Police Chief James Gordon has asked the Riddler to identify a statuette, made of an unidentifiable stone. The statuette simultaneously resembles an octopus, a dragon and a human caricature with rudimentary wings. 'I know this stone', the Riddler says, 'Loathsomeness. And It waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.'