Soon you reach tower, it twist like a gigantic serpent looking as it grew up from a dark plane. It is an opening at the base of the tower. It is approximately twenty feet high and ten feet across and seems to be the only opening into the structure. The interior is shrouded in shadows. The place it quiet. There is small breeze and no movement to be spotted in the entrance or around the tower.

The path leading to the entrance is narrow and slopes on both sides. You make a pause a couple of hundred feet from the opening and Charles is examining one of the rocks protruding along the path. "This rock is pure Obsidian. I wonder if the Tower is of the same material?"

Doc replies, "If it is, it will be very dark inside." He reaches into his backpack, pulls out the miner's helmet and straps it on planning to light it when he enters the tower.

Everyone strips of their baggage and prepare themselves for entering the tower.

Doc carries strong leather belt, small knife with belt sheath, magnifying glass in a padded belt pouch, quart canteen that attaches to belt. (filled with water), thick leather jacket, metal flask container of holy water, small notebook with pencils, small silk pouch, gun belt with a .45 revolver, 60 normal bullets, 6 silver bullets, and 12 special bullets, leather backpack, hard hat with miner's light.

Charles carries 1 kerosene lamp, 2 spare bottles of kerosene, matches, hammer, 4 large steel nails, 4 wax candles, tranquilizer rifle with 8 tranquilizer darts, quart canteen filled with holy water, industrial first aid kit

Countess Boyarova carries M1895 Nagant, pocket bible, small purse with women's things 1 kerosene lamp, 2 spare bottles of kerosene

Penny carries 100' of rope, grappling hook, hatchet, wax paper (for making etchings), chalk, charcoal.

Doc leads on with his firearm ready, then follows the Countess, Penny and Charles.

Doc carefully approaches the entrance. Finally standing in it, he is still alive. Doc scans the entrance from left to right. Two tunnel pathways leads in opposite direction to right and left along to tower walls. The tunnels are completely cylindrical like giant tubes. As far as Doc can see they seem to twist and in seemingly random directions.

Doc enters the tunnel and shines down in each direction. There are still no sounds or odours and Doc detects no doors, windows, or other irregularities in the completely cylindrical walls. Doc says, "Which direction will it be, left or right, head or tail?"

Doc continues, "Regardless, Penny, get the chalk out, we are going to need to mark on the walls to help us avoid getting lost. I propose assigning sequential numbers to each intersection and recording it also in a notebook. In addition, every passage we take should be marked with an arrow indicating the direction we travelled and a letter. It should be marked at both ends, so that we can eventually map this tower out."

Natasha comments "I think right, given the way that the tower is twisting I think that will lead us to the top, and ...", she seems almost amused as she adds, "isn't there some tradition saying that the monsters and their victims must always be at the top of the tower?"

Charles assumes the responsibility of note marking. Doc chooses to take the left tunnel. You move in silence. The ground is, strangely enough, very soft, and you walk silently. The tunnel follows the outer wall and curve slightly right as you progress. The tunnel seems not to be constructed, but natural made, with a touch of randomness. Here and there the tunnel makes a sudden twist, leaving small spaces. Most spaces are empty, but the next space.

Approximately 30 feet ahead of you, placed in one of the many alcoves, is a large cage. Locked in the cage is a being, so alien that that it is difficult to grasp its existence. It could be as high as 5 feet and the head must be at least 2/3 of its entire body mass. It has five limbs, for of which is similar to the human limbs, and one limb which protrudes from it's stomach and is much shorter than the others. It is difficult to understand how its tiny body can carry the weight of the head. Although the sight is alien, it is not immediate horrifying. The alien being is reacting on your appearance. It is moving to the bars and waving slowly with its arms. You cannot grasp what it means. The sight of the being, makes you all feel dizzy. Natasha first stands still, then she gasps and takes one step back quickly starting to run through all the prayers (in French and Russian) that she learned as a child. She both mumbles them softly, as well as trying to build up her faith by remembering God and the Saints. She nervously aims the gun at the creature, but does not fire, part because she wonders if this is some malformed human, and part because she fears the noise that this would make.

After seeing the unearthly creature, Doc recommends, "Things put in cages are usually there for very good reasons. I would recommend that we leave it in its cage." He continues, "Be wary, the fact that living creatures are in charges implies there is something serving as a zoo keeper or prison warden here and it will be free and probably powerful."

Charles joins in, "You are probably right Doc, let's go back where we came from."

