Kingsport 1844: The Diving Bell
- At September 18, 2021
- By Great Quail
- In Call of Cthulhu
- 0
5) The Diving Bell
Corner of Barton Street & King Street, The Cauldron, Harborside. Est. 1825
A) Overview
A frightful hell of the worst sort, this miserable dive features a dregs-of-society saloon on the first floor, gambling and prostitution on the upper floors, and an opium den in the basement. There’s little to recommend the Diving Bell except its cheap prices, and it’s frequented by some of the lowest lowlifes in the Cauldron, including the Powderhouse Ghouls. The Diving Bell is also infamous for its rat-fights, bloody affairs conducted in a back room off the saloon.
B) Personalities
The Diving Bell is owned by “Black Jackie” Wallace, a former gunner in the British Navy.
“Black Jackie” Wallace
Age 36, Nationality: Scottish, Birthplace: Glasgow 1808.
STR 75 | CON 80 | SIZ 70 | DEX 60 | INT 50 |
APP 45 | POW 50 | EDU 20 | SAN 70 | HP 15 |
DB: +1D4 | Build: 1 | Move: 8 | MP: 10 | Luck: 65 |
Combat
Brawl | 80% (40/16), damage 1D3+1D4 |
Cutlass | 40% (20/8), damage 1D4+1+1D4 |
Shotgun | 80% (40/16), damage 1D10 |
Dodge | 60% (30/12) |
Skills
Accounting 20%, Appraise 60%, Art/Craft (Gambling) 75%, Artillery 50%, Charm 20%, Climb 50%, Credit Rating 40%, Disguise 10%, Fast Talk 75%, First Aid 30%, History 10%, Intimidate 60%, Jump 30%, Law 20%, Leadership 25%, Listen 40%, Locksmith 10%, Persuade 50%, Psychology 15%, Read Lips 10%, Renown 15%, Seamanship 70%, Sea Lore 30%, Sleight of Hand 85%, Spot Hidden 65%, Stealth 50%, Survival 25%, Swim 25%, Throw 40%.
Description
A Saturnine Scotsman with a coal-black beard and a vivid scar across his nose, “Black Jackie” Wallace owes his nickname to his dark temperament—he’s a gloomy son of a bitch who rarely cracks a smile, and takes a perverse pleasure in his Glaswegian pessimism. Although he has a small office on the second floor, Jackie lives in a crumbling cottage near the Causeway. He’s been shacked up with an escaped slave named Trudy for as long as anyone can remember. While both are on good terms with the Powderhouse Ghouls, they prefer to remain as “independent” as possible. Wallace maintains a strict “no questions asked” policy about what transpires on other floors of the Diving Bell, but he prefers the saloon to remain relatively free of bloodshed.
C) Ground Floor: Saloon
The saloon is a sprawling, dimly-lit barroom populated by thieves and gamblers, semi-naked whores, beggars drinking away their alms over discarded prosthetic maladies, and terminal drunks destined to collapse to the floor by dawn. Black Jackie sells pop-skull in chipped glasses—occasionally flavored with a few drops of chloral hydrate for foolish connies—and for a nickel, you can suck cheap beer from a tube for as long as you can hold your breath. A nickel also purchases a tin cup of “Cunny Punch,” a horrifying beverage consisting of heated rum, ginger, benzene, camphor, and a pinch of gunpowder. Garbage and refuse are simply dropped down a tin chute to the basement, where a sow named Queen Victoria gobbles anything crossing her path.
The saloon décor is simple: gaudy paintings of mermaids and sea monsters adorn the walls, and the ceiling is hung with seashells threaded along lengths of twine. A rope net at the back of the room holds a few comatose drunks, usually tossed there to sleep it off. Surprisingly, the saloon features one of Robert Wornum’s “Piccolo Action” upright pianos. Shipped to Kingsport and slated for delivery in Ipswich, the expensive innovation was diverted from its route by the Powderhouse Ghouls, who thought it made a fun present for Julie the Stoker. Aside from the incongruous piano, the only mark of higher culture is a begrimed plaque above the bar, inscribed with lines from the anonymous English poem, The Ballad of Gresham College:
A wondrous Engine is contriveing
In forme, t’is said, much like a Bell,
Most usefull for the Art of Diveing.
If’t hitt, ‘t will prove a Miracle;
For, gentlemen, ‘t is no small matter
To make a man breath under water.
