Song to the Moon

In this adventure, the player characters are invited to Goose Island as a reward for their help in solving the mystery of the werewolf in the Town Between the Bridges (see Scent of a Killer). There they will attend cork magnate August T. Lysander’s gathering, Conclavium Sub Rosa, to which he has invited people with knowledge of pacts and agreements with vaesen.

This first section describes the background of the mystery and the conflicts on which it is based. This is followed by an invitation to kick off the session and a description of the journey to Goose Island in the Stockholm Archipelago where the mystery begins.

The section concludes with a countdown of events that you as the Gamemaster can initiate at some appropriate time during the game, as well as a catastrophe that describes what happens if the player characters do not take action or fail in their efforts. But first we will look back at the events leading up to the mystery.

Background

Seven years ago, Vesper Stiernkors met Lucius Lysander, son of August, at a Royal Palace ball. It was love at first sight – for her. Lucius’s father, August, saw an opportunity to establish himself in Stockholm’s high society by marrying his son to a baroness. At his request, Lucius courted Vesper and the couple began a romance.

Vesper fell out of favor with her family when she told them that she was engaged to the nouveau riche Lucius. The Stiernkors family is one of the oldest noble families in Sweden, dating back to the 15th century, and they were not pleased that Vesper intended to marry a vulgar upstart. She was disowned by her father but was allowed to keep her allowance.

Lucius, who was actually in love with the maid Hedwig, regretted his proposal but could not back out of the wedding, as it would bring dishonor to both Vesper and the Lysander family. Only Vesper’s sister, the writer and women’s rights activist Sophie Stiernkors, attended the wedding. The ceremony took place on Big Goose Island in the Stockholm Archipelago, where the Lysanders have their summer residence.

On their wedding night, Lucius confessed that he loved Hedwig and that she was pregnant. Vesper was devastated and asked Lucius to annul their marriage. She could not bear the thought of Lucius loving another woman and having a child with her.

Heartbroken, Vesper ran off into the night to Little Goose Island, a small islet connected to the main island by a low embankment. Lucius followed and tried to placate her – a divorce so soon after the wedding would not go down well with the Stockholm elite his family had fought so hard to become part of. Vesper would not budge, and in desperation Lucius drowned her. He tied stones to her feet and lowered her body into the sea.

In the morning, Lucius told the wedding guests that Vesper had disappeared after the wedding feast. He said that he had searched the entire island and found her on Little Goose Island. He claimed that she had waded straight into the water and that he arrived too late, just as she disappeared below the surface. Vesper’s body was never recovered.

In the years after the wedding, people in the area began to talk about a female figure being seen in the waters around Goose Island. Fishermen claimed to have noticed a pale face staring at them from under the water. One day a young man mysteriously drowned in calm waters near the island. He was the first of several male youths to perish in the dark waters off Goose Island.

The truth is that after her violent death, Vesper turned into a rusalka – an undead female water spirit found mainly in Eastern Europe. The rusalka resembles the lake wives of the North, but is driven by a furious, insatiable desire for revenge. This creature is a new addition to the game and is described in more detail on page 60.

Over the years, Lucius has grown increasingly tormented by Vesper’s death, and the subsequent drownings have led him to suspect that he has been cursed. He now attends his father’s conclave with keen interest as he seeks a way to lift the curse.

Fellow participant Florian Schiller has known Lucius since their student days. Early in the mystery he links the deaths to something supernatural and suspects it has something to do with the Lysander family. He finds his old friend changed, his countenance grim and tense.

The player characters can also find clues that suggest August Lysander is seeking information about pacts with vaesen and how to break them. His aim is to break the pact between him and the spertus (see the introduction to this book). The real purpose of the conclave is to get advice from people he believes can help him escape his fate. This storyline is not resolved in this adventure, but continues throughout the remaining parts of the campaign.

Conflicts

The primary conflict of this mystery is between Lucius Lysander and Vesper Lysander, his first wife who died on their wedding night and was turned into a rusalka.

The secondary conflict is between Lucius Lysander and his friend Florian Schiller. Florian quickly suspects a connection between Lucius and the mysterious deaths in the waters around the island. As the mystery unfolds, this leads to the death of Florian himself (see Countdown on page 45).

