The Second Circle
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Author: Steve Hatherley
Homepage: http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/terror/welcome.htm
System: Call of Cthulhu
Type: Hook
Category: Horror
Requirements:

The Second Circle
Steve Hatherley

	The Artist's Guild of Reading is proud to present an 
	exhibition of paintings at the Archway Museum of 
	Antiquities. The exhibition includes a number of 
	rare and unusual paintings in a variety of mediums 
	by a selection of artists from the unknown to the 
	master. All paintings are for sale.

	Should the investigators visit the exhibition then one 
painting, The Second Circle, will catch their eye. Painted about ten 
years ago by an obscure german artist, the picture is quite ordinary. 
It shows a peaceful beach with waves lapping at the sand. A bird is 
perched on a rock in the foreground.
	The bird is, as any investigator familiar with the Dreamlands 
will identify, a varchine. These are birds of prey unique to the 
Dreamlands. What is one doing in this picture?
	The artist has evidently painted a picture of the Dreamlands. 
Such pictures have the ability to be used as Gates through to the 
Lands. Experienced Dreamers can dream their way straight to the 
locality pictured.
	It is possible that the artist has painted other scenes, other 
doorways direct to the world beyond sleep. It is also possible, if the 
artist was a powerful Dreamer, that she is still in the Dreamlands. 
Somewhere.

Possibilities
1       The picture leads to a mist covered island. Wandering through 
the mist eventually brings the Dreamers to a stone circle, the Second 
Circle of the title. This is an exact replica of a megalithic stone 
circle which can be found somewhere in Europe. The area is a place 
where the realities between the two world mix, allowing passage at 
certain times.

2       The artist is quite mad and is kept in a Bavarian asylum. 
There she paints scenes from her dreams; gugs and ghasts, Ulthar and 
Celephais, and more. If the investigators track her down in the 
Dreamlands they find her lucid and sane.

3       The coastline belongs to a deserted island in the Southern 
Seas. It is a regular stop for the black galleys that trade with 
Dylath-Leen and Dreamers waiting there are in danger of being captured 
by the men that crew such vessels. The circle refers to what appears 
to be either a dormant volcano, or a meteor crater.

Copyright (c) 1990 Steve Hatherley
steve@flar.demon.co.uk