Dunwich Horror

The Dunwich Horror, whose true name was Yog Whateley, was a creature which appears in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The Dunwich Horror made its major appearance in the short story of the same name which is widely considered one of the founding tales of Lovecraft’s universe.

Description
Although usually invisible to the human eye, the Dunwich Horror could be rendered visible through the application of an arcane powder whose recipe is to be found in the ancient volume of evil known as the Necronomicon. Its true form was so alien to the mortal mind that simply to see it was to cause madness in the viewer, but it was known to be a creature of gargantuan proportions, easily capable of devouring several cattle (or for that matter, people) in a single sitting. It was also known to leave behind a dark, viscous substance wherever it went.

History
Birthed in secret to the deformed albino woman Lavinia Whateley in the township of Dunwich, the Horror’s father was none other than the Outer God known as Yog-Sothoth, who sought to use his offspring as a gateway to the mortal worlds. Kept hidden away in the Whateley farmhouse it was fed on cattle by its mother and grandfather before the former mysteriously disappeared and the latter died. From then on is was cared for by its brother Wilbur, before Wilbur was killed whilst attempting to steal a copy of the Necronomicon from Miskatonic University for the purposes of summoning Yog-Sothoth.

With nobody left to attend to its needs, the Horror soon emerged from hiding; over the next few nights it embarked upon a bloody rampage, feasting on both the livestock and farmers of nearby homesteads, and alerting a group of scholars from Miskatonic University to its existence.

The Horror was finally brought to book atop nearby Sentinel Hill in the middle of a fierce thunderstorm. The librarian and two university professors who had guessed the nature of the beast were able to bring it down through the use of an arcane ritual from the pages of the Necronomicon, though not before one of the group had been driven insane by the mere sight of it.

Yog Whateley’s last words were a call for help - in English - from its father, which went unanswered.