D) Diving Bell Regulars
Any number of Powderhouse Ghouls may be found in the saloon at any given time, although Donovan Wreck or Mr. Lovejoy appear only when business requires. Aside from these miscreants, a few less psychopathic regulars are listed below.
Colum McGann
A wretched soul, McGann is a camphor fiend who dwells under a table in the farthest reaches of the saloon. He earns his keep by performing menial tasks such as spreading sawdust on the floor, cleaning the commode, and mucking Victoria’s stall. Filthy beyond belief, he’s a complete degenerate, and always carries a bottle of camphor which he adds dropwise to his rum.
Beano Duster
A professional rat-catcher, Beano runs the Diving Bell’s rat-pit. Short and pug-faced, Beano has a raunchy sense of humor and always appreciates a dirty joke. A frenzied rat bit off a portion of his lower lip, giving Beano an ugly scar, a slight speech impediment, and a perpetual punchline—“And that was the last time I tried to kiss a client before I fucked her!” Beano also participates in the fights, and he maintains a small stable of scarred terriers: Seamus, Captain Macy, Miss Trudy, Turko, and Pussycat; all champions of the ring.
Julie’s Band
Referred to as “Julie’s Band,” this trio of musicians frequently convenes around the upright piano to entertain the saloon with music—mostly murder ballads and obscene sea shanties. The band plays all manner of instruments, including an accordion, a harmonica, a banjo, a fiddle, an upright bass, a Jew’s harp, caroling bells, a saw, and a military snare drum. The band’s singer and pianist is a transgendered woman named Julie the Stoker. A British engineer who served onboard the HMS Gorgon, Julie deserted after being flogged for attempted sodomy. After working as a singer in a London molly-house, she arrived in Kingsport in 1842. Julie has long black hair and an abundance of garish make-up, and wears a mock ball-gown stitched from flags, odd swatches of cloth, and remnants of her Navy uniform. Usually high on laudanum, she slips in and out of “character” at will, and sings self-penned songs that wallow in lust and addiction. Julie is assisted by her boyfriend Charity Gunner, a former gun-captain for the U.S. Navy who reputedly caused the death of his entire gun crew; and The Cabin Boy, a dissolute geezer who plays the band’s stringed instruments and claims to have fought with Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans. Nobody knows their real names, and the Ghouls forbid anyone from hassling or harming them. Indeed, Julie the Stoker is something of a gang “mascotte,” and individual Ghouls are delighted to hear their names or antics commemorated in one of her scandalous songs.
E) A Typical Night at the Diving Bell
Despite its wretchedness, the Diving Bell offers numerous forms of entertainment. The first time a player character enters the saloon, Julie’s Band should be in full swing, with unlikely couples and threesomes dancing across the warped floor. Prostitutes ply their trade openly—and sometimes immediately, such as one table near the back—and the air is pungent with odors ranging from tobacco to urine. A party of sailors are “pulling faces” by the bar, a game where each participant thrusts his head through the hole of an outhouse plank and attempts to elicit laughter by doing impressions, giving mock speeches, or making silly faces. While player characters should probably avoid the table of Powderhouse Ghouls playing a game of mumblety-peg over the body of an unconscious sailor, they may wish to join the game of pulling faces or head to the rat-pit, where Beano Duster is conducting a fight.
F) The Rat-Pit
The Diving Bell’s rat-pit is located through swinging doors at the back of the saloon. A small room centered around a sunken wooden arena, the pit is surrounded by screeching drunks waving betting slips at Beano’s bet-keeper, Biter Cabot, whose nickel dentures gleam oily in the lamplight. The air is heavy with the animal funk of rats, dogs, and unwashed humans. Six dogs are competing in tonight’s event, including Duster’s own Miss Trudy, a black terrier missing her left eye. Bets are placed on how many rats each dog can kill in eight minutes, adjusted by weight category. Biter serves as timekeeper, marking confirmed kills on a slate-board. The first time player characters attend a fight, Miss Trudy James herself is there, betting on the terrier that bears her name. A startlingly tall black woman with seashells woven into her hair and a keloid scar circling her throat like a hangman’s noose, Miss Trudy is a devotée of the sport, and her rough banter with Beano is one of the pit’s main attractions—“That’s sixteen rats per minute, Beano—the same rate your mama turns tricks!”