Charles begin to retrace his steps, keeping close eyes on the creature. It stills waves it limbs in meaningless patterns. The others follows, but Penny stands motionless, as in a trance. Doc pulls in her arm, trying to drag her with him, but he miscalculates the force he uses, and Penny's balance, and she falls to the floor like a statue, and thump her head on the floor.

"Dear God!" Doc exclaims. "She just fell, I didn't pull that hard."

Penny lies motionless on the floor and a red liquid is flowing out on the floor from her head. "Let's get her out of here, now", Doc says with a small hint of hint of panic in his voice. "Lady, you carry the lamp for me, and Charles you grab her by the legs."

You carry Penny all the way back to the opening. Doc's leather jacket is all covered with blood on the front. Penny is laid in a lateral position and Charles is examining the hole in Penny's head. "Doc, didn't you bring some medical equipment?"

Blood is still oozing from the head wound and Charles says, "I think we have to stitch this wound." He looks up at Doc and the Countess. "You done this before?". Both nods negatively and Charles begin to stitch with a firm hand. "Thanks God she still is unconscious. I don't think I could do this otherwise." Charles attaches a compression to the wound and the bleeding stops. Natasha is not very happy about the bleeding, or the creature, but she seems genuinely worried about Penny and does her best to help her out. She doesn't turn away when Penny is being stitched, and she has no problems with the blood or helping out either. Not long afterwards, Penny wakes up. She is complaining about a pain in her backhead, but otherwise she seems ok. After a little more time and tender care, she is beginning to regain her composure. "I remember the monster. First I was shocked, then it was like…. a kind of déjà vu, like I had seen it before. Suddenly the cage was gone and the tunnel was replaced with noting, just a whiteness. The monster was floating towards me, opening his as if to embrace me. I felt no terror, only wonder and calmness. Suddenly a black hole appeared in front of me and I was sucked into it. I remember nothing else before I woke up here." Natasha kneels down and says "It is all right Miss Pritchard, I hope you are feeling better." Natasha offers Penny to use her fur if she is cold, but Penny declines politely.

Explored tunnels

I little more rest and a small ration, and Penny feels able to continue the investigation of the fortress, although she has a ringing headache and can make no swift movements without a thousand needles being punctured into her skull.

Natasha lets Penny lean on her, and supports her. Accepting the offered shoulder Penny shakily gets to her feet. Her hand goes to the bandage and she looses her balance momentarily relying heavily on Natasha's aid. "Let us continue," she meekly responds. "I have no wish to die here if this wound is mortal."

Natasha nods then she says "I agree, I have no desire to die anywhere but in the Rodina", then with a smile "And if I have anything to do with it neither one of us is going to be facing our maker in a long, long while". She squeezes Penny's hand and says "Miss Pritchard, stay awake and let us keep moving, neither one of us will die here".

This time you choose the right tunnel. The tunnel branches to the left and you follow the new branch. the new branch splits in to and again you choose the left tunnel. Shortly after you find a new tunnel. This tunnel leads upwards in spirals. You can hear no sounds flowing down this tunnel.

Doc says "I would guess the professor would head upwards where the more important stuff probably is."

Natasha rolls her eyes slightly, since she has already said something similar to this, but in the interest of saving everyone's face she says "That sounds reasonable Doctor Slade, though we should be careful not to let whatever happened to the professor happen to us". Natasha will however also comment "In Old Russia, before we became more ... civilised, sometimes we would lock a prisoner in a cage and let him starve to death, or just let him sit there and be mocked and pelted day out and day in. It could be a prisoner of war, or a criminal, but he or she would be grateful if someone let them go". She then shrugs and adds "Of course we kept, and still keep, bears in cages, and sometimes the bear would look friendly and playful, only to have a meal of a passing fool". She will however add "Perhaps we should go look at the creature again".

Doc replies, "True, but we do not know why this creature is caged. I do believe that it affected Penny somehow and think we should avoid it if we can."

Natasha nods, then she says "Very well then Doctor Slade, in that case if you gentlemen would lead on I shall support Miss Pritchard as best as I can". She follows closely behind them keeping one arm around Penny, and the other ready with her Nagant.

The tunnel spirals upwards and upwards until you enter a new level. The tunnel follows the wall on your right side and one branch splits of to the left. You decide to follow the tunnel along the wall to its end. After a while the tunnel branches to the middle again and then one more time until you reach the end of the tunnel. You turn and follow the previous branch. All the time you have spent in the fortress, you haven’t heard a sound that you didn’t make yourselves. This time however, you don’t hear anything, but the smell, oh the smell is horrible. You are barely able to breathe.

