The R'lyeh Oculus

The talented Gage Prentiss returns to our pages with "The R'lyeh Oculus".  It's a brilliant concept, and the sculpt embedded inside the resin is wonderfully alien.

When he would gaze into the Oculus, he would fall into a waking dream. Sometimes he would shoot through the ebon depths of the sea like a fish. Other times he would see spectral lights, and impossible cities under the waves. The excitement and freedom he would feel during these times would always wilt under a dark feeling, though. He would feel watched. The more he used the oculus to dream, the more he would feel like a light in the darkness, drawing something closer. If he used it too much, horrible storms would come. At first he could stop gazing long enough for the ship he labored on to make port, but after a while, he had to leave the whaling trade with a reputation for being unlucky. This pushed him from the Pacific, over to the East coast, where no one recognized him. Like any addiction, his dependence on the Oculus grew, as the vistas it showed him became more maddeningly strange and terrifyingly beautiful.