There are places along the coast where sensible men do not linger after sunset.

The fishermen know them. They know the coves where the water remains strangely still even when the wind is blowing, the beaches where footprints emerge from the sea but none return, and the lonely settlements where church bells sometimes sound beneath the water.

One such place is Innsmouth Landing.

There is no Innsmouth Landing on any respectable map. The stage does not stop there, the telegraph line passes several miles inland, and travellers who ask directions are generally advised to continue on their way. Yet a collection of weathered buildings stands beside the black water, dominated by a small wooden chapel whose steeple carries neither cross nor bell. Above its door hangs the crude carving of a fish. The people of Innsmouth Landing call themselves the Church of Dagon. Outsiders have other names for them. Most are not repeated after dark.

Reverend Obadiah Marsh: The First Preacher

Reverend Obadiah Marsh speaks quietly because he has never needed to raise his voice, for there is something in his measured words that causes even the doubtful to lean closer, as though listening for another voice hidden beneath his own. He tells his congregation that mankind did not rise from the dust but crawled long ago from the primordial sea, abandoning an older inheritance that still waits in the lightless places beneath the waves, where vast cities stand untouched by sun or human hand. His sermons promise neither forgiveness nor salvation in any Christian sense, but speak instead of transformation, immortality and a glorious return to the waters from which all life first emerged. Those who hear Marsh preach often dream afterwards of impossible towers beneath a black ocean, and some awaken with salt upon their lips and the fading memory of something enormous calling their name from far below.

Brother Ezekiel Waite: The Second Preacher

Where Marsh offers the faithful promises of what they might become, Brother Ezekiel Waite tells them what will happen to those who refuse the summons, travelling between isolated settlements in the clothing of an ordinary frontier preacher and carrying beneath his arm a battered Bible whose original pages have long since been replaced by brittle sheets covered in symbols belonging to no language known among living men. Waite preaches that the ancient Flood was not divine punishment but the last occasion upon which the inhabitants of the deep attempted to reclaim the lands that had once belonged to them, and he warns that the waters will rise again when the stars, tides and moon stand in their appointed places. He has looked upon something beneath the sea that left his hair white and his sleep forever troubled, yet whatever horror he witnessed did not destroy his faith, for it gave him one instead, and every sermon he delivers is merely another attempt to prepare mankind for the day when his terrible revelation rises from the ocean.

Abigail Gilman: The Emissary of Dagon

Nobody in Innsmouth Landing can remember when Abigail Gilman first appeared among them, although the oldest inhabitants tell contradictory stories of a pale child found upon the beach after a storm, while others insist that she walked fully grown from the sea beneath a moonless sky and has remained unchanged through decades that have bent and aged everyone around her. Even Reverend Marsh lowers his head when Abigail enters the chapel, for she is not merely another servant of Dagon but something approaching an intermediary between the congregation and those ancient intelligences that dwell beneath the ocean. She sometimes disappears into the water and remains gone for nights at a time, returning without explanation and with no sign that the cold or darkness has troubled her, while those who stand close enough notice the faint odour of salt and strange flowers clinging to her clothing. Abigail claims that voices speak to her from beneath the waves, although whether she serves the beings that send those messages or shares some darker kinship with them is a question that even the faithful have learned not to ask.

Silas Pritchard: The First Scaly Hybrid

Silas Pritchard was once known as the finest fisherman along that miserable stretch of coast, a broad shouldered man who could read the weather from the colour of the horizon and find shoals where other boats returned empty, although in recent years he has ceased taking his vessel beyond the harbour and instead spends long hours standing waist deep in the water while staring towards something no other man can see. His eyes have become large and glassy, the skin around his neck has thickened into folds that move strangely when he breathes, and patches of coarse scales have spread slowly across his chest and shoulders despite every attempt to conceal them beneath heavy clothing. Silas understands perfectly well what is happening to his body and regards the fear of others with quiet amusement, for Reverend Marsh has taught him that his transformation is not a disease but an awakening. He speaks increasingly of the sea as though it were home, and sometimes remarks that the day is approaching when he will walk into the water for the final time and discover that he has no reason to return.

Amos Pritchard: The Second Scaly Hybrid

Amos Pritchard has travelled considerably further along the path that his brother Silas has only begun to follow, and there is now little remaining in his appearance that could pass unnoticed among ordinary men, for his skin has become coarse and grey, his eyes protrude beneath a heavy brow, and his movements upon dry ground possess the awkward rhythm of a creature whose body increasingly belongs somewhere else. His breathing becomes a wet rasp when he is excited and his voice sometimes catches upon sounds that no human throat should comfortably produce, yet the most disturbing thing about Amos is that his mind remains entirely intact. He remembers old friends, laughs at familiar jokes and can sit beside a fire discussing cattle, weather or the price of ammunition while his enormous eyes reflect the flames without blinking. Amos does not believe that he is becoming a monster, because from his perspective it is humanity that represents the temporary and imperfect condition, while the thing emerging beneath his changing flesh is older, stronger and infinitely closer to what mankind was always intended to become.

