Throughout the
Mythos literature we encounter rocks, carved with strange symbols and pregnant
with subtle power or dangerous potency. Some of these are cult objects; others
are artefacts of hidden lore. Mostly, they are hazardous to one’s health. In
our subjective “real world” there are similar stones, not always dark in a metaphoric
sense, which have obviously served as the foundations for literary horrors: the
following list throws them all into the mix as inspiration.
Akely’s Dark Stone
“The
thing, as nearly as one might guess, had faced the camera vertically with a
somewhat irregular curved surface of one by two feet; but to say nothing
definite about that surface, or about the general shape of the whole mass,
almost defies the power of language. What outlandish geometrical principles had
guided its cutting – for artificially cut it surely was – I could not even
begin to guess; and never before had I seen anything which struck me as so
strangely and unmistakably alien to this world. Of the hieroglyphs on the surface
I could discern very few, but the one or two that I did see gave me rather a
shock. Of course they might be fraudulent, for others besides myself had read
the monstrous and abhorred Necronomicon
of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred; but it nevertheless made me shiver to recognise
certain ideographs which study had taught me to link with the most
blood-curdling and blasphemous whispers of things that had had a kind of mad
half-existence before the earth and the other inner worlds of our solar system
were made...”
-HPL,
“The Whisperer in Darkness”
Discovered on
Round Hill in Vermont during the 1920s, the black stone found by Henry Akely
measured roughly one foot by two feet. It had a curved upper surface covered
with hieroglyphs and, compared to other examples of local stone seemed alien
and even artificial. In translation, the glyphs suggested some kind of
intelligent activity on the fringes of our solar system, prior to the formation
of the inner planets.
As detailed in
“The Whisperer In Darkness” (1930), the strange Fungi from Yuggoth made
concerted efforts to regain the stone from Akely’s possession and ultimately
succeeded, with the help of local cultists, indicating that the stone may well
have originated on their home planet. The whereabouts of the artefact are today
unknown, but the question of whether the stone itself is an object of power, or
only coveted because of the dark secrets engraved upon it, is still an open
one.
Al-Hajar
al-Aswad (“The Black
Stone from Heaven”)
Also known as
“The Stone Which the Builders Refused”, this dark stone is a meteorite, the
fragments bound together in a silver setting, which is located in the Ka’aba within
the Great Mosque of Mecca. It is regarded as the fifth pillar of Islam, and
undertaking a pilgrimage to see it is one of the five duties of the Islamic
faithful. When the stone first fell from the heavens, it was white; however,
over time, as more pilgrims came to visit it, it became black: this was taken
to mean that the stone was drawing the sins of the pilgrims into itself. As a
result, the stone has come to symbolise the covenant between God and humanity
and represents the invisible right hand of Allah.
Black Seal of Ira’an
Legend tells
that this stone seal, together with the Mao Rite and the Letter of
Nug-Soth (both found in the Necronomicon), opens a Gate to the Gulf
of the S’glhuo, a dimension of pure sound. The S’glhuoans, worshippers of the
Great Old One Tru’nembra, communicate with humans using modified sound waves to
cross the dimensional barrier, communications which arrive in the form of
dreams. They often coax dreamers to build machines which allow them to pass
over physically into our universe.
It is known
that the Seal was brought to Earth by the Fungi from Yuggoth, fell into the keeping
of the Muvian sorcerer Ira’an (or Irahn), and was then passed on to the wizard
Zanthu. It is said that the Seal is inscribed with the Seven Signs of Terror
by means of which obedience can be commanded of any being; certainly the image
of the Seal which features in John Dee’s version of the Necronomicon is
rudimentary at best and provides only a sketchy notion of what the Signs
might look like. The location of the Seal is unknown.
The Black Stone of the Magna Mater
This is a
large black stone which was sacred to Cybele, or the Magna Mater (“Great
Mother”). It was originally located at a place called Pessino in the country of
the Phrygians, but was moved to Rome after a passage in the Sybilline Books
revealed that Carthage would fall to Rome if the Great Mother was transplanted
there. The prophecy was proved correct and the Romans took up worship of the
new goddess with gusto.
