Rachel Ward

A witch ought never to be frightened in the darkest forest…because she should be sure in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.
—Terry Pratchett, “Wintersmith”

Rachel Ward (Stowaway Extraordinaire)

Statistics
Age: 19, Nationality: American, Birthplace: Nantucket 1825.

Combat

Skills
Accounting 20%, Anthropology 10%, Appraise 65%, Archeology 5%, Art/Craft (Fiddle) 45%, Art/Craft (Flute) 25%, Art/Craft (Guitar) 35%, Art/Craft (Needlework) 40%, Art/Craft (Singing) 60%, Artillery 1%, Charm 70%, Climb 45%, Credit Rating 15%, Cthulhu Mythos 7%, Demolitions 1%, Disguise 50%, Fast Talk 60%, First Aid 65%, History 10%, Hypnosis 1%, Intimidate 15%, Jump 45%, Kingsport Cult 7%, Law 5%, Leadership 5%, Library Use 20%, Listen 65%, Locksmith 35%, Mechanical Repair 10%, Medicine 40%, Natural World 35%, Navigate 10%, Occult 20%, Operate Heavy Machinery 1%, Persuade 60%, Pilot (Boat) 10%, Psychology 30%, Read Lips 75%, Religion 20%, Renown 5%, Ride 25%, Science (Astronomy) 10%, Science (Botany) 40%, Science (Meteorology) 5%, Science (Pharmacy) 30%, Seamanship 10%, Sea Lore 5%, Sleight of Hand 60%, Spot Hidden 65%, Stealth 70%, Survival 10%, Swim 20%, Throw 30%, Track 10%, Whalecraft 5%, Witchcraft 60%.

Languages: Spanish 15%, Irish Gaelic 10%.

Spells: Brew Sabbath Unguent*, Call Upon the Mandragora to Remain Unseen*, Charm to Beguile a Man (Enthrall Victim), Enchanting a Black-Handled Knife (Bless Blade/Enchant Knife), Hex to Dumfound the Troublesome (Cloud Memory), Rite of Aquelarre*, Ritual for the Creation of a Mandragora, Scrying Gaze, Ward Against Harm (Deflect Harm). (See “Witchcraft” for details.)

*Spells marked with an asterisk have been recorded in your lorebook, but have yet to be mastered.

Description

Wiry and muscular, you are an attractive young woman with flaming red hair, green eyes, and a spattering of freckles across your milk-white skin. You radiate a certain reckless charm, and carry yourself like a cat—tense, self-assured, and confident you’ll always land on your feet.

History
Born Rachel Hart on the island of Nantucket, your father William Hart was a harpooneer, and your mother Margaret Ward was a “coof” from Salem. Skilled in the ancient tradition of witchcraft, your mother practiced her art with your father’s blessing, but kept it concealed from the surrounding Quaker community. Because your father was often at sea, you were raised by your mother. She taught you how to read, how to play music, and instructed you in the secrets of the Craft.

Happy Families Are All Alike…
Whenever your father did come home, it was a time of great excitement. Even as a young girl you knew your parents were madly in love, and your mother was never happier than when she was in your father’s arms. You were delighted by his sea stories and his dramatic tales of the hunt. Sometimes he’d pretend to be a whale, circling around you playfully and blowing water in your face. Sitting in your apple-crate whaleboat, you would try harpooning him with a stick tied to a ball of yarn. Eventually he’d lift you onto his shoulders for a “Nantucket sleighride,” careening around the yard until you both fell laughing. You knew you’d be the island’s first girl harpooneer! You teased your mother that unlike other witches, you would ride a harpoon instead of a broom, flying across the sea to visit the giant turtles and fiery volcanoes of your father’s stories. After all, he’d even named his ship after you!

The Red-Headed Stepchild
One awful day in April, a returning whaler brought back terrible news. The Rachel had encountered a monstrous white whale off the coast of some foreign island. Your father harpooned the creature, and was dragged for miles across the ocean, eventually vanishing inside a fogbank. His whaleboat never returned.

