Records: Cairo's Burning Frogs

## **Cairo: Egypt's Ghost Town**

By the last week in February, 1379, waves of frogs began spawning, fully formed. The good news was that the frogs appeared perfectly normal, there were just millions that fuzzed into existence. They were getting everywhere, and it didn't take a minute to realize that this was effectively paralyzing the Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

It didn't take another minute for wise Muslim scholars to recognize this ancient event: the Jews and Christians would recognize it as Exodus: the second plauge of Egypt. That word spread about 15 minutes later, and Cairo was equal parts annoyed at the frogs and terrified at what else might follow, from locusts to losing their first born.

Then, just as quickly, *the frogs burned away*.

The frogs burned with real fire, utterly incinerating the creatures, starting fires all over Cairo. Ironically, one fire started by the incineration was put out by the next wave of frogs.

### **Mid-evacuation frog-break**

The populace stopped, not sure what to do. The frogs were gone in an acrid, choking smoke, but the plague was gone. Do they go home and wait for locusts? *What were the other plagues, again...?*

Just as many turned to go back, or put out fired, the frogs fuzzed back into existence. Some people were injured when suddenly weighted down with a thousand frogs, but that was it. They weren't desert piranah frogs, but that didn't matter: the reappearance of the frogs was all most needed to get out of Cairo.

The city had its ups and downs, but it didn't have the rough reputation of either Sodom nor Gamorrah. Why curse the City? Islamic scholars weren't even sure this had been a real event, but now? This wasn't run by the Pharaohs in the time of the Jews, this was modern Islam... *but it was still Egypt*.

A minute later, the frogs burned away – *again*.

### **The Cycle of Amphibian Incendiaries**

Residents were already on their way out, beyond the area where the phenomena had happened. Then a little farther and upwind.

Then it happened a third time. It varied the first ten or so cycles, but eventually settled into a rhythm of a frog wave every eleven minutes, then a burn cycle after 17 seconds of croaking.

The fire, the smoke, the frogs, and the fear of the other eight plagues ran rampant. It appeared to have skipped the blood, but nobody wanted to be around for lice, flies, boils, lethal hail or anything else.

As much as the Christian world was turmoil in Europe, the Islamic world was in sudden turmoil as the rumors made it out of Mamluk Egypt.

## **Abortive Biblical Plagues**

Word made it from Cairo to Alexandria, and from Alexandria to Rome in a matter of days.

Rome just happened to have their own Jesuit group – trained in magic, no less, as part of the confirmation that arcane magic's power source was non-demonic. There was a contingent of English ROM wizards still in Rome, assisting, and the groups combined for a fast sail back to Cairo.

They made it by the second week of March, and both the SNS-trained Jesuits and the ROM wizards had a chance to witness and measure it. This was a new manifestation style of the *Incidence of Incidents*.

Cairo had burned out of control, but half the city (in a patchwork) was still intact. It was definitely a ghost town and there were Imams getting into fist fights at the edge of the phenomena that was still happening as regular as clockwork).

The Rome Contingent had about a week to study it before it stopped just as suddenly as it started.

This led to the most distrurbing revelations yet.

### **The War of Curses and Miracles**

Between the Order of Merlin and the Jesuits studying the phenomena before it faded, certain findings were released. First, there was no *arcane*magic involved. Arcane magic had a definite, measurable signature and this had none of it. Instead, this had a powerful sense of divine (SNS) magic.

It appeared that angels had either gone mad or were at war with each other.

When word finally filtered back to Leeds Castle and the rest of the ROM, Prince Rick leaned toward the latter.