A pickaxe shatters the rocky wall of a mineshaft,
hundreds of feet below the earth. It’s 1871, in a plane that will later be
known as Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Men perform back-breaking labor, their hands
and faces blackened with dirt, all working in pursuit of that immensely valuable rock
- coal. It’s the fuel for the booming industrial
revolution, and much like how dragons were said to guard gold, this more modern treasure
pointed to an even more terrifying monster. A monster that the SCP Foundation would someday
come to know as SCP - 1179. But these unfortunate and underpaid miners
had no idea what they were about to discover. One of the men working there that day, Rob
O’Dwyer, was hammering away at the wall in front of him when he heard something strange. Was that an echo behind the rocks? This could mean only one thing. The rocks in front of them were hollow. There had to be some kind of space hiding
behind them. O’Dwyer struck again and again at the rocks
in front of him, until the barrier finally tumbled away. He and the other miners suddenly felt a gust
of cool, ancient air from the vast and darkened cavern in front of them sweep through the
mine. They felt like they were standing on the edge
of something truly otherworldly. As they lifted their safety lamps high and
crept carefully into the dark, it dawned on them that they were likely the first human
beings to ever set foot here. But that didn't mean something non human hadn’t
gotten there first. O’Dwyer’s lamp soon found something in
the dark. A huge figure, curled into a crouching position,
hiding its face. It was made from stone, like an enormous yet
incredibly detailed statue of something almost human but not quite. The petrified thing had two great horns on
either side of its head, twisting into spirals like that of a huge ram. Word of the giant, frozen monster hidden in
the bottom of the mine soon made its way back to the Foreman, and then back to the mine’s
owner, one Sean O’Malley. If it were anyone else, perhaps this news
would have been taken to the press immediately, and the Foundation would have taken control
of the situation just as quickly. But Mr. O’Malley was no ordinary mining
magnate - he was a member of the Molly Maguires, an Irish-American secret society, whose members
were predominantly coal miners in Pennsylvania. Sean and the other Molly Maguires dubbed this
anomaly the “sleeping stone giant”, and conspired to keep it a secret between them
- as secret societies have a habit of doing. Though the Molly Maguires were disbanded less
than a decade later, they were all sworn to secrecy on the giant’s resting place. Until, of course, a descendant of Sean O’Malley
- his grandson, Iain O’Malley - was chosen as a prospective agent of the SCP Foundation. The Foundation doesn’t just let anyone join
their ranks; they perform an extensive background check on all prospective agents, both to find
out that they’re capable of rising to the challenges of the job, and also to detect
any affiliation to enemy Groups of Interest. It was during this background check that O’Malley’s
subterranean family secret was discovered, and the land above the old mine shaft was
bought up by a front company owned by the Foundation. The sleeping stone giant was finally in capable
hands, and in keeping with standard procedure, a research site was built above the giant
to gather data and keep an eye on things. At the time, the anomaly was considered extremely
low-risk. Its containment file read: “SCP-1179 is
apparently dormant, encased in the bedrock under Research Site. Apart from simple monitoring and standard
research safety protocols, no additional containment is deemed necessary at this time.” But of course, those simple containment procedures
would soon need updating. In 1962, the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania,
had a trash problem. There were eight illegal trash dumping sites
across the town, and to combat this issue, the town council opened up a huge landfill
in an abandoned mineshaft. You’d think this would be enough for the
moderately sized town, but humans have a tendency to produce a lot of trash, and they soon filled
up the new landfill too. In order to address the issue, the town decided
to do a controlled burn of some of the garbage. It should have been simple enough, but those
who lit this garbage fire didn’t follow proper safety procedures, and ended up accidentally
igniting a seam of anthracite coal. This was like lighting the fuse to the world’s
largest stick of dynamite and fire soon coursed through the long abandoned mine tunnels. When the fireball finally reached the sleeping
stone giant in his dark pit, the beast woke up. In that instant, an otherwise uneventful day
quickly became a brutal bloodbath. Researchers walking through the base felt
a monstrous rumbling beneath them. Heat sensors were burning up and seismic readings
were off the scale. Something was climbing up towards them. Suddenly, an impossibly large sword speared
its way out of the floor, killing everyone around it with an immense blast of heat. The newly-awakened monster went on an underground
rampage, almost completely destroying the research base and killing nearly everyone
inside, before retreating into the honeycomb of coal mines and caverns in the area, igniting
even more anthracite coal fires. The Foundation needed to step in before things
