The Lantern Man of the Fens
A TTRPG system-agnostic encounter with the East Anglian will o' the whisp.
The Fens
On the border between East Anglia and the Kingdom of Mercia there lies a vast region of freshwater wetland. Great expanses of marsh are criss-crossed by dozens of small streams that flow to and from shallow ponds and lakes. Scattered throughout the landscape are areas of high ground forming ‘islands’ that shrink and expand as the water that surrounds them rises and falls with the seasons. These promentories are the location of extraordinarily fertile grazing for sheep and cattle, where the men of the Fens pasture their beasts in the spring and summer months, living in traditional temporary campsites that are returned to year after year.
Although there are large tracts of wilderness, the fenland is very far from desolate. The fens support large numbers of birds from marsh harriers and buzzards, owls and sparrow-hawks to buntings, redshanks, lapwings, snipe, woodcock, warblers, swans, ducks, herons and cranes. Red deer, hares, rabbits, badgers and foxes can be found on the higher ground, while beavers, otters and voles populate the banks of the ponds and streams. Beneath the water teem rudd, bream, burbot, pike and huge numbers of eels.
Trees are relatively scarce but willow, alder, birch and wych elm all thrive in copses and small woodlands where the land is drier. Much more common are the great expanses of sedge grass that grow to more than 8’ tall and which long serrated leaves are much in demand for thatching by the men of the fens, as well as rushes (soft rushes are used for bedding and lighting, hard rushes for basket-making) and reeds. Beneath it all is the thick, dark peat that is not only enormously fertile but is also an excellent domestic fuel - slow-burning with a pleasant aroma.
The Lantern Men
At other times and in other places, these entities are known as will o’the whisps, hob lanterns, ignis fatuus (foolish fire), giddy flames, wandering lights and jack’o’lanterns. In the Fens, they are known as ‘Lantern Men’. Opinions among the Fenland cattle drovers, shepherds, fishermen and gatherers of sedge grass differ as to whether these things are creatures of faerie or of the infernal, vengeful ghosts of the unlamented dead and drowned or the spirits of the wicked condemned to haunt the wild marshes. All agree, however, that to encounter a Lantern Man is to risk being lured into cold, dark water and sucked down into the black mud where water and weeds fill the lungs. Every dweller in the Fens has a story about someone they heard about who heard from a reliable source of a narrow escape from a Lantern Man or about the disappearance of those who were not so fortunate.
The Encounter
The malice of Lantern Men draws them to the sounds of human mirth and gaiety - cheerful whistling is especially hated by them and will attract their relentlessly hostile attention. Small wonder that Fenlanders regard whistling after dark in the presence of standing water as an ill-mannered - almost blasphemous - folly. The Lantern Man lacks all physical form other than a pale yellow-white light as of a guttering candle or small lantern that can be seen moving between the trees and reeds after dark. They cannot be harmed by any mundane means, though generous GMs may allow that particular magical spells or divine prayers can drive them away. Lantern Men also manifest an auditory glamour chosen to appeal to their victims’ circumstances and desires. Most commonly this is a friendly and confident tone offering to lead lost wanderers to safety and dry land if they but follow the light and the soothing voice. However, accounts also exists of the Lantern Men sounding like distressed maids or children or even lustful women to draw the courteous, the soft-hearted or the lascivious on to their doom.
All mortals are subject to the preternaturally beguiling words of the Lantern Man and it is suggested that GMs should make every effort to ensure that the players are tricked into believing that they are being aided or coming to someone else’s aid. If necessary this deception should be seeded by an earlier encounter during which the characters learn of a missing person that the Lantern Man will impersonate. The Fenlanders’ belief that the Lantern Man’s charms can be countered by filling the mouth with black, bitter, gritty fen mud is false, and probably originated as a cruel joke. Again, generous GMs may allow that some character traits or abilities grant a save or other capacity to evade the Lantern Man’s powers. However, no character should be wholly immune to the thing’s dweomer and no-one who manages to escape its influence will be able to persuade anyone else that they are being deceived. Victims of the Lantern Man go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
The Lantern Man will draw the characters further and further away from any trail or path they were following and into the waterlogged and reed-choked Fenland landscape. Sometimes, the creature will fall silent and dark if it senses that this will add to the characters’ confusion and uncertainty before seemingly ‘finding’ the group once more. After being led further and further into the trackless Fens for anything up to an hour, the lead character will heedlessly stumble into a deep pool at the bottom of which is a thick layer of viscous mud that will begin to suck them down below the surface. A character so ensnared is automatically released from the charms of the Lantern Man’s words as they plunge into the frigid water.
