TOPIC: Vaesen: Wicked Secrets

Vaesen, Session 1/Part 1

A letter arrives at Castle Gyllencreutz, addressed to the Society. Their decrepit butler Algot Frisk delivers the envelope unto the investigators. They are invited to attend a shadow play titled The Dance of Dreams, at the Witch Cat Inn outside the city. The invitation is signed Olaus Klint.

The investigators spend some time in the castle's dusty library before setting off. They discover the Witch Cat Inn was once used as a meeting place for the Society some 50 years ago. Svenrich canvases his contacts for intel on Olaus Klint, but comes up empty. Meanwhile, Algot packs each investigator an overnight bag, before bundling them into the last coach to Sigtuna.

During the journey, Knut challenges Erik to a game of Five Finger Fillet, and Gudrun reads Arne's future in the tarot cards. Svenrich observes and makes notes for his next book, featuring a crime-solving fortune teller. Everyone gains Advantage (+2 dice to any one check during the mystery).

A fierce storm rolls in as the coach stops outside the Witch Cat Inn. Torrential rain drums against the roof of the coach and thunder rumbles overhead. A middle-aged man waits to meet the investigators, huddled against the weather in the scant shelter offered by the stablehouse. He introduces himself as Olaus Klint and tells them about a strange and powerful presence inflicting vivid night terrors on travellers who stay at the inn.

The investigators head inside. The place is a shit hole. Water drips from the ceiling and the wind batters loose shutters. A sorry collection of dispirited guests are seated around the drafty taproom;

• Sami Harjula - surly innkeeper,
• Sophia Harjula - innkeeper's daughter, homely serving wench,
• Ingelis Holm - cook,
• Sven Knuse - stablehand,
• Jonathan Gnejs - guest, obese drunk,
• Father Niels Klarhed - guest, sickly priest,
• Lisa Finkel - guest, chemisty student from Upsala University.

The investigators ask Sophia about the shadow play and - after a fearful glance toward her father - she quietly invites them to join her in the attic for the debut performance. Knut asks Sami about the strange dreams afflicting his other guests, but the innkeeper denies everything.

The investigators head to the attic, where Sophia is waiting to begin the shadow play. The Dance of Dreams tells the story of a man called Oscar Hjort, who could also see the Vaesen. Oscar was recruited by a man called Albert and introduced to his friends. They told Oscar of their plans, but Oscar rejected them, so Albert and his friends murdered him and buried his body in unconsecrated ground.

As the play reaches its end, Sophia's voice becomes deeper and more masculine, until it is clearly some other being speaking through her body. Suddenly, a skeletal figure wreathed in icy blue flames rises from beneath the stage and hurtles toward the audience! Knut and Gudrun are frozen with fear. Arne flees the attic in terror, while Erik draws his revolver and fires upon the wraith. His shots pass through the apparition and it dissipates into freezing mist. Only Svenrich retains his wits and slaps some sense back into his comrades. Arne returns clutching his rifle, but the dread spectre is gone!

Vaesen, Session 1/Part 2

Sophia is comatose, mumbling the same four names over and over; "Albert... Katja... Hilda... Pyrri...." Nothing the investigators do can rouse the sleeping woman. Sami enters the attic to investigate the gunshot and finds his unconcious daughter surrounded by strange men. He's not super happy about that. Unable to wake her, Sami carries Sophia to her room. Knut wants answers but Sami is not talking. The two men nearly come to blows before Arne intervenes.

Sami is left to watch over his sleeping daughter while the investigators... investigate. All the other guests have fallen asleep also, muttering the same four names under their breath. Erik searches the attic and finds journals written by Sami's wife Nora. She describes a ghostly presence haunting the inn, and an abusive relationship with her overbearing husband. The final entry indicates her intent to run away. The diary also records that Pyrri Harjula (Sami's grandfather) was involved in the murder of Oscar Hjort, and that Oscar's body was buried in the inn's garden.

Meanwhile, Svenrich and Gudrun search the guest's rooms for clues. In Lisa Finkel's room, they find several phials of opium and a loaded revolver. They take the gun. As lightning flashes outside, Gudrun sees Oscar Hjort's skeletal visage grinning in through the window. He feels the spectre trying to take possession of his body. For a fleeting instant, he is overwhelmed with the urge to take Lisa Finkel's gun and shoot Svenrich in the head - but the moment passes and Gudrun shakes off the spectre's baleful influence.

Knut wants another crack at Sami, but finds the innkeeper missing. Sami has gone out to the stablehouse and is in the process of tying a noose around his own neck. He has been possessed and believes himself to be his grandfather Pyrri. Only by killing himself can he atone for his sins. Knut tackles Sami to the ground and calls for the other investigators to help restrain the suicidal innkeeper. The other investigators rush out to help, and Erik demands to know where Oscar's body is buried. "The root cellar!" Sami wails, somehow accessing the memories of his murderous grandsire.