Your mother was devastated. She reached out to the community for support, but received only cold shoulders, once overhearing: “What did Billy expect, marrying a Salem witch?” You were forced to move to New Guinea, the Nantucket neighborhood populated by Negroes and Indians. Foolishly turning to laudanum for relief, Margaret Hart entered a downward spiral of addiction and despair. One morning she climbed the Great Point Lighthouse and flung herself into space.

You were only 12.

Your Uncle Robert adopted you into his family, but the Harts were strict Quakers, and you were forbidden to show even a hint of the Craft. Daughter of an Irish coof from “wicked Salem,” son of a “no-account” younger brother, your life was less than pleasant. After three years of suffering their barely-repressed hostility, one day you lashed out at your aunt. She took your verbal abuse, then smiled coldly; smiled as she told you the truth: “Your mother didn’t die from the fall, girl. They found her trail down the beach. Imagine that! All broken up, she dragged herself to the sea to drown; rather than come home to you. They never found her body. I wonder how that feels?” You struck her in the face, then spent the night in a New Guinea outhouse.

Trading your mother’s pearl earrings for passage to the mainland, you made your way to Kingsport, the town where your parents first met. Not only were there rumors of witchcraft in Kingsport, but it was a whaling town, filled with men like William Hart, men who had the sea in their blood. Speaking somewhat mystically, you felt you could rediscover your lost parents. Although you certainly loved your father, his family had drained the name Hart of its appeal, so you adopted your mother’s Salem surname.

The Oldest Profession
Life in Kingsport was not what you expected. After a few attempts teaching music, you ended up working as a seamstress, and finally became a barmaid in a Cauldron grog-shop. Falling in with a morally ambiguous and occasionally violent boyfriend named Jack, you began to understand your mother’s spiral of decline, and began taking opium yourself. To be fair, you knew you were partially to blame for your sad state of affairs. You had allowed fate to make you bitter and needlessly rebellious. In a strange, surly fashion, you relished your new habits of drinking, swearing, and rough living. Perhaps self-destruction was a family trait?

But the worst was yet to come. After Jack was stabbed in a brawl caused by his own stupidity, you were left to fend for yourself. Moving in with the owner of the grog-shop, you were hardly surprised when he expected you to pay rent with your body. Significantly older than Jack, at least he wasn’t rough with you. Soon you were trading yourself to sailors for money; not exactly uncommon among Doubloon Street barmaids. Fortunately, your ability to throw a glamour helped you avoid the worst of your new “habit.” And that’s what you called it: your latest bad habit. It’s not like you were really a prostitute; not like those dockside girls who crawled onto the ships at night like rats. It wasn’t pleasant, but it kept you from destitution, and the opium dulled the aches and pains of your body and soul.

You would have continued down this path if it weren’t for Lady Jezebel, the madam of the Starry Busk. Introduced by a sailor who thought you had “that Jezzie look,” Jezebel gave you a new home. Granted, that home was a brothel, but it was the cleanest brothel in Essex County, and Lady Jezebel was a generous madam.

She was also a witch.

The Abbess
Jezebel was very different from your mother. Peggy Hart’s magic was simple: domestic blessings, herbal sachets, healing salves, an innocent glamour to soften the hearts of men. But Jezebel was harder, more cynical. She saw your sexual powers as a wellspring of raw energy, ancient and wild. Under her tutelage, you learned the arts of manipulation, how to cloud men’s minds and replace their thoughts with your own. Soon you had refined your talents far beyond your mother’s capabilities.

As your studies progressed, you became more receptive to hidden energies, and you began to dream about your parents. Your mother did not approve of Lady Jezebel; but you learned to shut her out, raging at her cowardice, her suicide. But dreams of your father were harder to ignore. You no longer carried any romantic illusions about your father—after all, so many of the rough sailors you bedded carried his ghost in their eyes—but his absence left an unhealed wound in your soul. The sea was a haunted, terrible place, and William Hart had gone down to its depths, swallowed and lost forever. Somewhere beneath the sea, you were certain your drowned father had secrets to tell you…

The Captain
One night in early September a man entered the Starry Busk, a man who had never visited before. An older man, a gruff man, a sea captain named Jeremiah Joab with an ivory leg and a hollow stare. Lady Jezebel seemed surprised to see him; there was something about him that threw her off balance, but she claimed they’d never met. The moment he saw you, the captain paid no attention to any other girl. After an evening of small talk—music, Quakers, some poet named Milton—he nervously allowed you to take him upstairs. Worried he might be a problem, you cast your witchy nets over his troubled mind, but to no avail. His soul was as deep as the ocean, and if there was some Leviathan of thought to capture, it had sounded to the bottom.

