The Tower of London. One of the most famous towers out there, next
to The Sears Tower and The Leaning Tower of Pisa. A place where tourists go to gawk at history,
uncomfortably large and bold ravens, and ask the timeless question “Why are the guards
called Beefeaters?” But enough jokes, this iconic site is no laughing
matter. The Tower is best known for its blood-soaked
history as the site of hundreds of imprisonments and executions over the years, as well as
a fair share of murders. Three Queens, Anne Boleyn, Jane Gray, and
Catherine Howard, lost their heads there. Edward V and Richard, Duke of York were found
murdered there, still only children when they died. King Henry VI was killed during his prayers
in his private chapel. The list goes on and on, and the blood continues
to flow. It is no surprise that many consider the Tower
of London to be among the most haunted places in the world; few locals have seen such an
intense concentration of violent, tragic death and misery. There are reports of Queen Anne Boleyn wandering
the halls with her severed head tucked under her arm, the little murdered princes frolicking
through the corridors in the dead of night, and the Countess of Salisbury reenacting her
horrific execution, in which she was hacked to death as she fled. If you’re at all enthused in British royal
history, you may know about all of these people and their grisly ends already. But what you may not know about is a formerly
imprisoned man known as the Wizard Earl. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, also
known as the Wizard Earl due to his involvement in the occult, was imprisoned in the Tower
of London in the late 1590s. Though he was a prisoner, he lived a relatively
comfortable life and was allowed to continue his research and build a small library of
books and other academic materials in his room. He died in November of 1632, and the secrets
of his research died with him. That is, until Martin Tower was being renovated
hundreds of years later. During the process of renovations to the Martin
Tower, a hidden chamber was discovered beneath the tower’s structure. It did not appear on any official blueprints
of the building. The chamber contained scattered notes and
papers, and a sturdy iron door. Despite several attempts, the door could not
be opened by any ordinary means. Further investigation of the papers found
in the chamber revealed that they were research notes penned by Henry Percy, who is thought
to have created the chamber and the door within it. The notes were unusual and ominous, hinting
at a sense of otherworldly danger. A particularly unsettling note was an unsent
letter, from Henry Percy to famed playwright Christopher Marlowe. In the letter, Percy apologizes to Marlowe
for refusing to accept his warning about building the “Janus Gate” - a significant term,
as Janus is the Roman deity that represents beginnings, transitions, and passageways. The letter also references a cursed play - most
likely The Hanged King’s Tragedy, or SCP-701 - which Percy begs Marlowe to destroy. He ends the letter by saying that he has sealed
the gate, permitting only the enlightened to enter it so that they might perhaps see
what Percy could not. The letter concludes: “Damn that Metropolis
of Blood, that terrible Realm and its ancient countless Crimes. Consign thy Play to the Fire, deny thy vile
Patron, and aroint thee from this Madness. We would fain welcome thee back into the Night.” More troubling, perhaps, than the contents
of the letter itself is the date it was to be sent: May 30, 1593. The day before Marlowe was murdered. Suspecting the presence of an anomalous artifact
the Janus Gate referenced in Percy’s notes and letters, the Crown hurriedly contacted
the SCP Foundation and requested they perform a thorough investigation. What they found was unlike anything the Foundation
has ever encountered, before or since. Henry Percy was speaking truthfully in his
letter, he did seal off the door in his secret chamber. The only way to open it is to complete a series
of alchemical instructions, similar to those used in the creation of a Philosopher’s
Stone. A resident Alchemy expert at the Foundation
assisted in finding the solution, and, for better or for worse, the Janus Gate was unlocked
for observation. Beyond the gate lies a city, known as SCP-2264-B.
The city is extradimensional, matching no known location on earth or anywhere else. Upon entering the city, the smell of dried
flowers and old books greets you. You glance up at the sky to find it an eerie
yellow, spotted with infinite glittering black stars. If you look down at yourself, you will find
that your clothes have disappeared, replaced with attire that would not be out of place
at a Masquerade ball. Your face is adorned with a Venetian mask
that you cannot remove, no matter how hard you try, until you have left this strange
world and passed back through the gate. If you pause to take in the sights of the
city around you, you will find buildings, carved from one single undetermined material,
all in black, white, yellow, or red. These are the only colors present in the city. In the distance, a viscous black ocean laps
at the shore on all sides. Though the ominous black liquid in said ocean
is anything but water. The city, though it has been proven to exist
in a corporeal state, has the quality of a lucid dream. Operatives inside of it report difficulty
concentrating, citing a feeling of hypnagogic malaise, inability to control their impulses,
and trouble describing what they saw and did inside of the city once they have returned
to the regular world. The dimension seems to run on dream logic,
best described in the movie Inception - not everything makes sense, and transitions between
place and time seem muddy to say the least. After several expeditions that failed to return
conclusive, coherent observations about the city’s nature, another exploration was planned. Chosen for his experience with altered states,
mainly lucid dreaming and hallucinogenic drugs, Dr. Calixto Navaez was selected to lead this
exploration. Upon entering SCP-2264-B for his first exploration,
most of Dr. Navaez’s colleagues split off from him to join in the decadent celebrations
in the palace. He resisted this temptation, though of course
he considered it for a moment, and continued on with his investigation of the city. He made several significant discoveries over
the course of this first expedition, which informed the Foundation’s perspective on
the city going forward. First, he realized that the city somehow universally
translates language. No matter what a person’s native tongue,
they will hear the inhabitants of the city speaking in it. Some of Dr. Navaez’s colleagues heard the
citizens speaking English, while he heard them speaking in his native Spanish. It is unclear how this instantaneous translation
is accomplished. Second, he learned the name of the city: Alagadda,
a city-state bordering something referred to only as the Nevermeant. To provide a little context and clarification,
the city of Alagadda is a nexus point for a whole multi-verse of hedonists. Countless entities from every conceivable
dimension turn up here to sample its legendary pleasures. Think of it almost like a multidimensional
Cancun during Spring Break. He was given this information by a foreign
scholar known as the Wandsman of Kul-Manas, a robed creature in a birdlike mask. The Wandsman was also able to provide some
insight into the political power structure of Alagadda, providing Dr. Navaez with his
third piece of critical new information. The city is overseen by four Masked Lords:
The Black Lord, Wearer of the Anguished Mask, The White Lord, Wearer of the Diligent Mask,
The Yellow Lord, Wearer of the Odious Mask, and The Red Lord, Wearer of the Mirthful Mask. These powerful entities act as advisors to
the city’s mighty King, who many of the travelers in the city sought a favor from. The Wandsman warned about each of these Lords,
stating that, in spite of their different names, they are all equally dangerous. They also warned against interacting with
The Ambassador of Alagadda. After this illuminating conversation, Dr.
