Well, for good or ill, I have started a Vaesen RPG campaign. The plot is almost entirely of my own concoction and I'm not planning to publish it. I am including these notes as a summary for my players and emphasis will be on important plot information and clues.
Our story begins in Bath in April 1865, with four individuals who are summoned to the city by a lawyer called Alistair Renwick. He tells them they are the benenficiaries of the will of Isaac Merrow, a scholar and specialist in the ancient history and folklore of the West Country, who has gone missing over six months ago. None of the player characters has ever met Merrow before, although one of them had heard of him and his reputation as a fringe 'expert' in ancient history and folklore.
The Player Characters:
- "William" - a mysterious vagrant of which we know little, he is older than the others, but seems like he could handle himself in a fight
- Dr Cedric James Fitzpatrick - a newly qualified doctor, he seems pale and a little twitchy
- George Fellowdrake - a fidgety writer of speculative fiction leaning towards surrealism, a literary rival of Lewis Carroll
- Roderick Knox MacLeod - a Highland aristocrat keen on hunting - at least he was...
Renwick tells the assembled men that Merrow has left them his family mansion, Harrow House in his will. He also gives them a letter from Merrow which is cryptic but speaks of:
"Those whose lives once brushed against the thin places in the world. You know the names. You will know whom I mean when the time comes. It is vital that they be brought to Harrowcombe. Not for inheritance, not for sentiment, but for continuity."
Also with the letter is a strange map, inscribed on vellum, seemingly of the West Country, but covered in strange whorls, scribbled notes and symbols. Central to the map is the village of Harrowcombe, on the edge of Dartmoor, but William recognises the circular patterns as occult references to areas that contain "things that dream". While leaning on the map, which is spread out on the table in Renwick's office, Fitzpatrick feels it pulse slightly under his palm, in the area described as the Hollow Vale.
Renwick explains that they have inherited Merrow's mansion, but urges the group to make efforts to find Merrow, or discover what has happened to him. The party equips itself in Bath, with Fellowdrake notably buying a hunting dog and Fitzpatrick a pistol, before they catch the train to Exeter.
The Black Hart Inn
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| Father Giles |
The party hires a cart from Exeter station which takes them around the edge of Dartmoor to Harrowcombe, a small village of around 200 souls nestled in the lee of the moor. The weather is foul and the carter seems eager to deposit them and their luggage outside the Black Hart inn, but the party persuades him that they need him to wait until they find directions to Harrow House.
While this is going on, George Fellowdrake investigates an old scarecrow which has been seemingly abandoned by a nearby shed, and has bone wards and beads sewn into its clothing. The group also notes an inverted horeseshoe above the main door of the inn, which they concur is yet another ward against evil. The inn sign of a black and eyeless stag seems to have a disturbing impact on young Roddy MacLeod, who goes very pale when he sees it.
Fellowdrake and Fitzpatrick go into the inn and enter the tap room, which is filled with local farmers (no doubt quaffing cider) who fall silent when they appear. The two men notice a painting of an old woman in pride of place in the tap room which is labelled 'Mary Giles, Widow' and looks to have been painted in the late 1600s. They ask for directions to Harrow House which seems to make the locals nervous, but eventually the landlady stares hard at an older man who stands up and introduces himself as Father Giles, the vicar. He agrees to show the party to Harrow House.
As they leave to go back out into the rain, Fitzpatrick catches a glimpse of a man in the mirror in the hall who is seemingly sitting behind him in the tap room at one of the tables, who was not there before. Looking around, he sees no sign of the mysterious figure.
Back out in the dark, the group gets back onto the cart which then heads down a benighted lane. The men speak to the somewhat dour Father Giles, who says he knew Merrow and that he tried to warn the antiquarian to be careful about his explorations of ancient sites on Dartmoor. He fears Merrow has "gone too far" and will not be seen again. William criticises the priest for giving up on his friend but also asks about the 'wight' mentioned on the map they received in Bath, which seems to make Giles more fearful, and he clams up.
Welcome to Harrow House
The cart arrives outside the imposing gates of Harrow House. The party disembarks and the carter gratefully unloads their luggage while Father Giles leaves, telling them he lives nearby in the vicarage. The grounds look overgrown and neglected, the house abandoned and shrouded in darkness. William busies himself with making a meal out of what is left in the pantry. There is no sign of any servants.
Finding extra lanterns, the group explores the house, quickly discovering Merrow's study and his large libary of books of lore on folklore, spiritualism and the history of the West Country. In the basement they discover several crates containing folders of written notes labelled 'Vale Research'. In Merrow's study a written journal is found in his desk, and a locked chest. When opened, the chest yields a strange stone carved with a spiral pattern and a map of what looks like some kind of underground burial site or tomb.
Merrow's journal yields some interesting facts:
- The stone fragment was found at the edge of a tor on Dartmoor and is a powerful magical artefact
- A group of villagers, potentially including Father Giles, seemed to be engaged in some kind of ritual near the house on Beltane (1 May) last year (1864).
- Merrow had dreams of an open barrow and a mysterious woman who told him "the land remembers being forgotten."
- Merrow suspected the stone fragment was somehow connected to ley lines under Dartmoor and has seen the same pattern carved into trees around Harrowcombe. He thought the glyphs might be older than Bronze Age, maybe prehistoric.
- The last entry - 3 November 1864 - is partially torn out of the journal - but mentions that Merrow somehow "reversed" a binding ward "beneath the tor". He also speaks of someone called Tom Haskins who was leaving charms at the garden gate.
"I broke the seal, but the seal broke me first. I thought I was a scholar, but I became scripture...the land dreams in hunger now...it remembers what we buried - ourselves."
- The ritual specifically mentions a stone with a spiral pattern, clockwise on one side, anti-clockwise on the other. It's not clear which face of the stone is used to wake the entity, and which to put it to sleep.
- The ritual includes a chant which must be made in Old Brythonic.
- Three people must be involved in the ritual - one to place the stone, one to chant, and one to inscribe the binding circles - all must happen at once.
- It is not very clear about where the ritual must be performed, or when, but reference is made in the notes to the 'tor'.
Questions, questions, questions
- WHO is William really and why is he so circumspect about his background?
- WHY was Roddy MacLeod so frightened by the sign at the inn?
- WHAT was George Fellowdrake fidgeting with in his bag on the way to Harrow House?
- WHO was lurking in the garden in the middle of the night?
- WHY are there intelligent crows scratching at the windows?
- WHAT has happened to Isaac Merrow?
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