The stone was
said to contain the creative energies of the Mother Goddess and the priestesses
of her temples were able to tap into these forces by caressing the rock. I
don’t have to point out how much like Shub-Niggurath worship this all sounds,
do I?
Just as
Christianity supplanted many ancient rituals and holy days, the proponents of
that faith were eager to efface ancient sites of worship by building churches
and other holy constructs on top of them. In this instance, St. Peter’s
Cathedral in Rome is built atop the ancient site of Cybele worship, right over
the Black Stone of the Magna Mater. Of course, whether the stone is still
there, or whether it has been moved elsewhere for safekeeping, only members of
the Vatican will truly know...
The Black Stone of Stregoicavar
“It
was octagonal in shape, some sixteen feet in height and about a foot and a half
thick. It had once evidently been highly polished, but now the surface was
thickly dinted as if savage efforts had been made to demolish it; but the
hammers had done little more than to flake off small bits of stone and mutilate
the characters which once had evidently marched up in a spiralling line round
and round the shaft to the top. Up to ten feet from the base these characters
were almost completely blotted out, so that it was very difficult to trace
their direction. Higher up they were plainer, and I managed to squirm part of
the way up the shaft and scan them at close range. All were more or less
defaced, but I was positive that they symbolized no language now remembered on
the face of the earth. I am fairly familiar with all hieroglyphics known to
researchers and philologists and I can say, with certainty that those
characters were like nothing of which I have ever read or heard. The nearest
approach to them that I ever saw were some crude scratches on a gigantic and
strangely symmetrical rock in a lost valley of Yucatan...”
-Robert
E. Howard, “The Black
Stone”
This monolith
is located within the mountains of Hungary close to the village of Stregoicavar,
the “Village of Witches”, west of Buda-Pesth. In ancient days the town was
known as “Xuthltan” and was the site of a large cult of demon-worshippers. In
1526, Muslim invaders captured the town and all the residents were put to the
sword; the village passed into legend and the new name was coined as a reminder
of the wickedness which took place there.
The Black
Stone can still be found here: it is a massive, octagonal spike of rock, carved
with runes that spiral upwards from the base to the summit. The majority of
these close to the ground have been effaced by centuries of hands touching
them. The upper ranges of the hieroglyphs are hardly any better having been
weathered from ancient days. The smooth rock surface gives the illusion of
being almost transparent and, so far, the language of the runes remains
incomprehensible.
A local rumour
tells that those who sleep near the ‘Stone at certain times of the year, fall
prey to horrid dreams and visions. This doesn’t seem to stop anybody from doing
it, though!
The Black Stone of Zimbabwe
"The ancient Fishers from Outside—
Were there not tales the high-priest
told,
Of how they found the worlds of old,
And
took what pelf their fancy spied?"
-H.P.
Lovecraft, "The
Outpost"
Discovered by
a Dr. Mayhew in the ruins of Zimbabwe, this black stone is a ten-sided block of
meteoric iron of an almost crystalline appearance. Each side is a shiny black
plane covered with columns of strange hieroglyphs, except for one side which
simply displays a grotesque bird-like figure with popping eyes and a toothed,
beaklike maw.
After
transcribing the text, Mayhew deciphered them and published his findings as the
Zimbabwean Rituals. The ruins, Mayhew declared, were built by a race of
beings known as “The Fishers from Outside” and were the furthest outpost
of their interstellar empire. Another African explorer, Thomas Slauenwaite,
also made this assertion. This body of lore covers the worship of Yig,
discussions of Mnomquah, and of Gol-Goroth. Some have said that the Fishers are
actually Shantaks; however, these creatures are generally confined to the
Dreamlands and are considered unintelligent. The presence of Gol-Goroth – the
god of the Shantaks – and of Mnomquah in the text may ameliorate this
perception, however.
The
Crystal of Zon Mezzamalech
“Zon
Mezzamalech had dreamt to recover the wisdom of the gods who died before the
Earth was born. They had passed to the lightless void, leaving their lore
inscribed upon tablets of ultra-terrene stone; and the tablets were guarded in
the primal mire by the formless idiotic demiurge, Ubbo Sathla...”
