“I still have it,” Ankhesenamun said, “but I do not need to play with it constantly. I no longer need that distraction. My mind is now filled with images of the great leader our son shall become. Our boy shall be strong and beautiful.”
When the child, Mupp, was born, he was indeed strong – but most would not consider him beautiful. The pharaoh was dismayed by his son’s outlandish appearance. The large, red-faced infant had even more deformities than his father, with an oversized skull, a cleft lip, a slight chin, a stunted arm, and overly large, malformed hips. His crooked spine ended in a vestigial tail. His left foot resembled the flipper of a turtle, while his other foot and hands all featured the wrong numbers of fingers and toes.
The crowning horror, however, was the single huge eye nestled above the boy’s flaring cheekbones. Even at birth, a thick arc of black brow curved over the eye, which seemed to regard the world with seething wrath. The iris of this eye was composed of three reddish-gold lobes, centered around the irregular black circle of the pupil.
The head advisor to the pharaoh, Aye, told Tutankhamun that the frightening infant would need to be kept away from the public. Mupp was raised in the catacombs of a temple of Amun. In those subterranean chambers, the boy was fed and bathed by servants whose tongues had been removed, so they could not speak of their young master’s horrific appearance.
As the child grew, it became apparent that Mupp was gifted with shocking powers. He could see with perfect clarity in complete darkness. He could whisper a few soft words to someone and instantly, blood would gush from their ears. He could even send swirling balls of green fire flying from his hands.
The servants who raised Mupp were not able to talk, but they could still communicate by writing on papyrus, so they were still able to take advantage of their access to the strange young prince. They contacted influential cultists who worshipped funereal gods, and accepted many gold coins to provide these seekers of dark wisdom with occasional meetings with the evil child.
When Tutankhamun died in his nineteenth year, the child Mupp did not ascend to the throne. His appearance would always be too extreme, too monstrous for the common people to accept. Aye took control of the kingdom and soon after, he married Ankhesenamun.
For indeed, that had been their plan.
No one knew that Aye and Ankhesenamun had killed Tutankhamun. While the young pharaoh was in his stable, the beautiful queen had distracted him long enough for his advisor to strike him over the head with a stone. “It would be wise to dash out the brains of Mupp as well,” Aye said, once the deed was done.
“Never!” Ankhesenamun cried. “My child shall not die! I have already lost two daughters. I could not bear to lose my beautiful Mupp.”
“Beautiful?” Aye said. “The boy is hideous. How can you see beauty in a face with one eye?”
“He is a monster, yes,” the queen whispered. “I have never been able to bring myself to give him a single kiss. But still, I love him. He is like a strange, precious flower with lush black petals. Oh, my boy … my horrible, beautiful boy! Someday he shall be the leader of a great army. The voice of a god has told me so. You must allow my child to thrive, or I shall stop loving you.”
Aye nodded. “As you wish. Your boy enjoys his life in the catacombs. I will leave him be.”
As the years passed, Mupp received more and more visitors in his hidden world. Many of his awestruck guests would give Mupp gold and gems, and sometimes scrolls of great knowledge, in exchange for seemingly impossible favors. It was insanely easy for the magick man to cure the ill and restore sight to the blind. If one of his visitors was plagued by an enemy, Mupp would promise that the enemy would disappear shortly after the setting of the sun that same day. He would order gaunt, spider-limbed shadows to drag the enemy off into the night, never to be seen again.
In the catacombs beneath the temple of Amun, Mupp established a cult in praise of the dark god Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. Even as a child, he had known in his heart that he was akin to the shape-changing deity. As an adult, he gained great knowledge of the god through prayer and meditation, and he shared his wisdom with his followers, encouraging them to bring even more worshippers to each gathering he held.
Ankhesenamun came to talk with Mupp several times each year. “I am sorry you must live in these chambers,” she said to him during one of her visits. “But I know that someday, you will rise to power and lead a fine army.”
