The Dinner Party
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Author: Peter Devlin
Homepage: http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/terror/welcome.htm
System: Call of Cthulhu
Type: Hook
Category: Horror
Requirements:

       Kenneth Marsh is an eccentric traveller, writer, critic and 
dilettante whose frequent dinner parties are the talk of the town. 
Avaricious socialites shamelessly pursue invitations to these 
cosmopolitan events. Guests come from all social backgrounds and are 
chosen by Marsh for their idiosyncrasies and entertainment potential. 
Madonna Scarlatti, stage actress, and Samuel Waldeberg, a would-be 
movie star, are amongst the guests this evening.
	After a starter of superb herb and garlic pate, the main 
course appears, an 'unusual fish dish'. The guests joke nervously, 
hoping that it is not calimari; a previous guest had an attack upon 
learning that she had eaten sauteed baby octopus. "One simply 
couldn't live with the thought of eating tentacles!"
	Marsh tucks in and everyone slowly follows his example. The 
main course is excellent. A rich chocolate and coffee pudding is the 
sweet, to be followed by coffee, brandy and cigars. Marsh, a 
radical, does not expect the ladies to retire whilst the men smoke.
	Conversation turns to the hosts recent travels. Marsh 
returned recently from the Orient with, amongst other curios, a 
number of live specimens of a rare genus of venomous catfish. Marsh 
maintains extensive salt and fresh water aquaria. These catfish 
have bred extensively in the last few months; the guests have just 
eaten a few of them.
	The Lung-Hung catfish are found only in the precincts of a 
Cantonese temple to a many-armed female 'Bhudda', referred to as The 
Bloated Woman. The fish are considered sacred as, reputedly, they 
can heal dermatitis sufferers who bathe in their pool. Marsh does 
not elaborate on how he obtained live specimens although there was 
a Reuters article on a riot in Shanghai a few months ago. 
	Suddenly, Marsh begins to choke. His eyes bulge, he turns 
purple, and he slumps face-down into his coffee.

Possibilities
1	The cook, Jules Severin, didn't know how to prepare the 
fish. He sought the advice of a kindly yellow robed Chinese 
herbalist monk who was collecting donations door-to-door. The monk's 
recipe deliberately didn't account for the poison sacs within the 
fish. Marsh sampled the dish yesterday and ate it again tonight. 
He has died first. Within 24 hours all the guests will be dead.
	Marsh has an extensive collection of journals in which he 
relates the tales of the Lung-Hung Catfish as learned from a 'flower 
girl' in Shanghai. There is a small temple in Chinatown, guarded 
closely by the Order of The Bloated Woman. The monks know of the 
antidote. It only remains for someone to fetch it in time.

2	Shelby the butler checks Marsh and declares him alive. Then 
Waldeberg collapses theatrically to the floor with severe cramps; he 
daringly had two helpings of the main course.
	In normal humans the catfish venom causes cramps and fever 
which may kill those with a weak constitution.On Deep One hybrids 
the venom speeds the transformation process dramatically. The catfish 
can feed on dead flesh of humans, and are kept specifically for use 
on the moulting flesh of such hybrids. This is the background to 
the tales concerning their healing properties.
	Marsh, unknowingly, can trace his family history to 
Innsmouth. He is in a coma from which he will awake in a few days, a 
good way through the transformation to a Deep One. Grinning Orientals 
hide in the bushes outside the window. They await the incapacitation 
of the guests. They will take Marsh to his true people and kidnap 
then sacrifice the defilers of the sacred fish.

3	Marsh was poisoned by Madonna Scarlatti, who sits to his 
left. She used an antique Italian poison ring to slip a lethal dose 
of cyanide into his dessert.
	Marsh and Scarlatti are ex-lovers. He savaged her recent 
appearance as Lady Macbeth but invited her as a way of apologising 
for being too harsh. Hell hath no fury...

pdevlin@scotsys.co.uk