The Tormented Children
The team learn that some children in town is being haunted by a Butzemann (Bogeyman). They are having difficulty sleeping and the parents are affected accordingly especially wit the former also not eating and fading away physically. It is also referred by some as der schawrse Mann (the black man).
Plot points/Scenes
The team are informed by the Council that some families are being troubled with their children getting sick, unable to sleep and/or not eating (fading away) due to some type of night terror. The terms der Butzmann & der schwarze Mann will be mentioned and they will have to track down a way to prevent this creature from targetting the town's inhabitants.
It turns out that it has been going on for well over a month or longer but most didn't think much of it, ateending the grove and/or church hoping that offerings, prayers, blessings & suchlike to 'The Little People' or one of the Saints might step in to help. So far nothing has helped and the children are getting worse affecting the adults in the same household as a result.
When questioned / examined the children will speak of der Butzmann or der schwarze Mann hiding in the darkest parts of where they sleep until they are put to bed then comeing out to torment them. A single child is usually affected at any one time randomly. Most have given up eating, at least substantially and most are having difficuty sleeping, along with regular nightmares.
Most are now afriad of the dark and notice shadows crawling & taking on sinister appearances. Most have had slight illnesses at the same time. A few have bruises, cuts, and bite marks made by something with sharp pointed teeth. Nothing severe or life threatening, but painful enough and this affects the children that have suffered the longest.
A child (age 7) by he name of Bernard has been affected the worst (and longest), and is from Aachen along with his parents Rudolf and Angelique. It only started after they arrived in Eschbach to work on the town and have loose ties to both ancestry of the Franks & Saxons respectively. They had no problem initially and if pressed may mention the following: about two months ago they had warned Bernard to be careful while they were near the swamp south east of the old grove to behave or the local water spirits would punish him. Bernard had been disturbing the water and they were scared that something might attract the wrong 'thing' or fall in & drown. If he didn't behave as well the the Butzmann may appear at night & bother him.
A couple of nights later he was awoke with nightmares that there was something bothering him, and he felt there was a stinging sensation by his hairline like a an insect's bite. This kept getting worse and now most nights he is plagued nby sightings, objects being moved, scratches and trying to drag him off into the closet or outside.
Other children are now experiencing the same things, and the scratches always appear as three. One of the things they mention is that they have nightmares concerning being drowned in the swamp and nin the northerly partt where no Passions Kiss grows. They are aware of a dark cloaked figure that they see, wearing a gold torque with a stabwound in its neck & a leather garrott around it's neck as well. It appears similar to the Butzmann in the same type of cloak.
It carries a horn made out of a goat's horn and points to it, then to the grove and finally to the spot where they feel as if they are dragged down into the swamp. Not all the children remember this and some see only parts of it.
Some may also be aware of an old rock with a spiral carved in it with the latter being marked in yellow and coloured black but have no knowledge what this means.. Nobody in the town does.
At the same time, every one is aware that the old grove is now abandoned and 'cured' of the evil there. They do feel that there is something about a boy speaking in Gaulish repeating the line "A watry grave I go to, to protect and nourish the land. May I be freed of the dark, or my reaper comes to collect more young shoots of the earth. Only in watery door of the Underworld may I be found. And if disturbed and the rites are not performed to shut this door may the Ao Sidhe claim another in my stead."
A bit of investigation will point to the Celtic belief in bodies of water for many tribe being one of the gateways to their underworld and many sacrifices to the gods placed in them.
If they search the swamp they may find a boy's body, with the swamp leaching off the calicum in the bones leaving a bog body. Druidess Emma Duckthorne can cast a spell over the body before marking it with a living sacrifice worthy of it, to have it took to the underworld and dispelling the Butzmann.
It loks like Bernard had accidentally disturbed the body below and it needed re-consecrated to close of the way it came through. At the same time there is a chance him or anothe child has came across an old goat's horn that was placed in the grave too. If sop, it will need to be placed back in, but it may have passed into anothers hands.
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