-Clark
Ashton Smith, “Ubbo Sathla”
This is an
oblate spheroid of crystalline matter. Staring into its depths allows the
viewer to travel back in time, even to the start of the universe. The wizard
Zon Mezzamalech – mentioned in the Book of Eibon and other sources -
used the Crystal to travel far back along the timeline in order to view
the Elder Keys, a set of carved stones guarded by the entity Ubbo-Sathla
– it is said that the Elder Keys are engraved with the spells used to bring
the universe into being. Unfortunately, the mind of the viewer using the Crystal
alters to match that of the dominant lifeform in the era being viewed, and so,
once Zon Mezzamalech was able to view the ‘Keys, his amoeboid brain was
unable to comprehend anything of value about them.
It is said
that the Crystal also allows the mind of the viewer to travel forward in
time as well as backwards. It is unclear in what regard the Hounds of Tindalos
hold the Crystal, and, as always, any experimentation with the device should
anticipate activity from their quarter.
Hexecontalithos (“Sixtystone”)
“Glancing
over the clear-printed pages, my attention was caught by the heading of a
chapter in Solinus, and I read the words: ‘MIRA DE INTIMIS GENTIBUS LIBYAE. DE
LAPIDE HEXECONTALITHO’, 'The wonders of the people that inhabit the inner parts
of Libya, and of the stone called Sixtystone’...”
-Arthur
Machen, The Novel of
the Black Seal
According to
the Latin geographer Solinus, the aboriginal peoples of central Libya were in
possession of a seal made from dull black stone. It was two inches long and one
and a quarter inches in diameter. The surface of the Black Seal is covered with
sixty runes which on first sight look remarkably like cuneiform sigils; closer
inspection shows them to be strangely different from that ancient text. A
certain Professor Gregg discovered the Seal near a dig site at Babylon; its
whereabouts are currently unknown.
Solinus
states: “This folk [the central Libyans] dwells in remote and secret places,
and celebrates foul mysteries on savage hills. Nothing have they in common with
men save the face, and the customs of humanity are wholly strange to them; and
they hate the sun. They hiss rather than speak; their voices are harsh, and not
to be heard without fear. They boast of a certain stone, which they call ‘Sixtystone’;
for they say that it displays sixty characters. And this stone has a secret
unspeakable name; which is ‘Ixaxar’”. Some people say that the sixty runes, if
spoken in the correct order, summon Iod, the Hunter of Souls.
Professor
Gregg made an extensive study of the Hexecontalithos and linked to several old
legends concerning the Little People of the British isles, sometimes referred
to as the Children of the Night. According to these stories, the Little People
had possession of a magical black stone which they called “Ishakshar” and whose
language was represented by the sixty runes on the Seal. The legends say that
the Little People kept their stone in a secret place at Stonehenge called
Dagon’s Cave, but that Celtish incursions forced them to relocate it elsewhere.
The stories say that if one is clever enough to find and steal the Seal from
its hiding place, the Little People can be made to perform a service in
exchange for its return; all the legends end with the vengeful Little People
perverting the intent of the request to bring about the Seal-holder’s
destruction. The fact that Professor Gregg held the Seal and vanished without
trace in 1895, opens up some interesting lines of speculation...
The Hivaoa Island Monolith
“Among
these notes were photographs of a singularly hideous monolithic statue, of a
distinctly saurian cast of feature, labelled ‘E. coast Hivaoa Is., Marquesas. Object of
worship?’...”
-August
Derleth, “The
Survivor”
Hivaoa Island
is known for the striking mountain which dominates its landscape, the weathered
plug of an extinct volcano. However, there are other monoliths to be found
here, mostly less imposing. All of these – and they tend to date from far
antiquity – depict the horrific face of a definitely crocodilian being. The
local natives are divided between those who seek to preserve and protect these
images, and those who try to destroy them. These stone figures bear a striking resemblance
to the Ancient Egyptian god Sobek, and there are those who say that the island’s
monolithic mountain once displayed a similar likeness...
John Dee’s “Shew Stone”
“But
another important link connects Tezcatlipoca with obsidian. Bernal Diaz states
that they call this ‘Tezcat’.
