The Worm That Walks
The Sailing Trip
Over the next few weeks few weeks recovering from their trip to California, James began researching the Arc of Vlactos but could not find anything in any of the books in the library at Harvard, nor in the public libraries in Boston. The rest of the Investigators took things easy, especially Matthew who was still suffering great discomfort from the grievous wounds he had received in Devils Canyon, and had only recently been discharged from hospital.
Summoned one more to dinner with Dr Call, the Investigators accepted an invitation from a Mr Christopher Edwin, who believed that the Silver Twilight were up to something in area surrounding Salk Harbour on an island off the coast of Maine.Mr Edwin had supplied train tickets to the town of Portland where he had arranged for them to met by his private steam yacht to taken them to the island.
Before setting off they did a little research, discovering that Mr Edwin came from "old" money his family originally making a fortune in whaling before diversifying into fishing an mining. Researching the occult history of the Salk Harbour area there was little other than the story of the "Woodie House" a sordid tale of murder, hangings and subsequent mysterious deaths.
Saturday lunchtime, they found themselves aboard the Pride of Salk an old, but luxuriously appointed, wooden-hulled steam yacht crewed by the taciturn "Cap'n Bob" and the garrulous "Young Roger". As they set off from Portland, Dan noticed dark ominous looking clouds on the horizon, but when asked Cap'n Bob dismissed them as no more than a "Force 5 or 6". Most of the Investigators repaired to their cabins below with the exception of James who, feeling decidedly queasy, remained on the deck near the wheelhouse trying to engage Cap'n Bob in conversation.
W
hen the bad weather finally hit them, it was decidedly more that the
"strong breeze" the captain had forecast and the sea became decidedly
rough. Suddenly the ship lurched viciously to one side and Cap'n Bob
swore as he wrested the wheel round trying to steady the ship.
Sebastian appeared on deck and noticed something odd - on the lee side
of the ship where the water should be calmer, it was in fact bubbling
furiously and there was a huge black shadow beneath. Unable to think of
anything else he called out a warning about whales and the ship bucked
furiously again - this time with a decided cracking sound! Virgil and a
sooty-faced Roger appeared on deck, rushing concernedly to the side to
peer over while the captain continued to wrestle with the wheel.
Suddenly a horrific form lurched out of the water composed of shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light. with horror Virgil and James realised they had seen this formless horror before in the basement of the Remember the Future building in New York.Cap'n Bob screamed, his mind broken by the awful thing destroying his ship, shouted “Every man for himself!”, jumped overboard, and started swimming toward land.
What followed was a chaos of confusion as the Investigators were hurled about as the Pride
heaved and bucked under the attentions of the shoggoth. Above decks,
while James tried to grab the wheel to help steady the ship, before
realising it was pointless, Roger Seb and Virgil desperately struggled
to launch the single lifeboat and the hull of the ship splintered and
cracked. Below decks, Matthew was hampered both by his wounds and his
desperate desire to save the books he had salvaged. Dan ever the
conscientious doctor refused to leave his patient a Vincente tried to
help, eventually burdening himself with Matthew's case as they attempted
to get to the upper decks as the ship heaved and bucked around them,
water now beginning to lap at their feet.
Above decks they had just managed to get the lifeboat launched when the air was rent by an eerie high-pitched whistle of steam. Realising that sound originated from the ships the untended boiler, he ordered the others to board the lifeboat and dashed below when he found Dan struggling with Matthew. Sebastian unceremoniously hoisted Matthew into a fireman's lift and somehow the three managed to get to the lifeboat as the Pride broke in two around them. They had barely cast off from the stricken vessel when, as the cold seawater engulfed it, the Pride's boiler exploded, taking both the splintered remains of the ship and the shoggoth itself to the bottom of the sea!