Ankhesenamun’s statement brought a smile to Mupp’s malformed lips. “You can foresee the future? I did not know you were graced with the gift of prophecy. Tell me more, please. Who will I fight with this army? Who will be my enemy?”
“I have told you all that I know, my son,” the queen said. “Someday, I am sure, you will lead mighty warriors to victory. Make sure you select fighters with strong arms, who can swing their swords with skill.”
“A wise suggestion, dear mother.”
During his years in the catacombs, Mupp taught himself sewing, metalworking and other skills, for he had a great deal of time at his disposal. He also explored the ancient passages extensively. He soon found that the catacombs were connected by tunnels to even older subsurface structures.
He sometimes came across hieroglyphics carved on the walls that provided compelling insights. He discovered, thanks to a particular set of carvings, that one of the tunnels led to a spacious underground realm, built centuries earlier by slaves commanded by the Pharaoh Khafra. This area, located beneath the Sphinx of Giza, was infested with an abundance of large spiders as pale as sand. As he wandered through these passageways, he came across bone shards, strips of cloth and shreds of dried flesh. He noted with interest that some of those shreds seemed fresher than others.
As he lingered in the realm beneath the Sphinx, Mupp heard the approach of footsteps. A large group was drawing near, and it seemed that some were dragging their feet, and perhaps other cumbersome burdens.
Before long, the catacombs were filled with hundreds of shambling mummies. Many of these rotting horrors had the skulls and feet of animals. All were wrapped in strips of cloth stained with blood and aromatic resins. The mummies carried severed heads, sections of limbs, and other chunks of human meat.
He followed the creatures until they came to a huge, high chamber with a floor of black marble tile. He watched as the mummies stacked their hideous cargo in a huge pile. The largest of the mummies, a lumbering abomination with twisted limbs, began to beat the floor with a bronze mallet. In reply, a voice of thunder bellowed from the far shadows of the chamber. From out of those shadows rushed a giant that made the largest mummy look like a quaint doll in comparison. The subterranean colossus began to feast on the dead flesh brought for its ghastly dinner.
Clearly the catacomb dweller was the inspiration for the Sphinx of Giza which baked in the sun far above. The creature had a lion's body and a human head, which had turned fishbelly-white from countless years of dwelling in darkness. The face of the monster was fine-featured, like that of a nobleman, but with crooked, jutting fangs instead of human teeth. Apparently the mummies went out into the world at night to slaughter people and rob tombs, so they could feed the giant the flesh and bones of their dismembered victims.
Mupp watched with amusement as the colossus tore into the grisly remains and feasted with ravenous gusto. “You are a handsome fellow,” he said to the hungry titan. “Do you have a name? Do you understand what I am saying?”
The thing stared at Mupp with open curiosity, then reached out its paw.
Alarmed, the magick man opened a palm toward the beast, sending forth a swirling ball of green flame. The creature squealed with rage and ran back into the shadows.
The mummies, in turn, turned to Mupp and dropped to their knees.
“Ah, am I your leader now?” he said. “Because I have frightened your god? So be it. I see many delightful beauties among you. The living seem adverse to the very thought of a one-eyed lover … but I am sure, my darlings, that you will be more ac
commodating.”
Mupp instantly became the commander of the undead horde. Despite their advanced decay, some still retained the ability to communicate. He learned from them that the mummies were part of a centuries-old cult that worshipped the Daemon Sultan Azathoth, ruler of the Outer Gods. He also discovered that the colossus in the catacombs was named Setek, and had been sent by Azathoth to protect his minions. In exchange for this protection, the cult was charged with the responsibility of providing the creature with nourishment for all eternity.
When his mother died, Mupp began spending more time with the living dead. He felt more comfortable mingling with them than he did being among the living members of his own cult. From his new friends, Mupp learned the procedures and spells that can turn a corpse into a living mummy. With this knowledge, he was able to devise a plan that would bring to fruition his mother’s prophecy.
