Kingsport 1844: Mercy Hospital
- At August 21, 2021
- By Great Quail
- In White Leviathan
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29) Mercy Hospital
Clairborne & Jackson, South Shore. Est. 1699
A) History
Established as the Clairborne Street Charitable House in 1699 and extensively renovated in 1835 as Mercy Hospital, this two-story building has Congregationalist roots, but a surprisingly modern outlook informed by its partnership with Miskatonic University’s new Medical College. The hospital’s guiding luminary is Dr. William Warren, a Miskatonic physician recognized across New England as an expert on exotic diseases. A somewhat controversial figure, Warren has published several papers casting doubt on the “miasma theory” of contagion, preferring instead the microscopic “animalcules” of Marcus von Plenciz and Agostino Bassi. Unfortunately for Dr. Lowell, who is familiar with Warren and his stimulating theories, the good doctor is currently attending a medical conference in Philadelphia.
Dr. Warren is assisted by a staff of nurses and four additional physicians: Warren’s protégé Wilbur Graves, a Philadelphia obstetrician named Jeremy Mantle and his protégé Frank Davis Woodhouse, and a former Navy surgeon named Adrian Talbot who specializes in maritime disorders, amputation, and artificial limbs. Well, that was until a few days ago, when Dr. Talbot tragically took his own life!
| Mid-Century Hospitals The modern hospital came into being sometime after the Civil War. Before then, most hospitals evolved from charitable religious institutions or almshouses. Because the well-to-do received private medical attention in their homes, hospitals were for generally for the indigent, the estranged, and the disreputable. During the first half of the nineteenth century, large cities began establishing public hospitals, many of these in connection with local colleges and universities. Physicians used these facilities for research as much as actual medical practice. They were assisted by nurses, who were often women with religious affiliations, lower-class domestics, or even male convicts and invalids. Not only did nurses lack training, female nurses were still associated with camp followers, the band of laundresses, seamstresses, and sweethearts traveling in the wake of an army and often providing cover for prostitution. A nurse was expected to assist the physicians in menial tasks such as changing bandages and emptying chamber pots. It was not until after the Civil War that nursing became professionalized, the result of social programs promulgated by reformers such as Britain’s Florence Nightingale. |
Mercy Hospital Nurses
The nurses at Mercy Hospital are drawn from the ranks of Congregationalist charities, and are better trained than most of their peers. Dr. Warren is a progressive idealist, and offers his staff monthly lectures on the proper treatment of injuries, how to provide effective maternal care, and even “radical” ideas like the potential role of animalcules in the transmission of disease.
B) The Hospital
Mercy Hospital occupies a three-story Georgian building recently connected to Kingsport’s gaslight system. The lobby is sparse, featuring a black-and-white checked floor, wooden benches, and an oak reception desk. The gaslight pendants are without ornamentation, but the brass taps are shaped like fish. A plaque on the wall announces Mercy Hospital’s affiliation with the Miskatonic University College of Medicine; the only other decorations are religious in nature. The antiseptic scent of camphor hangs in the air, and an occasional moan or feeble plea for assistance drifts from the interior. A nurse maintains the reception desk, dressed in severe black with a white apron and bonnet. A hand bell is used to summon a physician when necessary.
The hospital’s ground floor features four large rooms with a dozen beds each, a modern surgical theater installed by the University, and a controversial “Lying-in” department. The nineteenth-century equivalent of a maternity ward, this facility is contentious because it accommodates unwed mothers and illegitimate births—respectable women have their children at home, not at hospitals! Kingsport being a port town, the Lying-in department sees its fair share of use, but its installation was nearly a dealbreaker between Kingsport’s religious community and the University. The upper floors contain private treatment rooms, offices, a medical library, a records room, a water closet, and a small laboratory. The basement is devoted to storage, with an isolated “deadhouse” used to hold bodies awaiting collection by an undertaker.
C) Programmed Events
Hopefully, no player character ends up at Mercy Hospital as a patient! However, there are two important reasons to visit this facility.
October 28-30: Paging Dr. Talbot!
Having been invited to Mercy Hospital by Adrian Talbot, player character Dr. Lowell is likely to pay a visit early in the scenario. Greeted by a harried-looking nurse named Rosemary Webb, as soon as Lowell announces his intentions, she bursts into tears—“Oh sir, you haven’t heard? Dr. Talbot is no longer with us. He was buried just the other day!” Stifling another sob, she summons Dr. Graves for assistance.