The room that is approximately 50 feet in diameter, its ceiling is nearly 20 feet high, Filling the room is a stunning amount of machinery, It is a strange alien equipment; tubes, spheres, and philes containing liquids of every colour of the spectrum fill the chamber. The tubes runs from the walls to organ-like structures suspended in mid-air, ten feet above the lab’s floor. These structures seem almost biomechanical, giving the overall appearance of surreal similarity to the interior of a human body, the wires and transparent tubes looking like veins, pumping insane liquids from organ to organ.

There is a pungent, oppressive odour present, and it has, actually, become painful to breath. It helps a little bit to put a piece of cloth affront the nose. Charles spots a pile of tablets lying in one of the corners. Doc heads in the direction of the tablets when the effect of the odour strikes. Doc and Penny feel the effect the most. It is like breathing small particles of glass. Although it is possible to breathe it is very uncomfortable and you retreat to the tunnel. The pungent odour still lingers in the air, but the pain breathing is gone.

Doc wants to have a closer look at those tablets and wets another cloth and puts it in front of his mouth. The tablets are heavy and he has to use one arm to hold the cloth in front of his face. Doc is able to carry with two tablets with him. If Doc was hoping that these tablets would reveal information about this place, he is disappointed. These tablets are inscribed with the same hieroglyphs that are to be found everywhere.

The next branch leads you to great shaft. Leaning cautiously over the edge, you can see a huge circular room, composed of the same obsidian. The room is 100 feet wide and the ceiling of the room is the great shaft, and the red primeval sky can be seen 200 feet above the base floor. Staring at approximately 50 feet up from the base floor, or so, other passages seem to open up into the shaft. The openings in the shaft occasionally vomit forth noxious smoke that drifts up and through the shaft and out in the sky. Some of the gas is glowing green, some is a putrid orange. You stand approximately 130 feet above the base floor. This strike you must be very centre of this terrible tower. In the base floor of the opening you see two noteworthy features at opposite ends of the chamber. These portals are approximately 30 feet high and 20 feet wide, and covered with a bluish light. Inside these portals you can see only blackness.

There is no way down to the base floor in the shaft, so you go back to explore the last branch on this level. You come to a room with a great door. The great door is circular in space and 10 feet in diameter. It is covered with the now familiar glyphs. These runes are in every way similar to those encountered outside the Obsidian fortress, with one exception. Despite its great size, the door is rolled away quite easily. Whatever strange compound it is composed of is curiously lightweight.

Once inside, you find yourselves in a huge domed chamber. Nearly 100 feet high, the chamber is made of the same Obsidian. Covering the dome is hieroglyphs, the same style as before, only much larger. The only other remarkable aspect of the temple is the 50 feet high statue standing in the exact centre of the room. The huge half-human snake is hideous to behold.

“I know who this is!”, Doc says. “I been suspecting it for some time, but now I’m sure. This is Yig, one of the Great Old Ones.” Doc pauses, thinking hard. “I think we are dealing with serpent people. I have read about them in different sources. Many of the names and references that I discovered don’t make sense to me, and I’ve been unable to find more information about them. This is what I have read.”

Reptiles first appeared on Earth some 300 million years ago, in the Carboniferous period. Through the rigors of evolution, some became larger, more intelligent, and eventually walked erect. Approximately 275 million years ago, in the Permian period, the first serpent people appeared. The Great Old One, Yig, is said to be the Father of all Serpents, and so the serpent people worshiped him from the first.

Legends say that these early serpent people formed their First Empire in Valusia, a fertile land near the center of the super-continent of Pangaea. This empire was based on sorcery and alchemy, and at its height it must have ruled much of the Paleozoic world. How many of these legends are true cannot be said. Records of the Elder Things and Yithians who inhabited the Earth at the time say little of these early serpent people. In any case, when dinosaurs began to rise from their Eosuchian ancestors 225 million years ago, the First Empire collapsed.

Although the ancient civilization of Valusia was destroyed, many serpent people survived. They fled underground, hiding until the world became more hospitable once more. The greatest of the serpent people's underground civilizations was Yoth, located deep below what is now North America. For over two hundred million years, serpent people dwelled there. Their civilization rose and fell a hundred times.

Five million years ago, Yothic civilization was at its greatest height ever. The serpent people had become prodigious scientists, able to create other life forms at whim. Life was luxury, joyfully lived.

Then, Yoth's doom was uncovered, when curious explorers discovered the path to blackly litten N'kai. There they found great altars to Tsathoggua. The toad-god possessed tremendous power and wisdom and many serpent people turned away from Yig to worship him. Yig did not look kindly on his people abandoning him, and so he cursed them. The serpent people of Yoth devolved, losing their speech, their limbs, and their intelligence. They became the serpents that they had once been millennia before.

