Synopsis of The Dunwich Horror
The story begins in a rural village named Dunwich that is older than most New England towns, and dilapidated in both genepool and architecture. One decaying family, the Whateleys, live in a farmhouse away from Dunwich.
One night, Lavina Whateley, an albino, gives birth to Wilbur Whateley. No one knows the father, but the grandfather, Old Whateley, is quite proud. Over time, Wilbur ages quickly, and begins to exhibit odd features, like elongated ears and such.
His grandfather educates him in the black arts of various tomes and what, while also working on fixing up the house. The people of Dunwich shun the farm and its three inhabitatants.
Old Whateley boards up the top of the house and begins buying a lot of cattle. His herd often look diseased and it appears like his cattle must die quickly.
Lavina and Wilbur are spotted dancing on top of Sentinel Hill where some old stones lie. The spotter thinks they might be naked.
Wilbur always dresses more impeccably than the rest of his family. His room is on the bottom of the house. More carpentry is done, including putting an incline up to a top window and taking out some walls and what.
Lavina starts to be excluded by Old Whateley and Wilbur and is a bit frightful. The few guests never leave the ground floor of the old farmhouse.
Years pass. Eventually, Old Whateley dies, but before he does, he tells Wilbur that he needs to reference page 751 of the unabridged version. As he dies, the Whipporwhills chant ferociously.
Shortly thereafter, Lavina goes missing as well.
Wilbur moves out of the house into a shed and does more carpentry work to the Whateley house.
He arrrives at Misktonic University in Arkham to review their copy of the Necronomican. It seems that his copy is the abridged English copy and he needs to reference the Latin unabridged copy kept there. The librarian is Dr. Henry Armitage, who visited Wilbur Whateley a few years ago and remembers a nasty, unwholesome smell faintly.
Wilbur asks to take the Necronomican back with him. While he was researching it, Armitage references that passage and discovers that it is a reference to Yog-Sothoth as the gate to the Old Ones.
Henry elects not to allow Wilbur to take the Necronomicon, and Wilbur takes off for Harvard to see their copy. Meanwhile, Armitage contacts Harvard and Cambridge and lets them know that Wilbur should not be given any information about the Necronomicon, and they agree.
A while later, Henry Armitage awakens to the sound of the library guard dog howling and a shout like something unhuman. He crosses the street and enters the library where there is evidence that someone broke in. Lying on the floor is what is left of Wilbur Whateley. He was struck by the dog, and his body lies on the floor.
His body is not human, and was apparently a human hybrid with something else. It kept human form only through tight clothing. It had around 20 tentacles around the abdomen, eyes on its hips, a furry back, and this foul stench hangs over the body, the same smell Armitage rememebered from his visit to the Whateley farm.
Over time, the corpse dissolves, and Armitage begins to pack for Dunwich with Professor Rice and Doctor Morgan, two other experts from Miskatonic U with expertise in the area of the antiquarian.
Meanwhile, in Dunwich:
They arrive in Dunwich to find the village people are scared of sounds and odors that come from the Whateley Farm. On the evening of September Ninth, two boys came back to their mothers and claimed that they saw something nasty coming from the Whateley Farm. Most of Dunwich's men gathered and charged the place.
They arrive at the farm only to find that the farmhosue is in ruins and a trail of something large tears trhough the forest. They choose not to follow and return home.
That night, something that stank massively tore into a local farmhouse and evoured the cattle before leaving.
Two more nights pass, and no farms are threatened. The large swath of destruction left by whatever the Dunwich Horror is can be followed, but the people are not threatened. Some begin to feel that maybe the dark time has passed.
On the fourth night, the whipporwhills chanted all night, and when morning came, the entire Frye farm had been completely destroyed, and death and destruction were the only things harvested there.
Meanwhile, in Arkham:
The diary of Wilbur Whateley, discovered in the farmhouse by the people of Dunwich, is sent to Miskatonic University. The diary is in a language that is not easily deciphered.
The books found in the farmhouse ruins along with the diary are given to Armitage's care. Ultimately, armitage cracks the code of the diary. After reading the diary and a subsequent fever, he realizes what has been done in Dunwich by the Whateleys, and what they have let in.
Armitage, Rice and Morgan continue to ready themselves to go to Dunwich, but now with additional alchemical preparations. Unfortunately, their preparations are cut short by news out of Dunwich of the additionall horrors.
They arrive to find a state police car with five officer has arrived to investigate, and the officers have left to follow the trail of the Horror.
They decide to wait the night out, and in the morning, another attack begins, this time in the day, with a storm. A dozen Dunwich folk arrive where the three professors are waiting for the Horror and inform them that the Horror is trampling through some farms.
Armitage rallies the few townsfolk he has, and tells them that the Horror is invisible. He says that he has something that might work against it, and they might as well go after it now.
They arrive at the Bishop place where the Horror supposedly just struck, and the destruction is similar to the Frye incident. Death, and a noisome foetor linger.
Using a spy scope, they see the bushes moving on Sentinel Hill and it appears like the Horror is moving up the steep slope. The townsfolk became frightened and refused to go further, so the three professors trudged on toward Sentinal Hill alone.
The three professors are seen by the townsfolk, using the spyglass, to ascend the hill, and then Rice prepares to spray using a powerful bug spray container with a new formula in it where they believe the Horror to be. This will supposedly turn the Horror visible for a short time.
The townsperson with the spyglass, Curtis, sees the Horror become visible and drops the spyglass, shaking. His broken words:
Quote:
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'Bigger'n a barn... all made o' squirmin' ropes... hull thing sort o' shaped like a hen's egg bigger'n anything with dozens o' legs like hogs-heads that haff shut up when they step... nothin' solid abaout it - all like jelly, an' made o' sep'rit wrigglin' ropes pushed clost together... great bulgin' eyes all over it... ten or twenty maouths or trunks a-stickin' aout all along the sides, big as stove-pipes an all a-tossin' an openin' an' shuttin'... all grey, with kinder blue or purple rings... an' Gawd it Heaven - that haff face on top...'
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He'll faint a few seconds later.
The townsfolk pick the spyglass back up to see the three professors running for the top of the Hill and nothing more. The Horror is invisible again. The figures reach the top and one is waving his arms ceremoniously.
The daylight
darkens for no discernable reason, dogs begin baying, and a rushing deep tone can be felt from deep away. Lightning flashes with no clouds in the sky.
The sounds appear to be coming from an altar stone atop Sentinel Hill. Then a cry can be heard, montsrous, crying out to its father. Crying out to Yog-Sothoth.
A blast of fury tears from the Hill, ripping through trees, killing whipporwhills, and stripping vegetation of leaves. A short while later, the three professors can be seen marching towards the townsfolk.
They arrive and decide not to answer any questions. Then the person who had seen the Horror awoke and exclaimed that the face of the Horror resembled Old Whateley's.
Armitage decides to let them know what happened. The Horror had been growing inside the side, and it was Wilbur's twin brother. It just resembled its father more than Wilbur had.