Captain Peter

Background: It was common practice for captain and senior offi cers to have their own ‘personal ventures’ aboard ships, carried at the company’s expense. Peter was exactly one half of such a venture.

Captured during a war between the Ashanti and Dagamba peoples, he was purchased by Captain Ness along with another slave, and the pair were renamed Peter and Paul. The captain would spend a few hours each day teaching them carpentry and cooperage in the hope of increasing their value when the time came to sell them in Jamaica. They were kept in a separate hold from the rest of the slaves, along with the mate’s and supercargo’s private ventures, in the hope that they would escape disease. It didn’t help them escape the water.

Paul’s soul never entered the Shadowlands. Peter, in an outrush of anger, ripped his own Caul off and stumbled to the deck, barely noticing the relic chains clutched in his hand. He found Ness and ripped off the captain’s Caul before beating him senseless.

He then set about freeing the 32 slaves who had crossed the Shroud, and stowing the crew in the hold. Shortly afterward, just as Peter was beginning to wonder what to do next, another ghost ship pulled alongside.

As a gesture of goodwill, the captain of the other vessel sent a skilled helmsman across and lead the Mary Anne to safe harbor on the African coast. Ness was soulforged into a set of manacles that Peter carries and uses on each successful capture. The Mary Anne shortly became another member of the Broken Chain. All the while, Peter continued to use the Anglicized name that Ness had given him; he has no desire to relive his time as a tribesman who was sold by his own kind. “Captain Peter” will do.

The last decade has been particularly hard to the ship and crew. The influx of modern warships into the Hierarchy forces has lead to the loss of several allied ships. Peter spent months in a depression and underwent a bout of Catharsis as a result.

He’s been doing this for centuries now, and is beginning to wonder if he is really making a difference. Perhaps the time has come to sail the Mary Anne into the Tempest and seek the Far Shores.…

Image: Captain Peter is a striking, if painfully thin, African male, apparently in his mid-twenties. His eyes are hard, and his face is set in a pointedly neutral expression. Peter wears nothing more than the pair of ragged trousers that he died in, and a chain wrapped round his waist.

Roleplaying Notes: Anger seethes under your skin: anger at the Ashanti who enslaved you, anger at the whites who bought you, anger at your own people for being too weak. You are careful to keep this anger in control, and project a calm, emotionless exterior. But in times of stress, it breaks loose in an explosive rage that frightens all around you.

Reference

 * World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed Tides p.58