Invitation

This mystery takes place in early summer, when the evenings are long and bright. The country is plagued by unrest. There are whispers that a revolution may be brewing, and lately there have been more and more voices critical of the king.

One morning, an envelope with a wax seal is delivered to Castle Gyllencreutz by an errand boy. The letter contains an invitation from August T. Lysander to visit him at his summer estate in the Stockholm Archipelago (handout 2A on page 109, also available for download on the Free League website): Dear friends, I hope it’s not presumptuous of me, but after our collaboration this autumn, I do consider you good friends. To thank you for your efforts in solving the murder of Sverker von Essen, I hope you will accept my invitation to a few days of well-deserved recreation in the beautiful archipelago. My steamer Aegir departs from the Grand Hotel Quay in Stockholm tomorrow at four o’clock.

Besides you, I have invited other individuals with knowledge of the occult to a private conclave, where we will discuss matters of concern to us all. You may have heard of Konstantin Konstantinovich, Count of Yamburg? The ethnologist Nuala Fitzgerald and the poet Florian Schiller will also be present. I look forward to seeing you on Goose Island! Yours sincerely, August T. Lysander

Preparations

As usual, the player characters can prepare for the journey by purchasing equipment (page 73 of the core rulebook) or using Upgrades at Castle Gyllencreutz (page 89 of the core rulebook). They can research Goose Island, and with a successful LEARNING test they find a record of a death seven years earlier – a woman called Vesper Stiernkors disappeared on the island during her wedding night. The case was written off as a probable suicide. The characters can also seek more information about August T. Lysander, but find nothing except what was available in the previous mystery (page 13).

The Journey

The player characters can take the train to Stockholm and on to Strömkajen Quay at the King’s Garden Park, where August Lysander’s private steamer Aegir is waiting. The young engineer and helmsman Peter Eriksson (page 54) welcomes them aboard.

The voyage takes a couple of hours and goes through the Stockholm Archipelago past the Royal Forest and the island of Lidingö. Nuala Fitzgerald (page 46) and Florian Schiller (page 47) are already on the steamer, deep in conversation. Feel free to roleplay the meeting with them and show their portraits to the players. As usual the characters can gain an Advantage during the journey (page 182 of the core rulebook).

Arrival

As the steamer approaches Big Goose Island, a vast, bright villa can be seen in the distance. It is an impressive four-story summer residence with multiple verandas facing the water. A great maple grows on the slope down to the steamboat dock, and the garden is framed by large lilac bushes in bloom. See the map of Goose Island on page 49 and the map of the villa on page 51.

The steamer docks in the purpose-built boathouse. Count Konstantin Konstantinovich’s two-masted ketch is already moored at the adjacent jetty. Peter Eriksson leads the guests down the waterside footpath to the villa, where they are greeted by August Lysander and his son Lucius (page 44), both wearing bright suits and straw hats. Show everyone’s portrait to the players. Opera singing is heard from the garden, accompanied by a string quartet. Lysander’s valet Karl-Axel Trygg, who the player characters met briefly in Scent of a Killer, carries the player characters’ luggage up to the guest rooms on the second floor. Each room can accommodate two people.

In Lysander’s lilac arbor, each guest is offered a ice-cold punch in a crystal glass. Let the player characters, the Lysander family, and the other guests introduce themselves and talk for a while. Act out the conversation or let the players ask questions. The conversation can yield the information presented in the following bullet points. If the characters do not learn all of it from this first conversation, they can seek out the NPCs later to ask further questions.

• Goose Island: Apart from the villa, the boathouse, and a barn, there is only one cottage on the island, which belonged to a fisherman’s family. The family was living on the island when Lysander bought it and was allowed to stay. Now only the fisherman’s wife Mrs. Danielsson and her dog live in the house. Show the map of the island to the players.
• The Lysanders run a large business importing cork from Portugal to the Nordics. The cork is used not only for bottles in breweries and taverns, but also for shoe soles. August Lysander is accompanied by his son Lucius, his wife Hedwig, and their six-year-old son Alexander, who is wearing a sailor’s suit for the day.
• Hedwig Lysander (page 44) acts as hostess, as August Lysander’s wife passed away many years ago. She greets her guests politely. Every now and then she glances anxiously towards the steamboat jetty to watch her son Alexander playing with a kite.
• The Guests: In the garden, the player characters meet Nuala Fitzgerald, Florian Schiller, and Konstantin Konstantinovich, Count of Yamburg, who is cooling off under a parasol. See page 48. The Count lights up as the characters approach. “How wonderful to finally meet members of the Society. I’ve been looking forward to exchanging experiences for a long time!” Note that Count Konstantinovich is mentioned in the mystery A Winter’s Tale in the book Seasons of Mystery. If the characters have played that adventure, the Count remembers them and would like to hear all about the events at the Tammsalu Inn.

