SCP-8452
Item #: SCP-8452
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8452 is to be contained in an anomalous item locker located 14 meters above the ground in the center of a 28m x 28m x 28m containment cell at Site-19. Testing of SCP-8452 requires approval from at least two members of research staff with Level 4 clearance or higher.
Sigil of Bael
Description: SCP-8452 is a keyaki box measuring 20 cm × 20 cm × 10 cm. The Sigil of Bael is engraved on SCP-8452’s underside. SCP-8452 exhibits limited physical deterioration relative to its estimated age and environmental exposure.
SCP-8452 physically contains a spiritual entity designated SCP-8452-A. The engraved sigil provides incomplete suppression of SCP-8452-A's abilities. SCP-8452-A can exert influence within a 13-meter radius of SCP-8452. Documented anomalous effects include telekinetic movement of SCP-8452 itself, dematerialization of living entities within its range, spontaneous manifestation of silver ingots of varying mass and purity.
SCP-8452 was recovered from the archives of the Spanish Episcopal Conference building in Madrid. It was brought from Japan to Spain in 1585 by the missionary Arturo Ramírez.
The following are excerpts from a historical document written by Ramírez.
The following is Ramírez's account of SCP-8452-A before containment.
This indicates SCP-8452-A provided silver ingots and abundant harvests in exchange for maggot-infested corpses.
In most villages, the demons never actually appeared to us, but in one village we visited, we encountered a powerful demon who lured the people with promises of silver and abundant harvests, leading to numerous sacrifices.
【Omission】
They led us to the swamp on the outskirts of the village, where we saw a horrific sight: The body of an old man rolled onto the edge of the swamp, half-buried in mud, where maggots were swarming his body. The inhabitants told us that a demon lives in this swamp, and that leaving a body until maggots appear will bring them blessings. We were left speechless, but then, one of the residents said, "It's here," and walked away from the old man's body. We followed, and…. Dear God, we found the body of a young girl. The body was much older than the man's, it looked as though it had already been eaten away by maggots long before we arrived. Nearby were the skeletal remains of a dog, and several animals I didn't even recognize. When the man touched the mud next to her, he found a huge silver nugget, the equivalent of an armful, buried there. He yelled something and the townsfolk gathered together to dig it up. When I asked them, "Are you offering people's lives to the demon for silver?", they insisted, as if making fun of me, "We didn't kill them. People can die naturally without being killed! Including the animals!" I was truly sickened, but they continued, saying, "We hold funerals for them this way, for the sake of Lord Bii." The townsfolk boasted that the silver was a blessing from the demon.
The following indicates SCP-8452 is an artifact confiscated from natives by Ramírez, and used it to contain SCP-8452-A, the entity he identified as Bael.
Later that night, I went alone to the swamp. First, I dressed in my formal attire, and poured holy water into the swamp, planning to raise the cross and send the devil back to hell. In response to the pouring of holy water, the surface of the marsh began to ripple, and at first I was mistakenly convinced that things were going as planned. However, the holy water splashed and rose into the air several times, mixing with the swamp water. I believe the demon was possessing the holy water, as the rippling holy water was beginning to take on clear shapes. I could see many different shapes, some of which I may have misidentified, but I believe I saw what appeared to be the heads of a man, a cat and a toad. I recognized these heads. It was clear to me that this was Bael.
【Omission】
Far from being frightened by the holy water, it leaped lightly across the swamp, seemingly delighted to be showered with it! It even ventured to ask about the cross, using the language of a faraway, foreign land. I was terrified! Out of panic, I instinctively used one of the artifacts the former pagans had given to me: a casket capable of containing spirits. I had no choice! Luckily, the casket worked! Bael seemed to be separated from the holy water and trapped into the casket.
The following indicates the engraved sigil has never provided complete suppression of SCP-8452-A's abilities.
I quickly carved the Sigil of Bael into the casket, doing my best to seal him away. In my haste, I didn't realize I'd carved it into the bottom instead of the top. My hands were shaking…
I was successful in confining him, but he still seems to be affecting the surrounding area. When I returned, Misuke greeted me with a trembling voice. He told me that he had certainly heard the demon speak. He said he could still hear the demon, and it was begging.
The following is Ramírez's unabridged document. While it is not compulsory reading for researchers, it has been deemed a potential source of pertinent information.
▽ Close Missionary notes regarding SCP-8452
Although this country is dominated by paganism, thanks to the efforts of other missionaries who had been there before me, I had found here and there like-minded people who knew the teachings of God. The teachings of God seemed to be particularly widespread in the south, so we decided to go north. We continued to convert people and retrieved some heretical magical artifacts from some of them, all of which I intended to deal with appropriately upon my return. As we went, the villages became increasingly cold, and the people seemed to be suffering from poor harvests.