But he was not wild, nor rough, nor even distant. In fact, when you undressed him and gasped at his scars, he began weeping, sobbing into your naked breast as if seeking the comfort of a mother. As you drew your name on his scars with your finger, he told you of the white whale that ripped the limb from his body and tore his soul from his chest. You started—a white whale?—but you passed off your sudden trembling as a reaction to his awful tale. You were surprised by how gently he made love. Later that night he arose from troubled dreams, stroking your red hair and calling you “Lily,” his mind hazed by sleep and exhaustion.

In the morning he was gone.

Rachel and the Quiddity
A few weeks later, you discovered you were pregnant. Although not unknown in the trade, you were a witch—you knew how to take precautions. Consulting a fortune-telling device called the Levantine Dream Wheel, you were astonished to discover the child was Joab’s. You were also granted another vision by the wheel. The child would be a son, and that son would become a man of considerable power. Not just a sea captain, but a leader of millions, someone capable of changing the world.

In a streak of reckless abandon worthy of your parents, you’ve decided to stow away onboard Joab’s ship, the strangely-named Quiddity. Without telling a soul—even Lady Jezebel—you’ve already crept into the hold and drained the water from a large cask. Creating a special tool to pull shut the false end, you’ve stored a month’s worth of food and water. On the night of October 31, you’ll disguise yourself, sneak onboard the Quiddity, and tuck yourself into her dark womb to be reborn a sailor.

Roleplaying Rachel

You are bold, clever, and spirited, with an independent streak and a reckless sense of daring. You are also young and sometimes foolish; sophisticated, but lacking emotional maturity. While your time in the Cauldron has exposed you poverty and violence, you believe you are destined for a better life, and Captain Joab is going to help you achieve that goal. While you no longer think you’ll become a “girl harpooneer,” you know you belong on a ship, seeking adventure, your fortune tied to the sea. It’s going to be difficult, but you’re not naïve to the ways of men, and you know how to handle rough and leering sailors.

Forming Relationships
You find it difficult to form lasting relationships, having learned that most people eventually fail you. You have protected your broken heart behind a hard shell, and this flinty exterior sometimes makes you numb. Although you romanticize what you cannot have, you tend to belittle what is actually in front of you, especially the people who are trying to help you. Basically, you believe most women are devious and weak, and most men are selfish liars. While you’re mature enough to recognize that Lady Jezebel and Captain Joab are not the reincarnation of your lost parents, they are the only two exceptions to your cynical misanthropy, and both fill you with a childish sense of awe. (Indeed, it would be fair to say that you have something of an Electra complex.) Your sole friend is Lulu, the only girl at the Starry Busk more ambitious and wicked than yourself!

Goals
You have several goals. You realize that when you first reveal yourself to the crew, you will be mocked and reviled; so you intend to become “one of the boys” as quickly as possible. You have been with enough sailors to know the basic responsibilities of running a ship, and you will boldly do whatever work the men allow. Nor do you fear saucy language, and you can trade insults and crudities with the best of them. Still, you plan to seek out the more sensitive sailors and charm them to your side. And you will definitely need allies. A woman onboard a ship is considered bad luck—especially a redhead!—and your presence will transform the Quiddity into a dreaded “hen frigate.” So you can’t be seen as a “hen.”

