Movers & Shakers: Powerful NPCs in Spectral Boston

Sarah Barstow, Spirit Medium
Level 7 Bard
Social Standing: 11 (Well-to-do merchant)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Morals: Abiding
Benefits:
Can cast magic spells (3 1st level, 2 2nd level, 1 3rd level)
Spells Memorized: Cantrip / Change Self / Hypnotism / Forget / Shatter / Suggestion
Influence NPC reactions through speech (save vs. Para at -2)
Rally friends and allies with word and song (+1 to attack or save, or +2 to morale)
35% chance to identify magic item

STR 7
DEX 12
CON 8
INT 16
WIS 14
CHA 16

Hit Points: 25
Thac0: 17
AC: 10
Weapons: none
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Read/Write, Modern Language (French) Riding, Local History, Religion, Ancient Languages (Latin & Greek), Etiquette, Singing, Dancing

Spell Book:
Affect Normal Fires
Cantrip
Change Self
Dancing Lights
Hypnotism
Unseen Servant
Continual Light
Forget
Misdirection
Protection from Cantrips
Shatter
Whispering Wind
Clairaudience
Clairvoyance
Hold Person
Suggestion

Appearance:
Goodwife Barstow is a petite woman of about forty years. She wears a modestly cut silk dress with lace cuffs and bodice, covered by a black velvet mantle. Despite her size, she projects an aura of confidence and strength, conveyed through a graceful stance, piercing gaze, and clear high voice.

DM's Notes:

• When encountered by day on the streets of Boston, Barstow will be accompanied by her maid, Jenny, and a male servant. The servant, Sampson, is also her personal guard (level 1 fighter, 7hp, Thac0 20, staff d6/d6). There is a 35% chance that 1-4 of her followers will be with her as well (75% of her followers are female, 25% male).
• By night, Barstow travels in her carriage, accompanied by her maid, her servant, a coachman, and two footmen. The coachman and footmen are zero-level characters; the coachman is armed with a brace of wheellock pistols (d8/d8). Barstow's high Charisma and bardic abilities are usually enough to enlist the sympathies of those around her, save for ardent Calvinists like Doctor Sutton and Ezekiel Mayhew. Player characters may find themselves easily ensnared by her charms.
• Attendees of Barstow's seances come by invitation only. Most of them, like Barstow herself, are well-to-do women of Boston. Many are the wives of prominent men in the city. A typical seance consists of the joining of hands in a circle and a call to a particular spirit to come forth. The phenomenon is quite genuine, although Barstow cannot explain her abilities. During a seance, the equivalent of the clerical spell Speak with Dead is in play, as if cast by a level 13 priest. Anyone present may ask the questions. Additional Speak with Dead spells can be cast only if Barstow makes a Constitution check. Once she fails, she falls into a swoon for one hour, and cannot conduct another seance for d3 days.
• Barstow uses her seances to probe the secrets of the afterlife, to reunite spirits with their loved ones, and to clear the names of those she feels have been wrongly accused of crimes. She does not accept payment for her services, and will shun player characters who try to buy their way into her Circle. Since her trial, she is quite wary of people outside her circle, but will prove an invaluable ally to a party of good faith.

Background:
Sarah Barstow is the daughter of a Puritan elder, Samuel Barstow, one of the original members of the colony. She lives in a grand townhouse near Boston Common, in the company of her ancient father and many servants. Her refusal to marry as a young woman marked her as odd by local gossips, and she has since conducted her own affairs with a fiercely independent spirit that has given rise to many wagging tongues and shaking heads among conservative Bostonians. Even more scandalous, Barstow is the charismatic leader of a circle of religiously-minded folk who dabble in direct communication with the spirits. The Barstow Circle feel that they are doing God's work by "counseling" the spirits of the departed and passing their messages on to the living. Most Puritans see it as a dangerous practice, probably a trick of the Devil to distract fools from the true faith.
The details of Sarah BarstowÕs circle were revealed during a sensational trial prosecuted against her by Ezekiel Mayhew, Witch Finder General of Massachusetts. Mayhew sought to send her to the gallows for sorcery and blasphemous conduct, but Barstow's position as a person of wealth, the support of her Circle, her brilliant performance at trial, and the sympathy of Governor Worthington ultimately spared her. Since then, she has continued to gather followers, much to the consternation of her foes.