The Conclave

The evening after the player characters arrive at Goose Island, August Lysander begins his Conclavium Sub Rosa in the grand salon of his villa. The meeting starts with a sumptuous dinner. Lucius sabers a bottle of champagne from a winery in France with which he does business.

After dinner the group retires to the large, glazed veranda to begin their conversation in the bright early summer evening. It is ten o’clock, but the sun has not yet begun to set. The topic of the evening is pacts with supernatural beings, which the invited guests have deep knowledge of. August Lysander asks questions and listens.

If your gaming group enjoys roleplaying, you can play the conclave as a discussion of how to make and break pacts with supernatural beings, with player characters and NPCs exchanging thoughts and ideas. Alternatively, you can make the conclave more of a lecture, with the NPCs providing information that the players can use in this mystery or later in the campaign. Use the NPC descriptions on the following pages and the specific points below as needed.

• Nuala Fitzgerald tells the story of her great-aunt who asked a fairy to bring her apple orchard a good harvest. The fairy granted her wish in exchange for the first fruit to ripen on the farm each year. What the woman did not realize was that she was also promising the fairies the first children born into her family each year. Nuala’s own eldest sister disappeared from her cradle; she herself never married and does not want children of her own. Nuala believes that deals made with vaesen cannot be broken, but that the terms can be renegotiated and transferred to a vaesen with more powerful magic.
• Florian Schiller is invited to the conclave because, in addition to being a friend of Lucius Lysander, he has devoted his studies to the second part of Goethe’s play Faust, in which Dr. Faust is forgiven and admitted into Heaven. Schiller’s theory is that the ritual to the Egyptian goddess Isis in Faust actually describes encounters with powerful vaesen. He is convinced that the allegorical text contains instructions on how to break pacts with evil vaesen through a ritual and thereby save one’s soul.
• Count Konstantinovich: The Count’s contribution to the discussion is that consequences of pacts with supernatural beings that are supposed to occur when the person dies can be avoided by avoiding death itself. However, he does not want to go into detail about how this would work.
• August Lysander himself mainly listens and asks questions. During the conclave, the player characters may notice that Lysander has a gilded snuff box in his waistcoat pocket. A sharp-eyed player character (roll for VIGILANCE) may see that it is decorated with the monogram “CL.” Under no circumstances does Lysander let the player characters know what is in the snuff box. It plays no role in this mystery but becomes important later in the campaign. After the Deaths: The conclave continues during the days on Goose Island, even after the deaths begin to occur (see Countdown on page 45). At this point, however, the focus of the meetings shifts to who – or what – might be behind the murders. This is a good time to provide the player characters with clues pointing to a rusalka (see sidebar).

Countdown and Catastrophe

As the mystery unfolds, the conflicts will escalate step by step. The following events can be used to increase the pace of the game when necessary, and to push the players toward the final confrontation. Not all steps have to occur.

Countdown

1. The rusalka drowns engineer Peter Eriksson at the boathouse. Shortly afterwards, horrified cries are heard from the steamboat jetty, where the servants or musicians find his body floating in the water. His feet are bound with long strands of seaweed and his pale face is frozen in a smile. The body is placed in the villa’s root cellar. A player character who examines the corpse and passes a MEDICINE test can conclude that the cause of death was drowning. There are no other injuries on the body. August Lysander is upset and a character who passes a VIGILANCE test hears him exclaim “Not again!” A moment later, he summons the characters and tells them that several similar deaths have occurred in the waters around the island in recent years. He suspects that something unnatural is behind these incidents and asks for their help in solving the mystery.

