The Necropolis of Nekh-Amon

The sandstorm dies down and reveals what lay buried an hour before: rows of leaning obelisks, covered in a script no one can read anymore. The sun burns without mercy and sapphire-blue scarabs dart away beneath your feet. At the foot of the largest obelisk kneels a battered grave-robber, terrified, his hands full of dust. "I touched nothing," he stammers. "But something in there has woken."

The caravan leader who hires you stares in dread at the blue glow that rises by night from the Necropolis of Nekh-Amon. His ancestors are buried here, and their rest has been broken. Deep beneath the sand the first ruler of this necropolis is waking—an embalmed sorcerer-king who waited centuries for the stars and the shifting sand to lay his tomb bare once more.

You descend into the city of the dead: corridors of traps that have guarded the tomb for a thousand years, hieroglyphic puzzles that bar the way to the burial chamber, halls where embalmed sentinels step from their sarcophagi. You must snuff out the blue soul-flames that feed the king, decipher the curse-text carved on the obelisks, and reach the burial chamber before the next sandstorm buries the way out.

The climax unfolds in the throne room of the dead, where Nekh-Amon, the Embalmed King, rises from his wrappings: blue soul-fire leaks through the ancient linen while every soul that ever defiled his grave looms up behind him. Defeat him and seal his heart-urn, and the city of the dead sinks back into sleep and you may carry off what the dead no longer need. Fail, and Nekh-Amon marches on the living with his wakened legion—starting with the caravan above.