Only the faithful escaped Yig's curse. The high priest Sss'haa led Yig's true worshipers out of Yoth. They travelled to Hyperborea, a land in the north, where they dwelled deep below Mount Voormithadreth. Under Voormithadreth, the serpent people's greatest scientific civilization continued to prosper. By this time, they had become pitiless creatures of near pure intellect. They had no morals, and their only law was that curiosity must always be satisfied. The serpent people of Hyperborea's greatest achievements continued to be in genetic engineering. It is believed that the voormis who ruled the surface of Hyperborea from approximately 3 million years ago were their creation. However, the voormis' special affiliation with Tsathoggua shows that even among the supposedly faithful, the taint of the toad-god remained.

The exact fate of the serpent people of Hyperborea is unknown. 1.7 million years ago, their voormis were swept aside by the cold of Ithaqua. The human Hyperboreans arrived 1 million years ago and formed a new civilization. 750,000 years ago, they too were gone. Today, the merest remnant of Hyperborea forms Greenland.

At the time of the serpent people migration, 5 million years ago, conditions were also changing upon the surface. The dinosaurs, which had destroyed the First Empire, were long gone. The mammals had begun to rise. In Africa, the first hominids were evolving; they were the first true ancestors of man.

After fleeing Hyperborea the Serpent People tried to form a kingdom upon the newly risen land of Lemuria. Unfortunately they found themselves in contention with the newborn human race. By 500,000 BC the Serpent People civilization of Lemuria had fallen. Fleeing even further south the Serpent People came to the Thurian Continent. Here they were finally able to reform their Empire. They named it the Second Empire, and it was centered in Valusia, a land named after a legend. Many wars were fought, but eventually the men of the Thurian Continent were consigned to thraldom. Some fled to less oppressive realms, but at the center of the world, the serpent people ruled.

Unfortunately, the Age of Reptiles was over, and the Age of Mammals had already begun. The serpent people could oppress the most primitive humans, but they were doomed by the relentless march of evolution. It took a million years or more, but the earliest human civilizations arose: Kamelia, Verulia, Grondor, Thule, Commoria, Atlantis, and Lemuria. After a hundred wars, the Second Empire of the serpent people was destroyed. Thereafter, humans ruled Valusia. Some serpent people fled to the south of the Thurian Continent to create a new kingdom, but most went underground, hibernated, or simply died.

The serpent people who remained were unwilling to give up their mastery of the world. Where strength had failed, they turned instead to deceit. Using their powers of disguise, they replaced humans of power and ruled in their stead. For aeons they were successful, but an Atlantean named Kull eventually brought their schemes to an end. The time was 18,000 BC.

Shortly after the rule of Kull, a great cataclysm shook the Thurian continent. It was the beginning of the end for the serpent people's southern kingdom. Fifteen hundred years later, Lemurian survivors, hardened by centuries of disaster and slavery, fell upon the serpent people cities that had been spared by the cataclysm. The serpent people's southern kingdom was destroyed. However, Stygia, the human country formed from its ashes, would carry forward many of their beliefs, including the worship of Yig.

The last remnants of the serpent people fled ever southward, stopping only when they reached the ocean. Here, they founded one last city, Yanyoga. It had none of the grandeur of its predecessors. It lasted for thousands of years, but in 10,000 BC it too was destroyed, by a Cimmerian descendant of Kull.

Since then, the serpent people have scarcely touched the history of the world. They still lurk, dwelling in the deepest caverns, sometimes even hiding among us, but their power has been broken.

Serpent people are the natural end result of reptilian evolution. They share many characteristics with snakes, particularly the cobra family, but with four improvements: They are intelligent, they have limbs, they walk erect, and they are warm-blooded. Although serpent people have poorly developed hearing, their other senses are very sharp. Their eyesight is very precise, and is particularly attuned to motion. Pits near the serpent people's nostrils provide a primitive infrared sense. It is the most keen among the underground degenerates. The serpent people's sense of smell is complemented by their Jacobson's organ. Using their forked tongues, serpent people can transfer odour chemicals to this highly sensitive organ.

Like many snakes, serpent people are venomous. Certain subspecies can even spit their venom, as the spitting cobra of Africa does. Some varieties of serpent people have hypnotic eyes. Most can hibernate for extended periods of time.

