Step through the portal

You step into the portal and are immediately surrounded by the red glow. You feel like you're floating, but without a frame of reference, you can't tell which direction is up. You don't know how long you're floating in the portal when you notice that you're surrounded by images composed of glowing lines. You recognise many of them as hieroglyphs, but there are also many that look strange and unfamiliar.

"Welcome to the chaos outside the world", a voice says suddenly.

You look around a notice a man floating beside you. He has dark skin that looks almost black in the gloom and eyes that seem to glow, though their colour changes so often you can't tell what they should be. Beside him stands a dog-like creature, though it seems to be stretched out, with a long neck, a stiff tail and strange triangular ears. The animal cocks its head at you and examines you with intelligent looking eyes.

"Who are you?" you ask. "How do I get out of here?"

"I am Set, god of the desert", Set replies. "My family has managed to portray me as some sort of villainous character. All nonsense, of course."

He waves his hands as he speaks and manages to knock away a number of the images. He scowls in annoyance. The animal – a Set animal, you remember now – continues to stare directly at you.

{if@ Time (seconds) > 0}"I think you should just stay here", Set continues. "It's so much easier here, not having to worry about the complicated world outside. That's why I prefer the deserts when I go there – there's sand and not much else to annoy me."

He sees your frown and sighs.

"If you want to leave, there's nothing I can do to stop you. I can send you back into the pyramid, but if you want to leave it, you need to show me the correct code."

"The code?" you ask. "What code?"

Set shrugs.

"If you don't know it, then I can't help you."

{if@ Escape code = true}You think back and remember the strange clue the mummy in the antechamber to Imhotep's burial chamber told you.

"Horus, Maat, Anubis and Set", you mutter to yourself. "What does that mean?"

"They can't help you here", Set says irritably. "This is my place and I especially don't want my brother or nephew interfering."

You ignore the god and look around the emptiness again. Images fly past you, pictures of humans, animals and objects. You begin to smile as you realise what the mummy was suggesting.

Reaching out, you grab an image of a falcon. To your surprise, it turns its head to glare at you, then flaps up to land on your head. You wince as its claws dig into your skull, but the falcon doesn't grip you tightly. You look around and spot another likely image – a long, ornate feather tumbling towards you. You grab it and pass it up to the falcon, which grips the feather in one claw. It takes a few more minutes to find the final image you're looking for, but you finally pull an image of a jackal out of the air. Like the falcon, the jackal comes to life and snarls at the Set animal standing beside the god.

"Here you go!" you say triumphantly. "Here's the four parts of the code. Horus", you point at the falcon, "Maat's feather," you tug the feather from the falcon's beak and offer it to Set, "the jackal for Anubis and, of course, your very own animal."

You point at the jackal, then at the Set animal. Both of them snarl at you. Set doesn't take the feather you offer him, and looks peeved, as if he's lost a bet.

"Alright, you win", he says sullenly. "Where do you want me to send you?"

"Out of this pyramid!" you say fervently.

"If you insist", Set replies.

He reaches out to grab your shoulder, but you pull out of his grasp just as he reaches you. You don't really trust the god and you suspect he'll do anything to anything to keep you here. Nonetheless, you feel a shock go through you from the place where Set touched you. He scowls at you, but doesn't try to reach out again.

{else}You think about it, but you can't remember anything that could be a code that you could use to escape. You realise that you need to return to the pyramid. You're sure that you'll be able to find something else there.

"Send me back to the first room in the pyramid", you say.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here for a bit longer", Set asks, smirking at you.

You shake your head wearily.

"I just want to get out of here as quickly as I can."{endif}

{else}"Well, I've got some bad news for you", Set continues.

"Bad news?" you groan.

You think that everything you've encountered in the pyramid has been bad news.

"You've run out of time", Set tells you. "That means that you are now cursed. And do you know who gets to deal with the cursed?"

"Who?" you ask wearily.

"I do!" Set replies happily, pointing at himself.

You groan again.

"What are you going to do to me?"

"You'll see", Set says. "Just go through this door and you'll see."

"And what if I don't want to go through?" you retort.

Set gives you a shove that sets you spinning in the air. After a few rotations, Set stops you and keeps you upright.

"I'll just push you through", he says.{endif}

Set waves his hand and a doorway appears in front of you. Beyond it, you can only see blinding white light. You take a breath, then step through the door.