The Scourge of B'Moth

"The Scourge of B'Moth" is a horror short story by Bertram Russell, first published in the May 1929 issue of Weird Tales.
The story's titular entity has since been incorporated into the Cthulhu Mythos by Henry Hasse in "The Guardian of the Book", and would go on to be portrayed as an avatar of Cthulhu in the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
==Synopsis==
A psychiatrist named Randall is called by his eminent friend and colleague, Dr. Prendergast, to assist in an unusual case. The patient appears to be possessed by an entity that he refers to as "the Master". On the way to the hospital, the road seems to be covered in fog and drizzle, and Randall feels a supernatural presence trying to control him. Even though the windows are closed, the interior of the car is strangely cold and humid. Randall feels better when he turns the heater on, but soon after turning it off he loses control of the car and crashes. He finds to his great surprise that the night is clear, with no fog whatsoever, and the grass and the windshields are dry, bearing no hint of the drizzle.
In the hospital, Prendergast shows Randall the patient, who seems to be inexplicably aware of Randall's experience in the car earlier. He also tells them of his own imminent death and how in death he will join the Master, who lives deep in the ocean and manifests itself through water, rain, and fog. After the patient dies, the two doctors are stunned to witness the water in a nearby glass shine with a bluish light and evaporate into mist.
Several days later, Randall reads a newspaper report from Peru about a man who tried to commit suicide by drowning and assaulted his rescuer, yelling that he had been called by the Master, B'Moth. Soon after reading it, Randall receives a call from the hospital informing him that Prendergast has gone insane.
Prendergast tells Randall that he's been struggling to fight off the Master's influence, and also refers to the Master's name as "B'Moth". For the past days, his mind has been plagued by the thought that civilization ought to collapse and mankind will return to the "days of the jungle". When Randall offers him a glass of water, Prendergast refuses and throws it away. He also informs Randall that B'Moth already has millions of followers throughout the world, and pleads Randall to find a way to deter them.
Randall consults books to gather all information he can about B'Moth, finding that it is a giant creature that dwells in the ocean and devours the souls of men, and that it seeks to restore humanity to a primitive state of violence and savage anarchy.
Dr. Prendergast escapes from the hospital and steals a tank filled with reptiles and amphibians: animals that are associated with B'Moth, and worshiped by its cultists. When the police comes by, he refuses to return the animals, so Randall offers to pay for them instead. Prendergast is now fully converted to the cause of B'Moth, and believes the Master will reward him. Randall takes him back to the hospital, where Prendergast feeds the animals with insects he had captured previously.
Remembering how he had managed to briefly fight off B'Moth's influence by turning on the car's heater, Randall orders a fire to be lighted in Prendergast's room, which restores the man's sanity for the time being. Randall tells Prendergast to keep the fire burning, and goes on to visit his friend, Geoffrey d'Arlancourt, whose interests in occult matters might provide a clue on how to defeat B'Moth permanently.
D'Arlancourt turns out be familiar with the cult. He tells Randall that, although it is present in every continent, the priests all utter incantations in the same unidentified language. The cult's activities include sacrificing victims to be devoured by animals, especially reptiles, as they believe their souls will pass on to B'Moth itself. Contacting a friend of his named Ellery, who works with the secret service, d'Arlancourt discovers that there are about a thousand secret societies known to practice the cult of B'Moth, and that their members have been recently engaged in more destructive activities such as arson, terrorism and murder.
Randall and d'Arlancourt meet with Ellery, who takes them to the location where the cult is going to gather. The ritual involves dancing and adoration of animals, and is held in the presence of a tank of water that emanates a bluish light, indicating the manifestation of B'Moth. At last, they watch in horror as the masked priest intends to sacrifice a woman to a crocodile. Ellery shoots several times and kills the animal. As the priest runs away, his mask falls off to reveal him as none other than Prendergast.
Back in the office after escaping from the mob's rage, Ellery is attacked and killed by his own dog, who is being possessed by B'Moth. After d'Arlancourt shoots the dog dead, Randall seeks out Prendergast again, and learns from him that a great "invasion from the ocean" will take place in a week. With the armed forces on alert, the army successfully repels the immense swarms of monsters that rise from the seas. News are received from every continent of the world about animals attacking mankind en masse: tigers in India, apes in Burma, reptiles in South America, etc., as well as acts of incendiarism, dynamiting and assassination committed by the cultists. Although all incidents are successfully dealt with, Randall wonders whether B'Moth has been truly defeated.
Category:Mythos-Adjacent Works
Category:Bertram Russell works