Affirmation & Alarm

With Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia, the roleplaying game, Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore goes east! The investigative horror game set primarily in Scandinavia during the nineteenth century that explores the clash between modernity and folklore explores the curve of the Carpathian Mountains as they stretch from Bohemia and the city of Prague in the west through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, Poland and Ukraine of the Russian Empire, before turning south into Rumania and Transylannia of the Ottoman Empire. Primarily occupied by the politically and culturally suppressed Slavic peoples, parts of the region have seen political and cultural awakenings following the ‘Spring of Nations’ in 1848 combined with the Romanticism movement which encouraged inspiration, subjectivity, and individualism, including of specific ethnic groups. Nowhere more so than in Bohemia and the city of Prague, where the Czech population has asserted its identity whilst still remaining part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city is home to ‘The Society for the Integration and Adaptation of the Carpathian Tradition, Based in Prague’, known locally as ‘Pravda’ (or ‘Truth’) which for decades since its move to Prague, and hundreds of years before that, been dedicated to the study, and if necessary, repulsion of vaesen, much like its cousin, the Order of Artemis, based in Castle Gyllencreutz in Upsala, Sweden. In comparison to the Order of Artemis’ whose remit is confined to Scandinavia, the territory that ‘Pravda’ has to cover is vast, from the Baltic regions of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the north to the Ottoman Empire-occupied Balkans in the south and from Poland in the west to Ural Mountains in the east. It means travelling great distances and across different empires and it means encountering a wide variety of vaesen.

Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia is the sourcebook for Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore which covers this area, highlights some of its notable vaesen, and introduces ‘The Society for the Integration and Adaptation of the Carpathian Tradition, Based in Prague’ as well as providing three scenarios which take the Player Characters across the region. Published by Free League Publishing, some of its vaesen have appeared in the roleplaying game before, notably in the fan-based Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Mythic Ukraine, but like Vaesen – Mythic Britain & Ireland before it, Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia is written by authors local to the region, so it has an authentic tone to it.

In terms of a region sourcebook, Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia is very much an overview. This covers the history of the Slavs across the four empires—the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German, Ottoman, and Russion—but is not an examination of those empires. Instead, it looks at the conditions under which people lived as the nineteenth century progressed, mostly from the revolutions of 1848 onwards. The primary focus is on Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (what will eventually become Czechoslovakia) and then on the city of Prague. A detailed description is provided of the city, the aim being that it serves as the Player Characters’ base of operations as Upsala is in the core rulebook. This includes its key sites, history, and of course, the details and history of Pravda. Like the Order of Artemis, it is based in a fortification, in this case, the Prašná brána or Powder Gate, a gothic tower that was once Prague’s gunpowder store. Unfortunately no floor plans are provided for it, but suggested upgrades are included as well as books held in its library and possible threats it faces. Notably, it has a very different feel in comparison to the Order of Artemis. Where the latter’s base of operations, Castle Gyllencreutz, is very much in need of restoration, Pravda’s Gunpowder Gate headquarters are organised with clerks and a library and it is organised, possessing a lay membership as well as experts and investigators, and being led by a president and council.

Only one new archetype is given in Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia. This is the Vampire Hunter. Its Key Attribute is Precision and its Key Skill is Close Combat and its Talents consist of ‘Hateful of Bloodsuckers’, ‘Impaler’, and ‘On the Hunt’ which all together make the archetype very focused in what it does. Which is combat against vampires. This focus and its inclusion in the supplement are understandable given that the region is infamous for its vampires, and vampires are predatory monsters. Yet this is at odds with the usual game play of Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore where the aim is to resolve any conflict between men and vaesen rather than fight the vaesen. Its inclusion is also obvious. Which leaves you to wonder what other archetypes could have been included alongside it?

In terms of vaesen, their appearance and activities are still very driven by the loss of knowledge of how to interact with them as rural life declines and urbanisation and industrialisation attracts people away from the countryside and into the towns and cities. Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia adds another interesting reason—Romanticism. The Romantic movement’s interest in culture and ethnicity has gone hand in hand with an interest in folklore and this has caused some vaesen to wake up, resulting in conflict with the local inhabitants. This is a really nice touch, essentially laying the blame for the rise in vaesen activity upon the poets and authors who only see them as part of the folklore of ethnic groups and a possible bone of contention if the Player Characters includes a poet amongst their number.

Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia details sixteen vaesen. They include the Dhampir, Strigoi, and Vampir, because this is Carpathia after all, but other familiar vaesen include the Golem and Baba Yaga. In terms of roleplaying, they feel very traditional, but they are all very well presented with examples of conflicts which serve as scenario hooks. Alongside these are vaesen that are unlikely to be as familiar. These include the Babai, an evil night spirit of the forest who looks like an old man with eyes that glow like ember and steals naughty children and carries them in the bag over his shoulder; the tiny, lizard-like Khocca-Yarokha which collect children’s baby teeth; and the Udinytsia, an evil female spirit who steals luck, fate, and talent, preying on the unborn and their mothers. There is plenty here that Game Master can use to enhance her Vaesen campaign and all are very nicely presented stats, descriptions, examples of conflict, and a secret.

The second half of Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia consists of three scenarios of varying length and complexity. The first, ‘A Treaty of Blood’, initially appears to be a classic vampire story when Pravda is asked by the noble ruler of an isolated valley in Transylvania, in the Carpathian Mountains for help in dealing with a beast that has killed two farmers. However, trapped in the valley by the winter weather, the Player Characters need to look beneath the surface to work out what is going on and who the culprits are. There is more than one ‘monster’ involved in what is a Gothic horror story that pleasingly tweaks expectations about what a roleplaying game investigation into vampires involves.

‘The Gathering Storm’ sends the Player Characters even further east into the Ukraine and Brygidki, the oldest prison in the city of Lemberg (now known as Lviv) where several prisoners have fallen ill and others died. The investigation is hampered by prisoners who will not speak if the guards are around and will often ask for banned items in return for their information, prison guards who want to keep the prisoners in order, an outbreak of what looks like chickenpox, and a constant chilly wind blowing through the building. This is a shorter scenario, much grimmer and grimmier given its prison location and involves a monster that will likely be unfamiliar to most players.

Lastly, ‘The Secret of the Maharal’ is set in Prague. The city is on the verge of uproar over a series of deaths involving a lot of blunt force that the police have been unable to solve and so they turn to the Pravda Society for help. Of the three scenarios, this is the most obvious in terms of knowing what the culprit is, which means that the players need to roleplay against their knowledge until their characters know what is responsible. Where the scenario is interesting is working out why the deaths are happening and in the need to navigate the politics of Prague and attitudes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. What this means is that some of ethnic tensions highlighted earlier in the book’s background do feature in the scenario and thus they do need to be handled with care.

Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia is a good introduction to the region, but it is in no way a comprehensive guide, and to be fair, it cannot be. The region of the Carpathian Mountains and their surroundings is just too vast for one book to really cover. That really leaves the Game Master with no little research to conduct should she want to set a scenario outside of Bohemia and Prague, and perhaps a bibliography would have been useful to that end since the region and its history is not going to be familiar to everyone. Both parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be worthy of a supplement of their own, let alone Poland, and hopefully setting gets more support. Another issue perhaps is that the scenarios focus too much on the well known vaesen over lesser known regional ones, but to be fair, the two scenarios involving familiar vaesen twist and tweak their plots in unfamiliar and interesting ways. Plus, it leaves the unfamiliar vaesen for the Game Master to use herself and thus surprise and challenge her players.

Physically, Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia is as well presented as you would expect a book for Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore to be. The artwork is excellent, the layout clean and tidy, the handouts good, and the index is useful. Also, the cultural issues raised by the history of the region and its peoples are handled with sensitivity. The separate map of Prague is good, but the regional map takes a little careful study to really understand.

If its background and history does leave the reader very much wanting more, Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia does a fantastic job of introducing a new region and a new, more organised and focused society dedicated to the investigation of vaesen, ready for the Player Characters to make their enquiries and ease some of the conflicts between man and monster. It supports this with some lovingly presented vaesen, both familiar and unfamiliar, and three solid scenarios. In Vaesen – Mythic Carpathia there is a wonderful sense of hope and optimism in Bohemia and the city of Prague, which ebbs away as the investigations of the Pravda Society take the Player Characters east and into the grimmer, foreboding realities of lives under the dark peaks of the Carpathian Mountains.