Baldwin Breadwinner/IF-1667
Rumor / Community LoreThis article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community. It is just one of many Rumors that we've found in the Interdimensional Rumor Mill. You can find more Rumors about Baldwin Breadwinner at their Rumor Registry.
The waters beyond this point are uncharted, tales from distant shores echoed back into our reality.
Background
The following accounts can be traced to a single leather-bound journal originally found in a locked wooden chest alongside a sextant-like device of indeterminate origin and a shell that matches no known species of mollusc. The chest was located in a storage room in the Legscraper’s lower levels that was described as “smelling faintly of the sea”. Subsequent attempts to locate and navigate to said room have been unsuccessful thus far. The journal details the exploits of the crew of a large sailing vessel, The Tokyo Adrift, descriptions of which are largely consistent with mid-17th century galleons.
With The Tokyo Adrift
Despite only sailing with the Adrift for nine nights, the brief appearance of infamous diabolist Baldwin Breadwinner featured in the journals of many of her crewmates during that period and continued to sporadically be referenced until the ship's disappearance in 1667.
The crew of the Adrift awoke one night to the sound of carnivals and revelry, and a ship emerged from out of the fog on their port, poised as if to board. A journal entry from Domino Bootleg, who had at the time been awake on watch, noted that although the fog-wreathed vessel appeared completely uninhabited, a cacophony of spirited voices and music filled the air to bursting. Just as Captain Strongbody drew in a breath to order the Adrift to withdraw to a safe distance to attack, the strange boat at once grew silent and a solitary figure appeared on the empty deck, calling out to the Adrift. Her voice was rough but her demeanor was anything but as she introduced herself with precise words that left no doubt of who she was. She was the diabolist Baldwin Breadwinner, and the Adrift would soon require her services if they wished to weather what was ahead. As she informed the Captain, there was no room left for argument in her tone, and the Adrift found themselves with a new crewmate.
Terrell Bradley claimed she looked familiar to someone he had met on a ship under a different flag many years ago, but said that if Breadwinner was her, she was much changed. Breadwinner appeared as if only half-alive, as the entirety of her left arm, shoulder, and the left side of her face was bare weathered bone that was akin to driftwood in its texture. Often her bones were wreathed in shadows that shifted and stretched out around her into articulated limbs almost resembling that of a scorpion, spider, crab, or, as the ship's quartermaster would swear it, countless faces. While onboard the Adrift, Breadwinner completed her share of work without ever being caught in the act of manual labor. Instead, she spent her time challenging her crewmates to games, though many suspected this was a ploy to start debates and conversations which she would end as soon as she found whatever it was she was looking for. As a whole, the crew found her discomforting. Captain Strongbody, who in many ways was seen by his crew as just as strange and severe as Breadwinner following his return from his 44-day absence, was an exception and the two often retreated below deck to plot.
As her ninth night on board the Adrift came to an end Breadwinner departed as suddenly as she had appeared. It wasn't until the next morning that the crew came to the realization that she had taken the the Knight, Triumphant, with her.
