Kingsport 1844: Kingsport Hotel

2) The Kingsport Hotel
909 King Street, Inner Harbor. Est. 1832

A) That Famous Irish Charm
The Kingsport Hotel is a modest, two-story boarding house run by the recently-widowed Mary Brody and her 15-year old son Finn. Costing $1.50 per day, $8 per week, or $20 per month, lodgings at the Kingsport Hotel are simple but comfortable, breakfast and dinner are wholesome, and rude talk is not tolerated in the dining room. The hotel is patronized by officers and middle-class travelers, and rarely sees the weathered face of an ordinary seaman. In fact, Mary discourages such “tinkers and spalpeens” to seek lodging, and refuses to allow “pagans, heathens, and idolaters” to darken her Christian doorstep. Breakfast is served at 7:00 am sharp, dinner at 5:00 pm, no exceptions.

B) Personalities
Mary and Finn Brody occupy three rooms on the ground floor—Mary’s bedroom, a small room for Finn, and private sewing room. Mary does all the cooking herself from a well-equipped kitchen, and laundry is dispatched to the “Sassenach” down the street.

Mary Brody
Age 44, Nationality: Irish, Birthplace: Waterford, Ireland 1800.

Combat

Skills
Accounting 45%, Art/Craft (Needlepoint) 60%, Art/Craft (Fine Art) 80%, Charm 5%, Complain 90%, Credit Rating 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Dreaming 45%, Fast Talk 25%, First Aid 30%, History 40%, Kingsport Cult 15%, Listen 25%, Occult 10%, Persuade 55%, Psychology 15%, Read Lips 10%, Religion (Catholic) 75%, Renown 10%, Sea Lore 10%, Spot Hidden 50%, Stealth 25%.

Languages: English, native; Irish Gaelic 35%, Guernésiais* 15%, Jèrriais* 15% (*only when Dreaming).

Description
Of black-Irish descent, the Widow Brody is a middle-aged woman whose once generous features have been pinched by hardship, her dark hair streaked with strands of iron grey. Originally from Waterford, Mary arrived in Kingsport when she was 17, immediately falling in love with Captain Henry Potter Brody and marrying him a year later. After her husband went down with the Sabrina in ‘42, Mary has become a dour and humorless woman, and it’s obvious that the joy has drained from her life. She speaks with a mild Irish accent, and wears a silver crucifix around her neck. An accomplished artist, her hands are often stained by flecks of paint.

There’s Something About Mary
As surprising as it may seem, Mary Brody née Houlihan has recently entered the ranks of Kingsport Dreamers. Since the death of Captain Brody, she’s been haunted by visions of Kingsport and the Miskatonic Valley as it was in past centuries, and some of these dreams contain hints about her husband’s true fate. Though she’s been afraid to explore this avenue further, Mary no longer believes that the Sabrina capsized in a freak squall, and has developed a bitter distrust of Innsmouth and her “loathsome” folk. Disconcerted by the scarcity of Catholics in Kingsport (she doesn’t count Italians or Portuguese, it seems), she has recently allowed visitations by the Preacher, but has yet to confide her suspicions to the blind old Protestant. This has not stopped her tongue from wagging about “pagan Innsmouth” to anyone who’ll listen. Lately Mary has been discussing selling the hotel and returning to Waterford.

Finn Brody
Age 15, Nationality: American, Birthplace: Kingsport, 1829.

Combat

Skills
Accounting 20%, Charm 60%, Climb 20%, Fast Talk 65%, History 10%, Kingsport Cult 5%, Listen 30%, Persuade 60%, Psychology 20%, Read Lips 35%, Religion (Catholic) 40%, Seamanship 5%, Sea Lore 5%, Spot Hidden 50%, Stealth 60%.

Description
A strapping young lad, Finn assists his mother with the more physically demanding chores of running a guest house, but has no intentions of taking over management or “returning” to an Ireland he’s never seen: Finn desperately wants to be a sailor. Imbued with his father’s good looks and Irish palaver, Finn is widely considered a charming and attractive young man. It’s obvious to everyone except Mary that one day soon he’s going to slip anchor and vanish on an outbound ship. The only thing keeping Finn ashore is his concern for his mother. Lately she’s been staring blankly into space and muttering in a language that sounds like French. A few months ago Mary sleepwalked into Finn’s room, sat on his bed, and whispered wild stories about prisoners trapped on a burning ship, their screaming voices silenced by a deluge of black water. Frankly speaking, Finn worries she’s losing her mind.

The Folgers
Guests at the Kingsport Hotel include Jonah and Anne Folger. Jonah Folger is the creator of “Jonah’s Amazing Whaling Panorama,” currently playing at Pickering Hall. Although Jonah’s schedule keeps them from attending dinners, the Folgers never miss breakfast, and Jonah takes every opportunity to promote his panorama (see Encounter 25).

