Introduction Expelled Their Leaders and Every Known Member

THE ROSENBERGERS

When Mats passed away, Tine Rasmussen’s views on As the ringing of the church bell grew louder, and the dealing with vaesen in an academic fashion prevailed, much to chanting of the black-robed priest grew more intense, the the dismay of the loyal Rosenbergers. Still, a few loyalists forest troll shut her eyes and tried to block the sound out. continued the work of Mats Rosenberg, seeking out and slaying Through teary eyes, she looked up towards the nun who had vaesen indiscriminately despite the Council’s order. her crossbow raised against her. “Please,” she said. “I have

not hurt anyone here in the village. All I wanted was to find The Rosenbergers concluded that every time they killed a a friend.” nisse or hunted down a troll, more appeared elsewhere. As with “You ARE an abomination,” the priest spat at her. other vermin, there must be some way to take them down for “There is no room for you in the kingdom of God, OR in good. Therefore, Rosenberger scientists and academics actively this village.” searched for ways to exterminate the vaesen en masse. The nun fired.

Their activities were eventually discovered, and the Order Introduction expelled their leaders and every known member. Some remained, their covers not blown, working in utmost The information on p. 82 of the Vaesen Core Book secrecy to continue their work as the Rosenbergers as about the Rosenbergers is not much, but piqued my the group tried to establish themselves as a separate interest and made me want to delve deeper into them as organization. a group of antagonists or possible allies in my own Vaesen

campaign. The charismatic Finnish priest Juhana

Paananen claimed in the early 1700s that Throughout these pages I will elaborate on their vaesen were created by Satan to tempt, history, how they are organized and present corrupt and ultimately ruin mankind. It some plot hooks to bring the Rosenbergers is Paananen’s teachings that have been into your game. I also mention how you central to the Rosenbergers’ world view can mix up your normal Vaesen game by ever since. having PCs be members of the

Rosenbergers instead. After the Carl von Linnaeus scandal later History in the 17th century, many of the Society’s Already in the early days of the members who were sympathetic to the Society, when it was called Order of Rosenberger ideals, were outrageous. Artemis, the term Rosenberger was Outrageous that this man, this impostor had coined for someone who adhered to managed to influence the Society into doing his co-founder Mats Rosenberg’s view on work for him. vaesen. Membership in the Rosenbergers soared at

this time. At the same time, some continued to Mats Rosenberg wanted to focus work from the Society’s headquarters in the Society’s effort on locating and Uppsala, drawing upon the castle’s resources banishing vaesen, and harbored little to (including the library) to further study how to no interest in studying them further to best find and eliminate vaesen. find out what they really were, what they

wanted or if there were any At the Oulu Massacre in the late chances of humans and vaesen 18th century (see Vaesen p. 82), coexisting peacefully. While their several of the participants at Oulu relationship was otherwise very good, Castle were in fact Rosenbergers. Tine Rasmussen could never sway her older partner to see To increase their numbers, the Society reached out for a things her way. Still, as a compromise, Mats persuaded Tine to Sampletemporary alliance against the giants.file What the Rosenbergers include the second-to-last sentence in the Society’s creed - “For weren’t prepared for, was a drawn-out debate on strategy. the battle against vaesen and the protection of Mankind”.

