Player Character Secrets: Montgomery Lowell

Dr. Montgomery St. John Lowell

Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part—yet nothing in the outer world is stirred. Thus by existence tortured and oppressed I crave for death, I long for rest.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Faust Part One”

Montgomery Lowell begins the game with a secret known only to the Keeper: Dr. Lowell is no longer completely human.

First Things First
The Keeper should immediately know that Lowell’s character profile is not entirely accurate. Obviously, it fails to mention what happened during the Lacuna; but it also omits some important facts about Lowell’s personal life. In truth, Lowell is married to a woman named Sarah Campbell. Lowell’s stay on the Galápagos changed him, and their marriage became increasingly strained by his irrational behavior. After a few months suffering her husband’s verbal abuse—not to mention some bizarre bedroom requests—Sarah returned to her parents in Severnford. Lowell made a clumsy attempt at suicide, then decided to leave Britain for good. Currently, Sarah Campbell Lowell is in the process of petitioning for annulment. All of this will be explained below.

Hidden Correspondences with Other Characters
Lowell has a tenuous connection with Rachel Ward. The Rachel is the ship that discovered Dr. Lowell on Albemarle Island in 1830, so Dr. Lowell would have met Rachel’s father. However, his time on the Rachel is part of his so-called Lacuna, so these memories are unavailable to Lowell until he returns to the Galápagos Islands.

Call of Dagon
Lowell begins the campaign suffering from Stage 1 Call of Dagon. The player should not know this. If Lowell loses too much Sanity during the first few chapters, the Keeper may advance him to Stage 2 by the time the Quiddity departs the Galápagos Islands. Lowell’s lapses into madness should revolve around his actions during the Lacuna.

The Lacuna
Detailed information of what actually happened to Lowell on the Galápagos Islands is located in the “Mythos Connection and the Lowell Expedition” section of “Chapter 4—Keeper’s Information & Background.” To summarize: After the Atlantis became shipwrecked, Lowell discovered a Deep One temple in the caldera of Volcán Wolf, a volcano located on Albemarle Island. The temple contained a Gate to the ancient K’th-thyalei city of Thal’n’lai. There Lowell discovered a half-dead Elder Thing floating in a tank. Lowell began an extended communion with the creature, who traded its advanced scientific understanding for increasing dominance over Lowell’s mind, body, and soul.

Over a period of prolonged telepathic contact with the Elder Thing, Lowell gradually lost his mind. He filled the walls of his cave with astonishing revelations; but he also killed and devoured the other survivors, tortured his faithful companion Rafael Castro, and had his body physically altered to accept the Elder Thing’s consciousness. He was also suffering from a self-imposed delusion—that the Elder Thing was his wife Sarah, and his sessions in her tank were erotic nights of lovemaking! When the time came for “Sarah” to transfer her consciousness into Lowell’s brain, the Professor finally snapped. The “Communion” incomplete, Lowell stumbled from the tank and never returned to Thal’n’lai.

Lowell awoke in a hospital bed in Ecuador, the last nine months—scientific epiphanies and cannibalism alike—surgically excised from his memory, sealed away in the Lacuna. But more than this, Lowell’s mind remained an active partner in collusion with madness and amnesia. After his increasing eccentricity cost him his position at Cambridge, his wife Sarah left him, and he took a razor to his wrists. Lowell’s housekeeper found him bleeding in the bathtub, attempting to thrust one of Sarah’s stockings into his wound. His colleagues covered up the suicide attempt, but Lowell was quietly placed on academic leave.

Still operating in failsafe mode, Lowell’s brain deleted these traumatic events as well. In fact, Lowell has completely repressed the fact that he even had a wife, mentally rewriting his history to omit Sarah’s presence completely. And the scars on his wrists? He can look at them all he wants, but all he sees are injuries received during the shipwreck of the Atlantis. The fact that Lowell relocated to Miskatonic University and not Brichester was also an unconscious decision, placing him an ocean away from his estranged wife and the colleagues who rescued him from self-extinction.