You have three trump cards to play: your witchcraft, your sex, and your pregnancy. You will reserve playing all three cards until one becomes necessary to reveal or impossible to conceal. Using the Craft can be dangerous, as sailors are superstitious and fear witches—indeed, it could get you killed, perhaps hanged by the yardarm. But there’s no doubt that your powers can rescue you from most sticky situations. At least, they have in the past! The sex card is just as risky. As a woman, you may expect some sailors to respond gallantly in your defense, and manipulating men is something you’ve always found easy. A little flirting and innuendo goes a long way. However, you refuse to become the shipboard whore. This may become especially thorny if the crew discovers you were a prostitute. Fortunately the Starry Busk is too exclusive to be frequented by common sailors, and you are unlikely to be recognized. Rape is also a serious concern, so the quicker you can establish yourself with Captain Joab the better. And the pregnancy? You feel certain that Joab is not the type of man to turn from his child. But you don’t want him feeling trapped and embittered. First you must get Joab to recognize you, then to respect you, and finally to love you—all before he knows you’re carrying his son! You are convinced that inside this gruff and driven tyrant is the wounded man who bared his soul one cold night in September. If you can find that man again, the man who called you “Lily,” you know your position is secure. Only then will you tell him the truth: your son will change the world.

Mythos Knowledge
Your Mythos knowledge is limited; you were schooled in traditional witchcraft, not the debased cults of Billington’s Wood or Nantucket’s Black Macys. Most of your Mythos lore comes from conversations with Kingsport sailors, so you have a general understanding of the Kingsport Cult. You know they were hanged as “witches,” and they supposedly worshipped a glowing green worm that bestowed eternal life. Lady Jezebel knows more, but she refuses to discuss the subject. You’ve heard the rumors about Innsmouth, whispered tales of mermen making unholy pacts with sailors. Although you find this difficult to believe, you’ve heard sailors claim such legends are common among the Pacific Islands.

Possessions
As a stowaway, you need to pack conservatively, but two items are essential. The first is your Lore Scathanna, or “lorebook.” Once belonging to your mother, this grimoire contains all the spells and magic rituals you’ve learned. The second is your black-handled knife, a sacred blade used to empower your rituals. You will also pack any material components you need for your spells, a spare set of men’s clothing, and the dress you wore the night you slept with Captain Joab. You don’t have room for your fiddle, but once the crew accepts you into their ranks, you’ll try to acquire musical instruments as quickly as possible. You begin the scenario with $75, which represents your entire savings.

Notes & Inspirations for Rachel Ward

So I say, if you are burning, burn. If you can stand it, the shame will burn away and leave you shining, radiant, and righteously shameless.
—Elizabeth Cunningham

It’s no secret that the nineteenth century was a difficult time to be a woman, and sexism and misogyny were baked into every aspect of society. Any gamer playing an historically accurate milieu is going to encounter obstacles when creating empowered female characters. This is especially underscored by the setting of White Leviathan—it’s hard to imagine a more male-dominated setting than a whaling ship! Historically, opportunities for women onboard whaling ships were limited to one: being the captain’s wife. Indeed, Rachel’s relationship to Joab is the only thing preventing her from being kicked off the ship at the first opportunity. (That, and her witchcraft; which most nineteenth-century women did not actually practice, despite the lingering suspicions of some Puritans!) A useful inspiration for roleplaying Rachel is Sena Jeter Naslund’s novel Ahab’s Wife. While somewhat unfocused and containing inaccuracies about whaling, the book paints a convincing portrait of a woman trying to navigate the masculine world of sailors. If White Leviathan were a movie, Rachel might be played by Saoirse Ronan, with some of Julia Garner’s flinty personality from Ozark.

Well, She Turned Me Into a Newt!
Regarding Rachel’s witchcraft, it’s important to remember that Rachel is not a Mythos sorceress. Although the roots of her magic are nourished in Mythos soil, nineteenth-century witchcraft is the flower of a European pagan tradition. See “Witchcraft” under “New Spells” for details. Rachel’s player should be familiar with all her spells, many of which require physical components.

