The Chamber in the Hillside. Part Three


To the recipient of my two previous correspondences.

I thank you for your continued patience and open mindedness, the latter being a quality which may keep you sane in the coming days.
The final part of my story continues where it ended, with two archaeologists speeding back to a Roman dig site, ignorant of the trials before them.

I had never fired a gun before, but with Johan’s shouted instructions I became quickly familiar with loading and firing procedures. Now that we were a distance from the horror of the Shoggoth, our minds were turning over rapidly with the revelations and implications of the night. We talked fast, barely pausing for breath as we pieced together our hypothesis of the terrible history deep beneath this town.

Under Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Romans had established a strong line of defence along the Solway and they kept their people safe from attacks from all sides. They defended conquered territory from indigenous warriors, invaders from the north, and from a different type of foe altogether. These weird beings had been forced back to the sea by the might of the Cumbrian Legions. Butchered and piled into a stone tomb, whether dead or not. It was clear to us now that the Romans had been some of histories earliest conspirators. Documented history held no accounts of these sunken enemies. These creatures of the deep had been kept from the greater awareness of Rome. Did these secrets die with the empire?