Managing/Roleplaying Lowell’s Lacuna

Professor Lowell is one of the most challenging—and rewarding—roleplaying opportunities in White Leviathan, for the player and Keeper alike. The Keeper must play a devious trick on Lowell’s player: the player himself must believe Lowell’s character sheet is 100% accurate; and cannot know Lowell has a wife named Sarah, communed physically with an Elder Thing, or attempted suicide. Only the Keeper knows the truth: the “Professor Lowell” interacting with the other player characters is a delusional reconstruction, a personality projected by a schizophrenic alien hybrid suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Not only that, Lowell’s desire to open the Pandora’s Box of his Lacuna is a perverse death wish, as it surely contains the annihilation of this protective identity.

In Dreams I Walk with You…
As the campaign progresses and the Quiddity nears the Galápagos Islands, Lowell should begin dreaming about a woman named Sarah: beautiful and young, sensitive and mysterious, her dark eyes full of secrets, her gentle voice accented with the broad vowels of the Severn Valley. Sarah who seems to understand him, Sarah who visits his berth and enfolds him in her warm and loving body. Upon waking from these dreams, Lowell recalls fragments from his time on Albemarle, perhaps remembering tantalizing formulae and scientific theories. (These recollections may be represented by occasional +1D3 percentile bonuses to Lowell’s Science skills.) This should leave Lowell with some intriguing questions: How is Sarah linked to this knowledge? Is she some kind of succubus? (These dreams should begin around Chapter 3, Encounter 6. They intensify in Chapter 3, Encounter 8, and come to fruition in Chapter 4.)

Eventually the Keeper grants Lowell a major revelation as fragments of his repressed memory begin returning. Sarah was his wife! His beloved Sarah Campbell, who left him when he refused to abandon his pursuit of outré knowledge, when he called her a “silly cow,” a “stupid monkey,” a “feeble human cunt.” Additional nightmares bring more revelations. The Keeper should allow Lowell to remember his suicide attempt, the warm bathwater, the cold steel of the razorblade. Wasn’t he…trying to put something into the slash? One of Sarah’s silk stockings, rolled into a tube? If the Keeper has been successful in cultivating a sense of paranoia, the player should become a bit rattled—what else is missing from Lowell’s character sheet?

Enlisting Other Players
For a genuine mind-fucking, a truly devious Keeper should enlist the other players as co-conspirators in this scheme. Right before the session Lowell is fated to discover this information himself, the Keeper should privately inform the other players that Lowell’s wrists are marked by suicidal scars, and that he occasionally talks about his wife, Sarah. She should instruct the players to act like this has been part of Lowell’s character all along, as if the player has mentioned such things numerous times. The intent is to make Lowell’s player feel as shocked and unsettled as his character. For instance, Lowell cries out, “Wait—what? I have a wife?” Cue exasperated players—“What the hell, Rob! You’re always talking about Sarah!” Or Lowell gazes upon his wrists and finally sees his scars—“Aaah! What, so no one’s ever noticed these before?” Cue pitying glances, and Rachel’s player saying, “Rob, we’ve been through this! Lowell tried to kill himself. You noticed those scars last game, too. You’ve always had them. The bathtub. Remember back in Kingsport, when Rachel asked about them after we dug up that grave?”

The Big Reveal
Up until now, “Sarah” has appeared human. Perhaps supernatural; but human. As Albemarle approaches, dreams of Sarah become more intense and disturbing, erotic interludes intercut with sudden glimpses of the monster lurking beneath her mask of warm flesh. Who—or what—is Sarah? And why does she seem to understand him, even to cherish him? As the coup de grâce, a gleefully sadistic Keeper should allow Lowell one final revelation before setting foot on Albemarle. After an erotic nightmare wherein Sarah transforms into a faceless, fleshy monster withdrawing a splay of tendrils from his torso, the terrified Professor holds a lantern to his naked body, and for the first time, actually sees the seven puckered scars on his flesh!

