PLACE IMAGE HERE

Magic in the
Mythic North
… and everywhere else in the wonderful world of Vaesen

INTRODUCTION: The Mythic North is a magical place, and most of the

vaesen encountered by the Society master strange and powerful
enchantments, curses and trollcraft. A few brave (or foolhardy) Society
members may be interested in learning magic of their own. In these pages
you may find useful rules and guidelines for doing so.

BY Bjørn Ove Asprem

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Nils sat quietly in the occult library, his old eyes Folk Magic
focused on the ancient Cyprianus grimoire he found Your forbidden knowledge allows you to work occult
in a secondhand book shop in Trondheim. His magic.
colleagues in the Society had not wanted him to bring
it along. They had believed the crazy bookseller’s You gain the skill Magic at level 3. You may cast spells and
stories about unleashing the Devil if on wasn’t careful rituals, but you need a mystical tome, a grimoire, a wand
enough. Nils had gone back and stolen it. or some other item from which to learn them from. You
The words on the pages were old and archaic, could also be taught spells by a vaesen or a witch/warlock.
written more than 200 years ago. If what the book
promised was true, he could heal people with these In order to learn specific spells, you need to succeed on a
rhymes. Maybe even cure people of maladies such as Learning roll.
tuberculosis and pneumonia. Suddenly a gust of wind
caused his candlelight to flicker. Why was it wind The GM has more information about which spells you can
here? There were no windows in the room. learn from the item or your tutor.
Nils quickly shut the tome. The candlelight went
out and the occult library was pitch black. Requirements:
Nils could feel it. He wasn’t alone.
This talent requires either:

Magic • The Occult Library HQ Upgrade

By using specific magic items, being trained by • A large amount of forbidden, occult books
friendly vaesen, gaining access to certain HQ Upgrades or • Being trained by a vaesen or a witch/warlock.
entering into a pact with a powerful, magic-wielding
vaesen, PCs can gain access to magic spells and rituals.

Gaining knowledge of magic typically requires one of

the talents below, a magic item or item of power
containing spells, tutoring by a vaesen or witch and a
successful Learning roll. The specifics depend on the
item/vaesen in question, and is up to GM’s discretion.

The Magic skill becomes available to the PC through the

talents below, and learning the magic is just the first step.
Failing a Magic test is risky. Using magic in Vaesen is
fraught with danger to one's surrounding and sanity.

Magic Talents
The talents below differ from normal talents in that
they have requirements and sometimes cost more than
the usual XP cost. If you feel this breaks the spirit of
Vaesen, feel free to disregard this. In my home game, I
created these talents specifically for the Occultist, and we
all agreed that no other PC should learn them. This has
more to do with spotlight management and keeping magic
rare. In your game, your Academic might be the one
learning magic, or maybe the Officer? Or both? It’s up to
you.

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Mystic de Invisibilia Pact

Your magic abilities increase through training by a You enter into a pact with a vaesen able to grant mortals
friendly vaesen or by the mystical energies within the magical powers. This is a powerful boon, but it comes with
Occult Temple. a dark price.

You gain the skill Magic at level 6. This talent costs 15 You gain the skill Magic at level 9.
xp. In order to learn spells, you need to be taught by a
vaesen or NPC witch, or by spending a great deal of time This talent costs 20 xp. You do not need to roll for
in the Occult Temple. Learning in order to learn spells, as the vaesen you have
entered into a pact with will give you access to the magic
Learning spells requires a successful Learning roll. it wants you to have. The GM decides what this unholy
allegiance will cost you and your soul, and what the vaesen
The GM has more information about which spells you wants from you in return.
can learn.
Requirements: You have to enter a pact with a vaesen (not
Requirements: This talent requires Folk magic and all vaesen can enter pacts with mortals).
either
• Occult Temple HQ Upgrade Note: While a Spertus might be the most common vaesen
• Being trained by a friendly vaesen or to grant a human the magic skill through an unholy pact,
witch/warlock. lindworms, fairies, mermaids (enchanted song only) and
even the Neck (magic instrument only) are examples of
other vaesen who can tempt a mortal with this kind of
power.

