Galápagos Islands: Departing the Enchanted Isles

25) Departing the Enchanted Isles
Albemarle Island, July 1-2, 1845

A) Dealing with Necessities
No matter the outcome of the Lowell Expedition, Captain Joab is eager to leave the Galápagos and cruise the Pacific for Mocha Dick. (There’s also Kith Kohr to find…) The ship is well-supplied, and the sailors have grown tired of shore leave—it’s all hard work, barren rocks, and spiders! Best get back to the business of butchering whales. However, before departing Albemarle, a few unfortunate necessities must be addressed.

Returning Former Calibans
As discussed in Encounter 24, certain former Calibans may need to be situated. Joab would prefer to install survivors in the Banks Cove camp and just leave them, but if a return trip to Asilo de la Paz is required, the Keeper may wish to narrate that off-stage. (Unless she has further plans for Villamil and his Dog Kingdom.) This adds three more days to the calendar, which means the Fourth of July festivities detailed in Chapter 5, Encounter 1 will likely occur off the coast of Charles Island.

Funerals
It’s possible some Quiddity crewmen did not survive the Lowell Expedition! A fallen comrade is entitled to a shipboard funeral. Natty Weeks conducts a small ceremony in his honor, with Joab and the officers standing in formal Sunday attire. The dead man’s possessions are divided among his friends, each invited to offer a treasured memory of the departed. If a body is present, it’s sewn into a hammock shroud by Stanley Ruch, who passes the needle through the cadaver’s nose on the final stitch—an old Navy superstition to ensure the man is really dead. The corpse is then interred at Banks Cove and given a wooden marker. (However, if a return to Charles Islands is in the cards, the body will be buried at the graveyard near the Post Office.)

Incorporating New Crewmen
New crewmen are interviewed by the officers and assigned to the forecastle. (Although replacements for Natty Weeks and James Plunkett earn their bunks in steerage.) Although these new crewmen are not subjected to the Binding Oath, Joab will use “Bend Quarry to Thy Power” in subtle ways to ensure their loyalty to his “divine purpose.” It’s up to the Keeper to determine how effective these attempts are, but recall that Tarnmoor and Peach are suffering from the Call of Dagon, and Turrick was partially deranged by his failed Baptism.

B) The Aftermath of the Lowell Expedition
Obviously, things are going to be different after the Lowell Expedition. The Keeper should let the player characters talk amongst themselves and have difficult conversations. They may also have questions for Pynchon and Joab. The following guidelines may facilitate these roleplaying challenges.

The Mythos
Both the Deep One temple and Thal’n’lai offer irrefutable proof that the earth was inhabited by ancient civilizations. Maybe they were human, maybe they were frog-people, maybe they were giant sea cucumbers with starfish heads; maybe all three existed? This boggles the mind of the educated and the curious, but has surprisingly little traction with the average sailor—“Maybe they’re the ones built them stone heads on Ascension Island?” Any attempts to describe the Elder Thing are met with raised eyebrows—“Some kind of sea monster in a giant goldfish bowl? And there was booze instead of water? How much did you drink?” Of course, not all sailors are this dismissive, but given that half the crew believes in sea-serpents and mermaids, an underwater temple isn’t that much stranger than Machu Picchu or the Roman Coliseum. It’s quite a different matter for those who experienced it first-hand! The Keeper should let the player characters discuss their ideas, especially if they’ve read some of the “Volcán Wolf Testimony.”

Professor Lowell
Unless Lowell maintained his sanity, disavowed responsibility for Castro, and declined Communion with the Elder Thing, there’s no going back to his former self. His potential metamorphosis is detailed in “Player Character Secrets and Development,” but how the other player characters react to Lowell post-Galápagos must be determined through roleplaying. These reactions may be informed by three factors: (1) What Lowell himself says and how he behaves, (2) how NPCs such as Castro and Quiring react to Lowell, and (3) what they learn from the “Volcán Wolf Testimony.” There are many scenarios here, from Lowell breaking down in contrition and begging forgiveness to Lowell lying through his teeth and getting on with the Glorious Metamorphosis.

The Keeper must ensure that Lowell’s player has a chance to influence public opinion, and the players must carefully differentiate between what they know as players and what they know as characters. If Lowell seems irredeemably evil, they may turn against him and throw him off the ship! However, if Lowell plays things close to his chest, admitting to some things but hiding others, he should be able to walk the line between “crazy professor” and “mad scientist.”

Leland Chappell Morgan
Morgan’s exposure to Y’ha-n’thal and Thal’n’lai should rock his world. Here’s an ancient legacy that predates mankind! Surely this will affect how he’s been viewing the Change? And speaking of the Change, by the time the Quiddity leaves Albemarle, Morgan will have reached Stage 3, and must decide whether to continue embracing or resisting his transformation into a Deep One.

The Kingsport Cult
Pynchon debriefs Joab on events, and both men devote additional attention to Lowell, Morgan, and player characters affected by the Elder Thing. Perhaps these characters are even potential Bons pêcheurs? Of course, Lowell—and “Lowell” may also mean “Sarah” here—may have other ideas. While a temporary alliance may work to everyone’s advantage now, paths are sure to diverge as the Black Island approaches. It’s just one more roleplaying tightrope to walk!

The Call of Dagon
By this point, the player characters should be noticing certain patterns throughout the campaign. First there was Moneypenny’s crew and the Golden Altar, then Dandridge and Libertatia, and now Father Prospero and the Republic of Caliban—groups of deranged souls searching for something they’re compelled to express in mythic terms. The player characters may begin to wonder—is that what we are? Is our hunt for Mocha Dick just another form of this madness? (Ha ha! Yes.)

Death to Mocha Dick!
The final thing to consider is the Binding Oath. The Keeper must remember that the majority of the crew—and probably the player characters—are bound to Joab’s hunt for the White Whale. As the Binding Oath matures, those suffering from its hold are increasingly convinced it’s the natural course of action; it’s their own decision. This pledge to kill Mocha Dick is what keeps the Quiddity afloat, shepherding the men on a singular path and causing them to overlook things which might raise red flags on other voyages. We just discovered an ancient city, and our Naturalist had some kind of communion with a dying alien? That’s great and all, but shouldn’t we be getting back to the hunt?

C) Setting Sail
Joab sets sail the morning after the Lowell Expedition returns. It’s a beautiful day, the winds are favorable, and the Pacific Ocean is teeming with whales.

White Leviathan, Chapter 4—Galápagos Islands
[Back to Encounter 24, Return to the Quiddity | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Chapter 5, The Pacific Ocean II]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 30 December 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]