The group of people who knew, or sought, to know the teachings of God, apparently called "Kirishitan" in this country, became more and more sparse. The further into the remote areas you go, the more God's teachings are distorted and misrepresented. We have even come across people who want to cling to the teachings of God, but who cannot even distinguish between God and demons, so we taught them the correct teachings of God.
As we go further into the interior, the God, demons and pagan deities became mixed up in the minds of the people, and we witnessed a most tragic truth: The famine was so severe that people were killing children in order to secure relatively more food. The desperation reminded me of my homeland many years ago. However, they weren't killing each other, but killing their children in a pagan way, under the pretext of sacrificing them to their mountain and fertility deities.
I followed a woman and her young son go deep into the mountains with Misuke, a Japanese man who accompanied us as an interpreter, where we saw her kill her own child. We tried to persuade her to stop. The little boy was being led by his mother's hand, not understanding what we were yelling about or was about to happen to him. As we continued our desperate pursuit, the woman turned around in protest, she was clutching a sickle in her hand, and both she and her child were emaciated with hunger, her eyes were like those of wild animal. She shouted something at us, almost biting me, and Misuke told us, she said, "It's no good because the land won't grow crops! Everyone is starving! People, dogs, snakes, frogs, everyone!!!" Then she ran into the bushes and we heard the sound of flesh being cut and gargling. This seemed to have happened many times in this area, but the harvest never returned.
No such sacrificial rituals ever seemed to be truly successful, but we were convinced that if anything were to respond to such a sacrifice, it would be a demon. In most villages, the demons never actually appeared to us, but in one village we visited, we encountered a powerful demon who lured the people with promises of silver and abundant harvests, leading to numerous sacrifices. Young children, and sometimes the elderly, were lured to the nearby swamps and killed in sacrifices to this demon. Through Misuke, I explained the teachings of God to the villagers and urged them to stop making such a pact with a demon, but instead of following my advice, they insisted on showing us the "miracle of the demon." The famine was also affecting the inhabitants here, but they also looked strange… They still seemed healthier and had more flesh on them than the previous villagers I had seen so far.
They led us to the swamp on the outskirts of the village, where we saw a horrific sight: The body of an old man rolled onto the edge of the swamp, half-buried in mud, where maggots were swarming his body. The inhabitants told us that a demon lives in this swamp, and that leaving a body until maggots appear will bring them blessings. We were left speechless, but then, one of the residents said, "It's here," and walked away from the old man's body. We followed, and…. Dear God, we found the body of a young girl. The body was much older than the man's, it looked as though it had already been eaten away by maggots long before we arrived. Nearby were the skeletal remains of a dog, and several animals I didn't even recognize. When the man touched the mud next to her, he found a huge silver nugget, the equivalent of an armful, buried there. He yelled something and the townsfolk gathered together to dig it up. When I asked them, "Are you offering people's lives to the demon for silver?", they insisted, as if making fun of me, "We didn't kill them. People can die naturally without being killed! Including the animals!" I was truly sickened, but they continued, saying, "We hold funerals for them this way, for the sake of Lord Bii." The townsfolk boasted that the silver was a blessing from the demon.
It was then that I heard the demon's voice, a low, menacing growl from deep within the swamp, sounding as if its mouth were closed. I tried to remain silent, but when Misuke looked as if he was about to exchange words with the demon, I quickly stopped him and decided to retreat from the scene.
Later that night, I went alone to the swamp. First, I dressed in my formal attire, and poured holy water into the swamp, planning to raise the cross and send the devil back to hell. In response to the pouring of holy water, the surface of the marsh began to ripple, and at first I was mistakenly convinced that things were going as planned. However, the holy water splashed and rose into the air several times, mixing with the swamp water. I believe the demon was possessing the holy water, as the rippling holy water was beginning to take on clear shapes. I could see many different shapes, some of which I may have misidentified, but I believe I saw what appeared to be the heads of a man, a cat and a toad. I recognized these heads. It was clear to me that this was Bael.
