May 27, 1703. Nyen
A man walked into what remained of the formerly Swedish city. Months ago, his armies had conquered this fortress and surrounding city, and they had taken control of the land. Against the judgement of his guards, he went for a walk, looking around the city’s ruins. Soon, he found what seemed to be an opening blown into the ground, heading into some sort of catacomb. He slowly climbs down into it and looks around, trying to find anything that might give more information. Soon, he’d come across some sort of writing on the wall, in a strange text he’d never seen. It was neither Latin nor Cyrillic. He smirked, for he had a decent idea of what this meant, an idea helped further by the reliefs carved into the wall: strange markings, surrounding what seemed to be representations of stones. He climbed out, and his guards approached him.
“Tsar Peter!” The one asked him. “What is it you’ve found?”
The Tsar smiled. “Two old cities and one new one. Let us return to Moscow. We shall begin construction on our new capital. I welcome you all to the new site-” He turns, looking at the city, the fort, and the ruins of the city below this one. “Of Saint Petersburg.”
April 26, 2020. Western Pennsylvania
Jeff sits in front of his television, having just taken a break from his work, trying to translate an old alphabet found somewhere around the city of Tallinn. He sees the remote on the table nearby, and, being lazy, doesn’t get up. His amethyst pendant glows, as does the remote, as it floats into his hand, and he turns on the TV.
“Breaking news!” The television reporter says. “A set of strange catacombs, along with other odd ruins, have been found underneath the historic city of Saint Petersburg. Authorities have been silent on the issue, and officials in the city also refuse to elaborate on what has been found. Reporters from all over the globe have travelled to see what it’s about, but no one is being let close to the site where this was discovered. We will report more as information arises. This is Siobhan O’Day, with Channel 5 News.”
Jeff turns off the television, and hurriedly goes to find his phone. He’d theorized for quite a while that something of importance would be found under Petersburg, and now was a chance to prove this theory. However, from the sounds of it, he was going to need help getting through. He began to make some calls to old friends, be them colleagues, helpers from the incident two years prior, or other friends he’d think would be able to help, he tries everyone he can think to get ahold of.
May 5, 2020. Pulkovo Airport, St. Petersburg.
Jeff awaits the friends who had said they’d arrive to help, anxiously pacing outside the airport. To any who hadn’t the time or money to come, he had helped to make arrangements, assuming they wanted to get messed up in this sort of stuff again. He sighed, simultaneously ready and not ready for this adventure, and knowing they were likely not the only ones here for this strange occurrence. Little did he know just how deep he was wading into it.