Suggested adventure ideas involving Barstow:

• A spirit summoned by Barstow chooses not to return to the Outer Planes, and begins to haunt the streets of Boston. The player characters are enlisted to investigate, and eventually uncover Barstow's involvement. Fearing prosecution, and wishing to bring things to rights, she asks the party to help her banish the spirit from the Prime Material Plane.
• Barstow unaccountably loses her powers, and her Circle begins to drift away. Without powerful friends, she becomes vulnerable to attack from her political enemies. If the player characters can locate the source of the interference that is blocking her spiritual abilities, Barstow may reward them with arcane knowledge from the Other Side, perhaps leading to a profitable adventure.

Ezekiel Mayhew, Witch Finder General
Level 8 Cleric (Protector of the Faith kit, A Mighty Fortress, p. 46)
Social Standing: 12 (Well-to-do clergy)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Morals: Zealous
Benefits:
Access to all weapons/armor
Recognize evil within 60' radius
+1 to Thac0 vs. enemies of his religion (Calvinism)
+2 to save versus fear (involving the supernatural)
Hindrances:
Must pay tithe to church (10% of treasure)
Cannot use or benefit from magic or magic items
Cannot cast cleric spells

STR 15
DEX 12
CON 11
INT 10
WIS 13
CHA 17

Hit Points: 36
Thac0: 16
AC: 8 (High Boots, Buff Coat)
Weapons: Snaplock Pistol 1-8/1-8, Broad Sword 1-8/1-12
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Read/Write, Riding, Local History, Religion, Ancient Languages (Latin & Greek)

Appearance:
Mayhew is a tall, broad-shouldered man of middle age, square-jawed, with shoulder-length gray hair spilling from beneath a wide-brimmed hat. His clothing is well made but unadorned, in the Puritan style.

DM's Notes:

• Mayhew is usually accompanied in his investigations by 1-4 1st level clerics (like him, based on the Protector of the Faith kit). When coming to arrest a suspect, they will be augmented by d8+8 members of the militia (0-level fighters, AC 4, armed with broad swords (d8 damage), halberds (d10 damage), and wheellock pistols (d8 damage).
• Mayhew is the genuine article: a highly devout man of unshakable convictions, sworn to root out evil and expose it to the light of day. He truly believes he is doing God's work, and has never knowingly abused his power to do away with a personal or political enemy. Player characters with sorcerous or witchly associations will find Mayhew a relentless foe. He cannot be bribed or dissuaded. He can, however, be fooled or misdirected, as both his mentor Sutton and his superior Worthington have often done to set him barking up the tree of their political foes.
• Cleric player characters, especially, will find it rather easy to control Mayhew's actions. So simple is his faith that he tends to take others whom he trusts at face value - if he senses no evil, he assumes that the speaker is as pious as he is. A mere whisper in his ear is often enough to send him off in hot pursuit of imagined enemies of the faith.
• A man of action, Mayhew respects faith expressed through deeds, and may assist a party of player characters who, like him, are involved in the vigorous defense of civilization against the fell spirits of the wilderness.
• Player characters seeking to interfere in Mayhew's investigations will find themselves very unpopular if word gets out to the general public of their actions. Mayhew is privately feared in Boston, but publicly adored, and the commonfolk and gentry alike will not hesitate to side with Mayhew in a dispute against player characters. Only the influence of the governor or Sutton could stay his hand - and such an unpopular intervention would require an extraordinary favor in return.

Background:
Mayhew was among the first clerics trained by the newly established College in Cambridge, under the teaching of Doctor Israel Sutton, who remains Mayhew's close ally and mentor. Early on, Sutton recognized Mayhew's ability to sense the presence of the supernatural, a gift which Sutton honed, polished, and reinforced with extensive studies in theology and metaphysics. After leaving The College, Mayhew quickly established a reputation as a witch-finder, being the chief accuser in several prominent cases of witchcraft in the Boston area. He sent several witches to the gallows and was soon in demand as an investigator of suspected sorceries.
The fact that the accused were often political enemies of Doctor Sutton or his cronies was noted by the governor, John Worthington, who worried that Mayhew was too powerful a weapon in the hands of anyone but himself. To bring Mayhew into his camp, Worthington offered him the position of Witch Finder General of Massachusetts, an office which is responsible directly to the governor himself. Mayhew agreed - it was too tempting an offer to refuse.
Since taking the post some ten years ago, Mayhew has continued his investigations and made many accusations. Witches have been tried and hanged, but not in anything like the numbers slain during Mayhew's meteoric rise to fame. Worthington's influence has tempered him, to be sure. Most of those who have gone to trial have been men and women of little consequence or property, often with a history of committing petty crimes - nuisances whom Worthington was all too happy to remove from his Commonwealth. Only once has Mayhew taken a prominent member of Boston society to court - his sensational trial of Sarah Barstow, accused of practising divination and communication with spirits. Barstow's unwavering defense on the stand, and the support she received from her powerful salon of followers, thwarted Mayhew's attempt to paint her as a menace to the order of the Commonwealth, and ultimately Worthington instructed him to withdraw his charges. Mayhew has since moved on, but his old teacher Sutton, whose conservative views are at odds with Barstow's faction, has never forgotten how Barstow bested his old student.

