The Locked Room

The caravanserai half of the original “Pyramids and the Locked Room” prep, split off after Session 05 - The Cairo Interlude ran the Cairo breather long. Two days out of Cairo on the Suez road, the party reaches Wadi al-Tih, where a sandstorm seals the gate and an East India Company factor — Gerald Hewitt — is found strangled in a room locked from the inside.

Cairo’s safety is the whole reason this lands. Freddy already met the victim: Hewitt was the European (“Ben”) who buttonholed him in the Frank Quarter tavern over Board of Control business — so the caravanserai cast is met before the corpse, exactly as the mystery needs.

Opens from: Chapter 04 Session 05 Wrap Up

Key prep: The Desert Caravanserai, Wadi al Tih, Session 05 Plan (caravanserai half)

Locations: Wadi al Tih

Caravan NPCs: Hassan, Hewitt (victim; met as “Ben” in Cairo), Mrs Ashby, Rajan, Pelham, Abu Yusef, Mancini, the Chambers

Documents

• Plan: Session 06 Plan (session-prep, 2026-07-21)
• Table card: Session 06 Hewitts Bad Advice — Hewitt’s wrong Calcutta advice, quick-read for Scene 2
• Art prompts: Session 06 Portrait Prompts — cast portraits + the carriages