C) The Rooms
Accommodations at the Kingsport Hotel are cozy and quaint, the very definition of “lace curtain Irish.” Each room contains a window, a narrow bed, an oil lamp, a coal stove, and a small writing desk with a Roman Catholic Bible set squarely in the center. Decoration is kept to a minimum, and surprisingly little is seen in the way of nautical kitsch. Mary doesn’t like to be reminded of her loss, and has removed all traces of Captain Brody’s career, replacing his maritime artifacts with Irish bric-à-brac and Biblical quotations done in needlepoint. Nostalgic landscapes of Waterford hang above each bed, painted by Mary back in the “happy times.” The dining room features a painting of Kingsport Head blanketed by fog, lights twinkling in the diamond-shaped panes of the High House. Suffused with an impressionistic beauty, it’s a good starting place for a conversation about Mary’s muse.

Mary Brody’s Paintings

A talented artist, Mary’s recent paintings are too disturbing for casual décor. An attempt to capture her dreams on canvas, they are lined along her bedroom floor, nailed to wooden stretchers with their faces turned against the wall. She’ll only show them to someone who earns her trust through a Regular Charm roll or a Hard Persuade roll. She’ll also reveal them to a fellow Dreamer. Mary keeps her bedroom door locked, but that may be overcome by a Locksmith roll. Finn has seen the paintings, and they worry him. If Finn has befriended the player characters, he may show them the paintings and ask for advice—“She used to paint portraits of captains, Irish landscapes, fruit baskets—you know, normal stuff! Is my mother going crazy?”

That’s not an easy question to answer! The six paintings are quite surreal, like distorted windows into Kingsport’s secret history; painted with an intensity and abandonment that unnerves even Mary herself. Four depict recognizable events. The 1692 execution of the Kingsport witches shows thirteen cloaked and hooded bodies hanging from an extended gibbet, rain streaming down the wide-brimmed hats of the assembled Puritans. The witches’ descendants are the subject the second painting, shadowy figures spilling from St. Michael’s Church to face the raised muskets of Mayor Hall’s mob. The third painting shows the Talbot Smallpox Inoculation Hospital under a full moon, a group of darkly-dressed figures lighting torches, their luridly-illumed faces masks of ignorance and hatred. The fourth is a more recent subject, and depicts the burning of Opium Row. The raging fire imperceptibly changes into coiling tendrils of smoke, rising up to Father Neptune’s nostrils, his eyes hooded and his stone features slack and dreamy.

The remaining two paintings are more fantastic. One shows a dreamy white galleon adrift on a sea of fog, the pearly haze intermittently illuminated by the tops of lighthouses peeking from the mist like buoys. The other is darker in tone, depicting a mysterious cavern sheltering a lead-colored sea. The cavern glows with a pale green phosphoresce, and misshapen bats wheel in the hazy distance.

Any Arts and Craft roll recognizes Mary’s talent, although her style is deliberately vague; one might almost say—impressionistic? In terms of intensity, a comparison to Francisco Goya’s “Black Paintings” is not unwarranted. An Appraise roll recognizes that certain galleries in New York or Boston could sell these paintings for a considerable amount, while a History roll marvels at their astonishing verisimilitude. For instance, the 1692 witch hanging. How did Mary know it was raining that night? That’s not common knowledge! Nor is the fact that Lucy Wenepoykin had her braids cut off by Price Byram, who carried them from his belt like a scalp. And the details on the Puritan garb—the Madder root dyes, the class distinctions in buttons and lace, the trivial fact that one observer has mismatched his garters—it’s as if Mary had actually seen the crowd in person.

The Doxie
Mary’s current work-in-progress is the most disturbing of all, concealed by a black cloth draped over her easel. It depicts the shipwreck of the Doxie at Doyle’s Rock, the icy rigging spangled with the corpses of frozen sailors. They resemble flies in a spiderweb, and something sinister seems to be looming in the clouds. (See Encounter 41 for details about the Doxie.) A Spot Hidden directs the viewer’s attention to the ship’s wheel, where some tremulous slashes of paint suggest the presence of a flayed and crucified sailor! If asked about this gruesome particular, Mary pauses, then shakes her head—“I don’t know. I didn’t see that in my dreams. I just…painted it. Then I painted over it, but I seem to have painted it back. The wheel, it’s in that tawdry museum now, the one with the wax harlots. I wanted to see the wheel for myself, but it’s closed for the season.” (See Encounter 27 for details. Silas Grimble does indeed use the Doxie’s wheel to restrain his victims.)

D) Programmed Events
There are two Programmed Events involving the Kingsport Hotel.

