Division Artifact 813-HX: "The Whispering Woods"
Division Case File #813, Artifact 813-HX
"The Whispering Woods"
Directives: Artifact 813-HX is contained within a standard 3m X 3m X 4m containment locker at Division Containment Facility ███████████████. Container is lined with 6 in. of concrete etched with Leviathan-class containment runes. Artifact 813-HX is draped with a 2 yd X 2 yd swath of heavy black velvet. Object is to be covered as such at all times, and no photographic or video records of Artifact 813-HX are to be taken. Division personnel interacting with the object are to be deployed in teams of two and given Level 4 anti-coercion training prior to entrance into the containment unit.
Artifact 813-HX, also known by its title, "The Whispering Woods", is a 20 in. X 30 in. oil painting in a non-descript wooden frame completed in November of 1910 by artist Esha Patil (Subject 813-b). Spectrographic and Metapsychic analysis of the painting reveals standard chemical elements in the paints, but also indicates the presence of human blood, semen, saliva, and three currently uncharacterized cyclic molecules of unknown origin. Eyewitness accounts of the painting, though rarely coherent or reliable, indicate that the subject is four individual elm trees depicted at the edge of a dark forest. Any inquiry as to the colors predominantly used in the painting elicits severe psychological distress in those that have viewed it.
Individuals coming within a 10-foot radius of the painting begin to notice a whispering sound at the edge of their hearing that intensifies with increased exposure duration. The whispers are mostly incoherent, but appear directed at convincing individuals to look at the painting. Division test subjects who acquiesced to the demands of the whispers describe that, as the sounds intensified, they could make out a previously unseen figure, sinister and vaguely humanoid, peering out at them from behind the leftmost elm tree. Test subjects tended to become catatonic within 12 - 17 minutes of this observation.
Division data and testimony from Omen-class agents suggest that the painting is able to extract the souls of anyone who looks upon it. What the souls are used for is currently unknown, but they are known to be contained within the painting. Following the events of Division Case File #813 , only two souls are known to be contained within 813-HX: that of Subject 813-b, and an unknown extraplanar entity believed to be the source of the painting's power.
Item type
Unique Artifact
Creation Date
November 1910
Destruction Date
N/A - Currently in Division custody
Creator
Rarity
Unique
Weight
16 lbs.
Dimensions
20 in. wide by 30 in. tall
Base Price
priceless
Raw materials & Components
Stretched canvas, ordinary wooden frame painted gold, oil pigments (?) of unknown origin and classed as anomalous
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