shining trapezohedron

"in the center of the dust-laden floor rose a curiously angled stone pillar... on this pillar rested a metal box ... its interior holding ... an egg-shaped or irregularly spherical object... either a very remarkable crystal of some sort or an artificial object of carved and highly polished mineral matter ... this stone, once exposed, exerted upon blake an almost alarming fascination."

i: almandine-garnet trapezohedron.

h.p.lovecraft, the haunter of the dark