Indiana Jones and the Chamber of Zullo
I: 1934. The Kalasayaya Temple, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca
The warlike Llanos de Mojos people lived on the shores of Lake Titicaca long before recorded history. Their temple dates back to 15,000 BC. Many believe that the Incas, who came to power in the 12th century AD, were their descendants. Some believe that the Incas possessed knowledge of powers beyond this world, and that this knowledge gave them the power to conquer their known world.
Indiana Jones and his fiancée Marian Ravenswood had set up camp in front of this temple and were equipped with a mysterious parchment that Marcus Brody, Indy's mentor and a friend of the family, had given them.
“Marian,” Indy exclaimed, “I really think you should have taken that scroll to Miskatonic University instead of relying on Barnett’s library. This Latin translation of Alhazred’s text isn’t accurate.”
“But Indy, you know as well as I do that only renowned scholars like you and your father have access to the complete text of the Necronomicon. Besides, we have enough to go on with: the location, the description, and even some of the traps hidden at the site. We wouldn't even have to dig! And the Wormius translation comes from an unstable source, as you know perfectly well! Olaus Wormius translated the book and then deliberately drank water contaminated with the plague!”
"Even so, Marian, I wish you hadn't come along. I'm usually overwhelmed, but this surpasses anything I've ever looked for. I have a bad feeling about this!"
"Don't worry, tough guy. I'll be fine. Just worry about the traps."
As they broke camp, they stopped to watch hundreds of wild parrots screeching across the blue sky on their way to nearby Lake Titicaca.
"Don't you sometimes wish you could fly as freely and wildly as she does, Indy?"
"I have enough freedom and wildness in my quest for wealth and fame, darling. Let's get going. It's almost mid-morning and we need to be at the ruins by noon."
Even in the blazing sun, the ruins possessed a mystical atmosphere. Titanic slabs, some intact, some crumbling, gave the impression that a gigantic hand had reached down from the sky and toppled the Ozymandian structure of Pumapunku. It was strange that the nearby Kalasayaya temple remained relatively unscathed.
“Do you know where the entrance to the underground altar is?” Marian asked.
"According to the scroll, the eye of the golden god gazes upon our secret when he sits at the very top of his throne. That must be midday! I just hope you've picked the right time of year!"
"Do not use your pilot's watch! Use the sundial mentioned on the parchment!"
"Yes, of course. And do we know where that is, Queen of the Scroll?"
"Yes, smarty pants. It's 'the Eye of Cthulhu'. If I'm not mistaken, we're standing about six meters away from it."
"Oh. Sure. I knew that. Come on and stop playing around with that snake!"
Just inches from Marian's left leg stood the largest coral snake she had ever seen. It leaped into Indy's arms and cried, "Thank you for telling me!"
"It's just a corn snake, for heaven's sake!"
"No, Indy, it's a coral – a type of cobra!"
Indy's face lost its color like an ice-cold thermometer. "I guess I should overcome my fear of these little bastards and learn something about them."
"No problem, because it gave me an excuse to feel your big, strong arms again."
Indy marveled at Marian's rare combination of intelligence, grace, and beauty. And she was a tough woman, too!
When standing before the cyclopean eye of Cthulhu, one can see a small clock face looking directly up into the sky from the center of the iris, with a familiar sundial face protruding from it.
"The scroll says to recite 'Ia-R'lyeh! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ia! Ia!'"
As Marian said this, they plunged into a pit that opened up beneath them.
They slid down a long slope about ten meters and came to a dimly lit chamber. The sun shone into the pit long enough for Indy to light a torch. Satipo, their local guide, called out to them that he would find a rope among the supplies. In the dim light, many drawings of crocodiles, humans, and some strange combinations of both were visible in the cave.
"So much for the first trap. It wasn't so bad after all, was it?" Indy remarked.
As he spoke, they heard the sound of trickling sand behind them, and the ramp that formed their makeshift slide had begun to return to its original, closed position.
"I have a really bad feeling about this," Indy thought to himself.
"Indy, all the pictograms are facing the hole in the wall, about three meters above sea level. That's what Alhazred meant by 'Follow God's people to the oasis in the darkness!'"
"Come on, Marian! Sit on my shoulders." Indy pulled her up to the hole. Once at the top, he threw up his whip. "Hold on tight and help me pull myself up!"
Reaching the top, they found themselves in a hole just high enough to crawl through, but quite slippery. It seemed to contain a greenish secretion that many would call slime, but it didn't quite have the same properties as the usual slime you find in a swimming pool. And the smell was overpowering!
