Kingsport Encounters

Then beyond the hill’s crest I saw Kingsport outspread frostily in the gloaming; snowy Kingsport with its ancient vanes and steeples, ridgepoles and chimney-pots, wharves and small bridges, willow-trees and graveyards; endless labyrinths of steep, narrow, crooked streets, and dizzy church-crowned central peak that time durst not touch; ceaseless mazes of colonial houses piled and scattered at all angles and levels like a child’s disordered blocks; antiquity hovering on grey wings over winter-whitened gables and gambrel roofs; fanlights and small-paned windows one by one gleaming out in the cold dusk to join Orion and the archaic stars. And against the rotting wharves the sea pounded; the secretive, immemorial sea out of which the people had come in the elder time.

—H.P. Lovecraft, “The Festival”

Chapter 1. Kingsport Encounters
Kingsport, Massachusetts. October 27—November 1, 1844.

The following locations and encounters are organized by neighborhood, and are not meant as a sequential list of events. The opening days of the scenario are likely to be chaotic, as different combinations of player characters visit different locations across Kingsport at different times. The Keeper should read this entire section before running the scenario, as many locations will be visited multiple times, and some host Programmed Events. In order to keep language consistent throughout White Leviathan, these entries are called “Encounters,” even though most detail specific locations. Furthermore, Kingsport is a thriving port town, and boasts a wide range of hotels, restaurants, taverns, gambling dens, brothels, wharves, public spaces, museums, and so forth. The Keeper is free to design additional encounters, improvise spontaneous locations, or allow the players to simply describe a location they’d like to visit—“So, is there a Catholic church I can go to for confession?” Or, “I want a fabulous dinner. Is there a fancy restaurant, like a seafood version of Delmonico’s?” Or, “Where can I watch a cock fight and get an anchor tattoo?”

Navigation
Eventually this entire section will be available as one integrated PDF, like a Kingsport 1844 sourcebook. But until then, it will be placed piecemeal on the site once encounter at a time. To make navigation easier, each neighborhood and location occupy a separate Web page, and each link opens a new tab. A small navigation bar at the end of each encounter lets you move backward, forward, or return to this “Kingsport 1844” Table of Contents.

Kingsport 1844: Background

Kingsport 1844: Mechanics & Tables

Kingsport 1844: Encounters [You are here]

I. Inner Harbor
1. The Sign of the Knotted Iron
2. Kingsport Hotel
3. Mariner’s Bethel
4. St. Erasmus’ Home for Mariners

II. The Cauldron
5. The Diving Bell
6. The Starry Busk

III. The Yards
7. The Tuttle Shipyard
8. Erasmus Doppler & Sons
9. King Timmy’s Hotel 

IV. The Wharves
10. Custom House
11. The Quiddity Dock

V. The Hollow
12. Black Joe’s Tavern
13. East India Marine Hall, “Turkey Hall”

VI. Downtown
14. The Kingsport Chronicle
15. Kingsport Public Library
16. Marine Bank of Kingsport
17. Calypso Apothecary
18. Seventh House on the Left
19. Brimblecombe House
20. Turner Hall
21. Hotel Poseidon
22. South Hill Station

VII. Central Hill
23. Congregational Church
24. Adrian Talbot’s House

VIII. Prospect Hill
25. Pickering Hall

IX. South Shore
26. Sleet, Baker & Blood
27. Professor Riddle’s Cabinet of Curiosities
28. Ebenezer Hall Academy
29. Mercy Hospital
30. Masonic Lodge
31. Revenue Marine & Life-Saving Station
32. Orchard Rise

X. The West Side
33. Byram Theological Seminary
34. The New Railroad Station

XI. Outskirts
35. Kingsport Head
36. The Old Powderhouse
37. The Burnt Sawmill
38. Valentine & Howell Gun Shop
39. The Old Gibbet/Fishermen’s Chapel
40. Hog Island
41. Doyle’s Rock
42. Pilot Island
43. North Point Lighthouse

Kingsport 1844: Setting Sail!

White Leviathan, Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Kingsport Mechanics & Tables | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to “Harborside”]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 18 February 2022
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]