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Learning from a Vaesen

Note: If you want to learn other spells than the one your Some Vaesen may be inclined to teach a PC magic.
benefactor gives you access to, you need to have the Folk Trolls, vaettir and fairies might be willing to do this, either
Magic or Mystica de Invisibilia talents. Your Magic skill is in exchange for a huge favor or as payment for a service
still at 9 though. already rendered.

Learning spells
PC’s gain the ability to cast magic by choosing the
various talents above, but they must still learn specific
magic spells or rituals before they can actually use magic.
This is done either by studying a magic item (like a
grimoire, a tome, a scroll or a wand), by learning from a
vaesen or another human witch/warlock or by meditating
for occult wisdom in the Occult Temple.

If a PC is so (un)lucky to have made a Pact with a

vaesen in exchange for magic, they do not need to roll for
Learning. The vaesen will impart the necessary
knowledge and the spells it wants them to know.

How many spells are available in a given item, is up to

the GM, but I recommend between one and five. Most
vaesen should not be willing to teach a human more than
one or two spells. This includes a vaesen who enters a pact
with a mortal, as it will always be cautious of being It’s up to the GM to decide what powers a given vaesen
targeted by said human. has, and which one(s) they want to teach a magically
inclined PC. The student must spend a lot of time with the
Learning from an item vaesen, who in turn might not be too patient with a poor
It is up to the GM what type of magic is within a pupil. At the end of the study sessions, the PC rolls
particular item. You could look at the list of Learning as normal. For each success, he learns one
Enchantments, Curses and Trollcraft in the Vaesen core spell/ritual. The number of spells learned is also limited
book, or you could invent something on your own. It does to the number of spells the vaesen wishes to teach.
not have to be extremely powerful. A lot of real-life
“spells” from this time period actually focused on healing Consequence: This depends on the vaesen in
sick livestock or alleviating toothaches. Life of most 19th question, the power to be taught or the place they are in.
century people was quite boring and mundane, and using Some examples might be:
“black magic” for this purpose was immensely more
useful than being able to cast fireballs or levitate.
• The PCs presence in the troll village is not
In the Preparation phase before a Mystery, any magically approved, and the PC is thrown out
inclined PCs who has access to an item containing spells, • The fairy gets bored with the PC, who suddenly

may roll a Learning test to see if they have learned a new finds himself somewhere else completely
spell in the downtime period since last Mystery. For each • The vaettir feels disrespected by the giant
success, they learn one more spell. A failed roll should human and teaches him the wrong spell. When
have a consequence. Some examples of consequences are he attempts to use it, he will grow a furry tail
given below for the sample items provided. They may
push the roll but will start the Mystery with the Condition.

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Learning in the occult temple Risks

If the PCs have purchased the HQ Upgrade Occult Magic Items come with Risk (as detailed in the Vaesen
Temple, long-term meditation in that place might impart core book p. 122). It is up to the GM if you still roll for this
some specific magical spells into a seeker. Whether this is in addition to the dire consequences of a failed Magic roll
the lingering effects of demon- or vaesen-worship from as well as consequences for failing the Learning roll.
old, the legacy of a dead witch or something else, is not
Example sources of magic
important. The important part is that, if successful with
the Learning check, the PC learns a spell/ritual of the The following are examples of sources that may give a
GM’s choice/making. PC the ability to learn spells. This might be a specific item,
but it can also be other avenues of learning magic, like
A petitioner should never learn more than one spell at getting a vaesen tutor.
a time, but more successes might give him a more
powerful spell, if the GM chooses. Each of the sources below also lists a suggested
consequence for if the PC fails a Learning roll.
Consequence: There is not one standard consequence
of failing a Learning roll while trying to learn magic in the Cyprianus
occult temple. Here are some ideas:
Named after Saint Cyprian of Antioch, a bishop and
• The ghost of a dead warlock starts haunting the martyr in early Christianity, these books or grimoires
PC contain a collection of spells. There is no one standard
• The PC inadvertently sets off a random magical text called Cyprianus, it was a general label given to a
effect in the occult temple. Maybe he is shrunk collection of spells.
to the size of a teaspoon or ages 30 years
• The PC opens a rift to the magical realm of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprianus
vaesen - either getting sucked in himself, or
receiving a visitor from that fabled realm Spells:
• Stones start falling from the ceiling. The PC Here are some examples of spells that can be found
needs to exit the temple before he is buried within a Cyprianus grimoire. The spells come in the form
alive. The Occult Temple is gone after this. of rhymes that must be read out loud with a very special
intonation and rhythm. All the rhymes can be read
Using Magic backwards for the opposite effect.