Gaming and Gambling
Player characters are welcome to play at “pulling faces” or place bets on the rat fight. For the former, the Keeper should produce some form of ring—a dislocated toilet seat would be most appropriate, but a bent-open coat hanger will do in a pinch. All characters who wish to participate must wager an agreed amount not exceeding $1.00. Each player then places his head through the ring and makes a goofy face or improvises a speech in character. At the end, the players vote on who gave the best performance, and the winner takes the pot.
Over at the rat-pit, bets range from 10¢ to $5.00. If a player character wagers on the scarred black terrier, a Luck roll determines the outcome. If the bettor possesses Animal Handling or Art/Craft (Gambling), he may add a +1D10 bonus die to the roll. A failure or Regular success loses the bet. A Hard success breaks even, an Extreme success doubles the bet, and a critical success quadruples the bet. A critical failure means a rat kills Miss Trudy, and every bettor surrenders an additional $1.00 “insurance payout” to Biter Cabot. Unlike the “Pulling Faces” game, it’s not recommended for the Keeper to simulate the rat-fight—well, maybe with hand-puppets?
G) Second Floor: Gambling
The saloon’s second floor contains damp and dirty rooms illuminated by tallow candles. A few rooms are reserved for the Powderhouse Ghouls, with one serving as Black Jackie’s office. The rest of the rooms are used for stuss games and policy operations. Also known as “Jewish faro,” stuss is a version of faro with increased house odds. (Faro is a wildly popular game of chance, somewhat similar to roulette played with cards.) Because the cards are dealt from the dealer’s hand rather than pulled from a faro box, a little sleight-of-hand ensures most players never take home significant winnings. The stuss games are run by the Powderhouse Ghouls, but the policy shop—an early form of “numbers racket”—is a subsidiary operation managed by the Crow Warlocks, a gang from Arkham affiliated with the Ghouls. Any character making a Slight of Hand roll can see the stuss games are rigged; it requires a Hard Luck roll break even, and an Extreme Luck roll to double one’s wager.
H) Third Floor: Prostitution
These assignation rooms are rented to freelance prostitutes, who are required to kick 60% of their earnings to the Powderhouse Ghouls. Each room contains a soiled bed, a sooty lantern, a washstand, and a chamber pot. The women who utilize these “cribs” are among Kingsport’s poorest, and many are afflicted by addiction, malnourishment, and disease. Indeed, one regular named Chicken Betty keeps her infant son swaddled in an empty chamber pot under the bed while working, the child doped into silence by sugared milk mixed with paregoric. The one saving grace for potential customers is the “honesty” of the girls, as the Ghouls don’t tolerate whores robbing clients on-premises.
I) Basement
A dank, subsiding chamber cloaked in gloom and wreathed in smoke, the Diving Bell’s basement features a dirt floor and wooden walls, roots peeking from between the swollen boards. The cellar is kaleidoscopically illuminated by Levantine lanterns hung on the wooden supports, usually shaded in red, green, and blue glass. The basement’s central feature is an actual diving bell, cracked and clearly unusable, painted crimson and decorated with candles. The namesake of the tavern, it was washed ashore at Hog Island during the Tempest of 1800. The stairs to the saloon are located opposite an overflowing storeroom near the street.
Queen Victoria’s Stall
The corner below the stairs are walled off to form a small pigsty. A fat sow named Queen Victoria wallows in the muck, surrounded by garbage and spoiled food cast down a tin chute from the saloon upstairs. She is no stranger to human flesh, and anyone insane enough to voluntarily muck the stall would certainly find—well, you know. If the Keeper is so inclined, when the player characters first encounter Queen Victoria, a Spot Hidden observes her hungrily gobbling down the “twig and berries” of an emasculated cobbler currently bleeding out on the second floor, having foolishly attempted to rob a stuss game.
The Opium Den
The majority of the Diving Bell’s basement is used as an opium den. There is no music, no gong, no fancy lay-outs with Pidgin Chinese names—just zonked-out hopheads slowly committing suicide one toke at a time. The atmosphere is nearly suffocating, the heavy fragrance of opium soured by spoiled food and pig shit. Loosely constructed like a ship’s forecastle, the walls are lined with wooden bunks stacked three high, each boasting a louse-ridden mattress and chintz “privacy” curtains. The bunks are occupied by men in various stages of drug-addled torpor. The clientele also includes a few women, most as filthy and depraved as the men, one of whom appears to have died a few hours ago. The only sound besides the occasional moaning or coughing is the distinctive whistle of the opium pipes.