Suggested adventure ideas involving Mayhew:

• An enemy of the player characters places a word in Mayhew's ear that one of them is a practitioner of magic. The player characters find themselves being hunted down by the Witch Finder General, without any notion of why he has targeted them. Will they have a chance to escape or to change Mayhew's mind before they feel the noose around their necks?
• Mayhew begins hunting down people whom the governor believes are innocent, law-abiding citizens. Someone - or something - is influencing or controlling Mayhew's actions. The governor hires the player characters to investigate this mystery - before more innocent New Englanders are hanged.
• Mayhew has convicted a young woman of witchcraft, and she is scheduled to be hanged upon the Trimount at noon the next day. Her fellow witches hire or compel the player characters to effect a rescue of their fellow crone from Mayhew's clutches.

Doctor Israel Sutton
Level 9 Cleric (Preacher kit, A Mighty Fortress, p. 45)
Social Standing: 11 (Well-to-do clergy)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Morals: Abiding
Benefits:
Can wear any armor and carry any weapon
Turns all supernatural creatures as undead, holding them at bay
Can cast bonus spells for high Wisdom (see below)
Hindrances:
Cannot cast spells as standard cleric, except as noted
Cannot conceal or deceive others regarding his religion
Must tithe to the church

STR 7
DEX 9
CON 9
INT 15
WIS 17
CHA 12

Hit Points: 32
Thac0: 16
AC: 10
Weapons: none
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Read/Write, Riding, Local History, Religion, Ancient Languages (Latin & Greek), Spellcraft

Clerical Spells (can cast 2 1st level, 2 2nd level, 1 3rd level):
Spheres Allowed: All, Charm, Protection, Divination, Healing
with the exception of Hold Person, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Augury, Detect Charm, Locate Object, and Divination.

Appearance:
Doctor Sutton is a portly, clean-shaven elderly minister with a bulbous nose, pince-nez, and rather rumpled black clothes in the Puritan style.

DM's Notes:

• Sutton usually travels in the company of several burly servants. He almost always journeys by closed coach, being a lover of comfort.
  
• For defense, Sutton will use Hold Person, or his innate ability to turn supernatural creatures. He is usually too clever to let himself get in a situation that might lead to physical harm.
  
• Sutton has a study and small laboratory at The College, but most of his metaphysical experiments are conducted in a well-appointed laboratory at his estate in Menotomy, just beyond Cambridge to the west.The estate is a grand house, with extensive grounds, a formal garden, and many servants. The doctor lives alone and has no close living relatives.
  

Background:
Sutton is a doctor of metaphysics and theology at The College in Cambridge, across the river from Boston proper. He has educated many prominent clerics during his long tenure. The good doctor wields considerable political power, many of his former students now being influential members of Boston society. He has long been at odds with pragmatic Governor Worthington, the charismatic Sarah Barstow, and the Anglican merchants who have recently begun to transform the social and economic landscape.
Sutton has a dark side. His fascination with all things spiritual has led him into an uncomfortable alliance with the demighoul Jack Hallow, who seeks to uncover the secrets of life and death. Sutton has subtlely steered the authorities away from Hallow in connection with several mysterious disappearances over the years, and he has channelled considerable money from the College to fund Hallow's experiments.

Suggested adventure ideas involving Sutton:

• Sutton, still stinging from his pupil Mayhew's inability to convict the heterodox spirit medium Sarah Barstow, either tries to frame her, expose her as a hoax, or rob her of her powers. The player characters may come to Barstow's defense, or alternately, be hired by the Governor to investigate Sutton's claims.
  
• Sutton disappears, leaving behind few clues as to his whereabouts. The player characters are discreetly hired by The College to investigate his vanishing. Perhaps he has been captured by the Witches of Naumkeag. Perhaps he and Jack Hallow have had a falling out, and he is now being held prisoner in Hallow's dank tunnels beneath the city.
• Sutton, in his arcane experiments, accidently unleashes a supernatural force upon the city. Perhaps he summons a demon who possesses his body, or raises the ghost (specter) of a powerful mage, like Merlin, or Hermes Trismegistus, who proceeds to take over The College for evil purposes.
  