The mortal mind can never fully master the mystical For each success on a Learning roll, the PC can learn
arts, and a failed roll for Magic should always lead to one of the spells. A reversed use of a spell counts as a
unintended results. What exactly happens is up to the GM, separate spell. So if the PC only rolls 1 success on the
but some suggestions are: Learning roll, the PC cannot learn both Healing and
Harm.
• The complete opposite of what is attempted
• Another party (or the caster themselves) is The effect of the spell depends on how many successes
targeted are rolled with the Magic skill roll. If the magic user nets
• Collateral damage more successes than needed, he can still choose a lesser
• A powerful force notices the abuse of magic and effect.
decides to investigate
• The caster is infused with darkness and is slowly Consequence: A failed Learning roll when reading
turned into something horrible Cyprianius means the PC inadvertently read pages they
were not supposed to read. It is said that this would
unleash the Devil himself. The PC is not that unlucky but
will still be haunted by a Revenant or Draugr, who can

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only rest if the grimoire is destroyed. The Revenant might

be the grimoire’s previous owner, the author or a victim
of one of its spells.

Healing
• You can heal disease in men and cattle (1
success)
• You can ease suffering in men and cattle (2
successes)
o Remove all Physical Conditions
• You can heal severe injuries in men and cattle (3
successes)
o remove a physical Critical Hit and
avoid rolling for a Defect, or cure an
already permanent Defect

Reversed
• You may cause disease in men and cattle (1
success)
o the disease may be lethal if untreated
• You may cause suffering in men and cattle (2
successes)
o the subject gains 2 Physical Conditions
• You may cause severe injury in men and cattle (3
successes)
o the subject is immediately Broken and
suffers a random physical Critical Hit • An already pregnant woman will have a very
difficult and complicated pregnancy and birth,
The reversed version of this spell may be resisted with and will die during childbirth unless she
Force. succeeds in a Force roll (3 successes)

Fertility Luck in games

The rhymes must be chanted out loud to a woman. • You get a +2 bonus on any rolls related to games
requiring a combination av skill and luck (like
• The woman will become pregnant after the Poker) (1 success)
following intercourse (1 success) • You will automatically win games of pure chance
• An already pregnant woman will have a perfect (like a coin flip or a lottery) (2 successes)
pregnancy with inconsequential pain or
discomfort, including the birth itself (2 Reversed
successes) • The victim must deduct one 6 on any rolls
• The woman will become pregnant even without related to games requiring a combination av
intercourse (3 successes) skill and luck (like Poker) (1 success)
• The victim will suffer from bad luck in 24 hours,
Reversed not only during games of chance (2 successes)
• The woman cannot get pregnant for the next o The details are up to the GM, but may
moon (1 success) lead to injury or fatal accidents
o This is often used as a contraception
• The woman will become barren (2 success)

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Cupid’s Arrow

Consequence: A failed Learning roll means that the PC

This rhyme also requires a personal item from a
stops the daily meditation too early in an over-confident
person you want to fall in love with you. Alternatively, an
and impulsive move. The Mercurial Rod senses this, and
item from each of two other persons you want to fall in punishes the supplicant by giving him a random Mental
love with each other. Critical Injury. The PC is not broken, but he suffers the
Defect listed with no chance of recovery.
Roll Magic vs Observation. If you want to have two
other people fall in love, both roll Observation. This might Spells
mean that only one of them falls under Cupid’s Arrow. Protection
With a simple success, the love will fade in a week.
With 2 successes, a month. With 3 successes, a year. Of When confronted by undead or other vaesen, the wielder
course, the rhyme may be repeated to ensure a lifelong, can use the wand in combination with a short
“happy” marriage. incantation to protect himself and those close to him
from these creatures.

