Below is what happened when we played it.
The Characters
Christian Skoog, vagabond
Linnea Skovgaard, hunter
Axl Karsten, doctor
Nils Alder, officer
Bo Ekbom, priest
Events
Despite coming from different walks of life, the characters were united by one thing: they all had the uncanny ability to see the vaesan, supernatural creatures of myth and legend, even when they want to remain hidden from human eyes. Because of their reputation for being able to deal with the supernatural, they received a letter from a woman named Jenny; Jenny reported that a girl working on her farm recently woke up on the shore of Lake Siljan with no recollection of how she got there. Additionally, two of Jenny's cows were drowned in the lake, with no indication of how they could have gotten out of their pens. Sensing something unnatural at work, Jenny reached out to the characters in hopes that they could unravel what was going on at the farm.
On the wagon trip through the woods to Fudal, Axl and Linnea took the opportunity to ask Jenny pertinent questions. When asked, she described Ida, the girl who woke up on the shore, as a well-behaved, reserved, and quiet girl. Jenny mentioned that there were cuts on the girl's legs and arms, and that Ida had a way with the animals on the farm. When asked about the lake, Jenny said that they had always respected the lake, though historically it had been a popular site for suicidal drownings.
When the group arrived at Fudal, they found the farm to be a collection of log cabins with a fenced in pasture for the cattle. A girl in her twenties with white blonde hair was singing to the cows to corral them; Jenny pointed her out as Ida. Jenny called over two other girls, a striking blonde with tan skin named Boel and an older girl with her dark hair in a pony tail named Freja, to take the newcomers' luggage to their cabin.
After allowing them time to freshen up, the group reconvened in Fudal's dining hall, where they were served a dinner of sausage, farm-fresh cheese, and ale. While they ate, Bo became gregarious and made a good impression on the farmgirls who worked at Fudal. (Conspicuously, the only men present were part of the visiting group!) One thing that the group noticed was that there was a dark patch above the fireplace; they surmised that something used to hang in the spot but had been removed. Nils discovered a note beneath his plate; excusing himself from the table so he might read it surreptitiously, he saw that it was a handwritten invitation to the group to help celebrate Boel's birthday that night in the meadow to the south of the cabins.
After dinner, Linnea, Axl, and Bo had Freja taken them down the cove so they could investigate where Ida awoke. The cove was choked with water lilies. Axl waded into the water and felt something brush his leg. Lifting it out, he determined that it was an antique tapestry that had been weighted down with stones. Freja identified it as the tapestry that used to hang about the fireplace in the dining hall. The tapestry showed a three-eyed, green-skinned devil. A dagger had been cast into the ground at its feet and it was surrounded by a circle of priests or saints bearing crucifixes. They also spotted a woman's bare footprints going into, and out of, the lake.
Meanwhile, Christian had spotted a man dressed all in black, and wearing a very tall top hat, wandering around near Fudal's cabins. He gave chase, but when he rounded a corner the man was gone. Rallying Nils to his cause, the pair decided to walk the tree line. They discovered footprints leading into the dark of the woods. Within the woods, they saw a man with red hair in a shabby waistcoat walking ahead of them; they followed, but when the man noticed them, he broke into a run. Christian gave pursuit and knocked the man down, pinning him.
The man, Gustav, was indignant at being attacked as he walked home. He claimed to be a local fiddler and told them he could prove it if they came with him to his cabin in the woods. Sure enough, at the cabin he showed them his fiddle. Talking to him further, they confirmed that he was in love with Boel, and also learned that she had spurned his advances because she had feelings from some other mysterious fiddler that he had never laid eyes on. They apologized and gave him some money for his troubles. He was still clearly angry though.
The group met up again in their cabin and exchanged information. Putting the pieces together, Bo determined that they were dealing with a nokker, a water spirit who used music to lure humans to their doom. Bo also knew that nokkers sometimes made pacts with humans to teach them their beguiling music. Another piece was added to this puzzle when Axl and Linnea questioned Ida and she disclosed that Gustav used to be a fairly mediocre fiddler, but had recently become more more impassioned and proficient with his instrument.
At the appointed time, the group (save Christian, who held back "just in case") made their way to the meadow, where they were welcomed by the farmgirls of Fudal. Each girl was wearing a strange dress stitched together from burlap sack and scraps of more colorful cloth. Each girl also carried a handmade mask of twigs and mud. A bonfire burned at the center of the clearing; around the fire they had arranged a number of rough tables and laden them with small casks of ale, bread and cheese, and small cakes. The girls began to dance an unusual folk dance while Gustav fiddled.
Linnea had decided to watch Boel, Nils was keeping an eye on Gustav, Bo was watching over Ida, and Axl was mingling with the crowd. Both Linnea and Nils noticed Gustav force a letter upon Boel; Boel was clearly dismissive. When Linnea approached Boel, dropping some insinuations about what they knew about her and Gustav, Boel roped Linnea into a dance--the steps of which Linnea was able to pull off, to the applause of the girls and to Boel's annoyance.
Gustav was becoming increasingly agitated, to the point where to prove his manhood he challenged Nils to an impromptu arm-wrestling competition--which he immediately lost. Angier than ever, Gustav stalked off into the woods. Bo and Axl went after him, looking for an opportunity to charm him or pry more information from him. In the enclosing secrecy of the woods, Gustav turned the tables on them; he began playing the melancholy music he had learned from the nokker, which sent both Bo and Axl into a trance. He started to lead the pair toward the cove, when suddenly Christian burst through the underbrush and again knocked Gustav off his feet. This time, Gustav wouldn't need to be mollified, as he had hit his head on a tree root and been knocked unconscious.
Before heading back to the meadow, they snatched up Gustav's fiddle and cut the string with a bayonet--a method they knew of empowering the blade to silence the nokker if it could be cast into the earth at its feet.
Once Gustav was out of sight, a new fiddler stepped forward to take his place and provide music for Boel's birthday party. This fiddler was dressed all in black and wore a very tall top hat. However, when he started playing it entranced all the girls in the meadow. He started to lead them into the forest, in the direction of the cove. The reunited group followed. The group foiled the nokker's death march with a combination of shooting at his fiddle and plunging the bayonet into ground.
The nokker now assumed his true form: a horrifically tall creature, with green skin, three eyes, and curling ram's horns. The vaesan's full form was too much for Bo and Linnea. The priest ran for it, but Linnea began to attack the creature in a wild panic. The girls from Fudal all ran screaming.
The situation unfolded in a precarious way. The group's attacks could not seem to harm the nokker, but even robbed of its magic it was more than formidable. Christian tried to hold the monster at bay with a cross, but a single crucifix wasn't enough to frighten it off. Then things took a turn for the worse: a backhand from the nokker knocked Nils into a coma; a vicious claw blow nearly ripped out Linnea's throat. (As it is, she'll never speak the same again.) With two of the group down, and the priest fled, Axl and Christian tried to wedge the nokker between them, but two were not enough to encircle and banish the vaesan.
Luckily, Bo had recovered his wits and ran back, just in the nick of time, brandishing a crucifix. The three of them managed to pin the nokker between the three of them. It's body split open and a small toad hopped out. Christian stamped upon the toad, hoping that his boot would send the creature to hell. Axl treated the injuries of the wounded as best he could, and the group carried their injured back to Fudal. They found the girls hiding in the cabins, save for Boel who had disappeared, never to be heard from again, and told them that the nokker would no longer be troubling them. As the wounded rested, they threw a small celebration in honor of the group--but this time there was no music.
