Player Character Secrets: Joseph Coffin

Mr. Joseph Coffin

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand—
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep—while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
—Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream

Character Profile: Joseph Coffin

Of all the player characters, Joseph Coffin’s story arc takes the longest to reach its tragic conclusion. Hired as the ship’s second mate, Mr. Coffin begins the campaign in a precarious political position which occupies his attention during the first part of the game. By the time the Quiddity departs Kith Kohr, however, Coffin should realize that he plays a bigger role in the unfolding drama.

Hidden Correspondences with Other Characters
Coffin’s correspondences with other player characters are decidedly mundane. He’s met Rachel Ward’s mother, he’s read and admired Tophet Blaine’s journalism, and he greatly enjoys the adventure novels of Milton Redburn. At the beginning of the scenario, Coffin is unaware that Beckett is actually Tophet Blaine, but Rachel does appear familiar. Her family was the subject of Nantucket gossip. She’s named after the Rachel, a Nantucket whaler her father William Hart served as harpooneer. Hart was towed out of sight by Mocha Dick in 1835 and presumed dead. Rachel’s mother, Margaret Hart, became a “crazy woman” before committing suicide. Coffin met the Widow Hart once in New Guinea, the neighborhood in Nantucket populated by black and Indian residents. As he recalls, he was kind to her. Knowing Rachel’s family history may provide Coffin with some sympathy for Rachel, and allows him to “see through” her tough exterior.

Conflict with Shipmates
Coffin’s unexpected appointment as second mate created two resentful inferiors who view him as a usurper—Mr. P.H. Whipple and Ulysses Everett Dixon. Should some unforeseen accident befall Mr. Coffin, Mr. Whipple stands to be promoted in his stead. And why, wouldn’t that promote Whipple’s friend Dixon to third mate, and elevate his good buddy Suresh Joshi to boatsteerer? It’s a good thing Whipple and Joshi aren’t shady characters, right? To complicate matters even further, Dixon has been assigned as Coffin’s boatsteerer.

Coffin is likely to come into conflict with his superiors as well. Coffin was expecting a promotion to chief mate in New Bedford, and the supercilious William Pynchon is hardly a warm and genial mentor. As Pynchon begins making inscrutable command decisions on behalf of the Covenant, Coffin may begin questioning his motives. Pynchon is prepared for this, and will employ Cloud Memory or Dominate against Coffin if needed. As for Captain Joab, well—any good Christian can see the man’s gone mad!

The Keeper must work with Coffin’s player to navigate this treacherous reef of shipboard politics, all the while maintaining Coffin’s obligations to duty. Again, the Keeper should remember that White Leviathan is a slow burn, and once the Quiddity arrives at the Black Island, the existing chain of command is likely to fracture.

Bad Blood
Hailing from Nantucket, Mr. Coffin begins the game knowing he’s related to Barzillai Coffin and the “Black Macy” clan. That’s the primary reason he was hired: Gideon Sleet remarked that they trusted his “Coffin blood.” He didn’t know the captain was speaking literally! Unfortunately for Coffin, his true purpose onboard the Quiddity is to serve as a sacrificial lamb. Unbeknownst to Coffin’s player or the character himself, Coffin’s great-grandfather is Abner Ezekiel Hoag, the discoverer of the Ponape Scripture. And Hoag is still alive. A walking mass of vermin; but still alive, the eldest sorcerer of the Kingsport Cult. Having mastered the secrets of the Green Flame, Hoag is ready to possess a younger body, but it must be a direct blood relative. (See Eucharistia Viridi under “New Spells.”) For this reason, the Covenant arranged to have a “civilian” Coffin present when Kithaat is finally discovered. If all goes according to plan, Hoag will offer himself to Dagon as Supplicant, shifting his consciousness into the body of Joseph Coffin, who’ll be trussed and delivered upon a plate like a plump Thanksgiving Turkey! (See “Background Part 3—The Great Work” for details.)

Preparing the Vessel
As part of the Rite of Spontaneous Investiture, the blood-relative must be baptized in the Green Flame and ritualistically marked to accept the consciousness of the invading sorcerer. This will be carried out in Maui. See Chapter 7 for details.

Discovering His Fate
Discovering this awful fate is not going to be easy. For one thing, Hoag used his power as a Seventh Degree initiate to conceal his plan from the lower ranks, so it’s only known to himself, Isaiah and Rowena Tuttle, and Absalom Macy. (Though Sleet, Baker & Blood were given strict orders to “make it happen.”) The reason for Coffin’s abrupt placement onboard the Quiddity being unknown to them, both Joab and Pynchon complained about the unorthodox assignment. They were instructed to “obey orders and don’t ask questions.” The rebuke irritated Joab, but he considered the matter settled: if high-and-mighty bigwigs decided to place a Nantucketer among his ranks, so be it. They practically invented killing whales. But Pynchon was not so easily assuaged, and remains convinced the Covenant’s elders are “up to something.”

