The Haunted Palace Page #3

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Because you do.

To these people, at any rate.

Understand, Mr. Ward,

Arkham is a strange community.

You see, it's haunted.

Not by ghosts,

but haunted nonetheless.

By fear, by guilt...

and by the memory

of a particular night.

Particular night?

But what has this to do with us?

You see, 150 years ago...

a man named Joseph Curwen

moved to this village...

and built this palace.

His first wife died

in childbirth, so he selected...

the most beautiful woman

in the village...

and took her for his mistress.

Unfortunately,

she was engaged to marry...

an Arkhamite named Ezra Weeden.

No, thank you.

You spoke with

his descendent yesterday.

- The man at the inn.

- Yes.

According to legend,

a number of strange things...

occurred when Curwen

moved into the village.

Terrible noises

were heard in the night.

Thank you.

Young girls were said to have

disappeared from their homes...

to be gone until dawn...

and then reappear with no memory

of their whereabouts.

Weeden wasted no time...

in placing the blame

directly on this doorstep.

He and his coterie of friends...

claimed that Curwen

was a warlock.

Warlock?

Yes. One who

conjures up the dead.

They demanded punishment.

And one night

the people of the village...

marched on the palace...

dragged your ancestor

into the yard, and burned him.

Burned him?

The "Burning Man. "

That explains the guilt.

What about the fear?

Curwen put a curse

on the village.

He vowed that he'd return.

You can see

the resemblance yourself.

I'm sure that

every warlock or witch...

who died in America

left a curse.

Why should Curwen's

be taken so seriously?

Why should it be remembered

after all these years?

I can't say.

He was a strange man.

There were terrible

rumors about him.

Such as?

It was thought that

he had gained possession...

of a book

called the Necronomicon.

Have you heard of it?

No.

It obviously never existed...

except in the minds

of the superstitious.

But they claimed

it held enough secrets...

to give a man absolute power.

Of course, every mythology

has such a book...

but the Necronomicon

supposedly contained formulas...

through which one

could communicate with...

or even summon the elder gods...

the dark ones from beyond

who had once ruled the world...

and now are merely waiting...

for an opportunity

to regain that control.

Cthulhu, Yog-sothoth.

Dreadful rubbish, I know.

Still, the people

of Arkham believed it.

They claimed that Joseph Curwen

and two other warlocks...

were trying to open the gates

to these dark gods.

Open the gates? How?

They claimed that

Joseph Curwen was trying...

to mate those beings with humans

to create a new race...

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