by Lin Carteroriginally published Crypt of Cthulhu #54, Eastertide 1988
Winthrop Hoag inherits a remote cabin in the woods in Vermont from a little-known cousin who disappeared a number of years ago. There's not much there - but there is a stack of very old and rare books (dun-dun-dun-DUN!!!!)
Winthrop's brilliant plan is to live in the cabin all winter while he works on his master's thesis. Never mind that he'll be snowed in, has no running water, only a stove for fire, and will be isolated from town. In any case, he ignores all practical advice and does so. Bored, he starts going through his cousin's notebooks. References to weird chanting sounds in the woods at night, and finding enormous footprints of no known animal, a "dead place" in the woods, and a "great stone" found there. There are also references to the events of "The Lurker at the Threshold".
Things go badly fast. Soon Winthrop is hearing the chants. He finds the dead place in the woods, the great stone (some kind of altar), and evidence of a gigantic, bat-winged toad creature. He even sees its shadow one night in the moonlight. Soon, he too disappears....
The abbreviated length of this story keeps its worst tendencies (here we go with quotes from the old tomes again....) at bay, and it manages to be relatively evocative if completely derivative of any number of previous Lovecraft pastiches, particularly Derleth's tales. Enjoyable enough though.
This might be amount my favorite Lin Carter stories. I think it does a great job of building mood and I think you're absolutely correct the length saves it from revealing it's lack of originality. I think though the amazing tone more than makes up for it.
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