Marian remarked: “That must be what Alhazred meant when he wrote: ‘The gods desire your taste.’ Yuck! I feel like I’m crawling on a giant tongue!”
After fifteen meters down a gently sloping green promontory, they reached a large semicircular area. A greenish-blue light shone from an unknown source. The torch was still burning but was no longer needed. In the center of this area stood a soapstone statue, a mythical creature, three meters tall, hunched over, half-human, half-octopus, and of a thoroughly malevolent appearance. Both intruders sensed that the statue's eyes were following them, even as they circled it 360 degrees. At that moment, the sand trap behind them closed completely, ready for its next victim, and somewhere nearby a gong sounded loudly. Then, worst of all, they heard a soft, slapping sound from the tunnel they had just emerged from.
"Marian! Give me the scroll!" She quickly handed it to him. By the torchlight, Indy frantically searched for a sentence. 'HEL HELOYM SOTHER EMMANVEL SABAOTH AGLA TETRAGRAMMATON AGYROS OTHEOS ISCHYROS ATHANATOS YEHOVA VA ADONAI SADAY HOMOVSION MESSIAH ESCHEREHEYE!'
The moment he uttered this sentence, a hidden hatch in the front of the statue's base opened, revealing a lever and a strange amulet that seemed to glow in all the colors of the rainbow, even in the dim light. Frantically, Indy pulled the lever, sealing the tunnel they had come from.
"Okay, whatever slithered and swatted through this tunnel is now sealed off from us, but how do we escape?"
Indy replied, "I think I know, but if this thing does what it's supposed to do, you might really regret coming along, and maybe I will too!"
"Whatever it is, it's better than death by suffocation or dehydration. Try it."
Indy took the amulet from its compartment and held it out to Marian. "Touch it."
Marian wasn't entirely sure what Indy intended to do, so she reached out and touched the amulet Indy held out to her. A strange feeling washed over her, and both were enveloped by the artifact's multicolored glow.
Behind her, a large, flat stone rolled aside, revealing a staircase leading to the outside world. She turned to look at the opening and paused. Hadn't she just been looking in that direction? When she turned back to Indy, she was astonished to see—Marian Ravenswood!
"Well, darling," said a clear, sweetly high voice, "I suppose we'll be closer than ever before, at least for a while."
“But, but…” Marian couldn’t finish the sentence. Her voice was deep and resonant. And she felt, well, so heavy and strong! “This is so wrong! Turn us back!”
"Not until we're at least out of this death trap. Come on!"
As Marian climbed the stairs and followed Indy, she was fascinated by the sight of her perfectly shaped backside. "Do I really look like that? Mirrors don't help!" she mused.
Indy, on the other hand, remained outwardly cool, but inwardly panicked. "Just thinking about it, we're both doomed," he thought. Even climbing stairs was more strenuous for him with Marian's legs. And the bouncing movements of his—er, her—breasts were a major distraction. "How does she manage it, with all this, the underwear, the makeup (even though Marian had only applied light foundation), the hair falling in my face?"
When Satipo saw them reappear many meters away from where they had fallen, he came running. In Quechua, the language of the indigenous people, he asked if everything was alright.
Indy said in Quechua: "I wouldn't say, okay, but we survived."
Satipo was shocked. "Señora, when did you learn Quechua?"
Indy began: “I was kidnapped by Pancho Villa when I was a young man… Anyway. It’s a long story.”
To his horror, Marian began to cry. She whispered, "Indy, I don't want to be like this! I like being a girl! How could you do this to us?"
“Listen, darling, I was planning to go down there alone so there wouldn’t be any mix-ups, but when we got stuck in that sand bunker, there was no going back. Stay strong, girl, and everything will be alright, okay?” The weak tone of her feminine voice discouraged him. He tried to comfort Marian, but he realized he couldn’t even put his slender, graceful arm around her broad shoulders.
“Then do it now, for God’s sake!” Marian cried.
"That's not possible. Now that we're outside, we can't go back to normal until I've returned the amulet to Zullo's chamber. The amulet can only transform a person once until it's returned to the chamber. Or that death trap down there, and in our situation, Marian, I don't want us going down there again."
"WHAT!!?? We don't even know where Zullo's chamber is!"
"True, but since the amulet exists, the chamber must exist as well. Let's return to civilization and have Marcus and the other professors investigate the location. And I think it's time for YOU to visit the Miskatonic to obtain more information from the Necronomicon. I expect they'll allow you to see it now, Professor Jones. Just make sure no one else touches it, or they'll suffer our fate."
