Milton Redburn

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world… Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can… There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

—Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 1

Milton Wellingborough Redburn (Writer; Quiddity Foremasthand)

Statistics
Age: 26, Nationality: American, Birthplace: New York City 1819.

Combat

Skills
Accounting 45%, Anthropology 40%, Appraise 60%, Archeology 10%, Art/Craft (Blacksmith) 5%, Art/Craft (Carpentry) 10%, Art/Craft (Chess) 70%, Art/Craft (Cooperage) 5%, Art/Craft (Writing) 80%, Artillery 15%, Charm 70%, Climb 75%, Credit Rating 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Demolitions 1%, Disguise 5%, Fast Talk 50%, First Aid 30%, History 75%, Hypnosis 1%, Intimidate 20%, Jump 20%, Law 40%, Leadership 5%, Library Use 80%, Listen 65%, Locksmith 15%, Mechanical Repair 30%, Medicine 5%, Natural World 45%, Navigate 30%, Occult 20%, Operate Heavy Machinery 10%, Persuade 60%, Pilot (Boat) 20%, Psychology 65%, Read Lips 60%, Religion (Dutch Reformed Church) 55%, Renown 45%, Ride 60%, Science (Astronomy) 20%, Science (Meteorology) 20%, Seamanship 60%, Sea Lore 60%, Sleight of Hand 10%, Spot Hidden 65%, Stealth 20%, Survival 45%, Swim 30%, Throw 40%, Track 10%, Whalecraft 5%.

Languages: French 50%, Spanish 25%, Latin 20%, Polynesian Pidgin 20%, German 15%, Portuguese 15%, Marquesan 10%, Dutch 5%, Tahitian 5%.

Description

A healthy young man with curious, bright features, you keep yourself well-groomed and immaculately shaved. Your boyish good looks and charisma charm the ladies as well as younger sailors, who generally see you as a trustworthy and kindly fellow. You favor loose-fitting sailor’s clothing with a straw hat and black scarf, and you feel a touch self-conscious being seen without your shirt.

History
Born in New York to an old Dutch family of merchants, you have always been more fascinated by adventure than commerce. Receiving an excellent education and groomed as a gentleman, you were unexpectedly thrust into hard times by the death of your father Albert Redburn in 1832. Relocating to Lansingburgh along the Hudson River, your family entered a slow but inevitable period of decline.

Redburn the Adventurer
At the age of fifteen, restlessness spurred you into action and you signed onboard the Highlander, a “regular trader” bound from New York to Liverpool in 1834. It was an eye-opening journey, and you were astonished by the breadth of strangeness, beauty, folly, kindness, and cruelty in the world. In Liverpool, you signed on a ship bound for Australia, and from there you explored the Pacific on an Australian tradesman, deserting on the island of Nuka Hiva. You lived with the natives for six months, learning about their culture and generally making a nuisance of yourself. Making your way to Tahiti onboard an Aussie whaler, you worked as topman until finding your way to Honolulu. Sailing to America courtesy of a U.S. Navy frigate, you returned to New York in late 1837.

Redburn the Writer
After such a life of adventure, it was hard for you to settle down, but you tried your best. You went through several jobs—a Wall Street legal scrivener, a New York customs official, a Hudson Valley school teacher—all the while transforming your seafaring experiences into novels. The first two were Pacific Island “adventure” stories, Nuka Hiva: A Peep at Polynesian Life and Tahiti: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. Unabashedly dramatized exaggerations of your experiences on these islands, they were both best-sellers, and earned you a reputation as “the sea-writer who lived among the cannibals.” Your third novel was a more sophisticated and literary work, written under the pseudonym “Ishmael” and entitled François, or the Ambivalences. Relating the story of a declining New York family, you used a mock-Gothic style to espouse your liberal views and offer a critique modern society. Unfortunately, the book was a miserable failure. In order to recoup your losses, you published another seafaring novel under your real name. Called Melville, the novel was a semi-autobiographical account of your time on the Highlander, now fictionally re-christened the St. Lawrence. Your lurid account of the adventures of the young and naïve “Herman Melville” sold well, but it failed to satisfy your literary cravings. It did, however, rekindle a desire to renew your travels.

And so, putting aside your dreary job as a school teacher, you decided to ship out again. Although you had spent time on an Australian whaler, not once did the ship encounter an actual whale, so your curiosity about the great Leviathan remains unsatisfied. And the more you think about it, what better subject for your next novel than whaling? Years at sea in the company of hardened men, hunting Nature’s most mysterious and dangerous creature, butchering its carcass to grease the wheels of industry and light the homes of America—what could be more grand, more epic, more metaphorical? Surely a whaling voyage is just the inspiration you need! You even have a prospective title, based on stories of a particularly terrible whale you pray never to actually encounter: White Leviathan. This time the world will pay attention to Ishmael!

Redburn and the Quiddity
If course, it would also be nice to get paid. Whaling voyages offer poor wages, a fraction of the profits known as a “lay.” Early this spring, you began researching different whaling ports and their customs. While New Bedford and Nantucket have the most history and romance, it seems Kingsport offers the best lays. Indeed, an old friend of your father’s named Oliver Moneypenny operates a “dime museum” in Kingsport, and you wrote him for advice. He kindly sent you copies of a nautical periodical called the Essex County Compass, and it seems a whaling ship named the Quiddity is scheduled to depart on November 1—perfect!

Roleplaying Redburn

You are intelligent and creative; yet abound with a healthy streak of robust vigor. Ethically you are a humanist, and you are gravely appalled at slavery, injustice, and abuse—but you also know when to keep your mouth shut; your pen is your weapon, and satire works best from a safe distance. You are religious but not a fanatic, and your view of Christianity is ironic and often critical. You time among the “cannibals” has enlightened you to the possibility of alternatives to Western society; and while you tend towards the romanticized notions of Rousseau’s “noble savages,” your somewhat more realistic outlook is edged with a grim awareness of the darker side of man. Indeed, you enjoy apocalyptic scenarios, and conflict often colors your fiction.

