh had not regenerated after death, and was only held together by craftsmanship and artificery. Still, a random thought that crossed Ruqqayah's mind was that this specimen could be sewn up and re-purposed...

Anyway, instead of the heart, the creature had a bronze ankh cross in inverted position inside its chest. If it had inscriptions, they were obscured by the milky preservative.

She eyed the ghul itself for a moment. She might have to deal with that in a bit. Then she focused on the ankh, tearing off a shred of cloth to clean it and read the inscriptions.

The ankh did reveal symbols for three quarters of the moon on the three arms, except full moon, which was was perhaps symbolically represented by the loop. In Senpet language, moon and soul were homophones.

Ruqqayah rose and turned the Ankh over in her hands, mulling over what the meaning of it could be as she looked around the room for long minutes. Finally, she headed over the where Ekhmenes' name was inscribed on the wall and looked for some sort of hole or indentation where the key might fit.

Upon closer look there was an ankh-shaped concavity above the name of Ekhmenes at perhaps 8 feet, otherwise unnoticeable as it was a part of a hieroglyph.

Ruqqayah sighed, looking around for a way up. Surely there must be one. A normal person couldn't reach that high, say nothing of someone as short as her.

Kaiya had, at the intended retrieval of the heart, turned away. Wishing not to witness at least this moment. It was dirty, befitting a woman of any proper stature, but she knew the necessity all the same. At the very least, the act went un-witnessed. At the sigh, however, Kaiya turned back. Reading the situation as she had trained herself to do she approached the spot, cupped her hands, and offered the woman a mean of the extra bit of height.

"Oh! Thank you," she said, stepping into her hand, and inserting the the ankh into the indentation once she was high enough.

Something... happened. The house shook, casting the Iuchi on the ground, the inscriptions on the walls began to shimmer with unholy light, and shift, the ideographs committing their activities, many gruesome and foul. The story Ruqqayah decoded was now being replayed in detail, in sequences... As it did, the floor got red and black from heat as it began to creak and peel off. Metric thumping became audible. They were inside something... that had some sort of life of its own. And as the entrance collapsed, there was no way out.

[Fear 4]

Ruqqayah's head whipped around, staring st the heiroglyphs that seemed to come to life and the floor as it peeled away. She covered her mouth, but couldn't calm her heart or silence the whimper from her lips.

---

EA 13 - Fear 4: 4d10o10k4 15

Despite the circumstance, this time, Kaiya's hand remained steady.

[Fear 4 vs 26, Passed.]

Now they were slowly realising what has been this terrifying. An alien will tried to subsume them into itself...

[Willpower/Etiquette+Honour Rank vs. TN25. For the purpose of Advantages, it counts as resisting an attempt to know thoughts/manipulate/possess; Seed of Qanon awards a FR.]

Ruqqayah was somehow, despite the fear, or maybe because of it, able to mentally rally against the thing. Her mind recoiled and walled itself in.

---

30

Whatever the thing was, Kaiya was an easy read.

Etiquette: 18 vs 25 Failed
Re-roll: 23 vs 25, Failed.

An image formed in Kaiya's mind. Of a very foreign-looking man, with sharp features. Words were foreign, but they made themselves self-explicable.

You shall not let my heart be defiled. Protect it.

The peeling-off floor finally was stolen from under their feet and they both tumbled downward into a cavernous basement. There, on a pedestal inscribed with hieroglyphics, an iron box lay.

[Kaiya is bound to do Chephren's bidding i.e. prevent the box from being claimed until she beats the TN of freeing her will. She can try on each Round. Fear affects all rolls, but goes away when the box is claimed. For the purpose of doing things proceed with Combat-based logic of time elapsing (so roll Initiative). Who gets first to the box comes from a Contested Strength/Athletics (Climbing) Roll (a Complex Action). It's an automatic win for the one who does the roll if the other does something else during the round. None of them can leave the cavern without the help of the other. It can only be opened with a roll of Intelligence/Spellcraft vs. TN30 (to expose the heart, the box can be used without opening). The box can be used to mind-control as per an automatic cast of Influence 3. The minimal dice pool rolled is 1k1.]