I desperately held up the cross towards him, but he wasn't intimidated at all. Instead, he asked me, "What is that thing?" The words were spoken in Japanese, but having listened closely to Misuke's translations many times over, I realized that they were the same words used by pagans who came to me out of curiosity about my cross and Bible. The presence before me left me perplexed, all my existing knowledge shattered, and I could feel my years of training drain from me. Far from being frightened by the holy water, it leaped lightly across the swamp, seemingly delighted to be showered with it! It even ventured to ask about the cross, using the language of a faraway, foreign land. I was terrified! Out of panic, I instinctively used one of the artifacts the former pagans had given to me: a casket capable of containing spirits. I had no choice! Luckily, the casket worked! Bael seemed to be separated from the holy water and trapped into the casket. I quickly carved the Sigil of Bael into the casket, doing my best to seal him away. In my haste, I didn't realize I'd carved it into the bottom instead of the top. My hands were shaking…
I was successful in confining him, but he still seems to be affecting the surrounding area. When I returned, Misuke greeted me with a trembling voice. He told me that he had certainly heard the demon speak. He said he could still hear the demon, and it was begging. It was saying, "The land is barren, and I am starving. Please give me more offerings, I will give you more silver and a good harvest." I was able to catch Bael, but I couldn't completely seal him. I apologize for my lack of ability. God, please forgive me…
To assess potential threats posed by SCP-8452, experiments were approved and conducted on it. Experiments involving living D-Class personnel were proposed but denied on ethical grounds, but D-Class cadavers were approved.
Experimentation Logs:
Test 8452-1
Date: ██/██/20██
Experiment: The corpse of a laboratory mouse was placed within a 13m radius of SCP-8452.
Result: No notable changes were observed.
Test 8452-2
Date: ██/██/20██~██/██/20██
Experiment: The corpse of a laboratory mouse was placed within a 13m radius of SCP-8452. The corpse was infested with standard house fly eggs before being placed into the test chamber.
Result: After the maggots metamorphize into pupae, SCP-8452 jumped 2 meters into the air and 93 grams of pure silver materialized. Analysis shows that the pupae shells were empty of biological material.
Test 8452-3
Date: ██/██/20██~██/██/20██
Experiment: The corpse of a laboratory rat was placed within a 13m radius of SCP-8452, with fresh fly eggs injected inside and left to hatch.
Result: After the maggots metamorphize into pupae, SCP-8452 jumped three times and 1 gram of pure silver appeared, scattered around the test chamber. SCP-8452 uttered the words "The numbers have increased, it is wonderful!" in an old dialect from the Tohoku region of Japan. Analysis of the pupae shells shows the same result as test 2.
Test 8452-4
Date: ██/██/20██
Experiment: The corpse of a laboratory rat was placed within a 13m radius of SCP-8452. One female house fly was released into the test chamber with the intent of allowing it to lay eggs in the corpse.
Result: SCP-8452 reoriented toward the corpse and slid to within 12 centimeters of it, at which point the fly dematerialized. SCP-8452 hopped three times, and 11 grams of silver appeared.
Test 8452-5
Date: ██/██/20██~██/██/20██
Experiment: The arm of a D-Class, that had been amputated in another experiment, was placed within a 13m radius of SCP-8452, and injected with fertilized fly eggs.
Result: After the maggots metamorphize into pupae, SCP-8452 jumped once, slid over to the arm, then jumped three times in a row. 10 grams of pure silver spontaneously erupted from the floor of the chest chamber, causing light damage. SCP-8452 uttered the words "The numbers have increased again, it is wonderful!! I am so happy!!" in a similar dialect to test 3. Pupae analysis show a similar result to previous tests. The arm was retrieved and incinerated.
Test 8452-6
Date: ██/██/20██
Experiment: Use Hartmann Ectomorph Imaging Device to photograph SCP-8452.
Result:
Test 8452-7
Date: ██/██/20██
Experiment: 5 live house flies of varying sex were released into the testing chamber with SCP-8452.
Result: SCP-8452 began sliding around the test chamber and jumping, causing the flies to dematerialize upon contact. SCP-8452 uttered the words "The number of offerings has decreased. Are the villagers unwell? I am worried…"
Test 8452-8
Date: ██/██/20██
Experiment: Several dozen live oriental cockroaches were released into the test chamber.
Result: SCP-8452 began to jump and slide around the test chamber. SCP-8452 would dematerialize each and every cockroach until the test chamber was emptied. After all the cockroaches disappeared, SCP-8452 uttered the words "Oh! More amazing offerings have arrived! They are voluminous and great! I too will be grateful and give you much the silver and bountiful harvests I can!". 2.5 tons of pure silver erupt from the newly repaired floor, causing massive damage to the test chamber. An unexpected rainfall occurred in the area surrounding the testing site, and the corn grew to anomalous dimensions. Farmers in the area were amnesticized and corn was retrieved for further study.
NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION DEPARTMENT OF TACTICAL THEOLOGY
We are currently in the process of starting a collaborative research project with a Japanese ethnology specialist within the Foundation.