The Argo Goes West

125, Shub-Niggurath

It was a cold, stone-walled cellar where Dorothy and Kent were taken. It was about half the size of a tennis court, and the low ceiling was semicylindrical like a tunnel. It was probably originally used as a wine cellar, and the floor was left with reddish-black stains. To them it looked like a bloodstain from a human sacrifice. There were about twenty people in the basement. They were all hooded, staring wordlessly at the druidlike, distorted altar on the wall. Next to it was a wooden door. The door creaked open now, and a long-faced man with a bushy beard entered.

"Professor Jarrod," Clifford Kent whispered to Dorothy.

Roderick Jarrod, professor of theology at Miskatonic University, stood at the door and told the hooded people.

"Let me introduce you to the Reverend Ephraim Waite from Innsmouth."

Greeted by solemn applause, an elderly man appeared from the other side of the door. His hair was scraggly and iron-grey, and his face had the brooding features of a hungry wolf.

Ephraim Waite, dragging the hem of his robe, moved in pompous steps to the front of the altar. He turned to the altar, raised his hands high, and spoke in a sonorous voice:"Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!"

Everyone repeated.

"Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!"

As the reverberations echoed like a fugue, another person appeared from the other side of the door. No, it wasn't human - it was The Other God!

Seeing that figure, there was a commotion in the basement. Some screamed hysterically.

"Ephraim! Kamog! Kamog! The pit of the shoggoths! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!"

Even Dorothy was surprised. Clifford Kent hastily shut her mouth, so that the others couldn't hear her, but she was going to shout. "Giles! What are you doing here!"

After completing the summoning ritual, Dorothy and Clifford Kent took the opportunity to speak privately with Giles in the room beyond the door.

"What is Shub-Niggurath?" Dorothy asked Giles.

"One of The Great Old Ones," replied Giles mumbled.

"What that?"

"The professor said it was the old ruler of the universe. If that means God, then I am."

"So you pretended to be their god? I'm appalled."

Ephraim Waite's group believed in the Great Old Ones. At first, they apparently held secret ceremonies in the woods of Chesuncook, Maine. On the other hand, Professor Roderick Jarrod was originally a devout Puritan. One day, Jarrod found a magic book called "Necronomicon" in the library of Miskatonic University. Jarrod has been interested in the supernatural since reading Cotton Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World". Jarrod joined Ephraim Waite's group and quickly became a core member. They set out to find the Great Old Ones. Then Jarrod saw Giles at the Washington Arsenal hearings. Jarrod mistook the goat boy Giles for Shub-Niggurath. Because Shub-Niggurath was nicknamed 'The Goat with a Thousand Young'. So Jarrod took Giles away.