The “hop” is delivered to clients by Coco Dragon, a pockmarked Chinese woman with a terrible brand scarred across her face. She is summoned by knocking three times on the wooden bunk, although regulars are known to simply whisper her name. Coco drifts about the fo’c’sle in complete silence, distributing greasy pills of Turkish opium from a wooden tray shaped like a lotus. Dressed in a red cheongsam frayed to translucency, Coco herself occupies the central diving bell, a door cut into its side revealing a cramped room. The opium kits are laid out around a lantern improvised from a battered diving helmet. If any client causes trouble, Coco calls out in Cantonese, summoning the Powderhouse Ghouls from the saloon upstairs.
Coco has two Chinese assistants, a middle-aged woman named Mrs. Lee and a girl the clients call Lily. Both double as prostitutes, and when the player characters first arrive downstairs, Lily may be found sleeping in a client’s arms, his constable’s uniform crumpled to the floor and his shako serving as their pillow. Mrs. Lee is giving a desultory hand-job to a sailor in a lower bunk, while a naked girl above tries to snag his forgotten pipe with her toes. Coco and her girls were “liberated” by the Powderhouse Ghouls after the burning of Opium Row—the Ming Tong simply retreated to Boston, leaving the women to starve to death in a cage below Ming’s Water Street Pharmacy. The Ghouls relocated the opium den to the basement of Diving Bell, which was already in use as a cheap brothel. Generally considered a Chinese practice, smoking opium caught on quickly among the white sailors, particularly those accustomed to the ports of Constantinople, Alexandretta, Smyrna, and Macao. The Ghouls advertise the opium den by distributing copper tokens stamped with Chinese characters above the words “Barton & King.” Good for one pipe of opium, more than a few sailors have followed this cheap copper with good silver.
Partaking of the Poppy
The opium is Turkish in origin, brought into Kingsport on Illsley traders as rounded cakes packed in calico-wrapped wicker baskets. These cakes are then rehydrated and molded into pea-sized “pills.” The pipes are cheaply crafted from bamboo and clay, and the opium lamps are made from a “white copper” alloy called paktong, similar to German silver. An single pipe of opium costs 25¢. The kit is brought by Coco Dragon, who wordlessly demonstrates how to use a heated needle to churn and knead the pill, insert the opium into the damper, and vaporize the drug using the lamp. Regulars familiar with the process are generally charged 20¢ for a pipe. If the client desires company—whether to assist in the smoking process or to provide physical comfort—the services of Mrs. Lee or Lily may be secured for 50¢ per half-hour. The effects of opium are described under “Drugs, Intoxicants, and Poisons.”
J) Programmed Events
There are several Programmed Events involving the Diving Bell.
October 28-30: Graverobbing in the Name of Science! Part 1
This scenario is triggered when Dr. Montgomery Lowell contacts Mr. Lovejoy, whether through the “red right hand” at the Old Powderhouse (Encounter 36) or through the Ghouls at the Diving Bell. Mr. Lovejoy arranges a meeting with Lowell in Jackie’s office on the second floor. A meticulously dissipated man in his early forties, Lovejoy projects the kind of quiet menace that certain people find strangely sexy. While his education is no match for the Professor’s, Lovejoy is quite cunning, and knows how to throw his “betters” off balance through insinuation and implied complicity—“Now Professor, don’t you fret. You’re not the first peripatetic to find himself perambulating into my office, taking the philosopher’s seat and asking your lower classes to assist in your studies…”
Mr. Lovejoy expresses his condolences over the death of Lowell’s fellow savant, casually opening a can of peaches and slyly suggesting that Adrian Talbot had done his own share of graverobbing—“Ah, but the rich are interred behind lock and key, are they not? No need for shilling-deep burials, spring-loaded guns, or nervous constables discussing ghosts along the parapet walls. Only the poor need worry they’ll be short a few…vital organs on that day of sure and certain resurrection.” Once Lowell confirms that he’d like to examine Diego Salva’s body, Lovejoy nods gravely and offers him a peach impaled at the end of his knife. “Maul Street Pier, 2:00 am the night of October thirtieth—that’s the wee hours of the thirty-first, you understand? Come alone, and for God’s sake, dress the part. And Professor? That’ll be five dollars. The peaches are gratis.” (If the date is currently October 30, Mr. Lovejoy just says, “2:00 am tonight.”) If the Professor accepts the invitation, the scenario continues in “Graverobbing in the Name of Science! Part 2/Rachel Ward’s Grave Errand, Part 2” under Encounter 40, “Hog Island.”
