Tablet of Akmenrah

The Tablet of Akmenrah is the name of an artifact that features in the Night of the Musuem movies.

History
The Tablet of Akmenrah was created at some point in the distant past and held in the trust of one of the ruling Egyptian dynasty's where it was passed on from parents to the son that would become the new Pharaoh. Hundreds of years ago, the Pharaoh decided to pass on the Tablet to his younger son Akmenrah rather than his older brother Kahmunrah. In addition to this, they changed the combination lock of the artifact which was unknown to Kahmunrah who wished to use it to open a gateway to the underworld. This led to Akmenrah being ascended to the position of ruler and the sacred Tablet being entrusted to his keeping where it remained even til the time he was buried. There it stayed for decades until it was discovered by archaeologists who first took it to Egyptology Department at Cambridge University where Akmenrah was brought to life for sometime and learnt the English language. After this chain of events, scientists brought the Tablet along with Akmenrah's tomb to the York City's American Museum of Natural History in 1952. The unique powers of the Tablet led to the many exhibits within the museum coming to life after sunrise though they returned to their lifeless state when the sun rose. This unique effect was discovered by three night guardsmen at the museum known as Cecil, Gus and Reginald who maintained watch over the exhibits and ensured that they returned to their places before the morning.

This pattern of events remained in place for years until the year 2006 when the three elderly guardsmen were fired from their position. On their last day of work, they gave a quick tour of the musuem to Larry Daley who had recently applied for the position of night watchmen. They gave him a set of rules on how to function in the musuem though he did not believe some of their tales about the unique events that occured in the building. On Daley's first night, he discovered that the many exhibits came to life and fought to keep events under control. After each night, he learnt to better deal with the living exhibits who took on the personas they were based on and Theodore Roosevelt revealed the magical power of the Tablet of Akmenrah being the source of the events. As time went on, a number of mysterious events occured at the musuem leading to Daley discovering Cecil, Gus and Reginald breaking into the building and attempting to steal the Tablet of Ahkmenrah. There, Cecil revealed that the Tablet gave them enhanced vitality and that they were unwilling to forsake it thus they intended to steal the artifact as well as a number of exhibits in order to fund their retirement. After being trapped in the Egyptian exhibit, Daley discovered the rightful owner of the Tablet - Akmenrah himself who freed him. Later on, Daley witnessed the thieves escaping with the artifact and the exhibits fighting amongst themselves. Intervening, he managed to convince the various exhibits to team together in order to preserve their lives as they would return to their original state without the powers of the Tablet. Working together, they managed to defeat Cecil, Gus and Reginald and return the artifact to the musuem. In addition, they accepted Daley as the night watchmen and continued their secret activities at night.

By 2009, Daley had left his job and become an inventor with his own business called Daley Devices. Despite this departure, the exhibits continued their lives at night but as the years went it, the musuem was running short on funds which necessitated its closure. Some of the exhibits were going to be transferred to the Smithsonian though the Egyptian artifacts which included the Tablet would remain behind. However, the exhibit known as Dexter the monkey knew of this and stole the Tablet while it was being taken to the Smithsonian. Once there, on the first night it reanimated all the exhibits in the Smithsonian musuem which included Akmenrah's evil older brother Kahmunrah. A phone call was given to Daley for his help and on the second night he discovered that the Tablet was sheltered by the New York exhibits in a storage container whilst being assaulted by Kahmunrah along with his troops. However, before Daley could take it away, night had arrived and reanimated Kahmunrah who sealed Daley's friends in the container and attempted to take Daley hostage. This was because Kahmunrah intended to take his birthright which was the Tablet and use its power to open a gateway to the underworld where its denziens would help him take over the world. However, Daley managed to flee and trap Kahmunrah's troops in a painting. As the night continued, Kahmunrah used various villainous figures in history as his allies in taking back the Tablet. It was Napoleon who ultimately succeeded in securing the Tablet once more and Kahmunrah entered the combination once he placed it within an Egyptian exhibit. However, nothing happened and he learnt that his parents had changed the key code for the Tablet. Thus, he charged Daley with finding the code or Kahmunrah would kill his friends. It was only with the aid of a number of Einstein exhibits did the combination code get discovered and Kahmunrah activated it allowing for hawk headed creature from the Egyptian underworld to emerge from the doorway. Daley's friends however managed to get the aid of a giant version of Abraham Lincoln who scared the Egyptian monsters into the underworld once more. An angry Kahmunrah later battled Daley and during the fight; Kahmunrah was pushed into the doorway where he was banished into the Egyptian underworld.

Later, the New York exhibits were returned to their home along with the Tablet of Akmenrah.

Overview
The artifact resembled a nine fingered combination lock with Egyptian symbols on its surface. It was intended to be placed within a larger structure where it served as a combination key that can activate a doorway to the Egyptian underworld. The one who enters the correct code had serving him an army of hawk headed Egyptian demons who numbered in the thousands and were capable of taking over the world.

The magical nature of the artifact had other side effects as well which meant that it generated an unusual ability that animated objects such as statues, miniatures, paintings and various exhibits. These items were brought to life and had the personalities, memories and mannerisms of the persons they were based on. The exhibits were only given life when the sun went down and only in the immediate area surrounding the location of the Tablet. When the sun rose, the items returned back to their lifeless state. The limited radius of the magical effect meant that any object that was out of its sphere of influence when the sun rose were reduced to dust thus effectively ending their lives.

Another lesser known effect of the Tablet was that it effected living beings as well and brought them increased energy as well as vitality. Thus, older people felt stronger and healthier than they would normally be in life.

Appearances

 * Night at the Musuem:
 * Night at the Musuem: Battle of the Smithsonian: