Legends of Amacia Srandi: Last Bastion of the Caverias

At the same time while Sebek and his crocodilian companions were depositing Clarence in the shelter, Dan stood at the control panel of the Tiamat portal with Brother Paul, Jerry, Chris, and a squad of nine volunteers armed with heavy caliber machine guns, pistols, and rifles. They watched Dan closely as he manipulated the portal’s hologram, zooming in on Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia.

“What’s this all about, Dan?” Jerry asked bluntly, “It’s not like you to issue such an urgent call-up at such a late hour. Are we in danger? Is that why the security detail is here armed to the teeth?”

“Yeah,” Chris agreed, “And why are you looking at the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia? There’s nothing there but sand and rocks for hundreds of miles.”

Just then, Joe Tara and Hammond Jordan ran up on the platform, panting from the run. “Sorry we’re late,” Joe apologized. “We came as quickly as possible. What’s up, and what’s with the armed squad? Are we under attack?”

“No,” Dan answered as he continued zooming in the hologram on a certain area of the desert, “but this is something that couldn’t wait. A man’s life is on the line here.”

Hammond suddenly noticed Dan zooming in on the Empty Quarter of the Saudi desert southwest of the Al Hadidah meteor craters. His right eyebrow rose as he queried, “Why are you snooping around in that part of the Empty Quarter Dan? There’s nothing there but cursed sand, ghosts, and grisly infernal death. Only an idiot or someone fucking crazy would go willingly into that infernal waste.”

“Or someone who was dragged there against his will,” Dan replied grimly, “And now he’s in great danger. We need to retrieve him before he dies. He has critical intelligence on our shared enemies that will be invaluable to us.”

“Who would that be,” Chris asked in complete puzzlement, “...and where did this intel come from, Dan?”

“The archangel Gabriel,” Paul declared specifically for the benefit of Joe and Hammond as Dan continued to bring the hologram closer and closer to a spot in the southwestern expanse of the Empty Quarter. “He appeared to Dan and I an hour ago down in the cafeteria while no one else was around. We were there discussing what to do next in relation to what’s going on when Gabriel popped in like he always does without warning. After reviving and strengthening us from his unexpected appearance, he told us we needed to retrieve Hades’ old enforcer Clarence from the lost city of Vendikar right away before he dies. Clarence has critical intelligence concerning upcoming events and our shared enemies. We have to retrieve him now.”

Everyone except Dan and Paul looked at each other in puzzlement for a few moments. Both Joe and Hammond weren’t sure what to believe, even though Paul and Dan had insisted that the archangel Gabriel did appear to them from time to time with such critical messages. “What in heaven’s name is Vendikar? I’ve never heard of such a place,” Joe declared. “Is it another lost place like this is?”

“It has a much more notorious name that you may be more familiar with from the forbidden occult texts...the Nameless City,” Dan declared grimly as the ruins of the city came into view. “It’s no myth spun by the mad Arab Abdul Al Alhazred. He, or rather the man who went by that abhorred cursed name saw the place, and what was there, and it drove him mad before he was devoured alive by an invisible monstrosity in Damascus during the time of the great Sultans. Look, see for yourself...Alhazred’s cursed Nameless City lies right where Gabriel said it was.”

Everyone gathered around the hologram in rapt astonishment of the terrible fictional Nameless City now no longer a fiction, but a very real and tangible ruin of unholy sinister antiquity. “Holy God,” Hammond breathed in utter astonishment. “The real Nameless City written of in the cursed Al Azif; I don’t believe it! If the Nameless City is real, then so is Al Azif! Oh man; this changes everything!”

“Not as much as you think,” Dan replied as he suddenly spied activity in the ruins near the largest structure partially buried in a mountainous dune. “Some of the wildest, most abhorrent fiendish fictions often time have germs of hideous truth they were based on. The Nameless City here is obviously one of those cursed places like Tiamat that had a basis in reality long lost to us of the modern era, a reality disguised as fiction to prevent us from knowing the truth of prehistory. Whoa, look at this guys. Are you seeing what I am? Are those truly crocodile people?” He quickly zoomed in the hologram on a seriously injured man being carried by a hideous bipedal horned crocodilian creature ten feet tall with two companions...one with a height of ten feet and the other standing well over twelve feet. The twelve-foot tall creature led the other two with obvious urgency. They were heading into a ruin with a partial roof. When Dan saw the creature, his eyes grew wide with astonished horror as he realized Al Azif...otherwise known as the dreaded Necronomicon was no fictional cursed tome created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, but a dreaded manuscript based in a reality no one, not even him dared to entertain until now. It left him speechless for several moments.