From it mirrors were manufactured as divinatory media by the wizard. Sahagun
says that it was known as aitztli (water obsidian), probably because of
the high polish of which it was capable...The name of the god means ‘Smoking
Mirror’, and Acosta says that the Mexicans called Tezcatlipoca’s mirror irlacheaya
(an obvious error for tlachialoni), ‘his glass to look in’, otherwise
the mirror or scrying-stone in which he was able to witness the doings of
mankind.”
-Lewis
Spence, The Gods of
Mexico (1923)
John Dee was
an adept at scrying and it is by this means that he compiled much of his
written wisdom (possibly also much of the content of his version of the Necronomicon).
He accumulated several different scrying stones – or “shew stones” – over his
career, but the one from which he derived the most benefit was brought back to
England from South America and made its way into his possession.
It is
described as a circular piece of shining black stone, “as big around as the
crown of a hat”. A leather case was manufactured for it to keep it safe, but
whether this was constructed by Dee or some earlier owner is unknown. The stone
is certainly made from aitztli, the highest quality form of Aztec
obsidian and was likely made as part of the ritual accoutrement for the worship
of Tezcatlipoca. The name “Smoking Mirror” no doubt signifies the steaming
sacrifices left to this bloody god upon his obsidian altars.
Dee, and his
assistant Kelley, used the Shew Stones to speak with spiritual entities, whom
they referred to as “angels”; given the origins and purpose of this Stone, one
wonders how ‘angelic’ these contacts could possibly be?
The Kensington Runestone
“8
Geats (or Goths, or
Gutnish, or Gotlanders) and 22 Norwegians (Norsemen) on [a]
journey of exploration, from Vinland west of. We had a camp with 2 shelters,
one day's journey north from this stone. We were at fishing one day, after we
came home found 10 men red of blood and dead. AVM [Ave Virgo Maria]
rescue from evils.
[Side of stone] “Have 10 men [by/at] sea
to look after our ships, 14 day journey from this island. Year 1362”
-Inscription
on the ‘Stone
The Kensington
Runestone was discovered wrapped in the roots of a poplar tree whilst being
cleared from a field. It was named after the nearest large town to its
discovery in Douglas County, Minnesota. The year was 1898 and the discoverer,
Olof Öhman, was drawn to the markings on the rock by his 10-year old son: they
thought at the time that they had discovered some kind of ‘Indian almanac’.
The rock was
moved to the local bank in Kensington and rubbings and photographs were sent to
many institutions with tenured experts in Scandinavian languages: every one of
them declared the slab to be a forgery. Nevertheless, the stone (30 x 16 x 6
inches or 76 x 41 x 15 cm, in size and weighing about 200 pounds, or 90kg) was
taken to England for further investigation. Based upon stylistic usage,
anachronistic statements about the composition of the adventuring party and
inconsistent rune combinations, the stone was again declared a hoax
(incidentally the invocation “AVM” is in perfect accord for a Swedish
inscription, the Swedes being mostly Catholic at that time).
Öhman received
the ‘Stone back from its travels and used it as a step to improve access to a
barn on his property; he also used it as an anvil to straighten nails. It is
noteworthy, that at no time did he try to make money from his discovery. Since
his death, the ‘Stone has been moved to a place of greater prominence within
the Kensington community, who continue to believe in its accuracy.
Despite the
research already done on the rock, every so often another academic tries to
explain the discrepancies and reveal it to be an authentic artefact; if later
research proves the ‘Stone to be a genuine inscription by lost Scandinavian
adventurers on the American mainland, it will cause the Viking history of North
America to be extensively revisited.
The Minch Stone
Found on the
northernmost tip of the Isle of Lewis, this carved stone contains a warning
about the Fir Na Ghorm, the Blue Men of the Minch, who prowl the waters between
that island and the Shiant Isles. It describes how to survive an encounter with
these aquatic denizens by besting their chieftain in a battle of rhymes.
In
Ogham; author unknown; c.100 BC; Sanity Loss: 1/1D3; Cthulhu Mythos: +1
percentile; Occult: +3 percentiles; average one week to study and comprehend.