Your writing is the most important thing in your life. You see poetry in everything, and have a knack for drawing grand metaphors from the meanest of sources. You occasionally wax a bit florid in your prose, and you are prone to exaggeration; but doesn’t the common man deserve to be elevated in the language of Milton and Shakespeare? And of all types of “common men,” sailors are certainly the most noble of the lot, with their cheerful camaraderie, intimate friendships, and willingness to risk life and limb for the common weal. Sunlight and sea-spray shimmering on their naked backs, all races pulling together as one, muscles bulging with the dignity of labor…

Forming Relationships
You are fascinated by everyone, especially if they have a good story. But your most dear friendships are reserved for young men like yourself, perhaps such as Tobias Beckett. You will also be excited by the presence of Professor Montgomery St. John Lowell, and hope to discuss philosophy and Natural History with him. Rachel Ward, however, scares you a bit—there’s a terrible, secret power in women, and they rarely appear in your fiction.

Redburn’s Goals
You want to see everything! It’s all grist for the creative mill of your talent, as you formulate your great work, your magnum opus. You want to be a part of everything that is done, see everything there is to see, and explore everything that can be explored. You’re not above educating your fellow man along the way, and you see this three-year voyage as an excuse to bond with your rougher fellows, certainly; but also to enlighten them, and bring them to a higher degree of sophistication.

Mythos Knowledge
You have little Mythos knowledge. You know that some islanders worship ancient beings, and that Miskatonic University has a reputation for recherché academic programs. To you, Dagon is exactly how he appears in the Bible—the fishy, deposed God of the Philistines.

Possessions
Your sea-chest contains a brand-new deck of playing cards, a chess set, several blank journals, and a goodly supply pencils, pens, and ink. You’ve brought along a few books, including a leatherbound Bible with copious marginalia, a dog-eared copy of Paradise Lost, your debut novel Nika Hiva, a tattered copy of Owen Chase’s Essex narrative stolen from a library, and Joseph Hart’s 1834 whaling novel, Miriam Coffin. Set during the Revolution, Hart’s book features Nantucket in a rather poor light. Although you plan to reread it on the way to Cape Horn, your whaling novel will be much more ambitious! You begin the scenario with $40, but you could probably secure a bank loan if required.

Notes & Inspirations for Milton Redburn

Milton Redburn is a fictionalized version of Herman Melville, and Redburn’s published books are based on Melville’s novels: Nuka Hiva corresponds to Typee, Tahiti is Omoo, François, or the Ambivalences is Pierre, or the Ambiguities, Melville is naturally Redburn, and White Leviathan is—well, you know. A player who wants to really understand Redburn should read Typee and Redburn; and of course, Moby-Dick. If White Leviathan were a movie, Redburn might be played by Ioan Gruffudd from Horatio Hornblower, Johnny Depp from Sleepy Hollow, or Eddie Redmayne from Fantastic Beasts.

Redburn’s Sexuality
Milton Redburn’s sexuality is deliberately ambiguous. While many scholars believe Herman Melville was bisexual—Moby-Dick Chapter 94 comes to mind—Redburn’s player is invited to portray the character’s sexuality in whatever way seems most enjoyable.

Special Thanks
A special thanks to Tammy Duncan, who played Redburn during my first run-through of White Leviathan. Not only did she happily read the prerequisite Melville, she brought a wonderful amount of nuance and sensitivity to the character, and she took a very welcome interest in solving every puzzle the Keeper placed in her path. Long live Frauke!

Opening Moves

Materials
Redburn begins the game with four handouts: “Period & Setting 1844-1846,” “Main Glossary,” “Letters from Moneypenny to Redburn,” and “Revelations 9.” At the Keeper’s discretion, the player may be provided with additional material about sailing ships, whaling, and nautical customs.

Starting Position
Boarding the packet ship Getty Lee in New Bedford, you sail into Kingsport Harbor just before noon on Sunday, October 27, 1844.

Adventure Hooks
The following scenarios provide engaging ways for Redburn to begin the adventure in Kingsport. Some represent obligations, while others are optional. You may wish to discuss them with the Keeper before gameplay begins.

Find Lodgings
You’ll need somewhere to stay in Kingsport. If you want to be close to the rough and rowdy whalers, the Knotted Iron offers cheap rooms. If you’d prefer something more quiet, there’s the unpretentious Kingsport Hotel, a boarding house favored by officers and idlers. And if you don’t mind bedbugs, there’s always King Timmy’s Hotel, a sailor’s flophouse on Doyle Street.

Sign the Articles of the Quiddity
You know the Quiddity is docked at the Tuttle wharves, and sometime after arriving you’ll need to sign the articles and stow your sea-chest. The sooner the better! You’d hate to find the ship full-up, and be forced to wait for another.

Visit Oliver Moneypenny
Your father’s old friend, Oliver Moneypenny, opened a “dime museum” in Kingsport called Professor Riddle’s Cabinet of Curiosities. You haven’t seen him since you were a child, but you recall him fondly, a former sailor who enjoyed tall tales and ghost stories. Your mother considered him “strange”—maybe even a touch disreputable—and his association with the Scudder American Museum was a source of family amusement. However, Moneypenny’s recent correspondence with you took a sudden bad turn. His last letter was almost inscrutable, containing a page from the Bible along with various incoherent ramblings. You should pay him a visit and make sure he’s well!

White Leviathan > Player Character Profiles
[Back to Quakaloo | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Rachel Ward]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 4 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]