Kingsport 1844: St. Erasmus’ Home for Mariners

2) St. Erasmus’ Home for Mariners
303 Blaine Street, Inner Harbor. Est. 1785

A) Not Quite Fiddler’s Green
Established in 1785 by Arthur Illsley and Samuel Turner, this two-story Georgian building is a rest home for elderly and disabled Kingsport mariners, and is funded by private donations. It was named after St. Erasmus of Formia, better known as St. Elmo, the patron saint of sailors and the namesake of St. Elmo’s fire. (In fact, most Kingsporters refer to the institution as “St. Elmo’s.”) The sailors are assigned private rooms, but generally congregate in the first-floor recreation hall, a large space decorated by maritime memorabilia dating back to the seventeenth century: paintings, ship models, native jewelry and statuettes, along with ship’s compasses and other navigational instruments. Since becoming affiliated with the American Seamen’s Friend Society in 1837, Temperance posters have been added to the décor, the “Drunkards Progress” being the most popular among the residents—“That step thar, Willie, that be you, har har!”

The Drunkards Progress. The author is currently on Step 5.

St. Erasmus is an active place, with residents arguing over games of draughts (checkers), regaling each other with well-worn sea stories, or whittling toys for donation to the Arkham Orphanage. Many of the residents are visited by old friends, and frequent guests include Roland Hall, Kent McNellie, and Gideon Sleet, who apparently isn’t all bad. Aunty ‘Crease occasionally drops by with a platter of sweets, flirting gamely with old customers, and Thomas Elton pays a call whenever he’s in town for supplies. Official visiting hours are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday. Sunday afternoons are reserved for the Preacher, who offers a nondenominational religious service in the recreation hall.

B) Personalities
Erasmus is run by Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Crabbe, a deeply religious Congregationalist couple with a vested interest in the Illsley trading fleet. They are patient and kind, though a touch condescending to visitors and residents alike. Both sport red, white, and blue Temperance cockades. The most celebrated—and youngest—resident of St. Erasmus is Danny Houghton, the only survivor of the 1842 Sabrina shipwreck off the coast of Innsmouth. Of more immediate interest to the player characters is St. Elmo’s most recent guest, the former second mate of the Quiddity, Elijah Watts. Unable to contend with his disquieting presence and nocturnal ravings, the Crabbes are having Watts transferred to the Arkham Insane Asylum in two weeks.

Elijah Linwood Watts
Age 29, Nationality: American, Birthplace: Kingsport 1816.

Combat

Skills
Art/Craft (Carpentry) 70%, Art/Craft (Scrimshaw) 85%, Atlantis Lore 95%, Charm 5%, Climb 30%, Cthulhu Mythos 15%, Fast Talk 50%, First Aid 35%, History 40%, Intimidate 40%, Jump 50%, Kingsport Cult 10%, Listen 25%, Locksmith 50%, Occult 40%, Persuade 10%, Psychology 10%, Renown 15%, Seamanship 65%, Sea Lore 75%, Sleight of Hand 65%, Spot Hidden 25%, Stealth 50%, Whalecraft 60%.

Note: Some of Watt’s statistics and skills have deteriorated because of his madness.

Description
Only twenty-nine years old, Eli Watts has the appearance of a man twice his age. His once-handsome features have been harrowed by madness, his cheeks are sunken and sallow, and his gaze alternates unpredictably between vacancy and hysteria. His front teeth are chipped and broken, Watts having bashed his face repeatedly against the helm of the Quiddity during the storm that ended his captaincy. His body is covered with tattoos, mostly sailing ships and naked women, but also an impressive illustration of a sperm whale battling a giant squid.

The Tale of Elijah Watts
The public story of Elijah Watts is a simple one, and can be related by any local sailor, St. Erasmus resident, or one of the Crabbes. It’s also known to the player characters Ulysses Dixon and Leland Morgan, who were there when it happened. The Keeper should decide the best way to narrate the story: as a dramatic sea-tale whispered by an NPC, or as a flashback roleplayed with Morgan and Dixon.