Mupp ordered the mummies to take the freshest human remains they collected into a small chamber that Setek could not reach. This meant reduced feedings for the titan, but this did not worry the magick man. He knew he could frighten the creature into submission with the green fire.
Mupp began to assemble the collected fleshy parts into new and hideous beings. He took great pride in sewing his freaks together, using metal components to create joints when necessary. In this way, he set about creating a monstrous army of the night – an army in which the soldiers had excess arms and could aim their weapons in any direction. After all, his mother had advised him to select fighters with strong arms, who could swing their swords with skill. Verily, the very best way to add such soldiers to his army was to fabricate them.
Mupp planned to lead this army into the world of the living, and create even more soldiers using the corpses of their vanquished enemies. He went to great lengths to make the faces of his creations especially ghastly, to terrify their victims beyond the limits of sanity. He saved the scraps left over from his blasphemous surgeries to feed Setek. Even so, the colossus was enraged by the smaller portions he received for his meals, and the catacombs echoed with his furious howls.
The unholy cyclops sent out his new soldiers each night to bring in more victims, and begrudgingly gave Setek more to eat. Mupp brought the members of his cult of Nyarlathotep into his confidence regarding his army of the night. He promised to turn those who sided with him into fabulous undead beings. Those who did not agree were brutally shredded and fed to Setek.
It dawned upon Mupp that the colossus in the catacombs could, in fact, easily become the most powerful soldier in his army, due to its sheer size and incredible strength. With the assistance of the creature, it would be quite easy to overcome the world of the living. He had assumed from the beginning that Setek was an ignorant beast ... but perhaps that had been a hasty assessment. With these thoughts in mind, he entered the titan’s chamber one evening to see if he could initiate a conversation.
Mupp beat on the black tiles with a heavy bone. A group of the magick man’s mummy acolytes stood behind him, holding baskets of entrails to appease Setek, if need be.
The colossus came forth from the far end of his chamber.
“I wish to speak with you,” Mupp stated.
Setek stared at him with great intensity. Then a smile crept across the monster’s lips. “I have been wondering when you would initiate another conversation,” he said. “Your first attempt was needlessly hostile.”
Mupp laughed, tickled by the creature’s civility. “You will have to forgive me. When you reached toward me with your massive paw, I mistook the gesture for an attack.” He then went on to explain to the colossus his scheme for the conquest of the living.
“I have lived in these catacombs for what seems like an eternity, feasting upon death,” Setek said, “and here I shall stay until the end of time. Your vision of a world of vicious corpses is not in alignment with my own fate.”
“Please explain,” Mupp said, gnashing his teeth. He was not used to being challenged.
“Under your plan,” the colossus said, “procreation among humans will stop, because the dead cannot bear children. The legions of living corpses will eventually disintegrate because their flesh cannot repair itself. As the centuries pass, all that will remain of humanity will be scraps of flesh and splinters of bone. Then, my friend, there will be nothing left for me to eat, and I shall starve.”
Mupp stared up at the creature, his single eye blazing with rage. He raised his hand to send a fireball at the creature. This time, however, the giant saw the attack coming. Setek swatted at Mupp with incredible force, breaking the magick man’s body and limbs against the stone wall.
Terrified, the mummies threw their baskets of entrails toward Setek. The ravenous colossus began to gobble down the slimy mess.
One of the mummies picked up Mupp’s head, which had escaped destruction – most of the spinal cord was still intact, and remained attached. This mummy was Mupp’s deceased mother Ankhesenamun, who had been instilled with horrid life by her son.
She stared into the eye of Mupp and within its depths, saw green clouds and yellow lightning.
My boy.
Magick.
She tucked the head under her arm and shambled out of the chamber.
Shoggoth Apocalypse
by Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr.
It could no longer be denied. Slowly but surely, the Earth was dying.