really got out of control. At present, the Foundation couldn’t properly
administer standard area construction protocols for Keter-Class SCPs, so they instead designated
the mines, caverns, and surrounding countryside as Area-179, and dispatched Mobile Task Forces
to try and contain the beast rampaging in the Centralia mines. But much like the fire that started this whole
mess, the beast proved much harder to control than initially imagined. All five of the expeditionary teams sent to
apprehend the monster failed, and many team members were slaughtered in the process. From the terrified accounts of the survivors,
we have a vague idea of the nature of the beast below. No pictures of the creature exist and exact
descriptions on the beast can vary. Whether this is because the beast frequently
shapeshifts or because it has some kind of cognitohazardous effects on those who view
it is unclear. The most frequently reported characteristics
of the creature are its immense height and the extreme heat that its body exudes. Many report that the creature’s body seems
to be formed of a mix of hardening lava, pure fire, and burning smoke. The beast measures over 30 meters from head
to toe, with shoulders over 8 meters wide. It’s commonly said to have two huge, ram-like
horns, and a weathered, bearded face. The beast has been compared by some to the
Norse mythological figure Surtr, the giant guarding the frontier of the Norse fire realm
of Múspell. However, the actual age of the creature seems
to predate these legends by a considerable margin. Dating of the stratum encasing SCP-1179 indicates
it dates to the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period, approximately 359.2
to 318.1 million years ago. This age is consistent with the geological
age of this region, so it may have literally come with the territory. Less common descriptions of the beast claim
that it has huge wings, eyes made of hellfire, and fangs as long as a man’s arm. Some say the beast has neither horns nor fangs,
and its face is encircled by flames which reach down into a long beard of fire. And like a certain creature known as the Balrog
that Lord of the Rings fans will be very familiar with, this beast comes with weapons. In one hand, the beast wields a giant, burning
sword, around five meters in length. In the other, it wields a huge, multi-tailed
whip made out of fire. It’s incredibly proficient with these weapons,
too, and has a serious strategic advantage in its underground environment. Foundation researchers have determined that
some of the wounds the beast gained from its first confrontation haven’t fully healed,
implying that the beast could - in theory - be destroyed with enough firepower. However, given that the beast has killed almost
everyone who faced it, and its mere presence can start almost uncontrollable fires, direct
engagement would only be used as a last resort. Even the creature’s breath can be extremely
dangerous. Chemical analysis of air samples taken from
SCP-1179’s breath have shown exceptionally high concentrations of carbon monoxide and
sulfur dioxide. The very presence of this creature creates
a real and active danger to everyone around it. And the beast’s presence was beginning to
have seriously negative effects on the people up above. By the 1970s, the Foundation had given up
on sending Mobile Task Forces into the caverns, and instead began to focus on depopulating
the town of Centralia to prevent further fatalities from the presence of SCP - 1179. The subterranean activities of the creature
were causing collapses in some areas, and noxious fumes were beginning to rise up from
cracks in the ground. As the constantly raging fires burned beneath
the earth, they were causing everything above to slowly melt or bake. A Foundation geologist determined that the
fires created by the beast would likely remain active for 250 years, and any attempts to
put out the fires or contain the beast would ultimately be futile. This led to the formation of Project Tartarus,
a concerted effort to cover up SCP - 1179 and fully evacuate the citizens of Centralia. They pushed the narrative that the mine fires,
while deadly, were merely the\ result of the failed garbage burning plan, and little by
little, the people of Centralia began to move away. By 1984, the United States Government finally
caved to secret lobbying from the Foundation, and allocated funds in excess of $42 million
to relocate the remaining civilian residents from the area. Any legal complaints from Centralia residents
were quietly crushed by the Foundation, and efforts to remove pretty much all residents
from the area were successful. This allowed the Foundation to finally cast
a wider net and administer Keter-Class containment protocols around the two-kilometer underground
zone where SCP - 1179 resides. The Foundation has continued studies on the
beast from below in the decades since, with some scientists even suggesting it could be
used to produce geothermal energy, but whether or not that would actually be feasible remains
unknown. For now SCP-1179 seems content to stay within
its zone, and hopefully it stays that way. But as we’re forced to dig deeper and deeper
for the remaining precious metals here on earth, there’s no telling what new dangers
we might find lurking far below the ground. Now go watch “SCP - 2000 - Deus Ex Machina”
and “SCP-2935 O’Death” - for more freaky places under the SCP Foundation’s watch!