October 29-30: Rachel Ward’s Grave Errand, Part 1
After baking her mandrake root with verbena, Rachel Ward must enact the final step in the ritual to create her Mandragora—she must wrap it in a “strip of a dead man’s winding-sheet pulled from the grave between sunset and sunrise.” Because Rachel’s holiday from the Starry Busk starts the day of October 29, she only has two days to secure this critical component. Graverobbing is no easy task, but there are two possibilities—either contact Bishop Butcher of the Powderhouse Ghouls, or grab a shovel and do it herself! If the player character decides on a solo expedition, Part 1 and Part 2 of this scenario may be skipped. The Keeper should proceed to “Rachel Ward’s Grave Errand, Part 3” under Encounter 40, “Hog Island.” Otherwise, Rachel must visit the Diving Bell.
Butcher’s Proposition
Bishop Butcher greets Rachel with a sneer—“Why, first Viridian, and now Scarlet! It’s getting to be quite a rainbow in here, luv. C’mon, I know you mustn’t be seen. Chicken Betty’s taking her brat to see his father. We’ll use her crib.” The resurrection-man escorts Rachel upstairs to the assignation room, directing her to the bed and plopping himself at Betty’s vanity. He holds up Betty’s bottle of paregoric and winks—“Mixes it with milk and sugar to keep the brat quiet during commerce. Keeps him in a chamber pot under the bed. Makes ye miss the grog-shop, eh? Oh, I know ye was Jack’s girl, don’t put on airs. What are ye after?” As Rachel speaks, Butcher’s beefy hands wander across Betty’s threadbare garments and explore her cosmetics. He tries on her lipstick, making faces in the flyspecked mirror.
Once Rachel has finished, Butcher breathes a low whistle and pretends to contemplate her request. He catches a flea and inspects it before crushing it between his fingers, then replies blandly, “Forty dollars.” Giving Rachel a moment to absorb this ridiculous price, he pats the soiled mattress—“Or…how ‘bout five, and I take the balance in commerce?” A Persuade roll brings him down to $10 without “commerce,” but Bishop Butcher is immune to charm or intimidation. If Rachel agrees to pay, Butcher tells her to meet him at Maul Street Pier, 2:00 am the morning of October 31. This gives Rachel just enough time to secure the mandrake root. If Rachel accepts the invitation, the scenario continues in “Graverobbing in the Name of Science! Part 2/Rachel Ward’s Grave Errand, Part 2” under Encounter 40, “Hog Island.”
October 27-29: Leland Morgan’s Opium War, Part 1
At some point Leland Chappell Morgan may enter the Diving Bell and request to purchase $40 worth of opium. This is a sizable amount—the equivalent of a $1400 drug deal today—and it’s highly unlikely that Morgan will come without backup, or with that amount of money on his person. If the player doesn’t realize this, the Keeper should allow an Intelligence roll to place the notion in Morgan’s increasingly-thick skull. However, if a solo Morgan does show up rattling forty golden eagles, the Keeper may have him thoroughly trounced and relieved of his burden. More likely he’ll be accompanied by Ulysses Dixon, and perhaps other player characters he’s befriended, possibly Quakaloo, Tobias Beckett, Milton Redburn, or Rachel Ward—all of whom may be interested in visiting the Diving Bell or even obtaining some opium themselves. The keeper should run the encounter as a typical night at the Diving Bell, with Julie’s Band at the piano and nefarious activities unfolding around the saloon. If Morgan asks for opium, he’s directed to Coco Dragon downstairs; but asking to purchase a significant amount of raw product gets him a referral to Blinky Cooper.
Waiting for the Man
Blinky Cooper is playing cards with Biter Cabot, Hurricane Jane, and Alabama Dan. All three are half-drunk, smoking cigarettes of cheap tobacco cut with hemp. A half-dressed prostitute clings to Blinky, laughing too loudly at his jokes and running her fingers through his greasy hair. The game they are playing seems inscrutable, with betting chips representing promised acts of depravity. Everything seems to be a joke—until it’s not—and the game is underscored by the dangerous tension of drunk gangsters clowning around with each other.
