Kingsport 1844: The Old Powderhouse

36) The Old Powderhouse
Cliff Road, Northwest Kingsport. Est. 1755

A) The Old Powderhouse
Located a half-mile from Kingsport on the road to Arkham, an overgrown pathway to the south of Cliff Road leads to a curious round building made from red brick and topped by a shingled cupola. Known to locals as the “Old Powderhouse,” this abandoned magazine was used to store armaments, gunpowder, and ammunition from the French and Indian War until the conclusion of the War of 1812. Squatting at the edge of Hooper’s Farm near a small pond, the magazine is surrounded by a stone wall crumbling from neglect. A broken gate allows entrance to the grounds, which are guarded by a pair of rusting cannons aimed at the sky. The iron door is unlocked, the broken latch replaced by a corroding bayonet. Inside, the powderhouse contains rusting cannonballs and two spiked cannons dating to colonial times. Graffiti covers the walls, broken bottles lie scattered across the earthen floor, and a cracked deer skull rests atop a pyramid of flaking round-shot. The atmosphere is close, and smells faintly of sulfur. A cord of firewood and a charred circle of stones attest to its recent use as a shelter, and a rusty pipe jutting through the leaky roof serves as a makeshift chimney.

Old Powderhouse in Marblehead
(Author’s Photo, 2020)

B) The Powderhouse Ghouls
In 1835, the Old Powderhouse was adopted by a gang composed of former sailors, highwaymen, and deserters. After a few too many incidents of highway robbery, the “Powderhouse Ghouls” were busted up by Kingsport officials, and they relocated to the Cauldron. Despite this, the gang still uses the building as a meeting place, and locals in need of their services know to leave messages on the “red right hand.”

One microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan…
Positioned near one of the broken cannons like a scarecrow gunner is a tailor’s dummy made from wire and cotton. An old globe serves as makeshift head, topped by a tangled wig. A wooden arm is attached to the right side, its hand painted red. Several nails are dug into the peeling red paint, two of them impaling squares of folded parchment.

Known as the “red right hand,” desperate locals use the wooden palm to send messages to the Powderhouse Ghouls. Every few days Mr. Lovejoy collects the notes, reads them, and decides on a course of action. Usually a Ghoul gets back to the querent with a price; once the price is paid, the action is carried out. If Mr. Lovejoy decides the Ghouls will not act, the querent is presented with a blackened railway spike, usually hand-delivered by a street urchin, but sometimes pounded anonymously into the querent’s door, baked into a pie, or some other form of presentation that amuses the Ghouls.  The charred spike is universally understood as a refusal with no chance of appeal. If any citizen receives three spikes over the course of his life, rumor contends they are abducted and crucified somewhere in the wilding between Kingsport and Arkham. While there has never been any evidence of this triclavianistic punishment, it’s been enough to keep fatuous and impossible requests to a minimum.

If a player character enters the Old Powderhouse, he’ll find two messages currently nailed to the red right hand. One is written in charcoal on piece of butcher paper: “pleas kill barnabas the fisherman. name yr prise.” The other has been neatly assembled from words clipped from the Kingsport Bee: “I COVET AUDRA VAN HORN. GIVE HER TO ME AND I WILL DO ANYTHING. I HAVE CONNECTIONS TO SELECTMEN IN KINGSPORT AND ARKHAM.”

C) Programmed Events
There are two Programmed Events that occur at the Old Powderhouse.

October 28-30: Dr. Lowell Consults the Red Right Hand
If Dr. Montgomery Lowell follows Adrian Talbot’s instructions, he may “leave a message to Mr. Lovejoy” at the Old Powderhouse. Although technically Lowell should leave a note nailed to the red right hand, any intelligible request left at the Powderhouse will be discovered and passed along. Dr. Lowell will receive instructions to meet Mr. Lovejoy at the Diving Bell the following evening. See the Programmed Event “Graverobbing in the Name of Science! Part 1” under Encounter 5, “The Diving Bell.” (The Keeper may adjust the timing as best suits the scenario.)

October 28-30: Leland Morgan’s Opium War, Part 2
If Leland Chappell Morgan accepted Hurricane Jane’s proposal, he and his associates arrive at the Old Powderhouse to find Hurricane Jane and Biter Cabot sitting around the fire, roasting chestnuts and splitting a bottle of rye. Biter is casually blowing soap bubbles from a wooden pipe. Both are dressed as sailors, with Jane wearing trousers and binding her chest with a bolt of cotton—“Hello luv, be a dear an’ help me tie this knot?” After passing around the bottle of Pennsylvania whiskey, Jane nods to Morgan—“Feel like playing the pirate? The Liberty Bells are carrying some prime cakes of Turkish delight to Arkham tonight. We’re going to free them from this terrible burden.”

Hurricane Jane explains the plan while Biter Cabot grins wolfishly over his bubbles. After donning hoods, the crew will head up the road to the Burnt Sawmill. They’ll conceal themselves and wait for the Liberty Bell’s wagon, which Jane assures Morgan has “enough dope to sail you ‘round the fucking world.” Nobody is to speak except for Morgan, who will command them to stop and submit to the robbery—“See, no one knows your voice, right?” Unless the Liberty Bells are foolish, violence should be avoidable. Jane and Biter will take care of the robbery; Morgan and his muscle just need to point their guns and look menacing. Afterwards, they’ll give Morgan half his desired opium; the other half will be exchanged at noon on October 31. (This gives Jane time to fence the goods and deal with any problems that might arise.)

After detailing the plan, Jane produces a pair of Model 1805 Harpers Ferry pistols and hands them to Morgan—“Already loaded, yeah? So mind your manners!” Even if the player characters brought guns, these flintlocks provide a welcome second shot. Or they would, if both were loaded! Only one pistol is shotted with a .54-caliber lead ball; the second contains just wadding and powder. The only way to determine the pistol is unloaded is to insert the ramrod, which allows a Shooting roll to realize there’s no ball in place. The Ghouls are not expecting Morgan to double-cross them, but there’s no reason to be naïve, and Jane and Biter take careful note which player character receives the armed flintlock! Jane herself carries two pistols—a 9”-barrel East India sea service flintlock and a North 1836 percussion pistol—and Biter has a third Harpers Ferry.

White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 35, Kingsport Head | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 37, The Burnt Sawmill]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 5 December 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]