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While the Rosenbergers were under the impression that they for potential members. Survivors after vaesen related tragedies, were going to war, many of the Society’s leaders felt that they witch hunters and fanatical priests are among the most popular should pursue a diplomatic solution. None of the Rosenbergers objects of recruitment. in Oulu survived, and to this day, the Rosenbergers feel that the disaster could have been averted if a swift resolution had come The Rosenbergers have no central headquarters. Instead, the to pass. members of each cell meet in each other’s homes, in empty warehouses or other suitable locations. When the Society was a After the Society closed its door in Uppsala, a local much larger organization, some Rosenbergers were tasked with Rosenberger (maybe Olaus Klint) has been keeping tabs on infiltrating the Society to recruit more members. The Society Castle Gyllencreutz, picking up the mail and forwarding any has always been split on its view on vaesen, and many have interesting leads to their current leader, Johanna Lampinen. changed sides throughout the years. Then, one day he picked up an interesting letter from a woman named Michaela Hansdotter. She was a reclusive member of the If your game contains the official NPC Olaus Klint from A Dance Society who apparently had been working on a secret study of Dreams, he might try to infiltrate the Society. See also Hooks alone for some years. For some reason, she had not been told below. that the Society had been disbanded. Hansdotter’s studies concluded that vaesen were a product of mankind’s Creed imagination. Meaning, yes, they do actually exist, but it is our belief that creates them. Historically, Rosenbergers were under the impression that vaesen were created by Satan. This was true for all vaesen, from Johanna, through Olaus, continued to communicate with revenants and werewolves to trolls and vaettir. Each of the Michaela, who had traveled all over Scandinavia for over a vaesen had their role to play in Satan’s plan to corrupt and decade already. The reopening of the Society poses a challenge enslave mankind. The undead were of course abominations, for Johanna, who wants to continue her communication with created by the Dark One to prevent them from entering God’s Michaela. This is one of the main reasons she wants Olaus to holy kingdom. Trolls and giants, linnorms and sea serpents and infiltrate the Society. the more corporeal of the beasts were the creatures Satan wanted to rule the earth when all God-fearing humans were Organization under the thrall of these spawns of Satan. The less mighty vaesen such as faeries, nissar and vaettir were mischievous The Rosenbergers have a strict cell structure, with a leader who critters meant to disrupt the faith in God and keep the people reports to the current leader, Johanna Lampinen. The members from abandoning all pagan customs and rites. are expected to follow up on rumors and local legends themselves, but are sometimes assigned missions directly from When Johanna Lampinen finally started to believe Michaela Lampinen. Through designated dead drops, they can request Hansdotter’s theories, she was devastated. Satan had nothing assistance from Lampinen, who has a few extremely loyal to do with vaesen. Maybe Satan didn’t even exist? Maybe God henchmen close by to do her bidding. Her current whereabouts himself did not exist? Since most of the Rosenbergers are rather is unknown, but it is likely she is situated in Sweden, as she can religious, she has kept the truth to herself and a select few. She reach all other Nordic countries more easily from there. still lets her witch hunters and vaesen slayers go on the hunt, but she realizes it doesn’t help much. Instead, she has Each cell traditionally consisted of 3-6 members, and the cells concluded that time itself will take care of vaesen. were scattered all over Scandinavia. However, like the Society, Enlightenment, technology, globalization and the spread of their members have dwindled drastically over the last 40-50 civilization would be slow, but effective measures. years. Many perished in the Oulu Massacre, and secularism and enlightenment have made it more difficult to recruit and keep The Rosenbergers have gathered much knowledge and members. As one of their major sources of recruitment was the information about the vaesen as well, but without a central Society itself, a decrease in their membership also affected the library such as the one in Uppsala, information sharing is more Rosenbergers. When the Society closed up ten years ago, difficult and the various cells are more dependent on vague SampleLampinen lost an important recruitment arena for new recollections and folk tales. file Rosenbergers. Still, active Rosenbergers are always searching

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Vaesen are under no circumstances to be negotiated with. They • TALENTS: Holy symbol, Deceptive, Suffer not the witch (see Satanic Witchcraft), Agitator and Something in should be dealt with decisively, and collateral damage is common (see New talents for Vaesen) accepted. Many Rosenbergers are not shy about silencing witnesses. Normally, NPCs in Vaesen do not have talents. Johanna and Gabriella are two very experienced Vaesen hunters, and any Cast of characters conflict with them should reflect their extreme competence. The following pages describe three of the most important characters in a Rosenberger campaign. Their leader, Johanna Lampinen, the enforcer, Nun Gabriella, and Michaela Hansdottir, a Society member who never got the message that Sister Gabriella they had closed down. “….” Johanna Lampinen

“You exist solely because of us. You die because of us.” The daughter of a Finnish priest, Johanna was traumatized at an early age when she witnessed a church grim attack a grave robber in the cemetery of her father’s church. When she got older, she met her first Rosenbergers, when two agents came to her village to vanquish the beast. While Johanna objected to it at first, claiming the creature did God’s bidding, they argued that God would never allow such a creature to exist. Convinced, Johanna aided them in their quest. This was the beginning of her career in the Rosenbergers. Later, she learned that she was a direct descendant of Paananen, the founder of the Rosenbergers.