Centuries of pollution and nuclear war had rendered much of the world’s surface not only sterile, but also poisonous beyond any hope of redemption. The ocean floors were covered with sunken vessels with cargo holds filled with toxins. Virulent tumors haunted the living and mutations plagued the newly born. All the bees were dead, and without their assistance in pollination, many plants essential to the survival of humankind could not thrive.
World leaders may shake hands with each other at news conferences, but in fact, they rarely have any desire to work together. Each wants a bigger piece of the planet than they already have, so they are not about to make life any easier for their colleagues. But eventually they all came to realize that Earth’s days were numbered – and in the face of that realization, the sundry differences of these dignitaries seemed petty indeed.
The President of the United States, August Danforth, consulted with senior executives at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Then he met with all other heads of state, as well as a veritable army of progressive industrialists, and it was decided: America would spearhead an initiative to establish new living quarters for humanity on Mars.
In his State of the Union Address, delivered to a joint session of Congress and televised nationwide, Danforth stated, “Now is the time for all citizens of Earth to join hands as we look toward the stars and prepare our new home for the future. Though Mars is an ancient world, it is clean, and therefore, ripe for planetwide terraforming and rejuvenation.”
At this point in his speech, a display screen to his left brightened, displaying the title, PROJECT EUROPA. “I have been in contact with top astrophysicists engaged in the study of traversable wormholes,” Danforth said. “We are now working on establishing a timespace pipeline between the surface of Mars and Jupiter’s ocean-harboring moon, Europa. We are calling this initiative Project Europa and we believe it will ensure a successful future for the human race.”
The screen’s image changed to a computer-generated image of an iridescent tube, twisting through outer space. “The timespace pipeline can carry huge amounts of flowing water without wasting a single drop. The lifeless moon Europa holds more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, and transporting much of it to Mars will effectively rehydrate the red planet.”
Next, the screen showed silver vehicles rolling across the sandy surface of Mars. “We’ve sent exploratory teams to examine the terrain of the red planet. Their findings indicate that it once hosted an advanced civilization in the distant past.”
A new visual featured passageways of reddish-orange stone, covered with carved symbols chief
ly composed of coils and swirls. “Beneath the planet’s surface, they’ve found countless winding passageways created by the Martians in ancient times, as well as elaborate stone channels for conveying water. The water which will pour through the timespace pipeline, from Europa to Mars, will course through these channels and passageways. This will reestablish a healthy water table on the planet. Once water has been restored, cloud coverage will slowly return to the skies.”
A bright smile flashed across Danforth’s plump face as a new image sprang into view. The visage on the screen was covered with fine black fur, with light-blue teeth and blazing red cat’s-eyes. “Handsome devil, huh? Earthlings, lock up your daughters!” he said with a laugh. “Our scientists tell us that based on preserved remains our exploratory teams have found, the Martians looked something like this. Interesting side note: the Martians had mottled green bones and were much smaller than humans, so without their skin, they really were little green men. Now here’s something a little easier on the eyes….”
The next image was an artist’s depiction of tall grasses, flowers and trees growing across rolling plains. “Once Mars has been rehydrated, hardy, fast-growing plants that we’ve genetically developed for this project will increase the planet’s oxygen levels,” the President said. “Enclosed bio-dome communities will be constructed at strategic locations, and citizens will be transported to their new homes quickly and efficiently. Together, Mars and the human race will enjoy an exciting fresh start.”
This statement elicited thunderous applause from the audience of politicians. Danforth’s ambitious plan also met with the general public’s approval, and rightly so, since their only other alternative was slow death on a global scale.
The next day, Danforth met with Brent Roman, Director of Project Europa, in the Oval Office. Roman was a lean, dark-haired man with an impressive background in both astrophysics and public service.
“Flooding the chambers of the Martians is a key step toward the success of the project,” said the President. “I realize that. But what about the contents of those chambers? And the carvings on the walls? We don’t want all that to be lost forever.”
Shoggoth Apocalypse & More Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos Page 5