As Joab and Pynchon develop personal relationships with Coffin, the situation may change. If Coffin genuinely bonds with the captain, Joab may share his misgivings. Captain Joab might be a cultist, but sacrificing a fellow officer is not something he’ll countenance lightly! Pynchon, on the other hand, has his own motivations. He has not been given access to the Rite of Investiture, but he suspects it exists. He may use magical methods to divine that Coffin is related to Hoag, and he’s certainly smart enough to put two and two together. Whether or not he shares this information is up to the Keeper. As the campaign develops, if Pynchon becomes interested in replacing Hoag as the Supplicant, he may decide that common interest makes strange bedfellows.

There are other ways that Coffin may become aware of his precarious situation. His mother’s dying words, repeated by Rebecca Carter Elton: “Your name is not your fate, Joseph.” His experiences under hypnosis at North Point Lighthouse suggest a hidden darkness in his family’s bloodline. Even crazy Elijah Watts may have something to say! Coffin’s kidnapping ordeal certainly offers food for thought, and later in the campaign, the Keeper may grant him additional hints through Dreaming. A more unexpected source might be Amon Stockhausen, who has a personal stake in keeping Coffin alive and Dreaming.

The Dreaming
Also initially unknown to the player, Joseph Coffin is the last Dreamer in the House of Coffyn, a lineage extending back to the thirteenth century. This mantle fell upon his shoulders when his cousin Ezra abandoned Apollyon for Celephaïs, and it makes Coffin the rightful heir to Apollyon—the dreaming city he privately calls Xanadu. If Dagon is resurrected and the world consumed by Apocalypse, only Coffin can throw open Apollyon and accept the fleshless refugees of the New Aeon. If he dies, the city fades into oblivion. (See “Background Part 4—Pocket Dreamworlds” and Chapter 9 for details.)

Learning About the Dreamlands
Coffin begins the game as a neophyte Dreamer. He’s unaware that his periodic visions of Xanadu are anything other than an active imagination, and he’s never encountered another astral traveler. In Chapter 1, Coffin comes into contact with two active Dreamers, Mary Brody and Rebecca Carter Elton. These figures may arouse curiosity about his own dreams. Although an astute player may attempt to explore Coffin’s Dreaming skill early in the game, the Keeper should offer little more than occasional glimpses of Mount Voormithadreth and inaccessible Xanadu. (And a talking cat. Always a talking cat!) Kith Kohr changes all that, and meeting Ezra Coffin—or reading his diary—should be a revelation. At this point, the Keeper should encourage Coffin’s player to develop his Dreaming skill, whether through lessons with his cousin, ingestion of opium or nanga, or good old-fashioned sleep. As Coffin progresses, the Keeper may award the player character with frequent and generous Development Phases of his Dreaming skill.

Managing Coffin’s Dreams

The Keeper and Coffin’s player should decide the frequency and scope of Coffin’s Dreaming, but the general pace of development should be controlled by three specific checkpoints. The Keeper is free to improvise the details, but the following outlines should be preserved:

Encounter 1: The Guide
Timeframe: On or shortly after Kith Kohr
After a few tentative forays beyond the wall of sleep, Coffin meets a Virgil-like Guide, an individual who recognizes Coffin and welcomes him to the Dreamlands. This could be a long-dead ancestor (Tristram or Peleg Coffin? Mary Coffin Macy?), an avatar of one of Coffin’s deceased heroes (Samuel Taylor Coleridge?), an animal spirit, or perhaps one of Ezra’s strange “daughters.” It could even be Rebecca Elton. The Keeper may decide what works best, or might encourage the player to fill in the blanks. No matter what form the Guide takes, the Guide is surprised to see Coffin—“I thought Ezra was the last of the Coffin Dreamers!” (If the Guide is Rebecca Elton, this dialogue should be modified to replace surprise with welcome recognition. More on Elton below.)

The encounter should feel hazy and confusing, like a bad translation, a film that won’t come into focus, or a radio tuned to an off station. The Keeper should emphasize this with bizarre music and lighting, something unsettling and eerie: Nurse With Wound, Conet Numbers, or György Ligeti’s vocal works. The lighting should follow suit: twinkling holiday lights, strobes, disco lights, rotating nightlights, colored bulbs; whatever props the Keeper has available. As with Coffin’s mesmerism in Chapter 1, other players may be enlisted to assist the Keeper. As the Dream unfolds, players should read random passages from DeQuincy, Coleridge, and Poe: a background chorus competing against the Guide. (See Handout: Coffin Dream Quotations.)