Throughout the years, Johanna became an experienced and powerful member within the Rosenbergers. She learned rituals and rites of exorcisms from mystics and priests all over Europe, and was elected leader when the former one died of old age.

Johanna is now in her early 50s. She has taken up more of an administrative role, but as events are unfolding with the re- opening of the Society, she might take a more active role in their activities. Through the revelations of Michaela Hansdottir, her faith has been severely compromised. She now knows that time While investigating the hauntings of a myling, Johanna rescued itself will take care of vaesen, but she is unlikely to live to see it. a newborn girl from being killed by her mother. Gabriella’s In order to advance the extermination of vaesen, she has taken mother had killed Gabriella’s twin as she did not believe herself up politics (so far on a local level) in order to work politically for to be able to take care of twins. A few weeks later, she decided a more rapid advancement of technology and enlightenment. to kill her other child as well. Watching Johanna skewer her mother with a crossbow bolt changed her, and she has never • Physique 3 Precision 4 spoken a word. Johanna took care of Gabriella and raised her as • Logic 5 Empathy 4 her own daughter. She was trained in combat and learned of • MEDICINE 2 RANGED COMBAT 2 INVESTIGATION 2 vaesen and the Rosenbergers. LEARNING 5 VIGILANCE 3 MANIPULATION 4 OBSERVATION 3 INSPIRATION 4 • Mental Toughness 3 Physical Toughness 3 When she got older, she joined a convent and became a nun. Sample• EQUIPMENT: Pistol, bible, crucifix (see Satanic The bishop is a loyal Rosenberger, andfile accepted that Gabriella Witchcraft). Johanna probably has access to other items of power as well. needed to help Johanna on occasions.

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northern Sweden. Not a village or a settlement within many, Gabriella is a woman in her late 20s with short-cropped blonde many miles. Her initial theory was that these remote places hair and a somewhat featureless face. She rarely smiles or must be a haven for vaesen. But she found nothing. On her shows facial expressions, and she never speaks. Gabriella is second trip through these mountains, small farms and logging armed with the same crossbow that killed her mother, and has settlements had popped up at the foot of the mountains. She bolts of silver, a cross and several items of power at her disposal. noticed, to her surprise, the telltale signs of mountain trolls. An On secret missions she doffs the nun habit in order to wear old farmer told her that the trolls had been there since the dawn more practical clothing. of time, but that they lived in peace with the humans as long as they never built a church. • Physique 4 Precision 5 • Logic 3 Empathy 3 Another revelation came to Michaela on her second visit to the • AGILITY 4 RANGED COMBAT 5 FORCE 3 Norwegian county of Finnmark. 13 years ago, she had helped LEARNING 3 VIGILANCE 2 CLOSE COMBAT 3 the local sami population fend off the attacks of a stallo, a large, OBSERVATION 2 STEALTH 3 • Mental Toughness 3 Physical Toughness 3 brutish creature from sami mythology, who objected to the • EQUIPMENT: Crossbow, silvered dagger, silver bolts, nomadic sami traveling through its domain. Now, the sami communion wafer (see p. 13) population had been forcefully removed by the Norwegian • TALENTS: Blessing, Marksman, Vaesen slayer (see p. 12) government, and a village had been built where the nomadic sami people used to stay. The villagers had problems again, but Michaela Hansdottir this time it was a wood wife who had always lived in the nearby forest, and who stole men from the village from time to time. “I have some interesting observations on that topic. Now where did I put it?” These are just two of the examples Michaela found which have led her to formulate a theory. Michaela is an eccentric woman in her late fifties who gained the Sight when she saw the Neck one beautiful summer Vaesen is a creation of mankind’s imagination, given life by morning in her early teens. Labelled mentally ill by her family, some mysterious magic emanating from our joint she was eventually contacted by the Society and brought into consciousness. The nature of the vaesen is altered to match the their fold. Michaela was a quiet and introverted adolescent who local culture. spent many hours in the Society’s library, trying to piece together what vaesen really were. She even disguised herself as She has no idea how mankind can create creatures with their a man and managed to become enrolled at the Uppsala imagination, but has started to read Buddhist texts about university for a semester, before being discovered. Twenty-five tulpas, thoughtforms created by spiritual or mental powers. years ago, she informed the Society that she would be traveling all over the Nordic region in order to study the vaesen up close, Michaela has also started to correspond with some an immensely more detailed study than the one Carl von acquaintances who have traveled to America. If her theory is Linnaeus had conducted a hundred years ago. She refused any correct, there will most certainly pop up nissar, trolls and vaettir offers of help, saying that she needed solitude to complete her in Scandinavian settlements in America as well. life’s work. In the beginning, she regularly sent letters back to the Society, but as the years went by, they became more and Michaela has also noted several times that vaesen seems to more infrequent. decrease in number, and that they are more numerous in rural areas than in towns, cities and urban centres. While she has Her studies were thorough. She visited rural villages and remote quite a lot of statistical material, she has not organized this places where the Society knew vaesen existed. She gathered material into a meaningful study. testimonies from locals and vaesen alike. She spent over 10 years travelling through Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark While quite brilliant, Michaela is shy and reserved, and her and even some parts of Russia. immaculate studies suffer from a lack of disorganization. She travels with a trunk full of notebooks, and has placed hundreds SampleThen she did it all over again. And it was now she started seeing of notebooks with allies and acqua intancesfile all over Scandinavia. patterns. 8 years earlier, she had traveled in the mountains of

