...You are in the midst of an infinite desert at midday. Miles and miles of red, sun-scorched sand stretch all around you, and a gust of baking hot wind blasts you in the face. The only thing beside yourself in this desolate terrain is a small red hut that sits to the north.

You slowly enter the hut through a large wooden door, and you are enveloped by the cool, welcoming darkness. There is only a single room inside, with an oddly-shaped stone altar in the middle thereof. Upon this altar is a golden box and a red candle that is currently lit before it. By the red candlelight, you can see the walls and ceiling of the hut are painted black and decorated with stars. The stars are arranged to mimic the constellations of the nighttime sky.

Upon the northernmost wall, behind the altar and close to the ceiling, you notice the Big Dipper. While all the other stars in this hut have been painted white, those of the Dipper have been painted red. When you look down to the floor between the altar and the northern wall, you notice that it’s littered with shards of broken ceramic pots.

You approach the altar at the center of the room, and you carefully open the golden box. Inside you find a 12 inch statue of a humanoid figure with the head of what looks like a dog or a wolf with large rabbit ears. In its right hand, the figure holds what looks like a gigantic meat cleaver with an elongated handle; it reminds you of the Big Dipper.

At the feet of the statue is written in great red letters:

“Son of Nut!” you whisper. Your words seem to echo as the name of the statue - as well as its eyes - are suddenly animated with a fierce red glow. The glow pulsates with power and energy; it is both frightening and irresistable.

You take a step backwards, and your foot knocks something over. You look down and see a small ceramic pot, good as new. Beside it is a piece of charcoal, and you’d swear that neither of these things were there when you first entered the hut.

You pick up the pot and the charcoal, and you face the statue upon the altar. “O Great of Strength,” you say; “I command in Your name that I shall smite the unseen serpent forever and ever, amen.”

Then you use the charcoal to draw the image of a serpent squiggling around the pot. When you’ve finished, you walk behind the altar and say,

Then you throw the pot to the floor, where it shatters and joins countless other broken ceramics. The sound of its shattering echoes through the hut, and for just a moment, you almost think you hear something Evil, screaming in agony from very far away...

You return to the altar. The glow of the statue’s name and eyes has dulled down a bit. You kneel and say a prayer, speaking truth from the innermost depths of your heart. If you’ve brought something with you on this journey, you might make an offering, perhaps of some watermelon, lettuce, cigars or red wine. You might simply meditate. Should you wish to divine some kind of message, you might respectfully request that Set reveal some mystery to you. If He agrees, you just might hear whispers coming from the statue’s mouth...and if you hold your ear up close to that mouth, you just might make out what it’s saying...

When the time has come for you to leave this temple, you stand and bow to the statue. “O Dazzling One,” you say, “Disturber of the Dark. I am You upon this Earth, and You are Me among the Stars. As You slay the dragon at Creation’s Frontier, so do I make war upon my inner demons. Our Covenant is forged in starry iron, and Our Quest through dark heavens shall never end.”

As you say these words, the flame of the red candle flickers and dies out; the glow of the statue’s name and eyes dies down. It’s as if the Red Lord were smiling and saying, “Take care, kid.”

You exit the hut through the wooden door. By now, the Sun has descended; the desert is cloaked in savory darkness, and the bosom of Nut is bejeweled with infinite stars. With a smile, you turn and face the Big Dipper. You bring the tips of your fingers to your lips and kiss them. Then you raise your fingers to the sky, to the Dipper.

You turn and walk away from the hut, in the direction from whence you came, with the Dipper at your back. You close your mind’s eye as you walk, and you count backwards from 100. When you reach the number one, you open your eyes and find that...