So What If It’s Actually Meredith Lowell?
If the player has decided to run a female Professor Lowell, the Keeper should change Sarah Campbell to Ramsey Lowell, or whatever name best suits her “forgotten” husband. Elder Things are asexual, so the erotic component of their relationship is derived solely from Lowell’s imagination. (They are merely exchanging long protein strings. If you can think of a simpler way I’d like to hear it!) Having said that, the Keeper should steer clear of overt tentacle porn, unless Lowell’s player “goes there” herself. If Lowell is gay or lesbian, the Elder Thing takes whatever human form is most appropriate, and represents a secret lover rather than a spouse.

Joining the Kingsport Cult
Lowell is one of the few player characters who might not look upon the Kingsport Cult as the “bad guys.” After all, they have mutual interests—up to a point. If this is the case, Pynchon might consider Lowell as a potential ally. He may open up to the naturalist, perhaps initiating Lowell into the Covenant. However, if Pynchon discovers that Lowell is beholden to an alien intelligence, he’ll do what he can to destroy the Elder Things and ensure human supremacy. See William Pynchon’s character profile and “Kingsport Cult Degrees” for details.

Lowell’s Metamorphosis

Lowell’s relationship with Sarah reaches a turning point on Albemarle Island. Deep within the Great Hall of Thal’n’lai, Lowell will be faced with a choice between two destinies—does he reject further contact with the Elder Thing and shore up his damaged humanity, or does he enter the tank with clear eyes and accept “Sarah” for what she really is? (The details of this “Communion” are found in Chapter 4.)

Rejection and Rehumanizing: Embracing the Man
Obviously, if Lowell rejects the Elder Thing, that decision places him on the path towards regaining his humanity. Award Lowell +2D6 Sanity points and give the player a cookie. Also, permanently dock Lowell’s character –5% Intelligence and –5% Power. Now, if the Good Doctor can actually accept that he devoured his comrades and lived as a deranged hermit for nine months, that would really be something! It might also be worth +1D6 Sanity points if he comes clean and confesses his crimes in public.

We Most Regret the Things We Didn’t Do…
As the campaign proceeds past the Galápagos, Lowell may begin to regret that he never completed his union with the Elder Thing. The Keeper should capitalize on this. Bring back those confusing (and erotic) dreams about Sarah, inflict crippling headaches upon Lowell’s fevered brain, and allow his Science skills to degrade –1D4 percentile points every few weeks. Oh, and make those artificial mouths hungry—seven pulsing knots of agony searing his tortured body. Why? Because there are two more Elder Things yet to come! Sarah may be lost, but her “sisters” Orchid and Scorpion await!

Acceptance and Alienation: Becoming the Monster
If Lowell renews his communion with Sarah—and let’s keep calling her that, shall we? It’s so much more personal than it—he’s accepting more than a transfer of knowledge. He’s also downloading her consciousness into his own brain. This doesn’t mean the Professor loses control. Sarah knows not to overplay her hand, and has established a series of escalating objectives. First and foremost, she wants to live. If this means taking a back seat in a human mind, so be it. In return, Sarah agrees to help Lowell better understand the universe—all he needs to do is occasionally ease up on the reins, let her expand into his mind and body for short periods of time. If Lowell proves amenable to this arrangement, Sarah begins pushing for more. Realizing that Lowell’s lifespan is frighteningly short—he only has a few more decades at best!—Sarah reminds the Good Doctor that searching for a new body is a subject of mutual interest. With that in mind, she starts teaching Lowell the arcane science of Transfer Mind. (See “New Spells.”)

If all goes well, Sarah’s next thoughts revolve around freedom—at first, freedom for herself; but eventually she’ll start thinking about her entire race. Professor Lowell offers the Elder Things the perfect tool to achieve the “Great Release.” (See “Background Part 4—Pocket Dreamworlds” for details.) If Lowell could somehow become the Supplicant, or at the very least influence the Supplicant, the Elder Things could destroy the human Dreamlands and possess the Black Leviathans—or even Lothon, the White Leviathan himself. Oh, the irony! For the Elder Things to escape using the very creatures that were designed to house the minds of their captors—just delicious! But Lowell would have to consent to the murder of thousands, if not millions, of human beings. For that, he must to be offered something amazing. Something like immortality. If Lowell agrees to help the Elder Things escape the earth, Sarah promises to take him with her. And for that, Lowell must undergo a physical, mental, and spiritual metamorphosis.