The Guide expresses the desire to show something to Coffin, something “wonderful,” but it requires “some traveling.” Coffin may ask questions, but the Guide’s answers are maddeningly vague, oracular riddles and fragments of nonsense. The Keeper may toss in phrases culled from Coffin’s ancestry, such as “House of Coffyn,” “the sorcerer Gwydion,” “Fairy Cross,” “the revolving castle,” “the church at Alwington,” and so forth, but not yet “Apollyon.” Only two things become clear: Coffin is descended from a long line of Dreamers, and something “marvelous” awaits him deeper in the Dreamlands. The Guide descends down a long staircase of gleaming ivory, leading Coffin through a marvelous garden to the edge of a misty river. The Guide points to the river and says, “The Oukranos.” As if on cue, a glorious white ship emerges from the mist and extends a gangway fashioned from bone, tusk, and horn. As the Guide reaches for Coffin’s hand, an intrusive green light floods the Dream. Coffin wakes with a start, left with more questions than answers. He’s also earned +10 Dreaming percentiles. The Guide will not reappear until Encounter 2.

Encounter 2: The Dreaming City
Timeframe: Just before, during, or shortly after Maui
Once again the Keeper should set the stage for this important Dream, but now everything is more gentle, less intrusive: ethereal music and subdued lighting. Other players may still recite passages from “Coffin Dream Quotations,” but now in murmurs and whispers.

The encounter begins when the Guide reappears. The Guide shows no awareness that any time has passed, and flickers into existence with hand outstretched—“Are you prepared to dine upon the table laid by your fathers?” Coffin’s questions are met with non-sequiturs or answers to questions he didn’t ask. At this point, the player may surmise that Coffin’s best course is to remain silent and observant, submitting to the vagaries of dream-logic. The Guide leads Coffin up the gangway to the white ship. Crewed by silent beings wearing turbans, the ship follows the Oukranos into the Cerenarian Sea, then somehow submerges, gliding upon a secret river beneath the sea—Alph?—and passing under the Lands of Ooth-Nargai. Returning to the surface at the Labyrinth of Gnorri, the ship skirts the Plateau of Leng and continues to the Unknown Lands. (If the Keeper is unfamiliar with these Dreamlands locations, she may simply make things up! It’s only background for the main event. Look to any Roger Dean painting for inspiration.) The border of the Dreamlands appears from the mist like the fabled “edge of the world,” the sea cascading over the limitless rim into outer space. The air trembles with the cataract, the hundredletter thundersound of eternity. However, the ship sails on, as the river continues over the edge, over and up, arching above the turbulent mist to encircle a forbiddingly tall volcano, an island floating in the void.

Gently spiraling into the flooded interior of the volcano, the river passes through a subterranean tunnel, its damp walls gleaming with phosphorescent starfish. The crew begins to change; transforming into insubstantial phantoms, glowing skeletons illuminating their papery flesh like Chinese lanterns. The river emerges somewhere else—quite possibly somewhen else—at the foot of Mount Voormithadreth in vanished Hyperborea. Flowing over the frozen landscape and passing through caves of ice, the sacred river delivers the ship to the Ivory Gate of Gwydion. The Guide looks to Mr. Coffin, whose very presence swings opens the gate, and the ship sails through. They have entered Fairy Cross, and all is suddenly green and verdant. As the gate closes behind them, the crew fades into oblivion, leaving only Coffin and the Guide. And there, towering on a hill, is the dreaming city. If Coffin calls the city Xanadu, the Guide smiles pityingly— “No, Mr. Coffin, it is your city. Your ancestors named it Apollyon.”

Apollyon
Constructed by generations of Dreaming Coffins, Apollyon should reflect some of Coffin’s mental images, and the Keeper should describe it in a way that specifically engages the player character. Keeping in line with Coffin’s poetic nature, it may also reflect the city of Xanadu from Coleridge’s poem, Kubla Khan.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

Oddly, however, Apollyon seems deserted. This emptiness does not convey a sense of abandonment—Apollyon is beautiful, gleaming, and somehow well-tended—but a sense of expectation, of waiting. There’s also a note of melancholy, a hint that the City is constructed upon a foundation of despair. After some time exploring its galleries and arcades, walking its balustrades and gazing from towers, Coffin notices the Guide has disappeared. Apollyon becomes bathed in green light, and Coffin is expelled to the waking world.

