Vaesen: Hunting the Hollow Wight

Following on from the events in Session 1, the party decided they still do not know where to find the tomb - or cave - that Isaac Merrow mentioned in his writings. George Fellowdrake used his spirit writing talent to contact Isaac Merrow and was able to find from him that they should seek out and banish the wight that haunted Whistman's Tor on Dartmoor. 

They knew they would not be able to find the entrance until the next new moon, in six nights' time. This gave them time to go back out into the village of Harrowstone to find further information.

Roddy MacLeod tried to strike up a conversation with the patrons of the Black Hart inn, but they remained reassuringly surly and uncooperative, although he could also detect an undercurrent of fear from them. Father Giles proved of somewhat more value - he told the investigators that Tom Haskins, who had worked for Merrow as a gardener previously, had accompanied the doctor on many of his walks on Dartmoor and might know where Whistman's Tor was. 

The elderly vicar also told the group that the villagers believed the Hollow Wight walked abroad - it had been seen in the village itself and that locals also feared other beings that haunted the high moor.

Giles brought Tom Haskins to see the group the next morning at Harrow House. Haskins too seemed quite taciturn and unwilling to be there. He said he knew the way to Whistman's Tor and would accompany them. Haskins was asked about the village of Wellow (mentioned on Merrow's map), which he said was about six miles away from Harrowstone "as the crow flies." He had not heard of anything called the Orchard or Orhard Path (aso mentioned on the map).

The party wanted to make sure they had the Brythonic rite properly pronounced and for this the priest directed them to his spinster sister Martha Giles, the landlady at the Black Hart. Fellowdrake struck up a rapport with her and she corrected any mispronounciations in the ancient language. She said it was important that the Hollow Wight be driven back into the ground as soon as possible, as while it was awake, it had the potential to wake up "its brothers and sisters."

The Adventure At Whistman's Tor

The team decided to reconnoitre Whistman's Tor, taking camping equipment and tents they found in Harrow House. Haskins said it would take them at least five hours to trek to the tor from Harrowcombe. While the weather began fine, as the hunters approached the tor, which was crowned by standing stones, a ground mist started to rise. It was close to sunset so they decided to camp and posted watches as a precaution. 

During the night, Dr Cedric Fitzpatrick noticed a dim figure watching the camp from a distance, in the mist. He woke Fellowdrake, who used his opera glasses to survey the apparition more closely. It looked like a vaguely humanoind silhouette, standing unaturally still, a figure seemingly half-carved from peat and smoke, its limbs slightly too long, and its features undefined. Its outline rippled as though it was not fully part of the world.

The thing started to appoach. The group's hunting dog, Rascal reacted with fear, Fellowdrake froze in terror and William flew into a rage and charged at it. Tom Haskins could not seem to see it at all, although he claimed the air was getting colder. 

William attacked the wight with his iron knuckledusters but as he fought it, the others, who were shooting at it, noticed the distance between themselves and William seemed to be expanding. Fitzpatrick called out a warning and ran to help William, who continued to pound at the wight. Suddenly more wights manifested around William and the monster, seemingly out of thin air and began to close in on him. But before they or Fitzpatrick could reach the raging William, the wight let out a cry of rage (and pain) and sank into the moor. The other creatures faded into thin air. Within 15 minutes, the fog lifted.

The group decided to return to Harrowcombe in the morning. On the way back they related previous encounters with the supernatural to each other. Fitzpatrick talked about how a dead body he was cutting up came back to life on the slab, while Roddy spoke of a strange encounter with a silver stag in Scotland and how his fiancee had disappeared. Fellowdrake hinted at his insights into the spirit world brought on by opium use. William was more taciturn however, although the others now suspect he was 'taken' by something and later returned.

Back at Harrow House the library was further investigated. The group found two books of possible interest -  On the Barrows and Standing Stones of Somerset, by Rev Elias Chalmondley (1823), and The Orchard Queen: Rites of Blossom and Bough, by Agnes Hartwell (1817). Fitzpatrick also found Merrow had written down a nursery rhyme relating to the Blossom Queen.

The showdown with the Hollow Wight

Rascal

The party waited until the eve of the new moon to set off again over Dartmoor, this time leaving Haskins behind, although he had made protective bone amulets for them, similar to those he left on the window sills at Harrow House. Reaching Whistman's Tor in the early evening, they saw no sign of the strange mist that cloaked its slopes last time they were there. They waited until nightfall, whereupon a stone doorway appeared in the side of the tor, and they were able to enter. 

A passage led down to a cave in which many spiral patterns had been carved in the walls and floor - those in the wall glowed faintly. Some of the drawings in the earth looked more recent, anti-clockwise even. The group began the rite to bind the Hollow Wight, whereupon the vaesen itself appeared. William blocked its advance and this time Rascal joined him in the fray. William again battered the wight into submission with his knuckle-dusters and the ritual was eventually completed successfully. However, as the wight was again bound to the tor with a wail, the cave itself began to collapse. Only Roddy was able to make it down the tunnel in time before it caved in.

Luckily, the group had lanterns and saw another tunnel leading off from the main cave. This ended in a caved-in passage, but William was able to detect a breeze here and so they began to dig upwards. Outside the tor, Roddy was calling for his friends as the mist closed in again, and the sun began to set. He suddenly spotted a tall, spectral figure watching him from a distant ridge. This looked like a tall (7 foot) man-stag creature in grey robes with a staff. Roddy ran towards the being, but lost it in the mist. Blundering around, he heard the others calling him - they had escaped the tor. 

Now back together again, the party camped for the night and headed back to Harrowcombe unmolested in the morning.

Questions, questions, questions

• WHAT was the strange spectre Roddy MacLeod saw on Dartmoor?
• WHO is the Blossom Queen?
• WHAT is William hiding in his past?
• WHERE is Isaac Merrow?
• WHY was Tom Haskins unable to see the Hollow Wight?
• WHAT has the Hollow Wight loosed upon Devon?