seedub

The Division Bell

Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-XXXX must be stored in a soundproof container, with all empty space in the container filled with expanded polystyrene (EPS) packing material. This soundproof container is currently stored in laboratory 6311. This laboratory is itself soundproofed, and equipped with no-audio CCTV monitoring.

Researchers accessing SCP-XXXX may only do so in laboratory-6311, only alone, and only wearing an active noise control headset playing continuous anti-SCP-XXXX noise. The door to laboratory-6311 will be automatically locked after entering the room. It will not unlock until one hour after SCP-XXXX has been returned to it's storage container, and the container secured in it's storage cabinet.

Description:
SCP-XXXX is a large bronze bell discovered during a 1992 archaeological dig performed by the Lincolnshire and Fenlands Archaeology Society (LAFAS) near Crowland Abbey, England. The bell was surrounded by human skeletal remains of individuals, most of which bore signs of violence, including broken bones, crushed skulls, separated limbs, incisions and scorch marks. Carbon-dating of the surrounding peat and skeletal remains date the bell to 710 CE ± 7 years.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has determined the bronze alloy to be composed of 73% copper, 26% tin, and 1% antimony¹. This is a higher than usual proportion of tin, which is typically around 20%. The bell's clapper is wrought iron. An inscription on the rim of the bell reads belli munus².

When rung, the bell produces an inharmonic strike tone that induces extreme feelings of revulsion or loathing of other humans in those that hear it. Those affected - all humans capable of hearing sounds in the 300-1,500 Hz range - will immediately try to attack any other human in sight, regardless of age, sex, physical or mental infirmities or acquaintance with the target. If multiple targets are visible, the closest will be attacked. Attacks are accompanied with shouted profanities, screams or incoherent gibberish. If an attack incapacitates the target, the attacker will continue attacking unless another target presents itself or the effect wears off.

The duration of the effect lasts no less than twenty minutes, and no more than forty.

Survivors have full recollection of the events and may become suicidal. In the event of an incident, Class C amnestics should be administered to survivors within 12 hours.

Incident log 6311-1:
This will describe what happened when a historical society/museum renovated it and rang it for the first time: all attendees consumed with revulsion and/or loathing, leading to much violence including deaths and serious injuries. Probably a description from security and/or news camera footage at the venue. Amnestics for survivors / footage viewers?

Addendum 1 - Findings from LAFAS

LAFAS documents and materials recovered after incident 6311-1 conclude that the bell was crafted by Guthlac of Crowland. Guthlac was an ascetic hermit monk who in 699 CE settled on what was then an island just off the Lincolnshire coast. He lived there until his death, constucting an oratory and cells in a plundered barrow. During his time there, he gave shelter to the future king of Mercia, Æthelbald (and in turn, Æthelbald built Crowland Abbey two years after Guthlac's death). Whilst on the island, Guthlac's biographer claims he was plagued by demons, and gives a description of them in the 8th-century manuscript Vita sancti Guthlaci³:

They were ferocious in appearance, terrible in shape with great heads, long necks, thin faces, yellow complexions, filthy beards, shaggy ears, wild foreheads, fierce eyes, foul mouths, horses' teeth, throats vomiting flames, twisted jaws, thick lips, strident voices, singed hair, fat cheeks, pigeons breasts, scabby thighs, knotty knees, crooked legs, swollen ankles, splay feet, spreading mouths, raucous cries. For they grew so terrible to hear with their mighty shriekings that they filled almost the whole intervening space between earth and heaven with their discordant bellowings.

When Guthlac died in 714 CE, his sister Pega placed his body in a lead coffin in the barrow. One year after his death, she was compelled to move his body to a nearby chapel, and discovered that his corpse was mysteriously unblemished. Guthlac was known to suffer from what was then called marsh fever⁴. LAFAS speculate that his apparent death was actually a malaria-induced coma, from which he recovered, truly dying close to a year later.

LAFAS documents come to no conclusion on where the antimony in SCP-XXXX could have come from.

Addendum 2.1 - Hemony brothers designs

December, 1996: Newly-discovered documents authenticated to be written by François Hemony in 1657 include a bell design identical to the SCP-XXXX. There are indications that at least thirty of these were manufactured and sold to unknown parties.

Addendum 2.2 - Texel shipwreck

August 2002: NISA discovered a bell in a shipwreck off the island of Texel, Netherlands. The name of the ship and it's destination are unknown, but the bell was well preserved, bearing the inscription "FRANCISCVS HEMONY ME FECIT AMSTELODAMI ANNO DOMINI 1658". The bell is currently located in the Texel Maritime Museum. It has not been rung to date.

Foundation agents are attempting to acquire Hemony's notes, the NISA shipwreck bell and their research.

Useful links

Ideas critique forum: http://www.scpwiki.com/forum:new-thread/c/89000
Ideas critique template: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-13282684/required-reading:how-to-use-this-forum-ideas

Footnotes

1. Antimony was unknown to the English at the estimated date of the bell's casting; the first written description in the west was by the Italian metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio in his posthumous 1540 metalworking manual, De la pirotechnia.

2. Latin: Gift of war

3. Latin: Life of St Guthlac

4. Malaria