Morgan’s request for $40 worth of opium is initially greeted by laughter, followed by a request to “show your tin, mate.” It requires a Charm, Credit Rating, Fast Talk, or Persuade roll to convince Blinky that Morgan is serious. (Unless he foolishly brought along the money, in which case he’s robbed at gunpoint and kicked to the street.) If Morgan fails the attempt, Blinky slaps the table and hoots in amusement—“Nice try, Commodore. Now fuck off before I get bored.” If Morgan is successful, Blinky pauses to think it over for a second, whispering something in the prostitute’s ear. A Psychology roll suggests that Alabama Dan appears intrigued by Morgan’s offer, while a Spot Hidden detects a knowing glance exchanged between Hurricane Jane and Biter Cabot. The prostitute giggles, and Blinky turns to Morgan, his eye twitching—“Naw, I’ll pass, Commodore. Why don’t you go downstairs and have a pipe on your pal Blinky?” He flips Morgan a copper token stamped with Chinese characters. Any attempt to push Blinky is met with escalating hostility, and perhaps a meaningful fuck off and I’ll talk to you later look from Jane.
Behind the Scenes
As soon as Morgan leaves the table, Blinky retires upstairs with his lady friend, and Jane proposes a plan to Biter and Dan. As fate would have it, Arkham’s Crow Warlocks are expecting a shipment of opium from the Illsley Liberty Bells. (The Keeper should schedule this delivery for whatever evening best suits the game; but not Halloween night!) Normally, the Powderhouse Ghouls receive a cut of such trade to “mind their business,” but lately Jane and Biter have been considering an “independent operation.” What if someone hijacked the shipment? Maybe Morgan’s request is the perfect opportunity: Morgan and his friends help with the robbery, and get rewarded from the spoils. As long as everybody wears hoods and Morgan does the talking, the robbery will be blamed on itinerant sailors!
The Proposition
The Keeper should allow Morgan to make the next move—order some drinks, visit the opium den, or leave the Diving Bell. The moment Morgan appears ready to move on, Hurricane Jane quietly pulls him aside—“My mates and I, we talked it over. Maybe we can do each other some good, yeah? We can’t get that amount of dope without raising eyebrows best left unraised. But there is a way.” Although she’ll forgo mentioning anything about a robbery, she’ll instruct Morgan to meet her at the Old Powderhouse the midnight of the delivery, then add: “Bring some extra muscle to feel safe, yeah? And say half your kelter. We’ll get you half the dope. If everybody’s still feeling friendly, we’ll do the other half later. But—breathe a word of this to Blinky or anyone else—my mates and I? We’ll gut you like a fucking fish, yeah?”
Morgan’s Decision
Of course this sounds sketchy as hell, and Morgan may justifiably hesitate. However, he needs his medicine, and willingly refusing Jane’s offer requires a Hard success on a Power roll. Refusing means he’ll have significantly less opium for the voyage, which may negatively impact Morgan’s ability to manage his transformation. (The Keeper is welcome to inform the player about this consequence.) If Morgan accepts the proposal, the scenario continues in “Leland Morgan’s Opium War, Part 2,” detailed under Encounter 36. However, if Morgan betrays Hurricane Jane to the Powderhouse Ghouls, she’ll claim they were setting up the foolish sailor for an easy robbery. Donovan Wreck authorizes Jane, Dan, and Biter to “teach Morgan a lesson.” The Keeper is free to determine the scope of such instruction!
October 31: The Halloween Tempest (Diving Bell Edition)
The Diving Bell remains open during the tempest, as anxious sailors take refuge from the gale and drown their fears in booze, sex, and dope. If the player characters are trapped in the Diving Bell rather than the Knotted Iron, the Halloween Tempest Scenarios described in Encounter 1 may be relocated to the saloon: “The Strange Visitor” and “The Thing on the Doorstep.” If the party is divided between the two locations, the Keeper may decide which establishment gets the mysterious traveler and which gets the terrified Byakhee.
Characters seeking solace in the opium den are in for a damp night, as flooding rainwater transforms the floor into a mud pit. Still, pipes are served, and the poppy takes the edge off the terror and filth. It also provides the perfect opportunity for the “Visions of Old Kingsport” scenario as described in Encounter 1. The affected player character may wander Old Kingsport as described, or the opium may carry him to a more recent pasts, forcing him to witness the angry mob burning down Opium Row.
White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to The Cauldron| White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 6, The Starry Busk]
Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 2 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]