Professor
Nabir knew it was an authentic piece when the fourth intern of the
month went briefly mad and broke his face against the 3rd
floor bathroom window. They had used the subsequent blood and gore to
paint a beautifully horrendous mural before entering a month long
screaming coma.
The
good professor had been employing the classic Miskatonic strategy of
mentally preparing himself for the events to follow. Meanwhile, he
allowed the supple minds of his interns to take the brunt of
uncovering the dark truth the black cube, which sat in one of the
many unlabeled study rooms within the age-warped wooden halls of the
University. From what he could gather from the notes before they
descended into raving madness (and in one case, a killer brownie
recipe), the inscription on the cube forewarns that contained within
it's mono molecular perfect angles is a great beast that hungers for
freedom.
While
the Forbidden Collection had more than it's fair share of such
artifacts, given it's chatty nature, Nabir hoped it could convince,
or at least trick the monster into monologuing enough secrets to be
usable for his own personal projects. With that goal in mind he made
the Elder sign, popped a downer and an upper and entered into the
room where the Cube resisded.
The
malefic presence of the demonic rubiks cube of cosmic black stone
devoured the mid afternoon light streaming though the dusty windows.
Various measuring equipment of dubious science and faulty arcane
structure circled the thing like scared dogs around a
bigger-than-average cat, softly beeping or ticking as they observed
unseen forces.
Nabir
stepped over wires, hastily scrawling glyphs of protection, and came
to look down at the cube directly. He pulled a talisman free of his
breast pocket and held it toward the cube.
“Greetings,”
He said in a mock cheer, “I am Professor Nabir of the Miskatonic
Universities Forbidden Major.”
The
Box hissed like a thousand snakes in the throws of a death orgy, the
noise shards of alien glass attempting to rend the mind and strip the
soul. Such noise merely slid past Nabir as the drugs kept chemical
stability within his mind. There was a pause followed by another wave
of insanity, rode out with a yawn of boredom.
A
more confused hiss followed shortly.
“Ah,
yes your kind would be quite confused over this situation.” The
Professor said in a casual smugness. “For you see, we here at the
university have found that you beings effect the chemical balance of
our brains, some psycho malefic aura which causes brief mental
instability. We believe this is a mutated hunting tactic from before
you evolved to higher consciousness.”
The
Warbled nonsense of sound made confused noises and its surface pulsed
a bruised puce color in response.
“It
means the nonsense of beings beyond our mortal plane being mind
rending terrors is in fact both true and absolutely false, so the
University can finally progress in our studies.” Nabir
condescendingly explained.
There was more of a wet grumbling from the less ominous artifact.
“No,
I won’t be freeing you, now hush, I have read-outs and samples to
take.”