Reversed • 1 success - vaesen gains a -2 penalty on actions

If you reverse the rhymes, and have a personal item from as long as it still can see or hear the rod wielder
two persons, you will get them to hate each other for a
period of time equal to above. With 1 success, the hate will • 2 successes - vaesen immediately becomes
manifest in slandering and gossip. With 2 successes, it broken and flees as described in its description
may become physical. With 3 successes, they will try to
• 3 successes - as with 2 successes, but the
murder each other.
vaesen will also leave this place and the PC
alone forever
Mercurial Rod
The blackthorn tree used to make this rod was cut on the Summoning
day of Mercury (Wednesday), at sunrise, from a virgin
The rod wielder may summon the spirits of the dead.
tree. It is a black rod of approximately 19 cm. The rod is
The effect is similar to the Occultist talent Medium, but
unnaturally solid, and can be wielded as a quarterstaff.
the spirit’s information will be more detailed and
accurate.

With 2 successes, the rod wielder can actually summon a

Ghost (or other vaesen if the GM so allows it) who will aid
the PC to the best of his abilities.

This spell is more like a ritual, and requires a suitable

location, lit candles, drawings on the ground etc. Let the
player come up with the details of the ritual.

The Black Books of Elverum

This is a two-volume diabolical grimoire that was

discovered in an attic in Norway. It was likely written
In order to learn the two spells imbued within this rod, a
between 1790 and 1820 by an individual practitioner, and
PC must attune to it through daily meditation and
mixes Christian and pagan concepts and superstitions.
contemplation for a period of time. They must have the
rod nearby. After a few days, arcane thoughts and Consequence: A failed Learning roll means that the PC
incantations start to come to the PC. It is important that cannot put down the book. She will read and re-read the
the PC is patient and continues meditating until he is book until she falls asleep exhausted. She will rarely feel
ready. It is easy to be fooled by the rush of power that rested after this, and will suffer from the defect Dream
comes early. state (no recovery roll). If the PCs fail a second learning

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roll, his friends may find her drooling over the Black Unlock
Books of Elverum in a catatonic state. The PC’s mind is
This simple incantation, once learned, can be used to
Broken forever.
bypass any lock the PC encounters. It is as if the lock is
Spells: unlocked. It does not have to be a lock on a door. It could
also be a window, a chest etc., but it needs some sort of
Invulnerability locking mechanism. The incantation does not allow
The book describes rituals meant to make someone someone to enter through a stuck door or a door barred
invulnerable to the cuts of swords or the wounding from the inside.
effects of bullets. After performing a ritual (which takes
Pact with Spertus
approximately 1 hour) that strongly resembles devil
Pacts with certain Vaesen may not only make a PC a
worship, painting a pentagram with salt and lighting
rather powerful magic user, but also enable them to cast
candles, roll a Magic skill check.
certain spells or enchantments without the need of a
• 1 success - gain Armor Rating 6 Learning roll.

Pacts are rarely a good idea to enter into, but what

• 2 successes - reduce damage by 2 (minimum 1)
doesn’t one do to accomplish their seemingly impossible
• 3 successes - become invulnerable (except for goals?
fire)

The invulnerability lasts for 24 hours.

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Example:

After having been given a Spertus as the second owner,

Theresa Björk, a scholar and academic in the Society,
finds that she has been given magical powers. She gains
the MAGIC attribute at 9 and access to the Enchantment
Raise the dead. The Spertus wants her to dig up and
resurrect one of the Spertus’ previous owners, who
managed to free himself from the Spertus’ influence

before dying of old age. The Spertus wants to disturb his

eternal slumber as revenge. The Spertus promises
Theresa that after she has done this, she can resurrect
her daughter who died of pneumonia when she was
young. Theresa is struggling with this. She knows it is
wrong, but she misses dear Miriam oh so much… and
what will the Spertus do if she refuses?

This product was created under license.

Vaesen and its logo are trademarks of Fria
Ligan AB and Johan Egerkrans.

This work contains material that is copyright

Fria Ligan AB, Johan Egerkrans and/or other
authors. Such material is used with
permission under the Community Content
Agreement for Free League Workshop.

All other original material in this work is

copyright 2022 by Bjørn Ove Asprem and
published under the Community Content
Agreement for Free League Workshop.

Pictures:

Pixabay or Public Domain

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