“Holy freaking hell,” Joe cursed, being the first to blurt out what everyone was thinking, “WHAT IS THAT? Those things are definitely not human. What are they going to do with that guy? I hope they’re not going to eat him in front of us.”

A deep chill raced down Hammond’s spine upon seeing the creatures carrying the man into the shade of the ruin. “I don’t believe it!” he breathed in stunned astonishment. “I can’t believe it! Not only is the Nameless City real, but its original inhabitants are still living among the ruins. What the fucking hell are the reptilian Vendo doing there and what are they going to do with that guy?” A hideous chill of icy terror chased down Hammond’s spine at seeing the obviously intelligent crocodilian creatures who wore an arcane form of manufactured body armor he’d never seen before.

“Let’s see,” Dan replied softly in a troubled tone once he found his tongue. Zooming in even closer with the hologram, he followed the creatures into the ruined building, seeing them laying the injured man down carefully in the shade. The largest creature leaned down, putting its hideous head close the man’s head while touching him on the neck. Only then did they get a clear look at the creatures, and then the man.

“Look at that!” one of the armed volunteers breathed in horrified fascination. “They look like living veloci-raptors with horned crocodile heads and tails, and they seem to be intelligent with some form of civilization. Why else would they be wearing that strange manufactured armor? Just what are they?”

“I don’t know,” Jerry admitted, “But they’re as hideous as those demons we encountered at Hell’s Gate when we first explored the basement of this place.”

Those watching then noticed the largest creature squatting down and putting its hideous head close to the man’s chest and face while touching it on the neck. The position prevented Dan and those watching from positively identifying the man. “Oh no,” Joe breathed in horror, “The thing is going to eat him!”

“No,” Paul retorted in horrified fascination of the bizarre creature. “I don’t think so. The thing seems to be checking the man for vital signs. It’s just what I’d do if I were checking a body for life. You can see it in the thing’s body language. If it were going kill him, it would have already done it. It’s definitely a sign the creature has intelligence and some sort of moral compass.”

Just then, the creature quickly backed off with a look of surprise on its crocodilian face, its eyes wide with shock. They heard the creature rumble and hiss to its companions in its native tongue with great animation as if it had discovered something of great importance. Then the creature turned back to the man, spoke to him in its native tongue before the three creatures quickly left the shelter without harming the man.

Only then did they get a close look at the man lying in the sands. Hammond immediately recognized the man. “Son of a bitch,” he cursed without thinking, “That’s Hades’ old bodyguard Clarence. He went underground after Hades disappeared some time back. What the fuck is he doing there?”

“Dying,” Dan reported grimly, zooming in the hologram close enough to positively identity Clarence and that he still lived. “You can clearly see it. It’s obvious someone beat the shit out of him and left him for dead.”

“Is he still alive,” Chris asked as everyone saw Clarence’s deeply bruised and broken form.

“Yes,” Dan replied bluntly, checking some of the readings on the portal console, “the portal’s sensors are detecting his vitals, which are very weak and failing. If we don’t act now, he will not survive.”

“Then let’s get him before the Lord calls him home,” Paul ordered bluntly, “We were ordered to retrieve this man. Now open the portal, Dan. The longer he remains there, the less chance he has of surviving; quickly now.”

“Right,” Dan answered, “Everyone get behind me. I’m not sure how the portal is going to react to opening there because of the strange electro-magnetic, temporal, and gravitational anomalies I’m seeing on the gages here. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before, but I don’t think it’ll block us from making stable contact.”

Everyone gathered behind Dan with Hammond and Joe hovering close around Dan, closely watching him as he operated the machine. Hammond noticed the strange readings on the gauges, understanding the meaning of the flux he was seeing in the gauges after having been educated in the portal’s operations. “So that’s why I was never able to see it with our tech,” he stated, “The energy flux in this area is on the quantum level and was blocking our satellite’s cameras by generating some kind of cloaking field. Only this ancient machine has the power to see through it.”

“It seems so,” Dan stated as he engaged the portal mechanism, “After all, Tiamat is literally the most advanced machine in the history of this planet that I know of so I figured seeing it would not be a problem. Furthermore, the cloaking field seems to have a similar pattern to the one we use to hide and shield Tiamat. I bet if we did a study, we’d find this Nameless City actually goes back to the Etherian era of this planet just as Tiamat does. However, we don’t have time for such a study right now. The Rising is about to break on our heads and we must be ready for it.” As he spoke, the portal machinery arced with the energy bolts from the crystals merging with exceptional violence, creating the ball of blue fire that was exceptionally hot, so hot everyone could feel it causing all but Dan to back away from the console.

“What’s going on with the portal, Dan?” Jerry asked worriedly. “I’ve never seen the portal react so violently, nor have I seen its fire turn blue like that, or emanate such intense heat. Is this because it’s punching through that energy flux hiding the city?”

“I’m not sure,” Dan admitted, “That very well may be the case, but it’s not a problem now. I see the portal is stabilizing and the heat level is dropping to normal on the gauges now. Good...the contact is locked in and stable now.” With those words, the ball of blue fire expanded to its standard swirling ring of fire twenty feet in diameter with tolerable temperatures and its translucent membrane shimmering like a liquid. Slowly, the translucence cleared until the membrane was almost transparent. They looked through the portal membrane, seeing the portal had opened just outside of the shelter the creatures had left Clarence.

“Amazing,” Joe breathed. “I’ve never really watched this machine like this before. It’s fascinating.”

“Indeed,” Hammond agreed. “I’m in awe of it. It makes what we were using in the Black Physics Division look like crude stone implements when compared to this.”

Dan ignore the comments and instantly pulled the hologram back showing the area immediately around the open portal, checking to see if the creatures were hiding in ambush. In moments, he saw the three creatures heading quickly toward the north side of the ruined palace buried in the mountainous dune. “Man, they move quick,” he commented. “Now is our chance. Paul; take Hammond, Joe, and the team through and retrieve Clarence while our lizard buddies are not watching. Get in and out quickly. Don’t stop to admire the scenery. We can do that later now that we know where the city is.”

“We’re on it,” Paul replied with authority. “Come on, guys; let’s get him back here before he dies.” With a wave, Paul charged through the portal followed by Hammond, Joe, and the armed team.

“Okay, spread out. I need five of you to secure the area,” Hammond barked to the team after everyone cleared the portal, taking operational command of the team. “Keep your eyes open and keep a low profile. We don’t know if those things are going to come back. Be ready for anything. The rest of you follow me.” The team immediately split up as Hammond ordered. He, Paul, Joe, and the remaining four armed team members cautiously entered the ruin where the creatures had left Clarence. He motioned silently to the armed team members to sweep the structure for possible threats while restraining Paul, whispering, “Let the team secure the room first, Paul. We don’t know what may be hiding in the shadows in there. Better to be safe than sorry you know.”

“Right,” Paul replied, acknowledging Hammond’s military training.

The armed team members moved in quickly, checking for any possible threats. One at a time, the members sounded the all clear with two of them taking up security positions where they came in. Hammond then led Paul and Joe to Clarence. Paul cautiously rolled Clarence on his back, noticing the broken leg, arm, and a strange scorched handprint on the neck. He carefully laid him out and felt for his pulse on the neck, leaning down close while listening closely for any breath. After a few seconds, Paul located Clarence’s erratic pulse and heard a shallow hoarse breath escape from his lips. “He’s alive, but not for long. Joe, we’re going to need a stretcher and some splints because he’s got a broken arm and leg that I can see.”

Hammond knelt down beside Paul; carefully sliding his hand beneath Clarence’s back probing his spine gently. “Better get a back brace too, Joe,” he ordered, “His spine seems to be intact, but we’d better err on the side of caution. It’s obvious someone beat the shit out of him and left him for dead, probably thinking those crocodilian lizard men were going dispose of him.”

“Got it,” Joe replied, rushing back through the portal for the medical supplies.

“You say his name is Clarence?” Paul asked Hammond.

“Yeah,” Hammond replied, “He’s not a bad guy. He just got in with the wrong people and now he’s finally paid a hefty price for it. I thought someone as smart as he is would have known better than to get involved with a piece of shit like Hades. That guy is truly an evil son of a bitch with strange occult powers I never understood. I tried to warn him, but he got drawn into it anyway.”

Clarence moaned and moved his fingers. His eyelids fluttered as he started coming to. Seeing this, Paul leaned down, held Clarence’s hand on his unbroken arm, and looked him in the eye, saying softly, “Clarence. Clarence, can you hear me?”

Another moan escaped Clarence’s lips as his eyes cracked open weakly. Blood dribbled from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. With a raspy whisper that took a supreme effort, he nodded, answering haltingly, “I’m...not dead?”

“No,” Paul informed him, “You’re still alive, but just barely. Who did this to you? Did the crocodile creatures do this to you?”

“Not...dead,” Clarence moaned as every nerve screamed bloody murder and his vision fluctuated wildly. “Why...am I...not dead?”

“It’s not your time, son,” Paul declared, “You still have a job to do. That’s why we’re here...to take you out of this cursed desert tomb.”

Hammond knelt opposite of Paul and leaned over Clarence, looking down into his blood-filled eyes. “Who did this to you, Clarence?” he demanded in an aggressive military tone.

Hammond’s authoritative military tone seemed to stir more life in Clarence as he managed to focus on Hammond. “Ham...mond,” he gurgled softly, “What are...you...doing here?”

“Rescuing you sorry ass,” Hammond growled with the crassness of a career military fighter. “Who did this to you, Clarence?”

Clarence suddenly coughed and spewed blood briefly. Paul and Hammond turned him on his side, carefully supporting his back and head until the fit had subsided. “Come on, Clarence,” Hammond demanded roughly, “I know you. You’re not one to take shit from anyone, must less let them beat you to a pulp like this. WHO DID THIS?”

When Clarence regained what little wind he could after the spasm of vomiting blood, he finally whispered, “Surtur.” Before he could say anything else, he fell back into a coma.

The name hit Hammond like a tank round in the chest. His face went ashen and eyes grew round with utter horror for he knew the name and thing called Surtur from his time in the Black Physics Divisions of the military. “Oh no,” he breathed, suddenly looking around wildly in fearful anticipation. “Not HIM; let it be anyone but HIM!”

“Is this the same infamous Surtur that Hannibal spoke of in hushed whispers before going to Amacia?” Paul asked with a grave look.

“Possibly, if he shared the info with you,” Hammond replied darkly, “I know of that son of a bitch because he often oversaw the construction of some of our reversed-engineered alien tech. Somehow, he had an uncanny knowledge of how it worked, and guided our engineering attempts from a remote location. I never saw him in person, but the rumors amongst the scientist and occultists said Surtur is a sorcerer so evil and ancient that many doubted he’s human, which I do not dismiss at all. The one time I saw him on a video feed, I felt like I was looking at something completely alien to anything I knew, even though he looked human. His dark aura seemed to reach out through the two-way camera of the conference and cowed everyone who saw him, instilling an irrational fear in those present to such an extent no one dared to question anything he said, invoking instant obedience. I pride myself on my superior logical and analytical mind, keeping an ironclad reign on my fears and emotions. However, just his image on that screen caused an intense fear that defies everything I knew. Even Hades never instilled such fear in me. As far as I’m concerned, Surtur is evil incarnate, and should be avoided at all costs. The fact he’s here truly worries me in light that Alhazred’s Al Azif is more than just a gruesome hideous fictional grimoire. If Surtur is as old and alien as I suspect, he knows the true secrets of this cursed city and may be preparing to do something truly heinous that will be very bad for all of us.”

“I see,” Paul said grimly. “I believe you. The Lord is bearing witness to your words. However, He’s also telling me not to worry. Surtur’s plan for this place has already failed because of his own arrogance and impatience. His time is not yet in the Lord’s will. However, the Lord tells me that we need to keep a very close eye on him and this place. There’s far more here than we are privy to...dark sinister secrets much like what we continue to uncover at Tiamat.”

“I do not doubt that,” Hammond agreed as Joe returned with four medics carrying the stretcher. “I’ve read many of the forbidden occult tomes, including Al Azif, but never really believed them until now. Seeing this place and the Crocodilian Vendo Alhazred wrote of has made me realize that my vaunted occult knowledge means nothing in light of this. I’m going to have to start all over again and learn the real nature of our universe.”

Paul patted Hammond on the shoulder with a sober, knowing expression. “It’s all right,” he said, “You’re not the only one who has had their world shattered by such vast revelations about the true nature of our universe. Just remember the Lord as you search and let Him lead you, otherwise you may become lost, and ensnared by the dark knowledge you seek. Only in the Lord will you be able to see the truth of our universe and comprehend it without it destroying you.”

Hammond nodded as he and Paul stood and backed away from Clarence as the medics set the stretcher down next to him. They instantly went to work, checking him carefully before putting the back and neck brace on Clarence. After setting his broken arm and leg, binding them with splints, the medics gently transferred Clarence to the stretcher while Joe, Paul, and Hammond watched with the guards as they kept a wary eye for trouble.

“All right, guys,” the chief medic called out after making sure Clarence was secure, “Let’s get him out of there and to the Healer; on three...one, two, three.” They lifted the stretcher and paused, making sure their grips on the stretcher. Turning to Paul, the chief medic said, “We’re moving out, Brother Paul. Don’t stay here too long. This place gives me worse creeps than Tiamat did when I was first saw it. This is an evil place we should not linger in.”

“I feel it too,” Paul agreed darkly. “We’ll be right behind you. Get Clarence to the Healer right away. He must survive in order to tell us what happened here.”

“Right,” the chief medic replied. “Let’s go, fellas.” With that, the medics carried Clarence away, leaving Paul, Hammond, Joe, and the armed guards in the ruin.

“We should go,” Joe stated categorically with a fearful tone, “It’ll do us no good to linger here. I feel exposed here. We’re being watched by something dark and malignant that wishes to do us harm. Somehow, I can feel it.”

Hammond suddenly felt a chill race down his spine, causing him to look around urgently. “You may be onto something, Joe. I think we’ve worn out our welcome here. Let’s get out of here while we can.”

Paul suddenly noticed a strange frescoed mosaic on the wall to his left and raised his hand in a wait gesture as a deep chill shook his frame. The mysterious image plastering the wall made Paul shudder at the arcane ancientness of its blasphemous contents. Yet, he found himself inexplicably drawn to it without reason, feeling a prompting to examine it. “Hold on a second,” he whispered in horrified fascination at the fantastically ornate mosaic image, “There’s something here the Lord wants us to see, though I cannot truly comprehend what it is I’m looking at. What am I looking at, Lord?”

On the left hand wall laid a pictorial history of the fall of the Nameless City etched in unknown symbols, hieroglyphics, and writing unlike anything any had ever seen mixed with fantastically ornate images woven into a stunning visual representation of city’s end in a truly cataclysmic event. The primary images showed the Nameless City in its full glory sitting in a lush green valley with gigantic prehistoric cycads, palms, and other now extinct plants lining its boulevards. Immensely advanced vehicles mixed with dinosaur-drawn carriages roamed the streets being driven by the crocodilian inhabitants of the city. It was truly a gleaming city of shining alien spires, twisted temples, and pyramids with its crocodilian inhabitants pointing to the sky in terror while most were heading towards the main temple complex in the city’s center. The images instilled the thought of impending fatalistic doom on those who looked up, pointing to a flaming disk many times the size of the sun looming over the city with a grievous storm of thousands of giant fireballs upwards of three-quarters the sun’s apparent diameter seemingly emanating from the fiery disk. An image of a very angry sun sat to the left of the flaming destroyer in the sky with colossal electrical discharges shown arcing between the object, the sun, and the earth. Where the titan celestial lightning hit the city, the image showed the buildings crumbling and exploding with all creatures in that area seeming to melt away.

Around the perimeter of the city beyond the valley, the story depicted mountain-sized waves of water looming menacingly as if they we about to inundate the city with catastrophic winds blowing ahead of the waves. The waves drove every living thing before it, including many Old Ones, Star Spawns of Cthulhu, Elder Things, members of the Great Race of Yith, several Etherians who were fleeing in their floating fortress cities, and some nameless formless blob-like abominations filled with eyes, maws, and writhing snakelike tentacles that were trying to find cover, eating everything in their path. However, many of the Etherian ships were being obliterated in the skies before escaping by the grievous rain of massive flaming asteroid fragments and storms of insane cosmic lightning. Those ships that weren’t outright annihilated by the asteroid and cosmic lightning storms in the air were crippled and knocked out of the skies, decimating all life where they crashed into the earth. Despite the eroded and dim nature of the carved story, Paul, Hammond, Joe, and the remaining guards could make it out with utter astonishment.