Lowell’s Metamorphosis
Unlike Morgan’s transformation, Lowell’s metamorphosis is (largely) voluntary. Sarah knows that her power is limited by Lowell’s ability to exercise freewill. Therefore, she cannot issue direct commands, but only suggestions, intimations, and insinuations, along with some quid pro quo exchanges. Indeed, until Stage 5 “Integration” is accepted, Lowell may resist her exhortations, and may even halt the transformation and expel Sarah from his mind. There are six phases to Lowell’s metamorphosis:

Phase 1: Contact
Lowell has already been Baptized and Confirmed, and has successfully completed the first seven stages of Communion. All that’s left is to enter Sarah’s tank and allow her to inject long protein strands into his body and download her consciousnesses. After this is complete, Lowell’s brain and nervous system begin restructuring themselves. At this stage, Sarah’s mind may only communicate in dreams and intuitive flashes.

Phase 2: Possession
Upon the island of Kith Kohr, the presence of the Azamhael boosts Sarah’s power, and she becomes capable of occupying Lowell’s mind for limited periods of time (3D6 minutes). Her goal is to persuade Lowell that he/they must locate a new body. (She can already feel the Professor’s “monkey body” degenerating! What’s left—maybe thirty years?) At this point, Sarah’s plan is to locate another Elder Thing, a healthier creature willing to accept Lowell and Sarah’s consciousness. (Sarah knows about Nang-Ludapa, but she’d have to destroy the entire Kát civilization to free “him” from centuries of pinioning.) If Lowell balks at the notion of living inside an Elder Thing, Sarah persuades Lowell to see her “real” body as beautiful, a work of biological art intended to last millions of years. Does he really want to die in thirty years? If Lowell is willing, she teaches him Flesh Harrow, a “science” he’ll need to help maintain his monkey body as it begins falling apart.

Resisting Possession
Lowell is free to resist Sarah’s encroachments. He may prevent her from taking over his mind by making an Opposed Power roll against her Power of 90%. Each time Lowell successfully resists, Sarah permanently loses –5% Power. She may attempt to possess Lowell’s mind once per day until her Power drops to zero, after which she is expelled. This earns Lowell +2D6 Sanity points, but negates all benefits and spells gained through his relationship with Sarah.

Phase 3: Coexistence
By the time Lowell reaches Maui, he’s either repressed Sarah or reached a state of “coexistence.” In this phase, Sarah remains in Lowell’s consciousness as a ghostly companion, whispering suggestions, nudging him in advantageous directions, and requesting brief interludes of “freedom” where she takes full control of his body. The Keeper should make these 3D10 minute-long blackouts mysterious but not dangerous. Perhaps Lowell “comes to” unexpectedly taking a swim, making small incisions into his body, or looming over a dissected tortoise. Sarah occasionally appears to Lowell in his sleep, stimulating additional changes to his nervous system through erotic dreams. These dreams are also the vehicle she uses to teach Lowell the first level of Transfer Mind.

Phase 4: Alignment
By the time Lowell and Sarah arrive at Abaddon, they have become quite close to each other. If Lowell agrees to find another Elder Thing, they reach the phase of “alignment.” Although they cannot pinpoint the exact location of the Orchid or the Scorpion, Lowell and Sarah can sense their nearby presence. It’s during this phase that Sarah develops her plan to enact the Great Release, and Lowell learns more about Lothon, Dagon, and the coming Resurrection. Indeed, if Lowell has possession of the Azamhael, the Keeper may grant him temporary control over the White Leviathan when it makes an appearance!