Alternatives to Stowing Away

Although it may strain credulity that a woman, no matter how androgynous or careful, could manage to work on a whaleship and inhabit the cramped forecastle for months on end without being discovered, such amazing feats of secrecy did, according to one estimate, occur on at least one out of every thousand whaling voyages, and that accounts only for the women whose cover was blown.
—Eric Jay Dolin, “Leviathan”

Some players may prefer to introduce Rachel Ward onto the Quiddity not as a stowaway, but under the disguise of a male greenhorn signing the articles. There are historical precedents for this, the most famous being Ann Johnson, also known as “Shorty.” While stories about Johnson vary wildly—she’s been portrayed as a lovesick waif, a practical adventuress, and a hardened prostitute—she managed to conceal herself for seven months until discovery. There’s also the case of the short-tempered Georgiana Leonard, who went by the name of “George.” After pulling a knife on a fellow sailor, George was ordered to be stripped to the waist and flogged. Rather than suffer public humiliation, she admitted her deception to the captain in private. Unlike the case of Johnson, Leonard was not placed immediately on shore, but served as the captain’s steward for the next six months!

If Rachel’s player decides to go this route, her routine with the barrel may be replaced by a regimen of forced androgyny. She’ll have to cut her hair, bind her breasts, and lower the pitch of her voice. She should be allowed to sign the articles of the Quiddity as a greenhorn, and may partake in the first few weeks of sailing as a seaman. Of course, both her small stature and “girlish” good looks are targets of ridicule, and she’ll be forced to make the same Strength rolls as anyone else. The Keeper is free to place other obstacles in her path—she certainly can’t undress in public or urinate off the side of the ship! No matter how long the charade lasts, Rachel’s pregnancy begins showing by December. Both the Keeper and Rachel’s player must be prepared for that memorable session! (And are invited to listen to the sea shanty, “The Handsome Cabin Boy.”)

Rachel Ward’s Profession
White Leviathan tries to present nineteenth-century prostitution as authentically as possible, even if the Starry Busk represents an “ideal” brothel, and few madams were as progressive or generous as Lady Jezebel. Two excellent books for understanding the world of nineteenth-century prostitution are Jan MacKell’s Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls, and Elizabeth A. Topping’s What’s a Poor Girl to Do? Prostitution in Mid-Nineteenth Century America. The player is encouraged to watch the French movie L’Apollonide, usually translated as House of Pleasures. Directed by Bertrand Bonello, the film offers a nuanced depiction of life in an upscale fin-de-siècle brothel, and was an inspiration for the Starry Busk.

As always, the Keeper and her players should discuss what feels appropriate, and not exceed those boundaries. There are numerous reasons someone may not feel comfortable roleplaying a prostitute, while other players might welcome the challenge. If the Keeper or player prefer Rachel to have a less controversial career, her biography may be amended; providing she remains headstrong, reckless, and lacking in material resources. Perhaps she met Captain Joab while working as a music teacher or seamstress? Or perhaps Rachel works for the Starry Busk in another capacity, such as hairdresser or laundress? No matter the decision, Lady Jezebel should be retained as Rachel’s mentor. The Keeper and Rachel’s player should read through Rachel’s profile and agree on any significant changes before starting the game.

Special Thanks
Special thanks to “Scary Mary,” who played Rachel Ward during my own run-through of White Leviathan. Mary invested Rachel with so much of her own personality and insight that my revision of the character was profoundly shaped by her remarkable portrayal. Ambitious and cunning to the very end, she deftly turned the Kingsport Cult against itself, and was one of only three player characters to survive the Apocalypse. Which, to be fair, she kinda helped trigger…

Opening Moves

Materials
Rachel begins the game with three handouts: “Period & Setting 1844-1846,” “Main Glossary,” and “Rachel Ward’s Lorebook.” At the Keeper’s discretion, the player may be provided with additional material about witchcraft and Kingsport history.

Starting Position
For the past year, Rachel’s home has been the Starry Busk brothel in Kingsport. She works six days a week, usually waking around noon. Unlike some city brothels, Jezebel allows her girls to walk around Kingsport unescorted, but they must be back by 4:00 pm every afternoon to bathe, dress, and have their hair and makeup done. The brothel opens at 6:00 pm. Every year, Lady Jezebel allows her girls to take a week-long holiday. Rachel has requested to take hers starting on October 29. Before the campaign begins, the Keeper should described the Starry Busk to the player and discuss Rachel’s relationships with Lady Jezebel, her coworkers, and notable clients.