Encounter 3: Kosmonaut Aschen
Timeframe: Shortly before arriving at Kithaat
Eventually, the Keeper should allow Coffin to return to Apollyon. He discovers rooms for thousands of people, but no inhabitants. The Keeper should foster an unsettling air of watchfulness, as if the City were a sentient being observing Coffin from every window and doorway. The Guide is no longer necessary. After a while, Coffin may wonder if the Guide was even real, or perhaps a projection of his own subconscious.

One night this emptiness is disrupted by the appearance of another traveler like himself, another Dreamer! Calling himself “Kosmonaut Aschen,” the figure is the Dream-avatar of Amon Stockhausen. Although he forgoes the diving suit apparatus he uses for the Ministry, Stockhausen refrains from revealing his true name and appearance, and wears Byzantine robes and an ornate mask in the shape of a golden sun superimposed over a crescent moon. Stockhausen’s particular approach to Coffin depends on how the campaign has been playing out, but his goal is always the same. Stockhausen believes that Apollyon has a destiny, and was developed over generations for one single purpose: to serve as a haven for earth’s Dreamers after the Apocalypse. Just look at it! A massive, empty city awaiting a citizenry, located in a pocket Dreamworld accessible through a hidden portal. Realizing that Dagon’s resurrection will cause world-wide upheaval and destruction, Stockhausen intends to rescue as many Dreamers as possible, sheltering their souls in Apollyon whether or not their physical bodies are destroyed on earth. But this cannot be accomplished unless the last Dreaming Coffin willingly throws open the gates.

The Elder Thing
As explained in “Background Part 4—Pocket Dreamworlds,” the human Dreamlands are founded on the remains of the Elder Things’ psychic network, and each individual “pocket Dreamworld” draws power from a helplessly “pinioned” Elder Thing. Unlike Coffin, Amon Stockhausen realizes that Apollyon relies on an imprisoned Elder Thing to sustain its quasi-isolated nature; although he doesn’t know its physical location. Whether or not he imparts this information to Coffin depends on external factors, in particular the extent to which Professor Lowell has been cooperating with the Elder Things through his relationship with “Sarah.” Stockhausen’s connection to the Orchid grants him some understanding of this phenomenon, but places him in opposition to Lowell. If Montgomery Lowell desires to free the Elder Things, Lowell becomes Stockhausen’s enemy, and must be stopped at all cost.

If this is the case, Stockhausen sees Coffin as the perfect instrument to carry out these plans. He attempts to persuade Coffin that anyone cooperating with the Elder Things must be eliminated. His most persuasive tactic is the harsh truth of the racial equation—if the Elder Things are freed, the Dreamlands will collapse. Apollyon will be destroyed, along with the hopes of preserving the soul of humanity after the Apocalypse. If this does not prove persuasive, Stockhausen may reveal to Coffin the precise nature of his relationship to Abner Ezekiel Hoag.

Dream Dice and Rebecca Carter Elton
If Coffin allowed Mrs. Elton to mesmerize him at the North Point Lighthouse, the player was awarded with one to three “Dream dice.” Once Coffin begins exploring his Dreams, the player may use these Dream dice as bonus dice for any Dreaming roll or any roll made within the Dreamlands. Each Dream die may be used once per gaming session. The Keeper may decide whether Coffin can apply multiple Dream dice to a single roll. Furthermore, Coffin may have an ally in Rebecca Elton. If they parted as friends, Mrs. Elton may be able to advise or even assist Coffin in the Dreamlands. This is entirely at the Keeper’s discretion. She may be a ghostly presence offering cryptic advice, or she may be reserved as a deus ex machina to extract Coffin from foolish decisions. Elton’s Dream-avatar is an idealized image of herself, her hair flowing in an imaginary wind and her scarves trailing into mist. She’s usually accompanied by a talking cat named Pluto.

Endgame: Coffin’s Multiple Dilemmas
By the time the Abyss opens, Mr. Joseph Coffin should find himself in a conundrum, a “damned if I do and damned if I don’t” situation. Even if he believes he can prevent the Resurrection of Dagon, he’ll have to defeat multiple enemies, including the Covenant, Amon Stockhausen, and possibly player characters such as Montgomery Lowell. He may foil Hoag’s plans by committing suicide, but Hoag has already abducted Isaac and Lydia Coffin as “contingency vessels.” Also, being the last Coffin Dreamer, his death would spell ruin for Apollyon. If Coffin acts against the Elder Things, their human allies must be likewise eliminated, and Coffin must make peace with the terrible knowledge that the foundations of Apollyon are laid in the agony of another sentient being. If Coffin decides to save the Elder Things, he must cooperate in the destruction of the Dreamlands. He should have listened to his mother and stayed in Nantucket!

White Leviathan > Keeper’s Information > PC Secrets
[Beckett | Coffin | Dixon | Lowell | Morgan | Quakaloo | Redburn | Ward]
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Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 21 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]