Phase 5: Integration
The penultimate phase of Lowell’s metamorphosis is more complicated than the earlier phases, and the Keeper must judge its timing based on numerous gameplay variables. Ideally, Lowell should have encountered Lothon and Amon Stockhausen, Coffin should be actively Dreaming, and the entire party should have a better understanding of the coming Resurrection—a Supplicant will be chosen to awaken Dagon and a New Aeon will dawn, capital letters well-understood.

Sarah’s Proposition
Phase 5 begins when Sarah unveils her new plan to Lowell: they can use Lothon or the Black Leviathans as physical bodies; not just for themselves, but for all surviving Elder Things. In order to make Lowell better comprehend, Sarah floods his mind with revelatory visions about the Elder Things: their rise, their fall, their relationship to the human Dreamlands, their current plight. (In other words, Lowell is granted access to all the background information about the Elder Things and the Dreamlands. The Keeper may narrate this in a grand vision, but should also provide the player with “Handout: Lowell’s Background on the Elder Things.”) For the Great Release to succeed, Sarah and Lowell must first reclaim the Space of All Colors by destroying the human Dreamlands. And this means Lowell must either become the Supplicant, manipulate the Supplicant, or form an alliance with the Supplicant. In return, Sarah promises to take Lowell along with them, where he can live for millions of years among the stars. But for that to happen, he’ll have to accept one final step in the metamorphosis: Fusion.

Sarah’s Goals
Sarah realizes that her proposition represents a momentous decision for Lowell, and she’s willing to give him time to think it over. There are also many variables for her to ponder, and she may have to adjust her goals realistically. The best case scenario is that Lowell becomes the Supplicant and destroys all humans! Of course, that’s unlikely, so she’ll accept the annihilation of all Dreamers. If that’s not possible, the Dreamlands must be sealed off from humans. But anything less that the destruction of the Dreamlands means the Space of All Colors remains closed to the Elder Things, which means the Great White Vortex cannot be opened, which means they remain stranded on this miserable planet. Meanwhile, Sarah wants to liberate as many pinioned Elder Things as she can, and that means killing Stockhausen and Joseph Coffin. Additionally, killing Coffin would destroy Coffin’s Dreaming City, which represents a dangerous and unpredictable unknown!

Sarah’s Ultimatum
As the summer solstice approaches, Sarah needs an answer. What Lowell may not understand is that Sarah’s proposal is actually an ultimatum. She has nothing to lose at this point, so if Lowell rejects her proposition, Sarah plays the only card she has, and attempts to destroy Lowell’s mind.

Lowell Rejects Sarah’s Proposition
Fortunately, the foolish monkey has been allowing Sarah to modify his body, so she’ll be able to take it over completely once she snuffs the wick of Lowell’s pesky ego. Each and every day after his refusal, Sarah attempts to possess Lowell through an all-out psionic attack. The same mechanic described in Phase 2 still applies, but Lowell is now part Elder Thing, so he suffers a –1D10 penalty die to his Opposed Power roll. Each time Sarah is successful, she possesses Lowell for 1D4 hours, and may take any coercive action the Keeper decides. She may even kill Joseph Coffin herself. Each successful possession permanently reduces Lowell’s Power by –5% and triggers a Sanity roll for a 1/1D6 loss. Each success also revokes 1D4 “gifts” bestowed during earlier phases. Hell hath no fury like an Elder Thing scorned! She’ll start by stripping away Flesh Harrow, Transfer Mind, and the ability to comprehend her language. Next she’ll destroy his Dreaming skill, then reduce his Intelligence, and finally diminish his Science and Medicine skills. (The Constitution bonus cannot be revoked.)

Sarah assumes full and permanent control of Lowell when either his Power or his Sanity is reduced to zero. The Keeper may run Sarah-in-Lowell as a nonplayer character, or “he” may be handed back to the player as a “new” player character with a covert (or not so covert) adversarial agenda. The player must agree to run Sarah-in-Lowell as a meat puppet for a desperate Elder Thing. Desperate, but still canny! While the other players probably know the truth, “Lowell” might still fool their characters.

