Haunter of the Dark

An avatar of Nyarlathotep that dwells in black gulfs of charos and can be awakened by gazing into the Shining Trapezohedron. The Haunter establishes a psychic link with the person who gazed into the Trapezohedron. Thereafter, the Haunter can come forth from the Trapezohedron whenever there is sufficient darkness. The Haunter holds all knowledge, and demands monstrous sacrifices. It shows its worshippers heaven and other worlds, and tells them secrets. The Haunter abides only in darkness, and cannot come forth in the light.

Prof. Enoch Bowen brought the Shining Trapezohedron from Egypt in 1844, and founded the Starry Wisdom sect in the old Free-Will Church in Providence to worship the Haunter. Thereafter there were disappearances of local people and rumors of blood sacrifice.

In 1935, the Haunter was inadvertently summoned when Robert Blake gazed on the Shining Trapezohedron and then closed the lid of its box, leaving it in utter darkness. One night during a thunderstorm, there was a power outage, and in the ensuing darkness the Haunter came to Blake and killed him at his window. The Haunter left no visible wounds, but Blake's body was rigid, with glassy, bulging eyes, and the marks of stark, convulsive fright on the twisted features. [HPL Haunter (online text)] Possibly the Haunter killed Blake because he failed to offer it someone else as a sacrifice.

Subsequently, Dr. Ambrose Dexter attempted to protect humanity from the Haunter by dumping the Shining Trapezohedron into Narragansett Bay [HPL Haunter]. However, the darkness of the Bay set the Haunter free. The Haunter then possessed Dr. Ambrose Dexter, who thereafter aided humanity with research into atomic weapons, in hopes of bringing about a nuclear holocaust. [RB Steeple (online text)]

A letter from Asenath Bowen to Septimus Bishop promised him that "all things will be known to you when the Haunter of Dark is summoned . . . All the secrets of Heaven and Hell will be made known. All the mysteries of worlds unknown to Earth will be yours." [AWD Middle] Possibly Bishop was contemplating a trip to Providence to see the Shining Trapezohedron and thus contact the Haunter of the Dark.

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