Dunwich

Dunwich (originally NEW DUNNICH) is a town in Massachusetts, a few miles east of Aylesbury. Dunwich was founded in 1692 by a group of settlers who left Salem just before the infamous with trials, along with former inhabitants of the Merrymount (later Mount Dagon) community. Members of the Whately family later built a large number of mills in the area, and Dunwich prospered until a tragedy in 1806 caused the mental collapse of George Whately, the owner of these industries. From that time onward, the Dunwich economy spiraled downward as more people left the area to look for jobs outside town.

Today, Dunwich is mostly deserted. Over the years, the remaining population has become so inbred and degenerate that during the First World War, the township was unable to meet its quota of recruits for the draft. Crimes of the most hideous nature occur on a regular basis, though the townspeople attempt to keep outsiders out of their affairs as much as possible. Some branches of the Whateleys and Bishops have remained above the town's degradation, but for the most part the people of Dunwich are uneducated and depraved.

During the late summer of 1928, a strange calamity occurred which has since been dubbed "the Dunwich Horror." On August 3, a Dunwich resident named Wilbur Whateley, noted by his neighbors for his magical delvings and unnatural size, was killed while trying to obtain the Necronomicon from the Miskatonic University library. A month later the horror began in Dunwich; Wilbur Whateley's unoccupied house was destroyed by a mysterious blast, and tales of the disappearances of cattle and people began to filter out of the township. When Henry Armitage, Miskatonic University's librarian and a long-time correspondent of Whateley, heard of what was occuring in Dunwich, he set out for Dunwich along with Professors Rice and Morgan. On September 15, they performed an exorcism on Sentinel Hill, bringing the horror, a son of Yog-Sothoth, to an end. Following these events, all of the signs to Dunwich were torn down, and the town was nearly forgotten.

Although the scenery in the surrounding countryside is breathtaking, there is little else to attract the casual visitor to Dunwich. Archaeologists and geologists know Dunwich for the stone circles which top many of the nearby hills, as well as for the mysterious underground noises heard around Walpurgis and Halloween.