Rafael Castro

This thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.
—William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”

Rafael Castro

Statistics
Age 35, Nationality: Spanish, Birthplace: Málaga 1810. Call of Dagon Stage 3.

Combat

Skills
Art/Craft (Concertina) 45%, Art/Craft (Guitar) 55%, Art/Craft (Sketching) 70%, Climb 35/95%*, First Aid 25%, Intimidate 25/80%*, Jump 20/75%*, Listen 70%, Medicine 20%, Natural World 55%, Navigate 55%, Relieve Psychic Pressure 75%, Science (Biology) 15%, Science (Geography) 40%, Spot Hidden 10/80%*, Stealth 85/10%*, Survival 90%, Swim 50%, Throw 50%, Track 65%.

*Values after the slash represent stats for el monstruo.

Languages: Spanish native; English 15%, Elder Thing 1%.

Sanity Loss: The first time someone sees Castro’s face costs 0/1 Sanity points; seeing his naked body costs 0/1D2 Sanity points; witnessing an episode of self-trepanning costs 1/1D3 Sanity points; encountering el monstruo costs 1/1D4 Sanity points.

Description

Once a sensitive young man with handsome Andalusian features, Rafael Castro has been twisted into a grotesque monster by the “exploratory surgeries” performed by Montgomery St. John Lowell in the bowels of Thal’n’lai. Shattered by his experiences in body and soul, Castro cloaks his broken figure in a filthy black robe and wears a canvas sack over his head. Should these articles be removed, a hideous and pathetic sight is revealed. Castro’s skin has hardened into a leathery hide that resembles a burn victim—the result of several prolonged stays in the Elder Thing’s tank. His chest boasts an extra pair of nipples, his ribs are crossed with surgical scars, and he has three too many vertebrae. Castro’s forearms are slashed by ridges of puckered tissue running from wrist to elbow. Resembling the ambulacral grooves of a starfish, they mark where his arms were flayed open to insert a series of grafts taken from the Elder Thing’s ruined wings. A gold doubloon has been sewn into the small of Castro’s back, its edge lipped over by scar tissue. A close examination reveals this doubloon has been fixed to a metal hinge sunk into his pelvic bone—with a little effort, the coin may be pried open like a porthole, exposing the base of Castro’s spine.

The deformities concealed by his hood are even worse. His bald head is covered by mottled scar tissue. He has no eyelids, and must moisten his crazed eyeballs with water applied using a sponge. Even so, he’s half-blind, his eyes clouded by cataracts and his pupils trifurcated into three distinct lobes. While his teeth appear normal—even healthy—his jaw unhinges like a serpent’s, an alteration designed to better accommodate the Elder Thing’s respiration tube. His nose seems mercifully unaltered, but his ears have a strangely bat-like appearance. At the very top of Castro’s head, a round trepanning hole has been bored into his skull and covered with a miniature porthole. The backing and swing plates are made from gold, sunk directly unto the bone using tiny screws. The porthole itself is a glass lens of astonishingly fine quality, set into the golden swing plate with a watchmaker’s craftsmanship. When Castro feels a surge of mental anguish welling in his brain, he unlocks a pair of golden wingnuts and opens the porthole, safely venting the “psychic pressure.” If he’s unable to open the porthole, the pressure builds until el monstruo emerges.

History
Born in the coastal town of Málaga, Rafael Castro became a sailor at the age of 13. A few years later he found himself stranded in Peru. Working as a sketch artist on the streets of Callao, he joined the crew of a passing English whaler—the Atlantis. Cheerful and eager to help, Castro befriended Dr. Montgomery Lowell, one of the only men onboard who spoke reasonable Spanish. He became attached to the Professor as an unofficial assistant, helping Lowell record his observations of marine life and island formations. A survivor of the shipwreck that brought Lowell to Albemarle, Castro accompanied Lowell on his explorations of the island. Indeed, it was Castro who suggested they name the northernmost mountain Volcán Wolf, in honor of the captain of the Atlantis, who drowned saving his men.

After the pair discovered the cave in the caldera, Castro continued to assist the Professor. He was the second to enter the communicant’s tank. The experience reduced Castro to a state of abject terror, and repeated attempts to be “Baptized” only further degraded his sanity. Unlike Lowell, however, Castro’s sense of humanity survived intact. When Lowell imprisoned the men sent to rescue them, it was Castro who gave them food and water, pleading with el maestro to show mercy. Once the cannibalism began, Castro attempted to stop Lowell with force. The Professor easily overcame his pitiful assistant and threw him into the oubliette. Mired among the filth and human offal, Castro finally cracked. The moment he ate the eyeballs of a former shipmate, he was broken into submission. Lowell eventually retrieved him from the pit and returned to Thal’n’lai. But this time Castro wouldn’t be immersed in the communicant’s tank—it was time to test the “tabernacle.” As Castro was enveloped by the Elder Thing, el maestro was there to record every twitch, every silent scream.

The experiments began soon after. Visits to the tabernacle were followed by gruesome surgeries, some designed to “perfect” Castro’s body, others adopting a more exploratory nature. The trepanning port was Lowell’s masterpiece. Fashioned from a spyglass, a pocket watch, and the Atlantis’ chronometer, the mechanism allowed Castro to relieve the “psychic pressure” pushing him towards madness. Other more organic operations were designed to create interfaces for the Elder Thing; but no matter how many times he was forced into the tank, Castro was consistently rejected.

