Vaesen Ep4: The Siege of Saint Swithun's

We resumed play with our heroes barricading themselves into St Swithun's church in the idyllic Devonshire village of Wellow. It was now around one o'clock in the morning. The group had managed to retrieve the midwife Martha Norrell and Rev Lyall from their respective abodes, as well as Beattie and her parents the Brickles. The investigators remained unsure how many of the villagers were under the influence of the Blossom Bride.

Also with them was the girl William had rescued/kidnapped from the ritual in the orchard. She did not seem under the influence of the vaesen and seemed to have been persuaded to volunteer to be the sacrifice. She said that it had been a choice between her and Beattie, and it was decided by the community that Ellen would be the sacrifice for this year. Obviously this was all a surprise to Rev Lyall.

While the church pews were being put up against the doors, George Fallowdrake and Doctor Cedric Fitzpatrick entered the sacristry in the church and rummaged through the achives. There was not much to go on here although they did find evidence that the festival of the Bride finished in 1790 following a bad harvest and the disappearance of a girl named Catherine Holme.

In the distance the sound of singing could be heard, coming nearer. The flicker of torchlight was seen through the stained glass windows. Then the sound of a young woman singing in Old Brythonic came to them. William also heard a voice of a woman in his head calling to him, telling him to leave the church before she dealt with the intruders. William refused.

Saint Swithun's church interior as angry farmers break in

Roddy MacLeod found a vantage point in the organ loft to see what was going on outside. He could see the church was now surrounded by farmers with torches and agricultural implements - hoes, forks, etc. An emaciated but beautiful young woman - the Blossom Bride - was dancing naked through the churchyard, among the gravestones, singing while a cloud of apple blossom continued to swirl magically around her.

Roddy tried to call out to the woman to negotiate with her, but instead heard a voice in his head talking about the 'silver stag' and how he had unfinished business with it. He too was offered safe passage but refused. He asked the Bride if they might find some form of negotiated solution, but she instead invited him to become King of the Orchard, to "reign alongside me under the earth." He did not like the sound of that. She said it was the only way he could save the village however.

The farmers now converged on the church and started to break down the doors. The group pondered whether to leap from the windows. George Fallowdrake joined Roddy in the organ loft and the two of them opened fire on the Blossom Bride. She took cover behind a tombstone but they continued sniping at her and eventually got lucky, hitting her several times. She vanished into a cloud of blossom.

With this the farmers, who had just broken into the church, came to their senses and looked around in a confused fashion. Beattie woke up and seemd to be completely normal again. The group ushered them out of the church. trying to disarm as many as they could. They then scraped some of the odd red sap off the altar and put it in an urn borrowed from the church. Going outside, they found some apple boughs, burned some of these and fashioned others as torches.

The ritual in the orchard

The team decided to get a few hours sleep as the sun was now up over the horizon. When they awoke they found that Beattie had passed out again and could not be reawakened. She was under the Bride's spell once more. As an experiment,  she was surrounded in a ring of ash from the apple trees, and soon came back to her senses. Her parents were told to keep her inside the ring until the group returned. 

The party - accompanied by Martha Norrel and Rev Tyndall - headed for the Orhard Path. Here they quickly found the ancient tree where the farmers had been standing the night before. The hole they had dug was still there, but now a tunnel could be seen leading into the ground. The tree was quickly circled with ash. Leaving midwife Norrel and the vicar the rest of the party descended into a root cavern under the earth, with tunnels leading off it. A large pile of human bones was neatly stacked in the middle of the cavern.

Beginning the ritual at the ancient tree...

Suddenly ghostly laughter was head and the Blossom Bride appeared again, with clouds of blossom wafting ahead of her. Behind her loomed the form of the Root Guardian. Roddy again tried to talk to her, but Fallowdrake and Fitzpatrick began chanting the song Martha had taught them. The chalice with sap which Fitzpatrick was holding began to smoke and the sap turned black.

The Guardian struck out at Fallowdrake and hit him with a branch-like arm while roots came up through the ground to trap Roddy. The Scotsman swung his iron axe to cut himself free while William, dancing nimbly around the roots, tried to fight the Guardian. Ash was now thrown at the creature, driving it backwards. The roots in the cieling writhed in fury and soil rained down on the men.

Then, out of the soil under the bones, a large single root erupted, lashing out at the party. While it was still poised to attack, Willaim sprang into action with an iron axe, cutting it in half. With this the Bride screamed in pain and vanished in a cloud of blossom petals which in turn changed into ash. The Guardian crumbled into a pile of old roots.

With their experience in Dartmoor at front of mind, the party retreated speedily from the cave, filling it in and cutting down the old tree. They have also poisoned the stump. With the end of the Bride, the village of Wellow returned rapidly to normal and the group took their leave of a grateful Rev Lyall.

The party have returned to Harrowstone, where Dr Fitzpatrick has discovered a hidden occult library in the house. George Fallowdrake has begun to write the Annals of the Society with a view to potentially publishing them...

Next time...Who is haunting the Blackdown Hills in Somerset?