October 29, 7:00 am: Message for Mr. Coffin
The morning of October 29, the Preacher dispatches Mute Charlie on Hagar with a letter for Joseph Coffin. The Innsmouth lad ties up the nag and turns the doorbell, an envelope in one hand and a brown glass bottle in the other. Mary Brody answers the door, delighted to find Charlie, who hands her the bottle with a wink. The silent messenger presents the envelope, addressed to “Mr. J. Coffin at the Widow Brody’s.” (Handout: Letter from Preacher to Coffin.) Disappointed the letter isn’t for her, Mary is nevertheless impressed the Preacher would single out one of her guests. This not only elevates Mr. Coffin in Mary’s eyes, she’ll regale him with stories about the Preacher’s eloquence and righteousness—“even for a Protestant! But then, Wolfe Tone was a Protestant, you know.” Of course she’ll be curious about the letter’s contents, perhaps even nosey. Mary delays Charlie long enough to present him with some fresh bread and strawberry preserves to take back to Bluff Street. If Coffin did not stay the night at the Kingsport Hotel or departed before dawn, Charlie leaves the letter with Mrs. Brody. She passes it to Coffin as soon as feasible, or sends Finn to deliver it in person at the Quiddity. If the letter is left with Mary Brody for more than ten minutes, she’ll steam it open, read it, and reset the wax seal. This subterfuge is detectable by a successful Sleight of Hand roll.

October 31, 6:00 pm–3:00 am: Mary Brody Paints the Tempest
Mary and Finn Brody prepare for the Halloween Tempest by shuttering the hotel’s windows and stoking the hearth to a warm glow. As her guests force their way home through the gale Mary opens the dining room, providing her lodgers with a steady supply of Irish stew and mulled cider. As conversation turns to the rapacity of the storm, Mary begins murmuring about the Tempest of 1800; how it destroyed much of the Talbot’s fleet, sweeping men from the decks and capsizing entire ships. Numerous estates on Stratton Point were damaged. The Macy House collapsed entirely, killing old “Black Zack” Macy and his son Ezekiel. By the time Mary gets to the “strange diving bell” washed ashore at Hog Island, it becomes evident she’s remembering the storm, not merely telling a story.

Falling into a dreamy trance, Mary returns to her room and begins a new canvas, leaving her door wide open and apparently unconcerned about attracting an audience. Created over the course of an hour, the painting attempts to capture the ongoing storm as it vents its fury against trembling Kingsport. Even more impressionistic than her usual work, the centerpiece of the painting is the Quiddity, which appears magically untouched by the turmoil. The last thing Mary paints is a pale green fire flickering about the three masts, transforming the ship into a spectral candelabra at the eye of a hurricane. Upon completing the painting, she turns to guests associated with the Quiddity and asks to take their hands. Still in a daze, she guides each character to the painting and presses his finger into the painted deck, leaving a little, person-shaped smudge as she intones, “Beannaím agus cosnaím tú!” Once her work is done, Mary swoons and falls unconscious, leaving Finn to care for the guests.

Mary’s Blessing
A Language (Irish Gaelic) roll translates Mary’s words as, “I bless and protect you.” Any player character who pressed his finger into the paint receives +1D4 Luck percentiles. Moreover, each receives a Quiddity charm; a single-use token that may be exchanged to reroll any one roll made onboard the Quiddity. The Keeper is encouraged to provide each player with a physical token, perhaps a “lucky penny,” a four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, etc.

Optional Extension: The Return of Captain Brody
If the Keeper would like to intensify the supernatural aspects of the evening, the Kingsport Hotel may be directly affected by the Programmed Event “Kingsport Gives Up Her Dead” described in Encounter 1. Instead of swooning into unconsciousness after completing her painting, Mary becomes gripped by the idea that her dead husband is returning: trudging through the storm, his face bloated from drowning, his swollen throat raked open with claw wounds, tiny crabs clinging to his sodden pea-coat. The poor widow becomes increasingly convinced of this imminent visitation, describing the captain in waves of horror mixed with a pathetic, hopeful longing. She rushes to the sewing room and retrieves the only portrait of Henry she ever painted, then hangs it above the fireplace—“Look! See how his features are changing! Ah, merciful God! Murdered by Innsmouth devils, then drowned! Look, look at my sweet Henry’s eyes!” The Keeper should determine how far to play out this “Monkey’s Paw” scenario. Has Mary Brody finally lost her mind? Does the portrait of Brody actually start changing? Do the player characters become infected by her madness? And is that indeed a heavy tread approaching the door? And—does the doorbell ring?

White Leviathan, Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 1, The Knotted Iron | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 3, The Mariner’s Bethel]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 19 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]