Jendick's Swamp

"Jendick's Swamp" is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Joseph Payne Brennan, featuring the Great Old One Ithaqua. It is set in the fictional town of Greystone Bay, created by Charles L. Grant for the multi-author anthology of the same name. "Jendick's Swamp" was first published in the second Greystone Bay anthology, Doom City, in 1987 "Jendick's Swamp" at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
==Synopsis ==
In Greystone Bay, a writer named Kirk is having a chat with the local constable, Chris Kellington, who tells him about an incident at the nearby Jendick's Swamp. The area is named after the Jendicks, a supposedly extinct family of squatters who lived there, and has a long history of mysterious disappearances, allegedly due to quicksand. According to Kellington, a hunter who got lost in the swamp found the supposedly abandoned Jendick house, and fled in terror after he saw a pair of eyes watching him from the window. The hunter described the eyes as "those of a wild animal", although the silhouette was that of a man.
Kellington convinces Kirk to explore the swamp with him, to see if they can locate the house. He tells Kirk that the Jendicks worshiped a deity named Iththaqua, regarded as a Spirit of the Swamp, who protected its worshipers in exchange for sacrifices. It is told that the Jendicks always took care to capture a living animal in their hunts that they could sacrifice to Iththaqua.
After hours of treading through the swamp, the two men come across a ramshackle house that seems to be about to collapse at any moment, and plagued with a noxious smell of decay. They venture inside anyway, and find a cellar filled with vats, which contain chunks of human flesh and gnawed bones, preserved in brine. Just as they're about to leave, a gaunt white-haired man appears, who calls himself Asa Jendick, and threatens to "pickle" the intruders.
Kirk and Kellington hide in the cellar, and Kirk uses the flashlight to momentarily blind Jendick, while Kellington stabs him with a large skewer. They're both surprised when Jendick removes the skewer from his heart and attacks them. After a brief fight, during which Kirk fatally shoots Jendick, the latter calls out the name of Iththaqua and falls dead, his body immediately decaying and turning into a skeleton. Outside the house, a massive tornado forms, and Kirk and Kellington rush through the swamp to escape it. Looking up, they see the face of a monstrous creature in the sky.
A few days later, Kellington announces that he has found more information about Iththaqua. Apparently, in some cases, the god has been known to grant extraordinary longevity to its loyal cultists. He is convinced that Asa Jendick must have been almost 150 years old, and that all the disappearances were caused by him, as they didn't find any quicksand in the swamp.
==Publication History ==
*Doom City (1987, Tor)
*The Ithaqua Cycle (1998, Chaosium)
*Il custode della polvere (2022, Dagon Press, Italian-language version)
==References==
Category:Joseph Payne Brennan works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works