2. The rusalka attacks Konstantin Konstantinovich as he walks along the water’s edge, deep in thought. Suddenly, the Count is heard crying for help. The player characters can hear the screams and see him being pulled into the water and disappear into the deep. A character who swims after him notices the smiling face of a pale young woman under the surface. She quickly grabs the character’s legs and tries to pull the victim down. See stats on page 60. The lifeless body of Count Konstantinovich is found shortly thereafter and brought to the root cellar while awaiting the police. His body is also wrapped in seaweed and his face frozen in a smile.

3. Florian Schiller goes missing. No one has seen him since the night before, when one of the servants saw him walking toward Little Goose Island. If the player characters successfully OBSERVE the witness, they realize that there is something the person is not telling them, and with a successful MANIPULATION test, the witness reveals that Lucius Lysander went after Florian shortly afterwards. If the characters go to Little Goose Island, they find Florian dead on the shore with dried seaweed on his legs. If they examine his body and pass a MEDICINE test, they notice strangulation marks around his neck (which the previous victims did not have). There is no smile on his lips; rather, his face is contorted in horror. The truth is that Florian was not killed by the rusalka, but by Lucius. Suspecting that Vesper in the form of a rusalka might be behind the deaths, Florian went to Little Goose Island to find her remains and bring her peace. Lucius followed him there, and Florian confronted him. In a moment of weakness, Lucius told him the truth about Vesper’s death. Florian urged him to confess to the murder, but Lucius refused. Florian told him about rituals he had encountered in his studies. These described a way for even the damned to break curses and find salvation. Lucius was interested in the ritual but still would not confess. The conversation turned into an argument, and eventually Lucius strangled Florian. He placed seaweed on his friend’s body to make the death look like the others.

4. The servants discover that the body of Konstantin Konstantinovich is missing. The door to the root cellar where the body was kept was unlocked. A player character who passes an INVESTIGATION test notices wet footprints from the coffin to the door, where they become indiscernible. The truth is that the Count is himself a vaesen – a vampir – and woke up in the root cellar. He secretly made his way to his ship where he recovers. His ship sails off shortly thereafter.

5. Lucius Lysander performs a ritual on Little Goose Island to purge himself of guilt. If the player characters have been successful in their investigation, they may know about his plans and get to witness the ritual, which will likely be the final Confrontation of this mystery – read more on page 57. Several participants will be killed during the ritual unless the characters prevent it.

Catastrophe

If the player characters fail to uncover Lucius Lysander’s secret and banish the rusalka, it becomes increasingly aggressive and attacks anyone who goes near the island’s shores. Boats approaching or attempting to leave the island are inexplicably wrecked, killing everyone on board. The only exception is August Lysander’s steamer, since he is protected by his spertus (see the Leaving the Island? sidebar). In the end there are no living people left on the islet. The beautiful Goose Island becomes a deserted island that the locals will avoid for decades to come, and the stunning villa deteriorates into an eerie haunted house.

The only way to bring peace to the rusalka and prevent further deaths is to find Vesper’s remains and bury them in consecrated ground – that is, at the small chapel next to the villa. However, the way there can be difficult, and the player characters’ investigation can have many different outcomes. Some possibilities are listed below:

• The player characters realize which vaesen they are dealing with and lure the rusalka out on Little Goose Island. They can fight her, but even if they win and banish her temporarily, she will soon be back.
• The player characters figure out that the rusalka is connected to Lucius Lysander and confront him. If they have overwhelming evidence and pass a MANIPULATION test, Lucius breaks down and confesses. He can then show them where to find Vesper’s remains.
• The player characters realize that they need to find Vesper’s remains, but fail to make the connection to Lucius or get him to confess. They can still find the remains, but only after a long search in the reeds around Little Goose Island, and at great risk of being attacked by the rusalka (page 60).

The Isis Ritual

A powerful final scene for the mystery could be the ritual that Lucius Lysander wants to perform on Little Goose Island to banish the rusalka. He stole the instructions for the ritual from Florian Schiller. The ritual does not work, but Lucius does not know that, and this is a good opportunity for the player characters to confront him.

The ritual is step 5 of the Countdown (page 45). The valet Karl-Axel Trygg may already have told the characters about the “ceremony”, or they may hear music and see the glow of torches from Little Goose Island one evening.