• Sutton himself is accused of witchcraft by the Witch Finder General, and finds himself in the unaccustomed position of having to prove his innocence. Many of his old enemies come out of the woodwork to condemn him. But the player characters discover he's been framed. Will they intervene, at the risk of they themselves being accused of witchcraft by Sutton's enemies?

Jack Hallow, Surgeon of Boston
Level 8 Black Magician (Specialist Necromancer; see A Mighty Fortress. p. 92)
Social Standing: 7 (poor merchant)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Morals: Abiding
Abilities:
Spellcasting: 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 third level, 2 4th level wizard spells
one additional 1st level, 2nd level, 3rd level, and 4th level Necromancy spell
+1 to save against Necromancy spells, -1 to save against Illusion spells
Spells Memorized: Cantrip / Chill Touch x 2 / Detect Undead / Sleep / Alter Self / Blindness / Scare / Summon Swarm / Confusion / Hold Undead x2 / Vampiric Touch / Contagion / Enervation / Fear
Touch paralyzes as per ghoul
60' Infravision

STR 10
DEX 10
CON 13
INT 17
WIS 14
CHA 9

Hit Points: 22
Thac0: 18
AC: 10
Weapons: scalpel d4/d3
or claws (2 attacks) d8/d8
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Read/Write, Modern Languages (Hebrew, German, French), Local History, Religion, Ancient Languages (Latin & Greek), Herbalism, Spellcraft, Direction Sense

Spell Book:
1st Level:
Cantrip
Chill Touch
Detect Undead
Sleep
Ventriloquism
2nd Level:
Alter Self
Blindness
Scare
Summon Swarm
3rd Level:
Confusion
Hold Undead
Vampiric Touch
Wraithform
4th Level:
Contagion
Enervation
Fear

Appearance:
Jack Hallow is a tall scarecrow of a man of indeterminate age, with a shock of red hair, pale skin, and somber, colorless clothes. He wears delicate gloves of kid leather.

DM's Notes:

• Hallow is pursuing the secret of raising the dead. A scroll or spell book containing the Animate Dead spell would be the ultimate find for the good doctor.
• At night, anywhere in Boston, Hallow can summon d6+1 ghouls to his defense within 2-12 rounds. They will emerge from the shadows and defend him or follow his commands. Underground, he can summon 2d6 ghouls and d3 ghasts. The total number of ghouls under his command are approximately 30, plus 3 ghasts. Slain ghouls are replaced at the rate of one per month.
• Hallow knows his way around the tunnels below Boston, being able to bypass the militia and appear in any section of the city he chooses.
• Hallow's surgery is a small, drab two-storey shop not far from the Copps Hill burial ground. A secret stair leads directly from a back room into the ghoul tunnels.
• As a black magician, Hallow has been appointed a demon familiar in the form of a small monkey. The monkey, named Vinegar Tom, is never far from Hallow.
• Hallow kills both to procure bodies for his experiments and to satisfy the his hunger and those of his fellow ghouls. He avoids direct confrontations with his victims, preferring to stalk and paralyze unwary prey, usually by night.

Background:
Hallow came to Boston after being drummed out of university in Gloriana's England for practising the black arts - Jack Hallow is a pseudonym assumed upon arrival in Boston, by way of Amsterdam. His experiments concerned the study of ghouls and ghasts, and the means by which ghoulism is transferred to living victims. During his research, Hallow accidently infected himself with a weakened form of the disease. Subsequently, he must eat human flesh to survive, he has lost the need for sleep, and most significantly, he has gained the power to command the ghouls which haunt the abandoned tunnels beneath the graveyards and cobbled streets of Boston.
By day, Hallow works as a surgeon for the commonfolk of the city. By night, he pursues his research into the undead, and satisfies his grisly appetites side by side with his fellow ghouls.
On several occasions, family members of Hallow's patients have suspected that the surgeon is up to something, but Doctor Israel Sutton of the College has consistently come to his defense. (This is because he too is obsessed with learning the secrets of the grave, and wishes to protect Hallow's research).

Suggested adventure ideas involving Hallow:

• A family member of a deceased patient of Hallow's asks the party to investigate. They stumble upon Hallow's scheme.
• The governor is concerned about reports of grave robbing and hires the party to keep watch on the Copps Hill burying ground overnight, something that few locals are willing to do. The party is attacked by ghouls, and if they survive, may pursue the ghouls to a hidden entrance to the tunnels.
• A university official from Europe comes to Boston in pursuit of Hallow, either to arrest him or to give him the last piece of the puzzle that would allow Hallow to complete his research.
• Hallow completes his research, and begins creating an undead army to conquer the city.

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