Spells: None
The Omphalos
According to
Greek mythology, Zeus released two eagles and sent them in opposite directions
around the globe. At the point where they met and crossed in flight, he placed
a stone – the Omphalos – to signify the middle of the world. The Omphalos was
the same stone which Rhea, Zeus’s mother, gave to her husband Cronus in place
of Zeus: Cronus was in the habit of eating Rhea’s children in order to prevent
them usurping his place of authority, as he had done with his own father
Uranus. The place where the stone was placed was on the island of Delphi and a
temple was constructed around it.
Omphalos is
the Greek word for "navel" and it is said that the Greeks measured the extent of
their territory from this central location. The stone itself is a dome of
reddish stone carved to look as though it has been wrapped in a net. The centre
is hollow and the dome widens towards its base. The temple surrounding the
stone’s original site is sacred to Apollo, who killed a monster called Python
and buried it beneath the Omphalos: the poison fumes from the monster’s corpse
flowed upwards through the middle of the stone intoxicating the Oracle who
perched upon a three-legged stool nearby. There are other copies of the Omphalos
(and indeed, the Omphalos at Delphi may itself be a copy) scattered throughout
the Mediterranean region, an indication of the power and religious significance
it represented. Nowadays “Omphalos Syndrome” refers to a mistaken belief that
global centrality is determined by a nexus of political and economic power.
The Owl Rock
More generally
known by its indigenous name “Palka Karrinya”, this is an enormous wedge of
rock which dominates the entrance to a gorge containing a permanent water
source, three hundred kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in central
Australia. Unlike the surrounding rock formations, the stratas of rock which
comprise this monolith are vertical, while everything around it is horizontally
layered. It presents a pretty geological puzzle to those experts who have
encountered it. The monolith is ten metres tall and four metres thick at its
widest point (near the summit); however, it stands upon a pedestal barely one
metre in diameter.
A Jungarrayi
aboriginal legend concerns the creation of the rock: Buk-buk the Owl and his
two wives were forced to leave their home in the Bigili rock hole to the north
due to a drought. After finding the waterhole, Buk-buk decided that he would
ever after stand guard over it, ensuring that it would remain for others to
use. He transformed into the rock formation and keeps his vigil; the waterhole
has never been known to dry up.
Nowadays, the
gorge is used by the women of the local tribes to enact female tribal rituals
(women’s business); they sing the “Bush Plum Dreaming” here, a ceremony which
serves to maintain sources of sustenance in the region. When entering the gorge
for the first time during a visit, it is traditional to walk around the Owl
Rock touching it with a branch of eucalyptus; first timers are supposed to also
throw a stone into the nearby waterhole. Years of such activity have ensured
that Owl Rock is worn smooth at its base.
Geographically,
Owl Rock and the gorge which it protects, is directly in the middle of the
Australian land mass, which may explain its mystical importance. In 1873, a
white explorer Peter Warburton came here and decided to set up camp within the
gorge; however, his camels refused to enter the formation, or to drink the
water from the waterhole, which was otherwise completely potable. In the 1960s,
artist Ainslie Roberts and anthropologist Charles Mountford visited the locale
and both were struck by the impact of the formation – Roberts’s allegorical painting
of the formation is depicted above. They were led to the site by an aboriginal
guide known as “One Pound Jimmy”, whose image today can be found on Australia’s
$2 coin.
The Philosophers’ Stone
The
Philosophers’ Stone (sometimes called “Azoth”), like much of alchemical lore,
is a symbolic expression as much as it might be an actual rock. According to
its usage in various Hermetic treatises, it is a manufactured substance which
confers immortality and which transmutes lead into gold; it is a recipe for
accomplishing these miracles; or it is an actual mineral object yet to be
unearthed. Nowadays, it usually refers to something of legendary status after
which many fruitless attempts at discovery are launched. In Chinese alchemy –
which, remarkably, tracks very well in its aims alongside the Western version –
the Philosophers’ Stone is the Elixir of Immortality, which is equally as
nebulous and difficult to pin down.
