The Thing in the Pit

"The Thing in the Pit" is a horror fantasy short story by Lin Carter set in the Cthulhu Mythos, and part of his Xothic Legend Cycle. It was first published in Carter's 1980 collection Lost Worlds.
==Synopsis ==
The story purports to be part of Prof. Copeland's translation of the Zanthu Tablets, which narrate the life of the hierophant Zanthu, high-priest of the god Ythogtha in the ancient continent of Mu. Peppered through the text are Copeland's footnotes, which provide additional information about many beings and places mentioned by Zanthu.
About 11,000 years after the time of T'yog, the cult of the god Ghatanothoa becomes the sole official religion of the kingdom of K'naa, thanks to the influence of its high-priest Yaa-Thobboth over King Shommog. This results in all the other temples being sealed and the worship of other deities being banned. Given the political power of K'naa, Zanthu fears that the same law might be passed in his own kingdom, G'thuu.
Zanthu's palace is located next to the Abyss of Yhe, where Ythogtha himself is believed to be imprisoned by the Elder Sign placed there by the Elder Gods. Studying the Thirty-one Rituals, Zanthu finds a spell that could open the door of Yhe and liberate his god from its prison. Determined to do so, he secures the alliance of Ubb and the Yuggs, gathers his acolytes, and performs the ritual at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Abyss of Yhe.
At first, Zanthu is awed by the sight of a faceless, mountain-sized creature with a single black horn that emerges from the pit. But when a second identical "monster" emerges next to it, followed by many others, Zanthu cries in fear as he realises the sheer size of the creature. The things he mistook for individual monsters are nothing more than the tips of Ythogtha's clawed fingers.
Zanthu and his acolytes run away while the earthquakes caused by Ythogtha's movements destroy the continent of Mu. The Elder Gods descend to Earth from Betelgeuse as great towers of flame to push the monster back into the abyss and close the gate. Zanthu and a few others manage to reach a "sky chariot" and escape, but watch their homeland sink beneath the waves.
==Behind the Mythos==
One of Copeland's footnotes mentions the wizard Malygris from Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis series.
==Publication History "The Thing in the Pit" at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database==
*Lost Worlds (1980, 2020)
*The Xothic Legend Cycle (1997)
*Al-Azif (1998, January-February edition)
*Die Xothic-Legenden (2004)
*The Xothic Cycle (2021)
==References==
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Lin Carter works