Keeper Characters

A secret order founded by the British engineers who captured Bento Arruda's stone in 1866, later joined by the railway's shareholders and a handful of local families. They serve the entity for prosperity and for the engineering and alchemical secrets it whispers. The impossible railway was their first miracle.

After nationalisation in 1946 ^[2], the shareholders lost the railway but kept the cult. Its members stayed on as engineers, foremen and clerks, and kept the Company Car running under a new flag.

Infected by devotion + contribute

Every member of the Company breathes the mist on purpose, and every one of them is deep in Contact. They keep themselves from drowning in it with salt on the tongue and brine in their tea. Their silent hand-signs are something they learned from the creature, not from each other.

Every winter since 1868 the Company has hidden its rite inside a private village celebration, which the public only discovered in 2001: see The Winter Festival.

In 1974 + contribute

The order is frightened and split. Without the tank cars the mist is louder in their heads every night. Some want to drag the creature to the new rack line; others plan a sacrifice large enough to buy time. All of them want the RFFSA auditors gone. They are led by the Chief Engineer. Its working members are in The Cultists.

Whoever holds the post of chief engineer and lives in the Castelinho is, by ritual right, Grand Master of the Company of Shadows. Every appointee since the 19th century has been recruited, one way or another. The office passes on when a chief engineer finally "drowns".

The current chief engineer, Henrique Ashworth, was born in São Paulo to a family that came out with the São Paulo Railway, and has held the post since 1958. He uses the railway's telegraphs and logbooks to arrange sacrifices and hide the enormous consumption of seawater and iron. He is courteous, tired and very afraid. He is at Contact 8, sucks salt pastilles constantly, and hears the creature every waking minute. He knows better than anyone what happens when the water runs out.

Playing him + contribute

He does not want the investigators dead at first. He wants them to understand, and then to help. Offer them a deal before offering them a knife. If an investigator is Tide-touched, he will speak to them in the cult's silent signs, and they will understand. His dinner and his deal are in Dinner at the Castelinho.

Henrique Ashworth

Chief engineer and Grand Master of the Company, 58

STR45

CON50

SIZ65

DEX45

APP60

INT80

POW75

EDU85

HP 11MP 15Move 5DB 0Build 0Sanity 30Contact 8

Attacks One attack per round.

• Fighting (Brawl) 30% (15/6), 1D3 + DB
• Firearms (Handgun) — .32 revolver 40% (20/8), 1D8
• Dodge 22% (11/4)

Skills Credit Rating 60%, Science (Engineering) 70%, Persuade 65%, Psychology 55%, Spot Hidden 50%, Occult 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 18%.

Armour None.

Spells Call the Fog (4 MP, 1D4 SAN to the caster): the mist thickens around one person in sight; they make an immediate Contact roll with a penalty die.

Notes Sucks salt pastilles all day. Speaks the Company's silent hand-signs. At Contact 8 the creature asks him something once per scene; he resists with an opposed POW roll, and loses more often each night.

The working members of the Company of Shadows are railway people: the yard foreman Moacir, the section clerk, a handful of brakemen and their wives. They are not monsters. They have breathed the mist on purpose for years, they hear it every night, and they are terrified of what happens if it wakes.

How they act + contribute

• By day they watch, report to the Castelinho by telegraph, and make sure the investigators see that they are being watched.
• By night they carry brine and filings to the Fourth Landing by hand, and they will not let anyone stop them.
• In a fight they say nothing. They sign to each other with their hands, a language the creature taught them.

Company cultist

Foreman, clerk or brakeman by day; typical profile

STR55

CON60

SIZ60

DEX55

APP50

INT55

POW50

EDU50

HP 12MP 10Move 7DB 0Build 0Sanity 25Contact 5–7

Attacks One attack per round.

• Fighting (Brawl) 45% (22/9), 1D3 + DB
• Fighting (Brawl) — crowbar or rail spike 45% (22/9), 1D8 + DB
• Dodge 27% (13/5)

Skills Climb 50%, Listen 55%, Stealth 50%, Mechanical Repair 45%, Intimidate 40%.

Armour None.

Notes They carry salt in their pockets and a flask of brine. In the mist they fight in silence, coordinating with hand-signs; two or more together get a bonus die to surround or grapple.

Antônio Castro cleaned the company's tank cars in Santos until the creature started calling him by name. The cult brought him up the mountain to "help with the festival": in truth, Ashworth hoped a fresh voice would calm it. It did the opposite. Tonico went down the culvert on 16 June (Handout 3: Telegraph log, Castelinho) and has not come up.

He is at Contact 9. When the mist is thick, the creature speaks through him, and it knows everything he knows about his sister.

Playing him + contribute

He is not a villain and not quite a victim. He carries brine with the cultists, hums the creature's song, and speaks of the sea as home. When Lenita reaches him, give him a moment of himself: a childhood nickname, a joke, her name said right. Then let the mist take the voice back.

Antônio “Tonico” Castro

Lenita's younger brother, tank-car cleaner, 19

STR60

CON45

SIZ55

DEX65

APP55

INT50

POW70

EDU45

HP 10MP 14Move 9DB 0Build 0Sanity 12Contact 9

Attacks One attack per round.

• Fighting (Brawl) 50% (25/10), 1D3 + DB
• The drowning embrace (grapple) 50% (25/10), seawater wells from his mouth into the victim's: CON roll or 1D3 damage per round
• Dodge 32% (16/6)

Skills Climb 60%, Listen 70%, Stealth 55%, Swim 50%.

Armour None.

Notes A Brine-speaker: when the mist is thick the creature talks through him, in his voice, and it knows everything he knows about his sister. He cannot be brought below Contact 9 while the Seed is on the mountain. If it reaches the sea (Ending A), his Contact falls to 4 and he can be brought home.