Whispering Shadows: A Vaesen Mystery by D A Caldwell is a role playing game supplement published by Free League Publishing through the Free League Workshop Community Content Programme for use with Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying.
The supplement is available as an eight page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.
The Situation explains that this is set in a small village in Norway which has been plagued by strange occurrences. The main conflict is a vaesen that’s come to collect on a broken pact that the present-day villagers don’t know about. There is also a subconflict with tension in the village.
The Details has the details of the pact and how the vaesen is taking its revenge on it not being fulfilled. One family has discovered more details on the forgotten pact, and one of these is the person who came to ask the characters for help.
Beginning: An Invitation has the arrival of the villager and her explaining the situation and asking for help.
The Journey briefly covers the uneventful journey.
The Mystery Path has the path of the investigation and then covers various important locations and what might be discovered at them. It ends with the confrontation with the vaesen; the various options are all either bad or dangerous in different ways. The adventure is then wrapped up in the epilogue.
Notable NPCs covers the important characters; annoyingly, this is written in all capitals.
The Skugherre has details on the vaesen laid out in the usual manner.
Whispering Shadows: A Vaesen Mystery in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors though, as noted, the use of all-caps in the Notable NPCs section is a comfort detriment. Bar the cover, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a comparatively straightforward adventure, though it can easily end in a dangerous combat. However, the other options for dealing with the vaesen or highly likely to cause problems for the village, either immediately or in the future. The least risky way is to essentially push the problem forward, which will just mean that the current situation will probably occur again, though long after the characters are gone. Whispering Shadows: A Vaesen Mystery can be found by clicking here.
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