Josiah Peabody: The First Tentacled One

Nobody has ever obtained a satisfactory explanation for what happened to Josiah Peabody during the three winter nights he spent alone inside the chapel, for he entered as an entirely ordinary member of the congregation and emerged with his face pale, his clothing torn and unmistakable movements stirring beneath his coat where no human limbs should have existed. Since that night his transformation has continued, with strange appendages emerging from his body and moving with an independence that sometimes suggests they possess senses and intentions of their own, although Josiah himself insists that nothing unfortunate has occurred. He regards the changes with the serene acceptance of a man who believes himself chosen for some extraordinary purpose, and when strangers recoil from the things curling around his body he merely smiles and reminds them that the workings of the divine have always been beyond mortal understanding. The congregation accepts his explanation without question, although even some among the faithful have noticed that Josiah occasionally falls silent in the middle of conversation and appears to listen while his tentacles slowly turn towards the distant sea.

Mercy Keziah: The Second Tentacled One

Mercy Keziah makes no effort to conceal what the congregation calls her blessing, for she displays the unnatural appendages that have emerged from her changing body with the serene pride another woman might reserve for expensive jewellery, and she seems genuinely puzzled by the terror her appearance inspires among outsiders. She was once regarded as a quiet and rather unremarkable woman, but since receiving what Reverend Marsh describes as the touch of the deep she has become one of the most fervent members of the Church, spending long hours beside Abigail Gilman and joining her in prayers spoken in a language that causes dogs to howl and horses to pull desperately against their reins. Children at Innsmouth Landing are taught that Mercy has been specially favoured and that one day the most faithful among them might receive similar gifts, although children from elsewhere generally react with considerably less enthusiasm. Mercy never appears offended by their screams, because she knows that fear is merely ignorance confronting revelation, and she believes that when the sea finally claims the land those same children will understand what she has already become. She merely smiles.

Hiram Cole: Cultist with Pistol

Hiram Cole operates the general store at Innsmouth Landing and appears at first glance to be the most ordinary member of the congregation, a circumstance that makes him considerably more dangerous than those whose mutations announce their allegiance before they have spoken a word. He sells flour, lamp oil, tobacco and ammunition to travellers while listening carefully to everything they say, particularly when conversation turns towards their destination, their companions or whether anyone elsewhere knows precisely where they are. Beneath the counter rests a well maintained revolver beside a knife whose curved blade bears stains that no amount of polishing has entirely removed, although Hiram rarely requires either because his friendly manner usually encourages strangers to reveal more than they intended. He knows every road leading into Innsmouth Landing and every person who travels along them, while Reverend Marsh knows everything that Hiram hears, which means that unfortunate visitors sometimes discover that the congregation has been expecting them long before they realised there was anything in the town worth fearing.

Caleb Ward: Cultist with Pistol

Caleb Ward once drove cattle across three territories and possessed a reputation for drinking, fighting and sleeping comfortably beneath any sky, until a winter storm drove him into a cave overlooking the coast where he encountered something that he has refused to describe ever since. He emerged the following morning without his horse, his hat or any memory he has been willing to share, then walked directly to Reverend Marsh and asked to join the Church without ever having attended one of its sermons. Caleb no longer drinks because alcohol brings back fragments of whatever he witnessed in that cave, and he rarely sleeps for more than an hour because his dreams return him to a vast chamber beneath the ocean where something impossibly large waits behind a door covered in carvings older than mankind. His pistol never leaves his side, although nobody knows whether he carries it against enemies of the congregation, against whatever might one day emerge from his dreams, or against himself should he finally remember everything that happened on the night his old life ended.

Ephraim Black: Cultist with Pistol

Ephraim Black serves as the congregation’s collector, negotiator and occasional instrument of persuasion, visiting those who owe the Church money, supplies, loyalty or silence and explaining their obligations with such impeccable courtesy that the pistol beneath his coat almost seems unnecessary. He never threatens anyone directly and appears genuinely distressed when conversations become unpleasant, yet people who refuse his requests have an unfortunate tendency to vanish soon afterwards, sometimes leaving behind homes in perfect order except for trails of wet footprints leading from their beds towards the nearest water. Ephraim always expresses sincere concern when informed of these disappearances and frequently volunteers to help search for the missing, although his searches invariably begin at the shoreline and end before the tide retreats. There are whispers that Ephraim knows far more about the deep places than his ordinary appearance suggests, because he has been seen standing beside Abigail Gilman during ceremonies reserved for the most trusted members of the congregation, and on such nights his shadow upon the chapel wall does not always resemble the shape of the man casting it.

