"The Nature of Faith"

by Oscar Rios
originally published Cthulhu's Dark Cults, Chaosium, 2010

Malcolm Drake, archaeologist and professor at Columbia, is presented a most unusual find by a student:  a coin of obvious ancient Celtic origin, in remarkable condition, depicting a Celt and a Native American, with the Native American presenting the Celt with a turkey.

This coin is important. It clearly indicates the presence of Celts in North America centuries prior to the arrival of the Norsemen, a theory Drake holds but most consider crackpot.  The student informs him the coin came from Dunwish, MA.  Drake decides to spend his spring break in Dunwich, investigating. 

Upon arriving in Dunwich, he promptly wrecks his car.  He's taken to the general store by a friendly local, and there he meets Gerdy Pope, a strange, semi-albino local girl, who's known to have "the gift" - a definite psychic power.  Gerdy takes him to the Tanner's place (a local couple she's rooming with), puts him up, and offers to help him find more coins.  But before she can start, Gerdy is summoned by Mother Bishop, head honcho of the local pagan cult, who warns her that the prof must be dealt with, lest he reveal their secrets.

Gerdy leads him into some woods where, with some help from her pyschic gifts, he finds a coin.  She is troubled by visions of a past in some magical/technological city, where apparently she and the prof were, in previous incarnations, lovers.  

Gerdy leads him into some swamps, where he finds the head of an impossibly ancient statue.  A Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath rises out of the water, and Gerdy makes a prayer of sacrifice to it as it kills and devours the prof.

This is a relatively effective story that is marred by some rather weak writing on Rios' part.  He doesn't have a lot of style, and, in more powerful hands, this could have been evocative.  Bummer.