Wilbur Graves’ Story
A young man with a cagey manner and a strong Boston accent, Dr. Graves explains that Adrian Talbot hanged himself in his Summit Street residence early Friday morning, October 25. Talbot had no immediate Kingsport relations, “despite the infamous name.” His “spinster aunt” was summoned from Arkham, and the funeral was held Sunday on Central Hill—“They put him in the casket deucedly quick; and a Sunday funeral, too. But that’s the Talbots for you.” If asked about Adrian’s personal effects, Graves shakes his head—“Just his walking stick, which we gave to the Arkham woman.” It doesn’t take a Psychology roll to pick up on the physician’s dislike of the Talbots.
If Lowell expresses interest in Diego Salva, Graves’ eyebrows shoot up, and he tersely demands to know the reason. Producing Adrian Talbot’s letter or appealing to a fellow Miskatonian wins Graves’ trust; otherwise it requires a Charm or Persuade roll. Graves explains that Diego Salva is also dead, “butchered by our Navy surgeon during a midnight operation!” The night of October 24, Dr. Talbot entered the hospital and performed an unassisted and unauthorized amputation. Talbot must have known he botched the procedure and “skulked back home to hang himself in shame.” The next morning, Graves himself discovered the harpooneer—“Still strapped to the table, his arm mangled. The poor bastard bled himself dry. Diethyl ether, see? Like a goddamn frolic. I shouldn’t wonder if our surgeon was partaking as well.” Graves pauses for a moment and frowns, then asks, “Is there anything else?”
A Psychology roll suggests that Graves is holding something back, but it takes a Persuade or Intimidate roll to keep him talking. Apparently, there was something “wrong” about the harpooneer. He didn’t have any disease, Graves is certain of that; but the constables decided to dump him at Pauper’s Shame “just in case.” Asked about Pauper’s Shame, Graves explains, “The graveyard on Hog Island, where the old pesthouse burned down. You know, Talbot Hospital? Rather ironic, don’t you think?” Not only are penniless isolatoes buried there, but “any poor wretch these superstitious fools think is contagious, mad, or cursed.” (See Encounter 40.) There’s little else that may be learned about Talbot or Salva, but Graves indicates that Dorothy Talbot is staying at the Hotel Poseidon (Encounter 21), and that Talbot lived in a “fancy new house” on Summit Street, across from “Old Lady Hecuba’s cent store.” (See Encounter 24.)
Rosemary to the Rescue
If the player characters strike out with Dr. Graves, the Keeper may allow Nurse Webb to catch them before they leave the hospital. A compassionate and perceptive woman, she approaches them discreetly—“Excuse Doctor Graves, he sometimes forgets his manners. I overheard you talking about that poor sailor with the terrible arm. They buried him at Pauper’s Shame. If you’re planning to visit his grave, please tell him ‘Senora Rosemary’ sends her blessings. He was always kind to me, and they treated him like, like a thing.” She can’t offer any more details about Salva’s condition, but it’s clear that Nurse Webb was fond of Dr. Talbot—“Some of the others looked at him like a mere surgeon, but he was a generous soul. I just can’t believe he’d let that poor man die. And then… It’s awful—the Talbot Curse, I suppose.”
October 28-30: In the Wake of Elijah Watts
Eventually player characters should visit Mercy Hospital to learn more about Elijah Watts. Jacob Macy first brought Watts to Mercy Hospital when the Quiddity docked on August 15. After treating his physical injuries—all self-inflicted—Dr. Warren dispatched Watts to St. Erasmus on August 21. During the six days he stayed at Mercy Hospital, no one found a way to ease his suffering. Watts was tended by Nadine Morton, a plump Congregationalist wearing Arkham Daughters of Temperance regalia—a blue velvet collar sporting a red, white, and blue cockade trailing golden tassels. Sour in disposition, Morton radiates a dislike of everything smelling of sailors and the sea.
Nurse Morton’s Story
Morton does not conceal the disdain she felt for Elijah Watts; indeed, she regales the characters with tales of his hateful ravings and cruel treatment of the “girls.” Shortly after Watts was admitted, Morton wrote a letter to his wife, a former Kingsporter named Sally Ketchum, now living in Atlanta after “declaring herself divorced.” Sally replied with a hostile letter that only confirmed Morton’s dislike of Watts. If asked, Morton is all too eager to reveal the letter, contemptuously ridiculing Sally’s errors in spelling and grammar. (Handout: Letter from Sally to Watts).