Many serpent people are sorcerers. The abilities to assume human shape, enslave the ghosts of the slain, and reanimate corpses are among the most common magical powers of the serpent people.

Most importantly, serpent people are either very long-lived or immortal. There are many still alive that have seen millennia pass.

At their height, the serpent people were great scientists. They are best known for their alchemical creation of toxic substances and for their genetic manipulation of many life forms. The voormis of Greenland and the gyaa-yothn of K'n-yan still bear the mark of serpentine manipulation. In the modern world, only scattered lurkers and sleepers remember their technology. Most have fallen back to bestiality or the practice of sorcery.

Doc is exhausted after recalling all this information from memory. "We know what we are standing in front of now. What we still don't know is what time-era we are in. The Serpent people could be at their peak of civilization." Doc suggests, 'I think we should go back down and continue mapping the lower level, if the professor is still alive we may find him or clues to his whereabouts.  We need to be very alert for the serpent people and if surprised by them remaining motionless until acting.  The odds of us speaking to them, understandably, are very unlikely." Charles agrees.

Natasha is a bit confused by this strange and bewildering information, and instinctively she organises it into the only form her mind can accept "So before the creation of man the devil and his children ruled this Earth, and now we are in this era ...” She seems quite disturbed by this idea, but that does not change her stern determination.

The investigators find their way back to the base level and soon they find themselves in the airshaft. There are two entrances. Standing closer to the portals now, you can see that it is Glyphs that are glowing blue. These are similar to the glyphs in the Professors Lab. By closer inspection, you can see that the surfaces within the portals are smooth and pitch black. On the floor of the chamber is another of the ancient hieroglyphs of the Serpent People. This time you recognize Yig, as the prominent figure.

Natasha shivers slightly, as if from cold, but she does her best to hide this. She mutters softly "This snake god gives me, oh what do you say, it gives me the creeps, this is not a good place to stay, if any of the snake people comes back".

Doc comments, "While it is possible that the professor took on of the portals, I do not know if he would or not. I for one would be very hesitant about getting even further removed from 'our world'. My preference would be to return to the professor's lab and study what we found, hopefully gleaming a better understanding of what happened to the professors and the phenomena we are experiencing. We also need to rest up and recover our strength and health."

Charles disagrees, “For once, Doc, I totally disagrees with you. Although we need rest and could study the material we have found, we need one day to reach the professor’s lab and several days, maybe weeks, to study the glyphs, then one more day to return to this tower, we simply do not have the luxury of time. Firstly, we have left behind tracks and evidence that we have been here, and you yourself, said that these lizards weren’t stupid. They can put two and two together and follow our tracks to the professor’s lab. Secondly, if it isn’t too late to rescue the professor now, it will be by the time we are back. Thirdly, haven’t you wondered why we haven’t encountered any of the lizards? It must be a pure strike of luck. I doubt we will be this lucky next time.”

Charles continues, “These are obviously portals in time and maybe the professor has managed to escaped in one of these, though I doubt it. I propose that we continue exploring the tower. With luck we may find the professor caged up like that monster.”

"I would like to leave this place. If the Professor has been here for any length of time, he is most certainly dead or has been corrupted by the evil that permeates this tower." Lady Boyarova clutcheson the Bible with her finger between two pages. When opened it reveals Psalm 3, verses 5 and 6.

Natasha nods, then she checks on Penny, finally she looks at the two men and says "She has a concussion Gentlemen, whatever we do we must do it now, search this place high and low if you must, and if you do not find anything then we must either go through one of those gates, or confront that thing in the basement again ..." She seems rather shaken by this whole thing, but manages to stay firm regardless.

Natasha nods, then she checks on Penny, finally she looks at the two men and says "She has a concussion Gentlemen, whatever we do we must do it now, search this place high and low if you must, and if you do not find anything then we must either go through one of those gates, or confront that thing in the basement again ...” She seems rather shaken by this whole thing, but manages to stay firm regardless.

Doc nods with Natasha's statements, "I also do not like this place, but we need to explore it fully to see if we can find the professor.  Being a man of science, if he was able he would have left clues for those who would follow."

Natasha comments "I agree, I loathe this place, but if you think we should search it then so be it", she smiles a little and looks at Penny as she asks "Do you think you are up to it Penny?”

Penny's weary eyes betray her answer. "I think I can go on."

Doc speaks up, "If we can find a place that seems safe and protected, I think we should rest up, as all of us are tired."

Charles says, “We can’t rest safe and unprotected unless we haven’t explored this level. I suggest that we do that.”

Please read the Serpent Priest, or go back to the table of contents.