Dinosaur Experiment
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Author: Steve Hatherley
Homepage: http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/
System: Call of Cthulhu
Type: Hook
Category: Horror
Requirements:

Dinosaur Experiment
Steve Hatherley

	Professor James Catterall stated yesterday during a 
	press conference at his secluded manor in Hampshire 
	that he hoped to re-introduce the dinosaur into 
	certain parts of the world. Such areas would include 
	the South American and African rainforests, the 
	Australian bush and maybe even parts of England, 
	such as Dartmoor or the Norfolk Broads.

	From discoveries made during his recent expedition 
	to the source of the Congo river in central Africa, 
	Catterall intends to chemically manipulate bird eggs 
	and produce baby dinosaurs.

	The eggs will be artificially regressed so that they 
	devolve, rather than evolve according to Darwin's 
	theories. Catterall believes that birds are the 
	dinosaurs closest living relatives.

	Other scientists have denounced Catterall's theories 
	as rubbish.

	Catterall is a recluse and works from his secluded manor in 
the centre of its densely wooded grounds. He is regarded as dangerous 
by his scientific peers, and has a record of cruelty. During the Great 
War he was rumoured to have performed much unnecessary surgery.
	If any of the others of the expedition to Africa can be found, 
they will be reluctant to talk about the trip. Many bad things 
happened there.

Possibilities
1       Catterall is far ahead of his time and has already cloned 
several dinosaurs from their fossilised bones. The process was a gift 
from Nyarlathotep in Africa. He already has had some success and 
intends to display them in a years time, crediting them as early 
successes of his fake experiments.

2       The experiments work, but take much longer than anticipated. 
Eventually, some sixty years after they were started (and twenty years 
after Catterall's death) the first 'dinosaur' is born. It is 
intelligent - a bipedal lizard man. It is the pinnacle of dinosaur 
evolution but the dinosaurs died out before it had a chance.

3       Catterall is insane and his experiments are fakes. However, 
several of his assistants are Serpent People in disguise. They are 
using Catterall as a cover for their own sorcerous methods for 
bringing their own kind through from the Permain era, along with some 
of the proto-dinosaurs of that time.

(Inspired by the novel Carnosaur, by Harry Adam Knight.)

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