So where is the sea-chest mentioned in Sally’s letter? Though it should have been shipped to St. Erasmus, it remains in the hospital basement. Morton has been meaning to contact the Crabbes, but doesn’t see it as much of a priority. She remarks that Captain Macy has already sorted through the chest, but found “nothing of value save a few odd papers.” If asked whether she’s read the papers herself, she blushes defensively and demurs—“Just more ravings! Profanity and blasphemies. Mad as King Timmy, he was. Captain Macy thought they might be useful, but them Black Macys are a queer lot.” Morton sees no problem allowing the characters to examine the sea-chest, but only after a successful Charm roll or a small “donation” to the Daughters of Temperance. An Intimidate roll also works.
Elijah Watts’ Sea-Chest
Located in the hospital’s damp basement, Watts’ sea-chest features fraying rope beckets and a scrimshaw latch fashioned from whale-bone. The wooden lid is expertly carved with a most unusual scene: a tropical island, sinking beneath a torrent of waves as its inhabitants battle against attacking whales! Close inspection shows that the islanders have slanted eyes, froggish bodies, and flat, misshapen faces. A pair of monstrous tentacles slither from the depths at the lower left, one wrapped around a screaming native, the other trapped in the jaws of a sperm whale. The artistry is impressive, and if the characters have read Sally’s letter, it’s obvious the carving illustrates Watts’ vision of Atlantis. Despite its fanciful nature, the scene has a compelling eeriness and requires a Sanity roll to behold (0/1 loss).
Contents
The sea-chest contains a canvas ditty-bag with toiletries and sewing equipment, a bent Jew’s-harp, a tattered Congregationalist hymnal, the issue of the Essex County Compass that announced Watt’s promotion to second mate, a book of smutty French literature, and a seal-skin bag containing three scrimshaw whale’s teeth and a whalebone “he’s-at-home.” All of Watt’s scrimshaw is carved with lurid pornographic images: a nude woman named SAUCY SALLY, a fornicating couple inscribed ELI & MARIA, and a large-breasted gypsy named FANDANGO. The dildo boasts a stocking-clad woman named LAHAINA LUCY. There are two additional items of interest in the trunk, both missed by Jacob Macy when he removed items which might incriminate the Covenant.
The Stolen Page
If the French pornography is examined, it proves to be a ruined copy of the Marquis de Sade’s Juliette, published in 1797 with wildly salacious woodcuts. [Link very, very NSFW!] Although many of these illustrations have been torn out, long ago traded for rum and tobacco, a Spot Hidden discovers a scrap of paper bookmarking a particularly creative depiction of an orgy. [Link also NSFW!] The paper was torn from Captain Joab’s copy of the Coffin Papers, and is available to the players as Handout: Watt’s Stolen Page. It features a Mesopotamian curse against KTH-OÂN-ESH-EL. An Occult or Anthropology roll identifies most of the names as Mesopotamian deities and demigods, with Apsu being the Abyssal ocean of Sumerian myth. However, the name KTH-OÂN-ESH-EL is meaningless. If the player characters have seen Kleiter’s letter, they may compare it to “Kithoanessel,” but neither transliteration is found in any library, and there’s nothing to connect it to Dagon. If a player character achieved an Extreme success on the Occult or Anthropology roll, the phrase “Ab-Rakh” also stands out for its obscurity—perhaps nonsense, or a neologism?
The Scrimshaw Trinkets
The scrimshaw trinkets commemorate Watts’ favorite “Judies” around the world. Any NPC familiar with Watts recognizes the names, as would Dixon with a Regular Idea roll and Morgan with a Hard Idea roll. “Saucy Sally” obviously refers to Watt’s estranged wife, Sally Ketchum. “Fandango” is a prostitute at the Starry Busk; see Encounter 6. “Maria” is Maria Diogo, a barmaid at the Valparaíso saloon O Corvo Branco; see Chapter 3, Encounter 5. Lucy is a prostitute in Lahaina; see Chapter 8, Encounter [TBD].
The Mysterious Talisman
If the whalebone dildo is examined, a successful Spot Hidden reveals a secret compartment in its wooden base. (Um, vigorous use may also uncover this feature.) Inside the small compartment is a mysterious talisman carved from translucent white stone. The talisman is difficult to get a fix on—it looks like a hybrid between an octopus, a beetle, and a fetal human. It feels cold and clammy to the touch, and smells faintly of brine and something more sinister, a fishy, whorehouse smell. Touching the talisman costs 0/1 Sanity. A successful appeal to Cthulhu Mythos recalls an octopoid demon from Babylonian mythology—or was it Sumerian? If Schröpfer’s phantasmagoria slides have been viewed, Oliver Moneypenny’s “damnably obscure creature” comes to mind (see Encounter 27).
White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 28, Ebenezer Hall Academy | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 30, Masonic Lodge]
Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 14 March 2022
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]