by R. H. Barlow
For four days, the band of explorers from Phoor had been excavating
the ancient and immemorial tomb of Krang on the edge of the desert.
The sands had been blowing ceaselessly, even as they had done since
before the coming of man to that far land. The tomb was built long
before any human walked the face of the world, built by evil powers
that had reigned unchecked in that unthinkably ancient day, when all
the desert had been a verdant garden through which stalked great
yellow giants of small intelligence, but of prodigious strength, that
had built the tower and the city of the ancient and most powerful Lord
Krang. And even before that Krang had been; he had been for aeons, and
in turn had come from a strange planet, it was told in tradition and
runes inscribed in a dead language, the language of Old Gods, and in
the time when dark magical powers had battled for possession of the
universe. And Krang had won, Krang the old one, the monstrous brown
leathern thing that planned and ruled and malefically twisted the
futures of worlds. But the time came that none had foreseen and Krang
the ancient fell into a semblance of death, though his flesh rotted
not, nor did his aspect change. So the people of the earth gathered
together and conveyed him in a giant funeral procession to the
enormous tomb carven from living blue stone in the side of the
mountain, and they sealed him in and forever departed from his
company. And the years and the decades and the centuries and the aeons
unthinkable came and went, and the sands swirled over the mouth of the
tomb, and the door was obliterated, and none knew where Krang the
Elder God lay in stupendous slumber.
Then audacious mortals had unwittingly found traces of this mausoleum
that even legend had discredited, and they had resolved to open it and
seek the great body of the old thing that had laid unmoving since the
world was young and green, lain while the prolific vegetation died and
the sand crept upon the land and laid it into barrenness.
It was said that there had been sealed up in Krang's tomb treasures
that made avarice pale and gems the like of which no longer existed,
jewels from far worlds of the dawn of time, worlds that had died and
returned again--and the strange manuscripts with the Hsothian chants
upon them, and other equally desirable objects. Therefore, many had
set out to reach the far site of the old tomb, but few had reached it.
Some had perished, slain by the hateful green devil things that lay
beneath the surface of the sand in wait for unwary persons, and that
sprang up to drag their victims to a horrible death. Some reached
their goal and scratched and chipped the tight sealed entrance, but
it was as the gnawing of rats, and before they could do more, they had
mysteriously vanished from human ken, nor had they ever been heard of
afterwards. Yet this did not discourage others from emulating for the
desire for power will lead men far, and power there was in the tomb.
So again men were engaged in laboriously chipping away the obstruction
and making slight headway, when one of their members chanced upon an
orifice in the rock into which he thrust his arm curiously. Beyond he
touched something, and lo! The great door grated outwards, inexorably,
ruthlessly, and ground him horribly into the stone sill, leaving
naught save an unpleasant smear of brown and a dank smell came forth,
and the door was opened. Paralyzed, the survivors did not act until it
had swung firmly back into place and was immovable save by a
repetition of the catastrophe. So, though they could spare him ill,
the others forced one of their brown slave-men from distant Leek to do
this suicidal act; and he whimpered, and would have not, but they
discouraged this by subtle and hastily improvised tortures, and he
eventually complied.
They stepped delicately over the smear and caught the door; placing an
obstruction in the way, so that it might stay open. And then they
entered, the first living things in that place since their race had
appeared.
The air was foul with the odor of a newly dried sea bed, and the
stench was unlike that of anything within their ken. All about the
giant vault were great chunks of richly coloured gems cut in curious
facets, with cryptic inscriptions upon each. But the central object
was the tomb of Lord Krang, where his great body reposed upon a slab
of figured chalcedony. He was terrible to gaze upon, for even after
the immense period, he still held semblance of the horrifying aspect
that was traditionally assigned unto him.
And the explorers that had entered gathered around him for a moment in
awe, but they were distracted by the infinite wealth that lay
carelessly about. They became slightly affected by it, into a type of
madness, and with repulsive amour and fetishism, they stroked the
jewels and clung unto them.
But what happened then none can tell, for their two fellows standing
guard beyond the entrance heard a peculiar sound that seemed as a
slither then a scream, then the door shut again, and although the
obstructing block was not touched by them, it had moved.
* * * * *
And Krang's tomb was again covered by the drifts; nor even after that
brief glimpse of infinite wealth did any man of Phoor venture near.
For the Lord Krang had roused from his long sleep, and feasted.