A Shadow Over Innsmouth

October 31st found The Fallen Hour materializing on Earth circa 1930.  The location was the New England coastal region of a territory known as the United States, an isolated seaside town known as Innsmouth (Innsmouth <14, 245, 12>).  

Arrival At Innsmouth
Note the Figures in the Surf at the Base of the Lighthouse

Drawn there by curious readings--indications of advanced alien life--I set out to explore this gloomy place. What I found was a town abandoned...decaying homes, vacant churches, and empty shops.  It was as if the entire human community had simply vanished, leaving Innsmouth behind to rot.  And yet, from the moment I arrived, I felt certain I was not alone.  There was a distinct presence there...something ancient and sinister.  All my instincts told me Innsmouth had gone very, very wrong.

A Town Abandoned

As I explored, I caught glimpses along the shore of what appeared to be reptilian--or amphibious--humanoids.  At first I thought my eyes played tricks on me--engendered by the weird ambience of the community--for the figures seemed to vanish as quickly as they appeared.  But soon there was no doubt.  They were real, and watching.

Slowly I uncovered dark hints as to the fate of Innsmouth.  Outside of town I found a stone circle, with a central stone smeared in blood.  In the center of town I found a decaying shrine to some hideous sort of fish god.  I had seen depictions of this deity before, thousands of years earlier and on the opposite side of the planet.  But the cult of Dagon in 20th century America?  It was wrong and out of place.

The Shrine of Dagon

The hospital out of town was also deserted, but upstairs hidden away I found signs of human experimentation, and in the scattered notes of a local doctor, I discovered the sickening truth.  The human community of Innsmouth had taken to worshipping, and interbreeding with, the Deep Ones, an aquatic Terran species I had believed to be extinct.  Apparently, the progeny of such unions appeared human but began to evolve, later in life, into its Deep One form.  Then the individual surrendered to the call of the sea.  Apparently as the interbreeding had spread, the entire town slowly succumbed to the lure of the waves.

The Truth in the Attic

But this was not my final shock.  In the marshes outside of town, I caught sight of it.  I had heard tales of such things back on Gallifrey...a prehistoric race of titan beings known as the Old Ones.  This thing was one of their spawn, and had claimed the Deep One community as its subjects.  

The Spawn of the Old Ones

Seeing it was to late to do anything for lost Innsmouth, I returned to The Fallen Hour, both hearts pounding, and fled.