Halloween Countdown 2009: Monster #21

The great Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton forged into the icy abyss with knowledge of a Snow-Lizard of myth and legend, but gave the stories little heed; there was enough to worry about with the elements and the morale of his men; why also concern oneself with rumors of monsters?

Shackleton's journal makes one passing mention of the beast; while describing three of his men who apparently slipped into madness (and later died,) Shackleton recounts their terror-stricken states and their babbling claims of a snow beast with scales like a lizard and humanoid proportions.

It is unknown how the mere sight of the ice-lizard could cause such madness, or how three men of otherwise excellent constitution could succumb to the same delusions all at the same time. It could all be excused as nothing more than the mysteries of the human mind, if not for four modern cases of spontaneous madness recorded at Antarctic Science Bases since 1982.

One involved a Norwegian botanists, one involved a Japanese Computer Specialist, one involved an American Zoologist and one involved a Canadian Photojournalist. All on separate occasions, all at separate Polar Stations, all slipped into terror stricken madness. All claimed to have witnessed a snow beast with scales like a lizard and humanoid proportions.


[Artist rendition of the Snow-Lizard. The artists who rendered this illustration later slipped into unexplained madness.]