It’s hard to get good help… a spectral still-room maid for Call of Cthulhu
This mysterious woman appears dressed in a black long-sleeved dress with white cuffs and collar, a white linen apron, and a small grey cap. She is pale, with freckles and curly red hair, and speaks with a thick Irish accent. She can be encountered in any one of a dozen stately homes across Manhattan and Brooklyn, or a half-dozen Gilded Age mansions on the north coast of Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island. She is often pushing a cart laden with a full tea service for six, a classic still-room maid. Shortly before she appears, the temperature drops 20 degrees as the scent of Darjeeling tea, cucumber sandwiches, and shortbread cookies fills the air.
If asked her name she’ll say “I’m called Bridget,” followed by ma’am or sir. Bridget is not her real name, but a slang term for any female Irish housemaid. She’ll ask where they’d like to take their tea. If the investigator or NPC refuses her offer or confronts her, she slowly walks away. As she withdraws, her form dissipates like mist as the air fills with the stench of decomposing flesh with a hint of roses. This takes three rounds and costs witnesses 1/1D4 Sanity points. The woman is in fact a ghost.
If the person she asks answers with a location, she leads them to that place and attempts to serve them. However, anything she attempts to hand them or place before them vanishes. She keeps trying, becoming more and more upset, apologizing over and over. Her appearance begins to change, becoming more and more disheveled, then gaunt. She’ll start screaming that if she can’t work, she’ll be put out and her young brother Timothy will starve. Items in the room begin flying about, and anyone in the room must make a Luck check or be struck by a flying object, taking 1D6 points of damage, for two rounds. Finally, her appearance becomes that of a decomposing corpse with black roses growing from her ribcage and eye sockets, before she vanishes. This lasts between six and eight rounds, and costs viewers 1/1D6 Sanity points.
If investigators make a Hard success on a Persuade roll, they can get Bridget to calm down and talk with them. She doesn’t realize she’s dead, and treats the investigators like her employers. She can give a few details of her life, just enough to give them somewhere to start looking into the circumstances of her death. However, this only lasts a few minutes before she says, “I have to get back to work, I’m sorry, I can’t afford to lose my position,” and vanishes. The next time she appears she has no recollection of any previous encounters with them, and the cycle repeats itself. Bridget is trapped in a loop, but she can be freed of it.
Bridget, whose real name is Norah O’Donoghue, was a Gilded Age maid, murdered by one of her employers in 1897. She was pushed down a flight of stairs by Lady Julia Harrison, who suspected (falsely) that the pale Irish maid was sleeping with her husband. Bridget was actually flirting with Montgomery “Monty” Harrison, Lady Julia’s younger brother. Julia Harrison then had other servants bury Bridget in the rose garden, and paid them off to move to Chicago. The ghost now haunts all of the places she worked, as she was often loaned out to other families and households by her primary employer. She never intends to harm anyone, but her appearance has driven many people from their homes. She can be dispelled in one of four ways.
Give her a proper burial. Track down her last employer through records, find where she was last seen, discover her shallow grave, and give her a proper burial. This requires a Hard success at Library Use to find the estate where she died, a Fast Talk or Persuade roll to learn where she was killed and buried, and finally a successful Spot Hidden roll to locate her body. If reburied in a Roman Catholic cemetery, her ghost finds peace and never reappears.
Confront her murderer. Track down Julia Harrison, who is now a full-time “resident” at River Crest Sanitarium in Astoria, New York, an estate-like facility that caters to wealthy patients recovering from mental breakdowns, nervous conditions, or substance abuse. Investigators can question her to learn the location of Bridget’s body and put her to rest (see above), or convince the woman to sign a confession to the murder. This requires a Hard success on a Persuade roll. Should this happen, she is never allowed to leave the sanitarium, and Bridget finds release through this small justice.
Reunite her with her brother. Through records, track down her younger brother, Timothy O’Donoghue, which requires a Persuade, Fast Talk, or Intimidate roll. If they bring him to one of the places where Bridget appears, she’ll appear and mistake Timothy for their father, Jimmy O’Donoghue, who died in County Clare, Ireland, back in 1884. He’ll tell her who he is and explain that he is doing well. He has a job overseeing a work crew building ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is married, and has three young children, his oldest daughter named Nora, in her memory. Learning this, Bridget is freed from the nightmare of letting him starve because she lost her job, and is released.
Let her love free her. Track down Monty Harrison, who remembers the pale Irish maid fondly, has always wondered what happened to her, and will gladly help put her to rest. If he encounters Bridget, he’ll tell her that his family has agreed to let him marry her, that he loves her, and that he’ll support her family. Monty is already married, with children, but is a very accomplished liar (he’s now a practicing lawyer). Bridget is overjoyed, accepts his proposal, and then dissipates peacefully.
Bridget (Norah) O’Donoghue, Ghost from the Gilded Age
| Characteristic | Value |
|---|---|
| INT | 80 |
| POW | 70 |
| Magic Points | 14 |
Ghost Attacks: None directly; Luck check for incidental 1D6 damage from flying objects.
Sanity Check: 1/1D6 to encounter Bridget O’Donoghue.