Any character who stumbles into the pool can take no action other than attempting to keep their head above water by succeeding in a physical save or attribute check each round. The save or check is at a cumulative penalty per round after the first (so, in a d20 system, for example, -2 on round two, -4 on round three and so on). GMs will wish to increase any such penalty if the character is encumbered. On a failed save they will be dragged below the surface and afflicted by the rules for drowning. When the lead character begins to splutter, thrash and be dragged down, all other characters may make a mental save or attribute check with a substantial bonus to throw off the beguiling words of the Lantern Man. If they fail, they too will blunder into the pool but, if they succeed, they may attempt to liberate their companion(s).
It requires the strength of two robust men to drag a water-soaked and panicking character from the water and grasping mud and to safety. Multiple characters can contribute to the total effort being used to rescue their fellow(s). It takes two rounds to pull a character to safety at the edge of the pool, but no physical test or check is needed to accomplish this provided at least two characters both of above average strength make the attempt. However, wading in to the pool to try and rescue a fellow character is dangerous and all would-be rescuers must make a physical save or attribute check each round to keep their footing on solid ground at the pool’s edge or suffer the same consequences as anyone who has entered the water.
If all characters escape the seduction of the Lantern Man it will vanish unless a character has drowned - in which case his companions will witness the eerie sight of the glowing light slipping below the surface of the water, illuminating the corpse of the drowned man before seeming to glide into the gaping mouth of the dead man and vanishing down his throat. In either case, a Lantern Man will not trouble the party again.
There is a 50% chance that anyone drawn into the pool or entering it as part of a rescue attempt will mislay some personal possession. The general type of object is determined by 1d4.
A weapon or shield.
An item of apparrel or equipment - hat, cloak, rope, quiver etc.
A purse, pouch or knapsack and all its contents or an item of worn jewellery.
A shoe or boot.
Any lost object will rapidly sink to the bottom of the pool and will, in all probability, be irretrievably lost.
Treasure
If by some set of improbable circumstances the characters are able to search the pool thoroughly, in addition to any possession lost by a character who entered the water (which is resting on the surface of the bottom of the pool) they will find a total of 1d3 of the following items buried deep in the black mud amid a large collection of human and animal bones. Note that the mud preserves metal and organic objects that would normally be corroded after many years under water.
Choose or roll 3d6. Re-roll any duplicates.
An ancient stone mace head.
A gold dish 6” in diameter and 2” deep, the base featuring a hammered design of a centaur carrying off a young woman.
A hoard of 3d6 silver coins marked by strange abstract designs and featuring no image of any king or emperor.
A silver shield-boss decorated with intricate wire knot-work and garnets.
An ivory box with a hinged lid, 6” wide x 4” deep x 4” tall, crudely carved around the sides with a frieze of men warring with great axes and shields.
A flint arrowhead.
A 3” tall figure of a naked, obese woman carved from dense, dark, bog-oak.
A necklace of six bears’ canine teeth strung on a silver chain.
A delicate blue glass bottle with stopper. The stopper being removed, the interior still smells of perfume.
A polished shale finger ring.
A terrifying, 9” long, phallus carved from a cow’s femur.
A hoard of 1d10 gold coins stamped with the images of several unknown princes wearing garlands of leafs.
A silver figurine 4” high, of a leering man with deer antlers.
A 4” wide circular mirror of burnished copper in a silver frame.
An ancient bronze sword.
A golden neck torc made of hundreds of strands of gold wire wound together.