Somehow, as the storm abated, and despite James falling overboard at
one point, Roger managed to steer the lifeboat to the shore of the
island whereupon the local sheriff and an ambulance, as well as a
reporter from the Salk Island Gazette, soon introduced their own
form of ordered chaos to the scene. James and Matthew were whisked off
to the local hospital while the others after explaining what had
happened (omitting all reference to the shoggoth) secured rooms at the
Harbour Inn. Virgil went up to the Edwin house to be informed by the
housekeeper that Mr Edwin had retired for the night but had extended
and invitation to them for Sunday lunch the next day.
Next day, after much laundering, James and Matthew having been patched up and discharged from hospital, the Investigators headed to the Edwin house where they discovered that Mr Edwin was very much an invalid confined to an electric bath-chair. After a rather splendid lunch and sipping on some of the local moonshine Mr Edwin told them his tale.
He reiterated the tale of the Woodie House but added that about a year ago a man named Malcolm Smith had bought the property, and he believed that he was trying somehow to drain the magic energy from the evil spirits that resided there for some awful purpose, before he too disappeared. And to cap it all, three weeks before Smith disappeared, Edwin had seen him meet with Carl Stanford in the restaurant of the harbour Inn.The Woodie House
Next morning, after a pleasant night's rest in the Edwin Mansion, the Investigators set out for the woods outside town. Following the directions given by their host, they undertook the five-mile hike through the deepening woods to a small clearing. The Woodie House had obviously seen better days, but as they approached they could see signs of crude repairs, and evidence of recent use on the trail that led to the front door. The first indication of anything really amiss however came when Sebastian spotted a small mound of human skulls near the woodpile. Dan quickly confirmed these were recent, not ancient deceased.
Nervously approaching the silent house, Matthew was first to brave the entrance, followed smartly by Virgil.The front room of the house was small and apart from a filthy stained couch in front of the fireplace was mostly empty. There were several doors leading off this room. The first led to what was obviously used as a dining room where a great slab of wood served as a table top. It dominated the room, two uprooted stumps support it. The lamp hanging above the table is especially horrible in the near-darkness of the house — it was obviously formed from the stretched globular skin of a human head. As it swung slowly around in the gust of air produced by the door’s opening, the Investigators could clearly see the stitched-up eye- and mouth-holes.
That horror was surpassed by that of the kitchen where hands, feet, and more grisly bits of human debris were spread by the stove and on the counter top. As Sebastian, reluctantly went to open the icebox in the corner he suddenly noticed a little piece of wire coming from the inside of the icebox and winding around the handle. Deciding this might be some kind of booby trap, he decided to forgo opening the door.
One room, obviously used as a bedroom was empty save for the foul
smelling mattress and blankets in the corner. The final room of the
house was another bedroom this one decorated in macabre fashion with
piles of bones, both human and animal. As Virgil and Sebastian searched
this room a wild-eyed madman erupted from the largest pile of bones,
lunges upward, clutching a hatchet and looking more like monster than
man, drooling and draped in rotted bones and matted hair. The axe swung
wildly catching Sebastian a glancing blow as the madman howled defiance
at them. As if this was some sort of signal, all hell broke lose.
Matthew, standing in the doorway of the house, was suddenly blasted backward onto the couch as he took both barrels of a shotgun. Vincente ran to one of the filthy windows in the dining room smashing it and peering out trying to find where the shot has come from. As Matthew dragged his bleeding body to the corner of the room, Dan dashed across to try and help. Unfortunately the doctor crossed the open doorway and he too was blasted to the ground.
In the bedroom Sebastian and and Virgil both drew their pistols and put-down the madman as he flailed wildly with the axe, fortunately not hitting anyone. Sebastian then dashed towards the front of the house. As Virgil rushed to proffer first aid to Dan and Matthew, Sebastian charged outside and, spotting a figure in the bushes frantically re-loading a shotgun, raised his pistol and fired. The round took his target directly in the forehead spattered brains across the bushes.