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

Complete the Mandragora Ritual
A few months ago, Lady Jezebel began instructing you in the creation of a Mandragora—a powerful totem that grants witches the magical powers of invisibility and flight! After copying the appropriate spells into your lorebook, you began the month-long process of completing the Mandragora ritual. On September 30, you dug up the soil around a mandrake root located at the Old Gibbet a mile west of town. Sealing your ears with wax, you used a piece of twine to attach a rooster to the root. As soon as the frantic bird pulled the root free, he collapsed dead. You trimmed the root with your black-handled blade and buried it in a nearby grave believed to contain the body of Lobelia Tuttle, one of the Kingsport witches hanged from the Old Gibbet in 1692. Every day in October you have visited the grave and watered the root with cow’s milk. This milk had to be specially prepared by drowning three live bats in it, which turned out to be the most difficult part of the ritual! You keep the milk in a glass jar hidden in a creek near the graves.

There are only a few more steps in the process. From October 27-29, you continue watering the root with milk. But at midnight on October 30, you must retrieve the root and bake it an oven with verbena. Lady Jezebel has offered to prepare the oven at the brothel, and the verbena is already secured. Once the mandrake root has dried, you need to wrap it in a “strip of a dead man’s winding-sheet pulled from the grave between sunset and sunrise.” You must still obtain this macabre component. You have two options. You can row out to Pauper’s Shame on Hog Island, where Kingsport buries her undesirables. Many of these graves are shallow, and few bodies are protected by a coffin. You’ll need to obtain a boat and a shovel, and the work will not be pleasant. Or, you can contact Bishop Butcher at the Diving Bell on Barton Street. He’s a notorious Resurrection-man, and should be able to get you what you need!

Decide How to Depart the Starry Busk
So far, you have kept your secret from Lady Jezebel. But sometime over the next week, you must decide whether to tell Jezebel the truth, or to run away and never look back. There are pros and cons to both choices. Slipping away quietly is the easiest option, both logistically and emotionally. A clean break. However, Jezebel will certainly be hurt and even offended, and she’s not a person to turn into an enemy. On the other hand, if you come clean and Jezebel gives you her blessing, she is certain to pay out your “pension.” She may also provide you with some protection—you know she has more spells to teach you! Of course, you may not win Jezebel’s approval, and she may prevent your departure, whether through magic or forcible imprisonment. Furthermore, you’ve heard from Lulu that Jezebel has a safe in her bedroom. Lulu has already picked the lock, and found a significant amount of money, along with a pistol. It’s also the most likely location for Jezebel’s lorebook. What to do…?

Befriend Sailors
You are under no illusions about the task ahead of you. Once you are discovered on the Quiddity, you half-expect to be tossed overboard! As Jack used to say, “The best offense is a good defense.” If you befriend a few Quiddity sailors before stowing away, they may support you once you’re discovered. The best place to socialize with whalers is the Knotted Iron, a tavern owned by Roland Hall, a man you knew from your grog-shop days. You don’t want to be seen as a prostitute—also, Jezebel forbids working outside the Busk—but if you bring your fiddle, Roland is sure to let you play. And what better way to earn a sailor’s approval than by striking up a drinking song?

Acquire Spell Components
Some of your spells require physical components, such the rose attar needed for Charm to Beguile a Man. You should review your lorebook and make sure you have everything you need before stowing away. You know of two possible locations to purchase herbs—the Calypso Apothecary on Green Lane, or Black Joe’s Tavern in the Hollow. The former is owned by a queer man from Dunwich rumored to be a “wizard.” The latter is operated by an old woman named Lucretia Brown, a brewer and perfumer famous for her rosepetal perfume.

Stowaway!
You have already made your preparations to stow away onboard the Quiddity; now you have to carry it through. The evening of October 31, you will sneak to the wharves and make your way inside the hold of the Quiddity.

White Leviathan > Player Character Profiles
[Back to Milton Redburn | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Captain Jeremiah Joab]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 16 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]