A good-hearted man and a fine butcher of whales, Watts has sailed with Jeremiah Joab since penultimate voyage of the Janus. As the second mate of the Quiddity, after Captain Joab and chief mate Nathaniel Warnock were incapacitated by Mocha Dick’s rampage, it fell to Watts to bring the ship safely back to Kingsport. After a period of competent leadership, Watts began acting erratically, accusing his fellow officers of “conspiring with Satan.” While rounding Cape Horn, a terrible storm threatened to capsize the Quiddity. At first, Watts guided the ship commendably, earning the praise of the entire crew. Unfortunately, after returning from a period of rest, he began unraveling again. At the peak of the tempest, Watts lashed himself to the helm and began barking contradictory orders, occasionally shouting nonsensical phrases or singing incoherent sea shanties. Even more alarmingly, he began bashing his head into the wheel, shattering his teeth and spitting the fragments into the storm. Just when it seemed the ship would be lost, Joab came hobbling from his sickbed, using a musket for as crutch. With one blow to the head, Watts was incapacitated and Joab assumed command—the Quiddity was saved! Watts was confined to his quarters and kept sedated with laudanum and grog. After the Quiddity returned to Kingsport, Jacob Macy brought Watts and his possessions to Mercy Hospital. (See Encounter 29 for details.) After a week with Dr. William Warren and Nurse Morton, he was relocated to St. Erasmus. (Watt’s madness is also discussed in “Background Part 3—The Great Work” and in Jeremiah Joab’s NPC profile.)

Watts and the Black Macys
Elijah Watts is the son of Linwood Watts and Adeline Macy, the daughter of Absalom Macy and Anna Tuttle. Normally, this would ensure his position in the Tuttle/Black Macy dynasty, but Linwood Watts was a connie from New York, a Catholic bookbinder of little means. Adeline disobeyed her father and married him without permission. Worse, she converted to her husband’s Papist religion. Fortunately for young Eli, his uncle Gideon Sleet defied his wife’s family and embraced his pariah nephew, placing him onboard the Janus as cabin boy. Both of Watts’ parents died when he was at sea—his father from throat cancer and his mother from tuberculosis. Even now, Gideon argues that the Covenant bears the responsibility to care for Elijah, but the Elders would rather “have this loose cannon discreetly spiked.” So for the time being Watts remains at St. Elmo’s; the victim of a Covenant family feud, the assassin’s blade stayed only by the mercy of Gideon Sleet. 

C) Visiting Elijah Watts
Residing alone in his room, Elijah Watts is not permitted to mingle with the other residents. Indeed, everyone at St. Erasmus is eagerly anticipating his transfer to Arkham, as Watts is prone to moaning and bellowing in the middle of the night. In general, the former officer is prevented from raving through a regimen of morphia tablets, and worn leather straps secure him tightly to his bed.

Initially, Watts doesn’t respond to visitors, and just stares at the wall while making inscrutable facial expressions. Getting him to talk is difficult. An old shipmate such as Morgan or Dixon requires a Regular success on a Fast Talk orPersuade roll, while a stranger requires a Hard success on a Charm roll. Not that getting Watts to speak is useful, as he spews an incoherent babbleogue about Satan and Leviathan, punctuated by sentences such as “Abracadabra! The lock and the key!” or “The storm! My God, the storm…!” or “The lights! The terrible green lights!” Watts is incapable of answering direct questions, and shows no response to the names “Cthoaanesel,” “Joab,” or “Sleet.” However, if the name “Dagon” is uttered, Watts thrashes against his restraints and wails, “The blankness! The blankness, my God, the horrible blankness—the sea rolled back, and there was nothing there!” Obeying the dramatic timing of literary madmen from time immemorial, Watts falls unconscious and cannot be roused.

Elijah Watt’s Story
The only way to penetrate Watts’ delirium is to show him the Stolen Page or the Mysterious Talisman from his sea-chest. Upon viewing either of these artifacts, Watts stiffens and his face acquires a lucid, wary expression. Suddenly quite loquacious, Watts begins to ramble about Atlantis, spinning an unbelievable sea yarn: Atlantis is actually located in the Pacific Ocean, it was once besieged by terrible black whales and giant squids, and the children of Atlantis now inhabit strange, “floating islands” in the endless blue wastes of the Pacific. Watts claims to be the reincarnation of Xanthoo, an Atlantean high priest, now “trapped in this poor wretch, body broken and mind shipwrecked—forlorn! Sadder, aye, but no wiser!”

