Bal-Sagoth: The Dreamer In The Catacombs Of Ur

''From the journal of Professor Caleb Blackthorne III, continued...''

17 October: 1893
Such grim musings as have been occupying my mind of late unfortunately seem to suggest a possible link to the fate of my learned friend and colleague Doctor Ignatius Stone. That brilliant researcher was last seen in command of all his faculties whilst on an expedition to the ruins of the Sumerian city of Ur, an undertaking which preceded my own work there by some eighteen months. Stone was a gifted archaeologist who also dabbled, perhaps unwisely, in certain areas of the occult, particularly involving the various grotesqueries once worshipped as Cthonic deities by the ancient denizens of Ur. Some mysterious discovery he made whilst on an expedition to Egypt's imperious pyramids allegedly compelled him to seek the ruins of Sumeria (see: "Unfettering The Hoary Sentinels Of Karnak"), and mere days before he ventured into the ziggurats of that foreboding, mystery-haunted site, he had dispatched a letter to me claiming that he was on the verge of a truly staggering arcane discovery at Ur which would simultaneously prove the cyclical nature of human civilisation as well as immediately render redundant all previous theories on the origin of man. Whatever misfortune befell him within those aeons-old tombs robbed him irrevocably of his sanity, for when his attendants finally managed to prise open the stone door of the vast central catacomb, which had, I'm told, inexplicably shut fast behind his three-man torch-bearing party, they found two of the regularly stalwart men had seemingly expired of pure fright, while Stone was slumped against the north wall, staring vacantly into the gloom, gibbering about visitations by beings so terrible that the very contemplation of their existence would sunder a man's tenuous hold on the reins of sanity.
When I later visited him at the sanatorium in England, I found him to be a tragic shell of the man I once knew, a man beset by imagined terrors and ever wary of the immemorial horrors which he claimed lurked at the periphery of humanity's perceptions. Indeed, I was glad I had taken a journal into which I could transcribe his delusional rants, for he had a great deal to tell me about ''The Dreamer In The Catacombs Of Ur:''
'''Doctor Ignatius Stone:''' It was like some dark, dark dream. We had not heeded the warnings of the ancients, and now we would pay the price... here, within the catacombs of Ur.
Lost within the lightless catacombs of Ur... Entombed within the ziggurats!
The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur: Trapped forever in the catacombs of Ur... your screams are heard in Babylon!
'''Doctor Ignatius Stone:''' Warnings etched into the cuneiform tablets of Ur... Entombed within the ziggurats!
'''The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur:''' Behold the great Cthonic deities of Ur... Your screams are heard in Babylon!
'''Doctor Ignatius Stone:''' What aeons-old slumber has our meddling disturbed?
'''The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur:''' Behold the great Cthonic deities of Ur... Your screams echo in the abyss...
'''Doctor Ignatius Stone:''' Trapped forever in the catacombs of Ur... There is something in here with us!
Here, beneath the eternally shifting sands, I sought enlightenment... but found only damnation!
'''The Chief Cultist of Ur:''' You have defiled the sanctity of this sacred place! Laagash, Nippurr, Shurupak, Kullah, Ur, Eridu.
'''The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur:''' Ancient before the Fifth Cataclysm, here between the two rivers in Ur the Dreamer waits! And when the seal of the seventh city is broken, then shall the dreamer in the catacombs of Ur awaken!
''Forsaken (when His darksome splendorous glory eclipses it) burns the sun,
Enthrone (the eternally) benighted one, Usurper of the skies.
Named in (that black, shunned tome of ) forbidden lore,
Destined to rule (this telluric sphere and the myriad stars beyond) once more,
The Dreamer shall arise!
Now, let the Gate yawn wide and the horrors of the Abyss engulf the earth, for the Dreamer in the catacombs is risen!''
How many of my colleague's rants were merely the result of his psychosis and how many were actually born of fact, I cannot discern... nor in truth do I wish to.

''(For the events immediately prior to "The Deamer In The Catacombs Of Ur", detailing Doctor Ignatius X. Stone's expedition to Egypt, see "Unfettering The Hoary Sentinels Of Karnak")''