“Good God,” one of the guards breathed in horrified awe. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Al Azif said nothing of this,” Hammond murmured in numbed amazement, “No wonder Alhazred went mad. This mosaic carving is utter madness. We need to record this so we can decipher its messages later. Does anyone have a camera?”

“I knew this was important,” Paul said softly, actually touching the carved images gently with great reverence. “This mural must be the record of the event that turned this city into the ruin we see now.” The moment Paul touched it he flinched visibly with horror filling his face. A gasp escaped his lips followed by a shriek of terrified panic as the entire mural flickered as if everything about the frescoed mosaic were outline with luminous electrically charged filaments. His shriek sent icy chills down every spine who heard it. He suddenly flew back as if something had struck him, throwing him ten feet into the soft sand intruding the ruin near the entrance. Everyone ran to his side except for Hammond, who saw streaks of strange colored light circulated throughout the entire image for several seconds before vanishing. When he looked closely at the circulating light, he saw it composed of myriads of tiny glowing symbols of unknown origins that could only be seen if one focused intently on it. It also appeared to him as if the charge was dissipating into the very stone itself, which caused his eyebrow to rise with great interest.

“What happened, Brother Paul?” Joe asked with great concern as he helped Paul sit up. “Are you all right?”

Paul stared at the image in a daze, his fingers tingling as if he’d touched a power line. “I think so,” he admitted as Joe and one of the guards helped him to his feet. “I’ve never had anything like that happen before. It’s completely nuts. It felt like I touched a high-voltage power line.”

Hammond looked Paul right in the eye asking, “What did it show you? It’s obvious this image has some form of protection ward on it for it to have repelled you so violently. I saw the spell in the light that zapped you. What did you see?”

“What do you mean?” one of the guards asked. “Did you see something, Hammond?”

“I noticed the light consisted of a glowing script unknown to me that isn’t physically carved into the rock,” Hammond stated, “This mural is protected by a very powerful spell completely unknown to me. It’s dark tech I’ve never seen before, obviously designed to violently repel or even eliminate anyone trying to physically touch the mural without authorization. It’s obvious to me they didn’t want anyone messing with this image. I also suspect it may have been designed to also impart a potent but not lethal warning to those who touch it without malicious intent, so what did you see, Brother? What did it show you?”

“You mean it may be some sort of sentient AI protecting the picture?” Joe asked with great surprise.

“I suspect it may,” Hammond stated. “Like I said, this is dark tech I’ve never encountered before, seemingly a mix of very advanced science and the Dark Arts so ancient I cannot even guess its origins for I’ve never seen anything like this in my studies. The only way to be sure is for someone to try to actively destroy the mural and see what happens. However, I’m not about to let that happen after what happened to Brother Paul here. I’m not in the habit of sacrificing people to unknown technology protected by some form of insanely ancient dark magic. Let’s not tempt fate in that.”

“I agree,” Paul concurred, still a bit stunned with his hand and arm numb to the elbow. “I think I did feel some sort of intelligence when I touched it...an intelligence I could not comprehend that instantly warned me against further physical contact while it showed me something I’m still trying to piece together.”

“What did it show you, Brother Paul,” Hammond insisted. “Tell us before you forget it. I feel it’s important somehow to what you’ve been doing with Dan.”

“I saw...I saw...the event,” Paul answered hesitantly, not comprehending what had truly taken place. “The moment I touched the image, somehow I saw it as if I were there while it happened. It was truly the end of their world with that large object being the harbinger of their destruction. Only a small remnant of the crocodilian creatures managed to reach safety in their main temple in the center of their city. They believed it was apparently the only safe place from what I could gather. Lord have mercy...I’m shaking like a leaf. I should not have touched it. I wasn’t prepared for what it was going to impart to me. My hand and arm are numb to my elbow. I can barely move them.”