The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta
Stone was discovered by the French in Egypt in 1799, was captured by English
forces and returned to London in 1802, where it has been on display in the
British Museum ever since. It is a stele, or proclamation etched on stone for
public viewing, which is written in three distinct languages – Egyptian
hieroglyphs, a form of the hieroglyphic style called Demotic, and Ancient Greek
(at the time that the ‘Stone was created, Egypt was ruled by a Greek line of
kings, known as the Ptolemaic rulers). The stone discusses the repealing of
certain taxes by Ptolemy V and is, of itself, not completely edifying reading;
but it is the fact that all three writing styles were used that makes the
‘Stone so incredibly important.
Research was
conducted by the French linguist Jean-François Champollion and British
Scientist Thomas Young. Champollion’s input was of the greatest value since he
was able to read Coptic – a later derivation of the Demotic style – and could
‘reverse engineer’ Coptic back into the Hieroglyphs and compare these to the
Greek. In time, this led to the riddle of Hieroglyphic writing being solved.
Taballae Defixionum
In its
original form, the Taballae Defixionum consisted of two stone tablets
with inscriptions on one side. Once transcribed, it was widely disseminated and
became notorious as one of the earliest texts on necromancy. Practitioners were
advised to keep their copy buried in a graveyard in order to ensure its potency
and so it is not often encountered (graveyards not being conducive to the safe
storage of books!). Whether the problems stem from such slipshod handling or
perhaps from damage to the original stones, the Taballae is notoriously
untrustworthy: the spells it contains are largely incomplete or have been
corrupted by poor replication. Nevertheless, it is a ‘go to’ text for magi who
want to try to raise the dead...
Latin;
author unknown; c. first century BC; Sanity Loss 1D4/1D8; Occult +10
percentiles; average 16 weeks to study and comprehend.
Spells: None.
The Seal of Nephren-ka
Nephren-ka,
the Black Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, is surrounded by legends and is ever
associated with the worship of Nyarlathotep (and may well be an avatar of that
entity). For many speculative reasons, Nephren-ka was forced to flee Egypt but
was prevented from doing so: instead he caused to be built a hidden tomb
complex, “the place of the Blind Apes, where Nephren-ka bindeth up the threads
of thruth”, and in which he may still be hiding.
Some thinking
has it that the Seal of Nephren-ka – allegedly an object of dull, black metal –
is the key to this secret location. Many have tried to find the tomb thinking
that the Seal would be there, however this seems to be an error of logic:
surely the key to the tomb wouldn’t be hidden within the tomb that it opens?
Some tales claim that followers of the Black Pharaoh managed to make their way
to Britain, so perhaps the Seal is hidden there somewhere?
Another
variation to this narrative runs as follows: Nephren-ka is said (within the
pages of certain blasphemous tomes) to have discovered the Shining
Trapezohedron and to have used its powers for his own ends. Perhaps the “Seal”
is this cursed object instead, and then perhaps it’s just as well that it is
hidden in the darkness of a lost tomb...
The Shining Trapezohedron
“The
four-inch seeming sphere turned out to be a nearly black, red-striated
polyhedron with many irregular flat surfaces; either a very remarkable crystal
of some sort, or an artificial object of carved and highly polished mineral
matter. It did not touch the bottom of the box, but was held suspended by means
of a metal band around its centre, with seven queerly designed supports
extending horizontally to angles of the box’s inner wall near the top. This
stone, once exposed, exerted upon Blake an almost alarming fascination...”
-HPL,
“The Haunter of the Dark”
This
remarkable stone was brought to Earth by the Mi-Go in a time far before the
rise of humanity upon the planet. It is known to have surfaced in such
civilisations as Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria, before being pulled from the sea in
the nets of an Egyptian fisherman. Passed on to the Black Pharaoh, Nephren-ka,
it was held within the labyrinth of Kish before being employed by Nitocris for
her own ends. Professor Enoch Bowen discovered it during an archaeological dig in
1844 and took it back to Providence in Rhode Island, USA, where it became the
focus for a religious organisation called the Starry Wisdom cult. After the dissolution
of this group in 1877, the Trapezohedron lay undiscovered in the cult’s main
temple until terrible events in 1934 caused it to be thrown into the
waters of Narraganset Bay. It is said that, if the stone rises from its watery
tomb, the Starry Wisdom sect will re-form and begin their devotions once more.