His usefulness finally at an end, Castro was tossed into the oubliette with the remains of the other crewmen. The night Lowell returned to Thal’n’lai for his final Communion, Castro climbed the sides of the pit using the bones of his former shipmates as pitons. He found himself just unable to reach the top. That morning el monstruo made his first appearance, propelling Castro over the rim and delivering him to safety.

El monstruo
Under most circumstances Castro poses little threat. He’s half blind, his movements are slow and awkward, and he’s more cowardly than confrontational. However, whenever he’s confused, frustrated, or endangered, the “psychic pressure” begins mounting in his brain. If this pressure is not relieved, Castro explodes into a violent rage and attacks whatever he believes to be the source of his torment. This dissociative frenzy is accompanied by radical physical changes. The furrows along his forearms sprout wing-like appendages, fleshy membranes stretched along quills of cartilage. The three lobes in his pupils separate, augmenting his vision; and delicate nerve tendrils unfurl from the puckered scars lining his spine, allowing him to detect any nearby movements. His limbs unlock extra joints, improving his Dexterity and increasing his Movement. Finally, his body is flooded with endorphins, repressing painful sensations and boosting his Strength.

Castro believes such frenzies are the result of demonic possession, a creature he calls el monstruo. Although el monstruo has saved Castro’s life on several occasions, he’s terrified of this alter-ego, and does everything he can to maintain control. Whenever Castro feels psychic pressure building in his brain, he opens his trepanning porthole and lets it vent harmlessly through his skull.

Game Mechanic
Only the Keeper may determine when el monstruo appears, but unless Castro finds himself in grave danger, opening the trepanning hole and exposing his brain grants him a “Relieve Psychic Pressure” roll to regain his senses. If el monstruo does come out to play, it usually remains until the problem is solved or 1D4+2 hours have passed, whichever comes first.

The Republic of Caliban
In early 1840, Castro discovered Ingo Quiring living in Lowell’s cave. Recognizing the Jesuit as a spiritual brother to his former master, Castro attached himself to Quiring, who referred to him as “Caliban.” Everything went swimmingly until Quiring tried to stuff Castro into the Elder Thing’s tank! Fortunately el monstruo saved the day, and Castro escaped Thal’n’lai and the clutches of this so-called Prospero. Since that day, Castro has afforded Quiring and his disciples a wide berth, and he generally avoids visiting the caldera. (See “Republic of Caliban” in “Chapter 4—Background.”)

The Role of Rafael Castro

At first Castro is a mystery, a possible threat stalking the characters from the outer dark. He finally reveals himself in Chapter 4, Encounter 11.

Castro’s Goals
Castro’s only goal is to be “made whole again.” To accomplish this, he must reconnect with Lowell, ingratiate himself into el maestro’s good graces, and cajole the Professor into repairing his body and restoring his mind. Exactly how this is supposed to happen is not particularly clear, but Lowell will surely find a way—after all, el maestro is a genius!

Castro and the Player Characters
Attempting to reunite with Lowell, Castro may be apprehended or killed by the player characters. If Castro is allowed to remain with the Lowell Expedition, he follows Lowell faithfully, attempting to serve el maestro and protecting him from danger. If Lowell is unwilling to resume his old role—or informs Castro there’s no way to “make him whole again”—Castro may rebel against Lowell, or worse, allow el monstruo to handle affairs. In this respect, the Keeper may play Castro as a wild card, using the character to generate any number of dramatic scenarios. Castro may defend the player characters, he may side with Quiring, or he may rescue characters who have been captured by the Republic of Caliban.

More abstractly, Castro is a living symbol of Lowell’s former misdeeds. While Lowell may only remember the existence of Rafael Castro upon reaching Albemarle, the physical presence of his comrade-turned-experiment is sure to bring back many unpleasant memories. And once the other player characters begin to suspect what happened between them, some interesting conversations are bound to occur!

Possessions
Castro has few personal possessions, and most of them are squirreled around the island in various caches—a bent lance head, a spare stuns’l, a book of nudes he sketched in the brothels of Callao and now believes to be the work of some other artist, a bag of Peruvian reales, a box of seashells named after sailors from the Atlantis, the bones of a dead dog, and an endless supply of water kegs and spare canvas sacks. There’s only one thing he carries wherever he goes, and he’s terrified of losing it: El cetro. A fake scepter carved from wood, painted gold, and decorated with paste gemstones, El cetro was created for a performance of Richard III staged on Albemarle during a gam involving three British whalers. Watching from the shadows, Castro crept into camp and stole the scepter and crown. Unfortunately he lost the crown months ago, tumbled from his head while snooping around Tarnmoor’s Lagoon.

Notes & Inspirations for Rafael Castro

Although his costume recalls the late-Victorian Elephant Man, Castro has no similarities to John Merrick. Castro’s most obvious literary ancestor is Gollum—a wretched, broken creature evoking a mixture of pity, loathing, and guilt. There’s also something of Shakespeare’s Caliban and Frankenstein’s monster in Castro, and maybe a little bit of Igor from Young Frankenstein!

White Leviathan > NPC Profiles
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Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 3 August 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]