The Haunted Palace

A young girl wanders to the grand Arkham palace in a trance and is led by Joseph Curwen and Hester into the dungeons. A strange ritual unfolds as an unseen creature rises from a covered pit. The event convinces the townspeople that the girl has been bewitched and sets the stage for Curwen's doom.

The townspeople drag Curwen out to a tree where they intend to burn him. Hester is spared at Ezra Weeden's insistence. Before the flames, Curwen places a curse on Arkham and its descendants, vowing to rise again and seek revenge.

Curwen's curse foretells a return from the grave to torment Arkham's inhabitants and their descendants. The townspeople grow fearful that his power will persist beyond death and haunt the town for generations. The threat lingers over Arkham as the centuries pass.

In 1875, Charles Dexter Ward and his wife Anne arrive in Arkham after inheriting the palace. They encounter hostility from the townsfolk and are unsettled by the deformities that plague many residents. Charles is struck by how closely he resembles Curwen's portrait.

Simon, the palace caretaker, persuades the couple to stay and forget the town's hostility. He hints that the palace holds secrets beyond ordinary perception. Charles and Anne begin to settle in, though Charles grows increasingly obsessed with Curwen's portrait.

Dr. Marinus Willet befriends Charles and Anne and recounts Curwen's dark history. He describes the Necronomicon and the elder beings Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth that Curwen sought to summon. He explains that Curwen's plan was to mate mortal women with these beings to create a super-human line, which produced the deformities.

Charles begins to show signs of being controlled by an unseen presence, sometimes shifting in personality as Curwen fights to seize his body. He lingers near Curwen's portrait and the palace's secrets. The sense that Charles is not fully himself deepens as the summer unfolds.

One night, Curwen's spirit takes full control of Charles. He reunites with two other warlocks, Simon and Jabez, who also possess their descendants, and they plot to continue Curwen's work and resurrect Hester. Charles's body becomes a battlefield for these dark powers.

Curwen triggers his revenge against the town's descendants. He kills Ezra Weeden's descendant Edgar by releasing Weeden's deformed son from his locked room and attacks Micah Smith's descendant Peter with fire. The acts demonstrate that Curwen's power extends beyond mere possession.

Curwen, fully in Charles's body, attempts to rape Anne in the palace's corridors. Anne seeks help from Dr. Willet, who Curwen tries to persuade that she is insane, aiming to undermine any outside intervention. The danger intensifies as the siege of the palace looms.

The townspeople discover Peter Smith's charred corpse and storm the palace. Dr. Willet and Anne seek to rescue Charles and uncover a secret entrance to the dungeons. They are ambushed by Curwen, Simon, Jabez, and Hester during the raid.

The conflict culminates as the townspeople raze the palace and Curwen's creature is drawn toward its doom. The portrait of Curwen is destroyed, breaking his hold over Charles. Willet and Charles barely escape the flames, but it becomes clear that Joseph Curwen still inhabits Charles's body as the fire dies down.