Dagoniad

"Dagoniad" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by the late American author Michael Shea.
== Synopsis ==
A supernatural killer stalks the streets of San Francisco, feeding upon the drug users who hear the whispering of its dark master. When two women accidentally eat marijuana-laced cookies, they face their end at the hands of the creature but fight back, showing its bay-dwelling liege that not all of humankind will lie down and submit to its depredations.
== Characters ==
* Dee, a 55-year-old owner of a bookstore named Treefrog. She has "vigorous gray hair worn neck-length," a "strong face" with "seamed cheeks," "wide intelligent gray eyes," and a "mobile mouth." She carries a walking stick she calls Rod, "a stout yard of hardwood headed with a brass knob and tapering to a weighty ferrule...weighted with a core of iron." She also appears in Shea's story "Tsathoggua."
* Scat, a young prostitute whose way of life has yet to break her spirit. A "nervy little minx, bright as a button," she describes herself as "a hooker that reads"--particularly fantastic fiction. She resembles "a cute little raccoon in her bandit mask of mascara and shadow, her black hair short and sleek as fur."
* Susy, a happy-go-lucky drug dealer and Dee's former lover.
* Babs, the co-owner of Dee's bookstore.
== Connections ==
* Parts of the story take place in the fictional Hyperion Hotel and Gin and Beer It bar, both recurring locations within Michael Shea's Mythos contributions.
* As the story's title suggests, the creature that lurks beneath the waves of the bay is identified as Dagon, based on Scat's reading of the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
== Publication History ==
"Dagoniad" was included in the collections of Shea's own works Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales (2009) and Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea (2017).
Category:Michael Shea works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works