If they go there, they will see Lucius Lysander in the open festival area by the beach, standing by an open wooden coffin in a circle of torches. He is wearing a long white robe and holding a notebook. Next to him is Karl-Axel Trygg and a serious-faced musician playing the violin. In the torchlight, Lucius reads from his notebook in a trembling voice: “O Isis, I breathe thy sweet breath. I behold thy beauty in all things.

May my flesh be rejuvenated through love of thee.

Give me thy hands that hold thy soul, that I may receive it and live anew.

Call my name unto eternity and grant me thy holy grace!

Ar eq-kua er seta

Ah eh-he hah Tet hru ent Iset,

Nuk kshesev neseni t’a pa ma-ehti.” Then Lucius walks resolutely to the open coffin and calls out to the new moon: “I have entered into the sacred mysteries on the day of Isis,

Goddess, help me drive back disaster and lead me to grace and truth.”

The Rusalka Appears

Lucius lies down in the coffin and closes his eyes. The music stops and silence falls over the clearing. Karl-Axel makes the sign of the cross. Suddenly a splash is heard from the shore. The water ripples as a woman’s head appears from the sea.

Lucius rises from the coffin and takes a few hesitant steps toward the beach. “Oh, goddess – you have come! Isis? Do my eyes fail me…? Vesper?”

The rusalka steps into the torchlight, revealing her true form – a fish-eaten corpse with dead eyes, her long, dark hair partially torn and hanging in stinking strands. She still wears what is left of her wedding dress with a veil of seaweed. Long, sharp claws protrude from her fingers. All player characters who have not previously encountered the rusalka must make a Fear test against Fear value 2.

Unless the characters immediately intervene, Karl-Axel Trygg tries to stop her but is tossed aside like a rag doll by the rusalka, leaving him unconscious on the ground. (He should preferably not die here, as he returns later in the campaign.) She then proceeds to rip out the musician’s throat, blood spurting everywhere. Then she kills Lucius, unless the characters stop her. Lucius’s Confession: When Lucius sees the rusalka and recognizes her as Vesper, he breaks down and confesses to killing her – assuming the rusalka does not kill him first. If he survives, he can tell or show the player characters where Vesper’s remains can be found (page 57). The Rusalka Defeated: If the rusalka is Broken in combat, she flees into the water and returns after a few hours. She will continue to haunt the island’s shores even after Lucius’s death – the only way to

permanently banish the rusalka is to bury her

remains at the chapel (however, see the Alternative Ending sidebar).

Burying Vesper

The only consecrated ground on Goose

Island is the grassy area around the

chapel (page 56). If the player

characters find Vesper’s remains on

Little Goose Island, they can bury

them here. Feel free to play this out as

a moving scene. August Lysander will participate if asked, as will

Hedwig and Lucius if he

is still alive. If Lucius is

dead when this happens, a sigh of relief

sweeps over the island.

The mystery is over.

Lucius is Alive? If Lucius Lysander is alive when the remains are buried, the players may think the mystery is over, but that is not the case – the rusalka’s rage against Lucius is so great that she refuses to rest until he is dead. She will keep tormenting the island until Lucius is killed or forced to confess his crime.

Lucius’s Fate

When Lucius’s crime is exposed, he agrees to turn himself in to the police. The Vaxholm police station is alerted and soon two policemen come rowing to the island. Lucius lets himself be handcuffed while August looks on with a grim expression.

The police boat leaves the island, but just a few dozen meters from the shore there is a sudden gust of wind that overturns the boat. Before anyone can come to the rescue, Lucius disappears into the deep. The policemen make it back ashore, but Lucius Lysander is never seen again.

After this aftermath the mystery is over, provided Vesper’s remains have been found and buried at the chapel – otherwise she will continue to attack people on the island until that happens (however, see the Alternative Ending sidebar).

If the player characters uncover the truth about Vesper’s death, they will have averted the Catastrophe and successfully solved the mystery. They should also receive additional experience points if they:

• Contributed their own stories during the conclave.
• Realized that Konstantin Konstantinovich is a vaesen.
• Buried Vesper’s remains in consecrated ground. Once the rusalka is banished, peace is restored to Goose Island. Despite his terrible grief, August Lysander thanks the player characters for their efforts and says he hopes to see them again.