Three things
are known about the Shining Trapezohedron: firstly, it acts as a window over
all time and space; secondly, if gazed upon and then plunged into darkness, it
summons forth the Haunter of the Dark, a dangerous manifestation of
Nyarlathotep’s power; and third, it accelerates the transformation of creatures
who are partway through their metamorphosis (Deep Ones for example). Some have
suggested that John Dee had possession of the Trapezohedron for awhile and that
it, rather than any other of his “shew stones”, might have been the source of
much of his power; until further evidence comes to hand however, this notion
must remain speculative.
The Witch Stone
“The
villagers could not kill her, but there were spells which could nullify her evil
magic, and there were words of power that could keep her fettered in her grave –
words such as those which were chiselled on the Witch Stone, the caretaker protested,
fear contorting his face into a brown, wrinkled mask.
In
Monk’s Hollow they said – and his voice sank to a tremulous whisper – that in
the grave, Persis had grown more like her unknown father. And now that Hartley
was moving the Witch Stone...”
-Henry
Kuttner, “The Frog”
Wherever there
are witches in the world, giving license to ancient evils better left alone,
there are people who work against them and who have ways with which to deal with
their poisonous activities. Witch Stones are a case in point.
Inscribed with
words of power, infused with the POW of the caster, they hold at bay the
noisome capabilities of the witch buried beneath the ‘Stone. The sigil might be
an Elder Sign or some other arcane symbol, but it effectively contains the
threat of the witch’s re-emergence. In some places – notably in the New England
coastal areas – these ‘Stones are occasionally carved to resemble frogs or
toads, for reasons which are clear to Mythos aficionados.
The evil that
lies beneath them is not altogether prevented: around the Witch Stone, no
plants will grow and no lichen or moss will adhere to its surface; insects and
small creatures, such as birds and reptiles, will sicken if they come into
contact with the ‘Stone and then crawl away to die. If the Witch Stone is ever
lifted – and usually their size and weight prevents a casual instance of this -
then the grotesque powers of the dead witch will surely emerge.
In the case of
Persis Winthorp, a witch from the night-haunted town of Monk’s Hollow, her dead
body re-animated and she rose again as a full Deep One, to harass and torment
the citizens of the town. In other cases, a dying curse from a dead witch might
be held in abeyance while the ‘Stone remains in situ, but will come into
effect if the ‘Stone is lifted. It all depends on the circumstances under which
the evil practitioner went to their reward...
The Zegembri Seals
The Zegembri
Seals are set of jet-black stones which are said to pre-date the Sumerian
civilisation, and which were used by the priests of Sumer to summon forth entities of
malevolent power. The stones are said to be carved with indecipherable sigils
but exactly how many of them there are and their current location(s) is
unknown. It’s entirely possible that the Black Seal of Ira’an is one of
the set.
It is known
that the Zegembri Seals (or possibly, just images of the sigils upon
them) passed over to Western Europe where they were used in witchcraft rituals
to summon “abominations”. Also at this time, rumours began to spread of how the
Seals were “unlucky”, or “cursed”, since whoever owned them was sure to
meet a terrible misfortune...
A mystic tome
– The Zegembri Manuscript – possibly contains specific information
regarding the Seals. This book was penned by the wizard Nicholas Zegembri, who
was also the author of the infamous Diablerie. The Manuscript was
supposedly a transcription by Zegembri of the writing upon two stone stelae,
which had been removed to another dimension before the advent of human beings
on this planet. Zegembri travelled to that realm and copied the information,
writing it down in three languages – alien hieroglyphs, an unidentified
rune-like script, and Latin. He later fled London, escaping the Great Fire,
taking the manuscript with him to the village of Torpoint where it is presumed
he was preparing the Manuscript for publication. Mysteriously, he
vanished, and the local Church representatives took advantage of his absence to
torch his home and library. An attempt at resurrecting the manuscript was later
published as the Zegembri Fragments but is woefully incomplete. Rumours
persist that a secretive cult made off with the Zegembri Manuscript
before the fire was lit and still have it hidden somewhere...
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