Exham Priory (short story)

"Exham Priory" is a short story by American author Robert M. Price. It is a direct sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls".
== Synopsis ==
After the death of Thomas de la Poer in the institution to which he had been sent at the end of "The Rats in the Walls", three of the surviving members of the first expedition, Brinton, Trask and Pettijohn, return to Exham Priory to search for Thayer (another survivor whom Pettijohn believes has returned already) and to document the caverns beneath the manor before they are destroyed by the local authorities.
Beneath the Priory they encounter Thayer, who has made contact with the degenerate denizens of the deepest caverns, and been accepted as one of their own due to a birthmark which signifies that he carries their blood in his veins. He relates to them snippets of the creature’s culture and appearance, but states that he wishes to remain amongst them, though he will not stop them if they decide to explore deeper, which the three do.
After a while, the group chances upon a gallery hung with tapestries which seem to indicate that the ancestors of the creatures which dwell in the depths were in fact beings from a distant star. However, at this point the treacherous Thayer attacks them accompanied by a group of degenerates, with only Brinton escaping to tell the story.
== Characters ==
* Sir William Brinton, a renowned archaeologist.
* Dr. Francis Abelard Trask, an equally-renowned anthropologist.
* Dr. Randolf Holmes Pettijohn, a psychiatrist.
* Professor Andrew Powys Thayer, a folklorist.
== Publication History ==
"Exham Priory" was first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #72 in May 1990. It later appeared in the Robert M. Price collection Blasphemies & Revelations in November 2008.
Category:Robert M. Price works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works