LONDON, St. Katherin’s Docks- Local artisan Gareth White of Clerkenwell was walking home late of an evening, November 10^th, when he claims he heard a commotion ahead of him on South Mint Street. Hearing a cry and muffled shouts, he quickly made his way toward the area, though his sight was limited by an unusually thick river fog.

It should be noted, at this time, that this is the approximate location of an apparent wrongdoing that very same night (which could have been the source of the shouts he claimed he heard). Several pools of blood and evidence of struggle (but no bodies or injured victims), were found near the area. See “Blood But No Body” in this issue of The Times. (pg. A3). Police have not linked these two incidents but are questioning White nevertheless as a possible witness to the night’s ‘other’ strange happenings.

Coming into a clearing in the fog rather abruptly, he was astonished to see four men struggling very near the bank of the Thames. What astonished and horrified him even more was that he saw, he claims, an extremely large creature, “not unlike a gigantic ‘puffer fish’” towering over the miniscule figures below.

Note: A ‘puffer fish’ according to Natural Science Museum Deputy Administrator Michael Glendale, is a small spiny fish native to the Tropics that has the ability to inflate its rather tiny body to several times its size. It does this by a process he called “aqua-inflation”, i.e., the drawing-in of a large amount of water, thereby inflating the body cavity to a gross size. This is done, he postulates, in order to intimidate potential attackers into fleeing rather than attacking, thereby keeping said ‘puffer fish’ safe from harm.

It must also be noted that since the fish only lives in the tropics and can, at most, only inflate itself to less than a foot in diameter (and this for only the largest of the species), the sighting of one of the described size in the Thames is a major flight of fancy, according to Mr. Glendale.

Mr. White claims that the ‘fish’ then attacked one of the men, apparently plunging one of its ’10-foot-long’ spines into the unfortunate fellow! It was at this sight that Mr. White finally decided that caution should win over valor and fled the seen.

Scotland Yard, as noted earlier, is not linking the two strange occurrences, which apparently ‘happened’ within minutes of each other. Noted Detective Sir James Whorthington was said to comment, “We have enough on our platters without adding a rather large serving of Fillet of Fanciful…”

Mr. White is now undergoing observation and consultation at Whitechapel Asylum where he is said to be ‘recovering nicely’ from his ‘ordeal’.

Last modified 09/26/03

I am not attempting to make any kind of profit by placing material for Call of Cthulhu and the Mythos on line. Call of Cthulhu is copywritten by Chaosium