Special Orders Preview: Amarna Boundary Stela C

POWER: Major

DESCRIPTION: Nestled in the Northern cliffs of the ancient Egyptian ritual city of Amarna, Stela C is unique among the Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten. Unlike the other Stelae, C was concealed from public view by its location in a gorge not easily visible from the city itself. Stela C is six meters tall and ten wide, carven from the native stone of the cliff. Most of the face is occupied by a bas relief depicting an androgynous human figure on their knees below the sun disc Aten. The figure is holding their stomach, intestines, lungs and liver in their open palms. The majority of the accompanying Hieroglyphic script is effaced, either by deliberate vandalism or weathering (though neither explain why the image is still visible). The only decipherable text reads “ATEN…HIS THRONE…GATHER POWER…VESSEL”.

Below the relief, at ground level, is an arched indentation in which rests a carven alabaster throne. Like the relief, the throne is suspiciously unweathered. The seat of the throne is stained with a black, pitch like substance and a dusting of unknown pinkish residue. On each side of the throne are two indentations sized for urns or jars, for a total of four.

EFFECT: Sit on the throne while the four indentations are occupied by canopic jars containing your preserved stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver. Recite the full text of the Stela (not just the surviving fragment). You can then combine ten minor charges you’re carrying into a significant charge, or ten sigs into a major.

WHAT YOU HEAR

A lesser treatise by 15th Century chronicler Al-Maqrizi provides the earliest recorded mention of Stela C, a local legend of a “white stone chair” that granted wishes. David Roberts sketched the site in his 1838 visit to Egypt, but didn’t include it in his final book of lithographs after the concept drawings were lost. By the time Sir Flinders Petrie established a taxonomy of the Amarna Stelae in 1901, the location had been forgotten again. Stelae C was first comprehensively described in 1997 by surveyors from the Zurich based Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt. Plans for further research were curtailed by the death of 36 Swiss citizens at the hands of Islamist militants during the Luxor Massacre, which prompted the Society to withdraw its researchers from Egypt. Further excavation attempts have been stymied by lack of funding, political instability, and obstructionism from the Egyptian antiquities authorities.

This obstructionism is not typical government foot dragging, it’s a deliberate ploy by Egyptian cabal O Time Thy Pyramids to keep Stela C under wraps. This loose alliance of Egyptian chargers formed to prevent (or monopolize, depending on who you ask) occult exploitation of Ancient Egyptian historic sites. While magickal Egyptian artifacts (or Ptolemaic artifacts, or Roman, or Mamluk, or Hittite, or Hyksos, or Sea Peoples…) are themselves extremely rare, mundane ancient ruins hold massive symbolic power, prompting visiting wizards to plunder, deface, and fight over them. Someone had to do for the mages what the Ministry of Antiquities did for the tourists and smugglers.

• Amid Soliman Pasha, Brigadier in the Tourism and Antiquities Police. Once a brain rinsed servitor of a Cliomancer who wanted law enforcement backup in a petty dispute with a rival cobwebber. Now a senior member of the cabal. Collects pottery fragments.
• Beck, talking crocodile. Kept chained in an underground pit by Frontal Ptolemy, a group of antiquities smugglers who used him to dispose of magickal rivals. Ate enough charged bodies to develop sentience. Rescued by OTTP. Sensitive, loves to sing.
• al-Kephri, devout Muslim Cryptomancer who awoke one day and found himself transformed into a monstrous insect. Loves being a giant beetle, does most of his work online. Translates and recovers lost texts.
• Dr. Maysoon Lahab, archaeology professor at University of Cairo, supremely competent organizer. Wears a Hatchepsut style false beard during rituals, a visual pun on her role providing academic cover for the group’s secret operations.
• Dr Omar Ali, Geomancer. Directs restoration of ancient sites to farm significant charges. Really wants to ball these up into majors using the Stela and start rebuilding ancient megastructures using magick, but the cabal won’t let him.
• Qutb bin Kronos, kebab seller and wizard with a knife. Can cut without killing or kill without cutting. His surgical skills get more use than his swordsmanship, along with his unique blend of spices that preserves living tissue.

Although insular and often openly racist against darker skinned visitors from Asia or Sub Saharan Africa, O Time Thy Pyramids recognizes that some checkers have legitimate uses for the charge combining powers of Stela C. The first step to getting access is a short interview with Dr Lahab, to determine what the supplicant wants to do with their combined charges. This is a cursory discussion to avoid complete wastes of the group’s time. Next is a sizeable cash payment. The whole ritual process takes time and energy from several people, who have to be compensated. Then comes the real purity test. The aspirant’s heart is removed and weighed against a feather, a Koran, and a King James Bible written in Coptic (an awkward ecumenical compromise between the differing faiths of the cabal’s members). If the petitioner’s intentions are pure, their heart is reimplanted in their body. If not, Qutb keeps it and they die.

Those who pass the test have the requisite organs removed, preserved still living in the appropriate vessels, for use in the ritual and later reimplantation. They are taught the words of power, which the Pyramids pulled from the defaced Stela using magickal reconstructive methods. Finally, under supervision, they are permitted to sit in the chair and fuse their charges together.

David Roberts

Burger King has a sizeable presence in Egypt, and so does the Court of the Burger Queen. The courtiers of Profession: King hold a commanding position at the Al Haram BK franchise in Giza, a twenty minute drive from the Great Pyramids. Their initial objective was magickal research into the True King in Pharaonic Egypt, and the potential to enhance Erica’s own bid for the big seat. Then they learned about the Stela. The Court of the Burger Queen needs major charges for Erica Fisher to dispense as boons, as fuel for her more grandiose schemes, and as prizes that induce people to participate in the Surf system of debt bondage.

So far, both Profession: King's attempts to gain access to the Stela legitimately have failed. Neato Chris was turned away when the Pyramids figured out he was working for an international burger conspiracy. The Great Devourer made it as far as the purity test, which she failed and died. The Burger Queen is impatient. If playing nice doesn’t get results, a reliable source of Majors is worth going to war over.