Navaez gathered the rest of his colleagues and returned to the real world. On his second expedition into Alagadda, Dr.
Navaez immediately sought out the Wandsman of Kul-Manas. The Wandsman expressed concern for Dr. Navaez
and his team, warning them: “The Ambassador of Alagadda will soon return from Adytum and
only the mad shall remain. I suggest you leave posthaste, for I intend
the same.” When pressed on the subject of Adytum, the
Wandsman explained that it is “A terrible city, filled with equally terrible people. It is said that the Grand Karcist of Adytum
serves the designs of an elder being, a horror thought to rival even the Hanged King of Alagadda.” Before Dr. Navaez could gather any more answers,
the Wandsman stopped, becoming clearly frightened, and said: “I sense the Ambassador of Alagadda
has returned. I take my leave of this place and I suggest
you do the same. Flee; do not delay.” The Wandsman promptly exited through the nearest
door. Following Dr. Navaez’s expeditions, the
Foundation appointed a task force of agents trained in hand-to-hand combat and Counter
Occult strategies to go back into Alagadda. The task force, nicknamed the Abyss Gazers,
was to seek out the King and Ambassador of Alagadda and determine the level of threat
they might pose to humanity. Twelve agents were sent in, and only one,
Agent Alexander Papadopoulos, came back alive. The other eleven are presumed dead or lost
forever. Agent Papadopoulos was found unconscious and
in critical condition outside the entrance to Alagadda. A physical exam was conducted, revealing broken
bones throughout his entire body as well as severe internal bleeding. He was in the hospital for three weeks before
the Foundation determined him healthy enough for an interview. The interview was conducted by Dr. Laxmi Narang
and allowed the Foundation to get a sense of what Agent Papadopoulos witnessed inside
the city, and what happened to the other eleven team members. The team managed to locate the palace, struggling
with the dreamlike effect of the city on the mind, and the lack of ability to determine
how much time had passed while they were there. As the group descended deeper into the palace,
it became more convoluted and labyrinthine. They spent most of their time descending a
staircase, traveling deeper and deeper. When they reached the bottom of the staircase,
suddenly they were outside the palace again, as if they never went inside. Except, everything was a little bit different. Wrong, somehow. The world looked dark and drained of color,
bathed in hazy gray light. There were no people to be seen, and the buildings
looked run down and abandoned. They walked back into the palace from this
strange new location and began to hear whispering. Not just in their ears, but in their very
minds. The Ambassador of Alagadda had found them. It appeared before them, a tall thin dark
figure with no face, no mouth, no eyes. Somehow it spoke, in a language none of the
team could understand, and it laughed. As it watched, unable to control themselves,
the team began to tear each other apart. Flesh ripped, organs collapsed, bones shattered,
and none of them could stop themselves until Agent Papadopoulos was the only one left alive. He was not left alive by mistake, the Ambassador
left him living in order to pass on the message of its existence. It dragged his limp body into the chambers
of the king and forced him to look upon its twisted form. His exact terrifying words of the account
paint a gruesome picture: “Eventually we stopped and it lifted me
into the air, held me up before the throne. There I saw the King. It was anchored in place, hallowed bonds around
its corpse-like hands and throat - its face hidden beneath a veil. Impish creatures crawled all over it, caressing
its twitching body as if intending comfort while others pulled the tethers even tighter. The King trembled and quivered and I saw pale
tendrils slither in and out of its tattered robes. I looked on as the veil was lifted…” At this point in his interview, the Agent
became inconsolable. He begged to be killed, a request which was
denied. Before the interview ended, the Agent said:
“A god shaped hole. The barren desolation of a fallen and failed
creation. You see the light of long-dead stars. Your existence is nothing but an echo of a
dying god's screams. The unseen converges. Surrounds you. And it tightens like a noose.” After the interview, Agent Papadopoulos refused
food and water and repeatedly requested to be terminated. This request was denied every time, and he
was given a feeding tube for nutrients. After the revelations in the Papadopoulos
interview, the Foundation suspended all research expeditions into Alagadda. It is difficult to hide SCP-2264 from the
public, due to the public nature of the building the gateway is located in. Because the Tower of London cannot be shut
off to the public, the Foundation has focused on hiding the gateway from anyone who might
accidentally stumble upon it. The government of the United Kingdom and the
Foundation worked together to build a secret passage to SCP-2264, accessible only to authorized
personnel. The original entrance has been walled off. Meanwhile, beyond the gate, Alagadda continues
in its strange, twisted ways. We do not know what the Ambassador wants,
or the nature of the other beings lurking within the city walls, but we can only hope
that they never find their way through the gate to us. Now go check out “SCP-261 - Pan-Dimensional
Vending Machine” and “SCP-001 - The Spiral Path” for more extradimensional oddities!