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Organizing and structuring her notes into a coherent volume • Intercept mail. The Rosenbergers have intercepted mail from Mikaela Hansdottir (see above) for a few years now, would take years. and the re-opening of the Society made things difficult for them. Having an agent on the inside makes things easier. • Physique 2 Precision 2 • Pass on information. One or more of the PCs might regularly • Logic 5 Empathy 3 meet up with Linnea Elfeklint, and any information she can • MEDICINE 2 STEALTH 2 INVESTIGATION 3 give, will be passed along to Johanna Lampinen. LEARNING 5 VIGILANCE 3 OBSERVATION 2 • Mental Toughness 3 Physical Toughness 2 • Find the secret laboratory. There is a secret Rosenberger • EQUIPMENT: Books. More books. Lots of books. Fairy laboratory in the basement, built early on in the Castle’s cross. history. To find the secret door, one needs to move the hands of several statues in the right order. The infiltrator’s

goal is to retrieve any notes from the laboratory and deliver them to Lampinen.

• The assassination. The Norwegian folklorist Peter Christen Asbjørnsen starts to communicate with the Society. He is Hooks writing fairy tales and legends of Norwegian origin, and has heard about the Society and its vast and old library of

stories. Whether or not Asbjørnsen has the Sight or not is Here are some hooks to bring the Rosenbergers into play. up to the GM. He might just be a writer. If the PCs welcome him to visit their library, and the infiltrator learns of this, he The infiltrator will be ordered to kill Asbjørnsen. Since the Rosenbergers are aware of the truth behind vaesen, anything that will keep the belief alive in people, is a threat. The infiltrator A Rosenberger, perhaps Olaus Klint from A Dance of may hire a hitman to avoid breaking her cover. Dreams, tries to infiltrate the Society. The Rosenberger will • Find something of value. The Rosenberger might be looking initially be very helpful, and will quickly reveal to the PCs that he for Homo Ferus or Carl von Linnaeus’ lost notes from has the Sight. He will be wary of tipping his hand early on, in Dalecarlia, an item of power or a magic item the infiltrator order to gain the PCs’ trust. One of their goals in re-establishing or Lampinen believes is hidden in the Castle. the Society is to expand it, so they should be eager to accept him as a member. Maybe the Rosenberger isn’t the first to join The vaesen hunter either, and they already have recruited a few trustworthy members/servants with or without the Sight? The PCs come across a zealous vaesen killer. This Rosenberger kills vaesen indiscriminately. She might not have In my home game, they accepted Olaus eventually, but he’s authorization from Lampinen to do this (Lampinen understands delegated to an “apprentice” role. He is not allowed to go on that the vaesen are practically infinite in numbers and killing missions, yet. This suits Olaus fine, as he has goals to accomplish them one by one solves nothing). She probably works alone. in the Castle.

Below are some specific goals to accomplish for the infiltrator.

• He wants to recruit one or more PCs to the Rosenbergers. He will be looking for those who really detest vaesen and who might have a “shoot first, ask later” attitude. Since he is blowing his cover by attempting to recruit the PC, the infiltrator must be close to 100 % certain he will turn the PC and he must also have accomplished all other goals (if any). Sample file

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