Jedediah Cook: Cultist with Pistol

Jedediah Cook laughs far too often and at moments when no sane man could discover anything amusing, chuckling during sermons, grinning during sacrifices and occasionally collapsing into helpless laughter while sitting alone beside a silent campfire. The congregation has become accustomed to this behaviour and generally ignores it, although newcomers find his amusement particularly unsettling because Jedediah sometimes appears to be responding to jokes that nobody else can hear. When asked about this he once explained that there are voices beneath the earth as well as beneath the sea, and that some of them have watched mankind for so long that human existence has become an endless source of entertainment. Whether Jedediah truly hears these voices or simply lost his reason after joining the Church remains uncertain, but animals refuse to approach him and his laughter occasionally stops at the exact moment that something unseen moves beneath the ground. His revolver is never far from his hand, and when violence begins his amusement only grows louder, as though every death confirms some cosmic joke whose meaning has been denied to everyone except him.

Thomas Pickman: Cultist with Pistol

Thomas Pickman is the newest member of the congregation and still retains enough of his former life to recognise that something profoundly wrong inhabits Innsmouth Landing, although each passing week makes that understanding less important to him. He avoids looking directly at Mercy Keziah, becomes visibly uncomfortable when Amos Pritchard sits beside him and has never willingly accompanied Abigail Gilman to the shore after midnight, yet every evening he returns to the chapel and chooses a seat slightly closer to Reverend Marsh. Thomas tells himself that he remains because he wants answers, but lately he has begun dreaming of vast stone streets descending beneath green water and hearing choirs singing from impossible depths where no human lungs could draw breath. He now wakes each morning with sand between his toes despite locking his door before sleeping, and last week Hiram Cole noticed the first small patch of scales beneath Thomas’s collar, although nobody in the congregation has yet found it necessary to tell him.

Asa Whateley: Cultist with Rifle

Asa Whateley watches the road into Innsmouth Landing from the barren hills overlooking the settlement, remaining motionless for hours with his rifle across his knees while travellers unknowingly pass beneath his gaze. His duty is not to prevent strangers from entering because Reverend Marsh welcomes visitors and believes that every new arrival represents either a possible convert or something useful to offer the powers below, but leaving is an entirely different matter. Asa is an excellent marksman and possesses the patience of a man who believes that death is merely a temporary inconvenience before the greater transformation promised by the sea, which allows him to wait without movement until his target reaches precisely the place from which escape becomes impossible. Those who notice the distant glint of his rifle sometimes mistake him for a hunter or shepherd, although by the time they discover that the hills contain no sheep and that Asa has been watching them rather than the road, Innsmouth Landing has usually closed behind them.

Lemuel Carter: Cultist with Rifle

Lemuel Carter watches the sea with the same relentless attention that Asa Whateley gives the road, climbing each evening to a black ridge overlooking the harbour and remaining there until dawn with his rifle resting across his knees and his eyes fixed upon the horizon. Nobody has ever discovered what he expects to see, and Lemuel refuses to explain why a weapon designed to kill men would be useful against whatever might emerge from those immeasurable depths, although on moonless nights he has occasionally been heard speaking softly towards the water as if reporting to someone beyond the reach of human sight. Fishermen claim that strange lights sometimes answer him from beneath the waves, moving slowly through depths where no vessel could travel, while Lemuel merely smiles when confronted with such stories and reminds them that the ocean contains many things that have never required names. Someone once asked what he intended to do when the thing he had spent so many years watching for finally arrived, and Lemuel looked towards the darkening sea with an expression approaching religious joy before explaining that when that blessed hour came, he would have no further need of the rifle.

The Church of Dagon

Together they appear almost laughably insignificant: two preachers, two Scaly Hybrids, two Tentacled Ones, five cultists with pistols, two riflemen and the Emissary. Fourteen souls in all. Hardly an army, but Reverend Marsh says armies belong to men, and mankind’s time is passing.

At night the congregation gathers inside the little chapel at Innsmouth Landing. The lamps are extinguished. Strange words are spoken. Abigail Gilman stands before the altar while something moves in the darkness beyond the windows. Then the congregation walks down to the shore.

Fourteen figures enter the water. Sometimes only thirteen return.Yet when the congregation gathers again there are always fourteen.

And lately, there have been footprints on the beach ……………..belonging to something else.

Thanks to Chatgpt for help with the pics.