Suddenly, the revenant of Oscar Hjort materialises amongst the investigators, condemning them for interfering in his vengeance. He accuses the party of conspiring with his murderer and raises his knife-edged claws to rend their treacherous flesh from the bone.... TBC!

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Questions for XP;

• Did you participate in the session?
• Did you confront any Vaesen?
• Did you identify a previously unknown Vaesen?
• Were you effected by your Dark Secret?
• Did you take risks to protect other people?
• Have you learnt anything? (What did you learn?)
• Did you develop your headquarters?
• Did you perform an extraordinary action?

Every YES answer you can give nets you 1 XP. When you have 5 XP you can buy a new Talent, or increase a Skill by one step.

Feel free to answer here, or we can handle it at the club on Thursday night.

Vaesen, Session 2/Part 1

Screaming wind rattles the walls of the stablehouse, as the Thursday's Children confront the vengeful shade of Oscar Hjort.

"Pyrri.... Betrayer.... Murderer!" the spectre intones, advancing on the quaking innkeeper. Sami is overcome with terror and passes out.

Gudrun moves to intercept the gristly apparition, brandishing his ritual dagger and calling upon his mystic arts to hold back the wraith. Oscar bats him aside. Gudrun cartwheels through the air crashes down in the muddy inn yard, battered and bleeding, his knife lost to the darkness.

Oscar looms over the helpless innkeeper, flexing his knife-edged claws. Before he can strike, Erik shoots the ghoul in the back. Oscar spins around, empty eye sockets ablaze with murderous hatred! Knut darts forward and slams his knife into the creature's breastbone! With an anguished howl, the apparition dissipates into freezing mist, driven back to the root cellar where its body lies buried beneath unconsecrated soil.

The investigator's relief is short-lived, as the sleeping guests emerge from the inn, their eyes glazed and movements shambolic. In unison, they chant the names of the four conspirators Oscar holds responsible for his death; "Albert.... Katja.... Hilda.... Pyrri...." Unwilling to harm innocent pawns, the investigators retreat into the stablehouse and barricade the entrance. The sleepers hammer their fists on the door. Peeking through a gap in the slats, Erik sees Father Klarhed carrying a lantern that burns with a sinister blue flame. Taking careful aim, Erik shoots the lantern. It explodes, splashing the priest with oil and causing the blue flame to spread to his cassock. Father Klarhed does not react as his flesh begins to bubble and melt.

Svenrich recalls the occult tomes he found in the inn and begins frantically skimming through them for clues. He establishes Oscar is a type of Vaesen called a Revenant, and that he is unable to harm anyone bearing a holy symbol. To banish the creature for good, its remains must either be reburied in consecrated ground, or burnt.

Vaesen, Session 2/Part 2

The investigators know Oscar's body is buried beneath the root cellar, but the stable is surrounded by mindless sleepwalkers under the Revenant's control. Gudrun and Arne climb into the hayloft and jump down into the yard. They run toward the root cellar, slipping and sliding in the mud, as the sleepers give chase. The inn's jovial cook - who the investigators last saw ladling out bowels of watery broth - reappears swinging a meat cleaver. Losing their nerve, Gudrun and Arne retreat into the inn. The sleepwalkers crowd into the root cellar, to stand guard over Oscar's grave.

Knut grabs the smoldering corpse of Father Klarhed and rolls it into the root cellar. He then throws hay onto the corpse to start a fire, and shuts the cellar door. The root cellar fills with smoke, and one by one, the sleepers begin to asphyxiate. Wrapping wet rags around their faces to protect themselves from the smoke, the investigators carry the unconcious guests back to the inn and tie them up. Arne and Gudrun decide to get high on the drugs found in Lisa Finkel's room.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team start digging up the root cellar in search of Oscar's bones. The desperate Revenant enthralls Knut and compels him to attack his friends with a shovel. Knut is grievously injured/physically broken in the scuffle.

Erik and Svenrich unearth Oscar's grave. The ghoul rages at them, but is powerless to prevent them dousing his skeletal
remains in alcohol and setting them ablaze. The bones crumble into ash and the Revenant is destroyed.

Erik and Svenrich carry Knut back to the inn, expecting Arne to treat his injury - however the old hunter is smacked up on opiates. He does his best, but the wound heals weird and Knut develops a permanent/crippling injury (-1 Force once per session, unable to wield two-handed weapons).

The sleepers wake and demand to be untied. They have no recollection of their actions under Oscar's spell and understandably want to know WTF is going on. Also, where is Father Klarhed? Knut tells them everything - every strange and unlikely detail. Nobody believes him. Yes, something unnatural has occured, but who could rationalise such an outlandish tale?! Olaus thanks the investigators for their aid solving the mystery of the Dance of Dreams, and looks forward to working with them again in the future.

The investigators return to Upsala, to recover from their ordeal and develop their headquarters. TBC!