Lowell Accepts Sarah’s Proposition
If Lowell accepts, Sarah begins the terrible process of fully integrating with Lowell’s body and mind. How this plays out is up to the Keeper and player; but once the process begins, it may only be aborted by Lowell’s death. (The Keeper must be very clear with Lowell’s player before he accepts this step: “You’ll still remain a player character, but there’s going to be some changes!”) Lowell receives the benefits listed under “Phase 5,” and probably discovers he can sprout tendrils or eye clusters when needed. Certainly, if he died, an autopsy would trigger a round of Sanity rolls. During this time, Lowell must work to either become the Supplicant or to influence the Supplicant. While he needn’t “kill all humans,” if he doesn’t agree to at least (1) close the Dreamlands and (2) destroy Apollyon and Arcadia, Sarah attempts to possess him as described above, but Lowell now suffers –2D10 penalty dice on the opposed rolls.

Phase 6: Fusion
The final phase in Lowell’s metamorphosis may only be achieved during the Rite of Resurrection. It must occur during the critical period where the Supplicant offers his soul to Dagon and triggers “Armageddon,” the massive suspension of the natural order required to reset the Terrestrial Equation. At this point, Lowell and Sarah fuse into one hybrid mind; an act that destroys Lowell’s physical body by literally boiling his brain. The Lowell-Sarah Thing must act quickly, projecting its consciousness into a new body: another Elder Thing, Lothon, a Black Leviathan, or perhaps even the abandoned stump of Dagon himself! This is also the moment when the Dreamlands must be destroyed by the Supplicant, whether through the actions of Lowell’s player character or his ally. If Lowell himself is the Supplicant, his soul does not make the transfer with his fused consciousness, but remains behind to animate Dagon. By this point Lowell is pretty soulless anyway, so it’s unlikely he’ll notice the difference. (See Chapter 11 for details.) 

Endgame: Lowell and the Apocalypse
A human Lowell has many options at the end of the game, from working to prevent the Resurrection to becoming the Supplicant and heralding a new Age of Reason. However, a Lowell that’s fused into a Lowell-Sarah Thing works towards one goal: the Great Release of earth’s imprisoned Elder Things. Although there are too many variables to predict the outcome here, there are three general possibilities:

The Dreamlands Are Not Destroyed
If the human Dreamlands are left intact, the Lowell-Sarah Thing finds itself in whatever new body it possessed, but alone. And not only that, helpless to watch as the Supplicant remakes the world without them! Maybe even destroying the remaining Elder Things…?

The Dreamlands Are Destroyed
In this ending, the Keeper’s Concluding Narration must encompass the destruction of the human Dreamlands, whether than means annihilating the human race or simply severing their connection to the Space of All Colors. Over the next few centuries, the Elder Things are rejuvenated, and the Space of All Colors returns to its accustomed vibrancy. Finally, all sixty-six(?) Elder Things join minds and open the Great White Vortex, and Lowell is granted—

Well, whatever the Keeper decides! Do the Elder Things discover a thriving galactic civilization inhabited by trillions of Things? Or do they spill into a barren galaxy? Did the Elder Race die out, leaving them the sole survivors? Or did their peers make some Great Exodus to another galaxy? Or if the Keeper is feeling really wicked: does Sarah betray Lowell? Is his mind simply extinguished by the Vortex? Or do the remaining Elder Things fall upon him vampirically, tearing his monkey-mind to shreds for the sins of his fathers?

Humans Are Destroyed but Apollyon Survives
One possible outcome is that the Supplicant destroys or overturns humanity, but Dreamers survive by inhabiting the pocket Dreamworld of Apollyon. Unfortunately for the Elder Things, this many Dreamers cannot stay contained, and will soon recolonize the Dreamlands, again denying them the Space of All Colors. Or at least until these Dreaming minds finally fade away; but that could take millennia, and by then, who knows what will become of the Elder Things, especially in this Brave New World? Why, they may even be hunted down by whatever race replaces humanity, especially if that race has an intimate awareness of where the K’th-thyalei prisons are located…

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: 22 August 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]