If asked about the page discovered in his sea-chest, he explains that he ripped it from a book he found while “pretending” to be captain. No more details are forthcoming, and pursuing this line of questioning drives him deeper into incoherence— “I called Pegasus and rode to Atlantis! Abraxas, Baphomet, Azazel, Ialdabaoth! Lords of Mu, Lords of Xoth!” If asked about the talisman, he laughs maniacally, calling it “Scrimshaw of the Old Gods, hewn from the glowing bones of Leviathan! Iao Ythogtha! Real abracadabra stuff—they murdered Hiram for such secrets, ye know! Oh, tricked ‘em I did, fooled ‘em real good!” He’ll mention no more about the talisman, lapsing into mad ramblings—“The Demon Whalemen come to visit me in my sleep! See their shadows on the wall? They walk like men, but their heads are fishes! See the hammerhead, the devil fish, the swordfish, the nautilus? The Great Cuttlefish? Aye, like the Old Gods of Egypt! See their shadows on the wall?” Of course, there’s nothing on the wall but cracked plaster. Watts also pleads for forgiveness from Captain Joab and Uncle Gideon; whines about his beloved wife Sally, who is “waiting for him” at the wharves; and tries to impress upon his visitors that the whales are not what they seem!

Foreshadowing of the Prophet Elijah
If the Keeper would like to add an extra element of creepiness, Watts occasionally fixes his glittering eye upon a player character and, in an utterly calm and focused voice, delivers an intimately personal statement: “You failed those children, T.B.” or “You will break again, Dixon, right when it counts the most!” or “Professor, what about Sarah? Do you remember Sarah?” or “What was in the mirror, Joseph? Ever gaze upon the portraits in your father’s home?” or “You can never escape the bayou, Morgan. The poppy can’t erase Mina!” and so on. Let him rattle a few cages, but Watts has no additional information about the source of his own madness, and should not give away any important player secrets.

Interpreting Watts’ Rambling
The player characters are free to interpret Watts’ ravings as they see fit. It’s pretty typical occult mumbo-jumbo, probably picked up through an association with Freemasonry. A few names may trigger associations with proper Occult rolls. Hiram likely refers to Hiram Abiff, the legendary architect of Solomon’s Temple. A key figure in Freemasonry, Hiram was murdered rather than reveal his secrets. Abraxas, Azazel, and Ialdabaoth are mystical beings associated with Gnosticism, mostly Archons and fallen angels derived from earlier religious figures. Baphomet is the goat-headed hermaphrodite supposedly worshipped by the Templars, but was more likely a corruption of “Mahomet.” The other capitalized words are nonsense. (Note that “Mu” had yet to be coined in 1844, and was introduced to Atlantean lore by Augustus Le Plongeon later that century.)

D) Visiting Danny Houghton
If the players wish to interview the sole survivor of the Sabrina, they’ll find a dazed young man playing draughts in the common room. Houghton is pleasant and likeable. He speaks with a stutter and seems genuinely traumatized. He doesn’t relish retelling his story, but he’s grown used to it, and does so over a soothing glass of milk spiked with a discreet tot of rum. His story has not varied since they found him four years ago: In 1842, three Kingsport fishing boats, the Sabrina, Bucko, and Rita, sailed to Innsmouth waters to quietly capitalize on their neighbor’s miraculous bounty of fish. A sudden squall caught them unprepared, capsizing the boats and drowning everyone except himself. Danny was rescued by a Gloucester trawler off the coast of Rockport, where he was found clinging to a piece of wreckage. Local legend contends the ships were attacked by Innsmouth sailors jealous of protecting their fishing grounds, but Danny has consistently denied this. A Psychology roll indicates the young fisherman is obviously repressing something, but he’s simply not ready to tell the truth—the Sabrina was overcome by froglike monsters that rose from the waves. Interested Keepers are directed towards H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

October 31: The Halloween Tempest: Elijah Watts Escapes
The Halloween Tempest is a rough night for St. Erasmus. The raging storm stirs up the residents like nothing else, and the recreation hall is opened for conversation and hot kettles of tea. Mostly sea stories are exchanged, but a few of the less stable residents start acting out, from Danny Houghton screaming in terror to Old Captain Ainsley “assuming command of the quarterdeck” in his skivvies. The worst behavior comes from, naturally, Elijah Watts, who begins raving at the top of his lungs—“It’s Cape Horn, mates! I’ll get us through!” and “What are they doing at the Church? It’s All Hallows Eve! Samhain! A holy day for witches! Even now they gather to touch the green death!” Wendell Crabbe attempts to force a morphia tablet down Watts’ throat, but the madman tears free from his bonds and sends the old man flying into the wall. Watts strips Crabbe of his clothing, then makes his way to the rec hall. In a fit of wild laughter, he flings open the door and howls, “I’m coming Jerry!” With that, Elijah Watts plunges into the teeth of the storm.

White Leviathan, Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 2, Kingsport Hotel | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to “The Cauldron”]

Author: A. Buell Ruch (based on the work of Kevin A. Ross)
Last Modified: 26 November 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]