A faint crocodilian rumble echoed on the wind, alerting everyone present. “After what just happened, I think a strategic retreat is in order,” Joe insisted fearfully. “We can always come back to study it later. It’s not going anywhere. Besides, the short hairs on the back of my neck are starting to stand up. Something is coming and I’d rather not be here when it gets here.”

Hammond suddenly got a whiff of an odd odor of desiccated death that had not been present before that did not suit him at all. “I think you’re right,” he agreed, “We need to go now. As for the picture, I just remembered Dan should be able to use the portal hologram to get us a record of the mural. Come on. Let’s go.” No one balked and they all fled the ruin, heading back through the portal.

Once everyone was safely through, Dan shut down the portal. “You cut it a little close, Paul,” Dan reported. “The portal started registering a swarm of strange energy signatures closing in your position, though it could not identify what they were.”

“Were they the creatures we saw earlier,” Joe asked.

“No,” Dan stated, “The crocodilian creatures have a distinct signature on the portal. That’s not what I saw on the scopes. This is something completely alien to my knowledge and seems to be invisible somehow. I got a very bad feeling when I saw a swarm of thirty of these signatures converging on your position. However, the moment you came through the portal, the signatures vanished like ghosts in the wind, which is very strange. It’s almost as if these signatures were some kind of defense mechanisms designed to eliminate any threat to the city. We have precious little knowledge about what actually haunts the ruins of Vendikar. It seems we need to do a bit more research on it in the Archives so we’ll know what we’re dealing with when and if we go back there.”

“That would be a very wise thing to do,” Paul agreed, “We know nothing about that place, and we all felt the entities approaching. It seems I may have inadvertently triggered this when I touched the mural on the wall in the ruin and saw the fall of the city in a flash vision. Hammond suggests the mural may have had a protection ward or spell of some kind on it because I was violently repulsed by it when I touched it.”

“Are you okay?” Dan asked with some concern.

“I’ll be okay,” Paul stated, “But it seems I took some damage to my hand and arm, which are completely numb up to my elbow. I can barely move them. It’s now making my upper arm throb up to the shoulder now. However, I think the Healer will have no trouble repairing the damage I took. It felt like I grabbed and held on to a 240 volt power line.”

“Then you’d best go take care of that right now,” Dan insisted, “Best not to delay the treatment since the longer you wait, the worse the damage will become.”

“I intend to,” Paul stated, “But before I go, I want you to make a detailed record of the mural in the ruin with the portal hologram so we can study it further. The Lord drew me to that mural for a reason that I’m not sure of right now. He wanted me to see and touch the mural, apparently activating some unknown defensive mechanism on it while giving me a flash vision of the end of the city. Hannibal will want to know about it when he returns. I’m sure of it.”

“Done,” Dan stated, “I’ll get right on it while you take care of your injuries. Hammond, Joe; go with him and check on Clarence to see how he’s doing. We need to know what he was doing there.”

“Right,” Hammond agreed, “Come on, Brother Paul, Joe...let’s go.” With that, Hammond, Joe, and Paul headed to the Healing Chamber while Dan turned his attention to making a detailed copy of the mural Paul wanted. The remaining members of the armed extraction team dispersed, returning to what they were doing before being summoned by Dan.

“That is a very strange fresco,” Jerry commented as Dan zoomed in close with the portal’s hologram, getting a detailed look at ancient image of long forgotten doom, “It’s...unsettling.”

“That it is,” Chris agreed, “It seems very sinister to me and that flaming object is right down disconcerting. Is it Planet X?”

“I don’t know,” Dan admitted as he set the control panel to record the mural in the minutest detail. “The feeling I get from it is that this event is older than we can even guess. It’s definitely older than the records we have seen from the Days of Darkness of the 1st Age. This depiction may even record an event from a time before humans ever appeared on this planet. It smells of terrible hideous antiquity that we never even considered. Paul said the Lord drew him to look and touch this image, so we must study this mural very carefully when we have time. There’s a secret here I feel the Lord wants us to ferret out since He drew Paul’s attention to it. However, it’ll have to wait. The Rising is coming on us fast and we need to be ready for it. The mural can wait now that I have recorded it. Come on, let’s get to work.” With that, he powered down the portal hologram and control panel before leading Jerry and Chris out of the portal chamber.