Virgil having done what he could to help, came out as another shot, this time the bark of a revolver, rang out from outside. The window behind Vicente exploded as a .45 calibre round punched through it and took him in the back, dropping him instantly. Sebastian and Virgil moved to the corner of the house stepping out and firing just the the third assailant did as well. The two shots from Virgil struck true dropping their target instantly, however his shot struck Virgil in the chest, wounding him grievously. Sebastian quickly administered first aid to Virgil then surveyed the carnage that had erupted so quickly. There were bloodied bodies everywhere both the wounded and the dead. Realising than none of his friends were in any shape for a five mile hike through the woods, he ensured that they were all stable and set off to find help.
That evening, after an interminable series of interviews with the sheriff, Sebastian headed to the hospital to check on his friends. After discovering that all were as well as could be expected, he returned to the Edwin mansion to report on events, his host being horrid by what had transpired and assuring that he would meet all medical costs. Those in the hospital that night had a restless night, between the normal overnight medical checks and horrid dreams, no doubt fostered by the trauma of what had happened to them.
Sebastian spent much of the next day at the sheriff's office but
popped in to see his friends all of whom except Dan were feeling weary
and plagued by bad dreams.That night everyone in the hospital, except
Dan, had another poor night, feeling not at all rested and again plagued
by bad dreams. When Sebastian arrived at the hospital later that day,
he decided to remain overnight.
Round about midnight on the third day, Vincente suddenly jerked awake to find one of the orderlies looming over him. He started to relax, assuming it was one of the normal night-time checks, when suddenly the orderly's form shifted and twisted into what seemed like a human corpse decayed into hues of green, black, and blue. Dripping pieces of flesh hung from it and prodigious talons dangled from the apparition’s fingers, and from the undead monster’s sockets stare lidless bare eyeballs. As the creature's claws reached fro him Vincente's already fragile mind snapped as he scrabbled to flee.
Across the hospital, Matthew and Virgil suddenly snapped awake,
visions of clawed hands reaching for Vincente fresh in their mind.
Virgil scrambled out of bed shouting and Sebastian and a nurse came
running towards him. Matthew, whose room, was next to Vincente's stepped
out into the corridor, right into the path of the creature, whose
taloned claws reached for him hungrily, ripping viciously through
already badly damaged flesh.
Vincente fled down the corridors of the hospital, dashing past Virgil, Sebastian and a very confused nurse coming the other way. They barely had time to react when the creature covered in Matthew's blood lurched round the corner. Reacting indistinctively, Sebastian pulled his revolver and fired - to no effect. As the creature lurched towards them, Virgil grabbed a nearby chair and swung at the creature, staggering it. The creature reacted by clawing viciously dropping the already badly wounded Virgil instantly. Angrily, Sebastian dropped his pistol and stepped forward fist swing with the practised ease of a boxer. As his fist connected with the creatures head, he heard the satisfying crunch of bone and redoubled his efforts. As the creature flailed at him wildly, Sebastian methodically beat it to a pulp, whereupon it lay still its body remaining, but it appeared to be no more than the horribly decayed corpse of a human being.
While the medical staff dealt with the badly wounded, and returned
them to their bed, Sebastian headed to the morgue following the
orderlies who removed the corpse there. Checking through the paperwork
there he discovered that a body, that of a drowned fisherman had been
"mislaid" the very day his friends had been admitted. As he churned
things over, reviewing the events of the past few days, his investigator
instincts came to one conclusion. The series of near-fatal mishaps that
had dogged the investigators recently all trailed back to one common
source - Christopher Edwin!
It was just after dawn when Sebastian, checking his revolver was
fully loaded, arrived at the Edwin mansion. The building was dark, and
seemed strangely eerie for somewhere he had actually spent the last few
days. He began searching the house methodically, looking for Edwin. He
found him finally in one of the back rooms, sitting in his wheelchair -
quite dead. As he approached the body, his mind quailed as it was
apparent, even on a cursory inspection that Edwin had been dead for
weeks!
