The Troll, The Man, and

The Hag in the Well

A Vaesen based on Scandinavian customs and traditions surrounding wells
from the 19 th and 20 t h centuries by Morten Greis.
The Man in the well is something all the children fears. Well trolls or the Troll in the well sneaks down
If you look down into the well, you can see a dark figure people’s wells lying in wait to eat those they can drag
just beneath the surface. It might be your reflection, but it into the water. With their long arms and sharp claws,
really is something far worse, and with its long arms it will they are particularly interested in capturing children.
drag you down into the well! They are the tastiest victims.
The well hag is a hideous vaesen, but she knows the The Man in the Well or The Hook Man is a
cure for many diseases, and if you pay her coin and stick monstrous vaesen, who appears when enough mothers
your head down the well to listen, you can hear her whisper have warned their children that the dark reflection,
the cure. She will also whisper cruelties leading people to they see in the water is the Man in the Well. They are
lose their will to live. nourished by children’s the fear inadvertently created
An inconvenient truth is that the thing in the well does by the parents, and they hide in the well savoring the
not exist. It is merely a frightening tale that has gained its fear. Sometimes, they drown somebody in the well just
own life. to sustain the fear.
The Hag in the Well is a vaesen whispering secrets
The troll in the well or the Brøndtrold, the man in the to people in exchange for coins and they tempt people
well (Brøndmand) and the hag in the well (Brøndkælling) with promises of a better life. Their true to goal is have
are cruel vaesen, who resides in wells and pond from people drown themselves in the well by eroding their
which people gather water. Their forms are twisted belief in themselves. Victims of the Hag returns as
versions of the person being reflected in the water, and revenants, and once a well is the haunted the hag is
with long hooks, they pull people down to drown them. likely to move on.
Many believe that the monster in the well is the one and
same being but truly, there are three different types.
 Ritual
Well Trolls can be driven off by draining the well or
leave it unused for six months. If the troll can be lured CHARACTERISTICS
out of the well, it can be attacked and killed in the same
• Might 5 (troll 7) Body Control 6
manner as humans. It is said that soap also works • Magic 6 Manipulation 4 (hag 8) Fear 1
against the Troll in the Well.
The man in the well can be banished by having the
children of the area to cronfront their fear of the well, COMBAT
or by having a person defeat their reflection in the ATTACK DAMAGE RANGE
water. The troll’s long
2 0-1
The Hag in the Well can be banished by wagering arms
The Well Man’s
one’s life and then solve her riddle for three nights in a Hook 2 0-1
row. Alternatively blessing the water in the well by
lowering the priest down to the water scares her away. Claws of the Hag 1 0
Examples of Conflicts
• Near dalarne, Sweden, is an abandoned village.
The neighbors believe all the residents have MAGICAL POWERS
emigrated to America, but the truth is that a very • Enchant
hungry Troll in the Well has eaten them all – and • Curse
now it waits for travelers to stay the night. The • Trollcraft
troll has connected all the wells in the village, and • The Man in the Well’s strength grwos as the fear of
it begins by eating the horses of the travelers. him grows. Anyone failing a fear test he will gain +2
• Skånevik, Norway, is being plagued by a hook man, bonus against.
who has created so much fear among the The Hag in the Well can lure people to her with her
townspeople, that it has been able to move into the whispers, and with her incantations she can wither
away her victim’s resistance, until they throw
town’s reservoir and from here he can drag entire
themselves into the well.
wagons into the water with his hooks. If the fear of
him keeps growing, he will become powerful
enough to drag an entire building into the CONDITIONS
reservoir.
• In Helsingør, Denmark, is a doctor who has □ Angry
trapped a Hag in her well. She has mounted an □ Aggressive +1
iron grid with silver crosses over the opening to □ Furious +2
keep the hag trapped. Every night the doctor goes □ Stunned -1
to the well and demands that the hag delivers □ Frightened -2
cures to her patients. □ Troll: Broken – dies if the damage is physical
□ Man: Broken – He becomes less frightening; He
Secret reshapes his form the next night
The troll in the well sometimes hide in ponds and □ Hag: Broken – she flees from the well, and a black
creaks near well-traveled roads, often near bridges, rider arrives in the area. If she survives the night,
she appears in a new well.
where they can pull people down. They are enemies of
the Brook Horse and the Neck, who does not tolerate
their presence. Sometimes the mere threat of the Neck
can scare off a troll.
The Hook Man lives in the shadow of people’s
reflection on the water. If the water can kept lit with a
lantern or the like for long enough then the man in the
well will disappear,
The Hag in the Well is being chased by a mysterious
hunter and his two black dogs. If one can point the
hunter in the direction of the hag, it is one way to get
rid of her. However, the hunter’s reward for the help
can be perilous to receive.
 Historical Notes
This vaesen is based on mostly on Danish folk
customs and some Swedish traditions. Brøndmanden
(Man in the Well), Brøndkællingen (Hag in the Well),
Brøndtrolden (The Troll in the Well) or Krogmanden
(The Hook Man) as are some of the Danish names or
Brunngubbe as is one of the Swedish is as such not
known from 19th or 20th century Scandinavian folklore
as trolls, mare, elves, nisser and the other vaesen from
the Vaesen rulebook are. Instead, the brøndtrold is a
boogieman invoked to scare children away from wells,
as these were and are dangerous, and there is hardly
any mythology to them beyond the fact, that they live
in wells and ponds and comes with many different
names. The vaesen presented here is a melange of the
scarce information with some details added from
related beings from Scandinavian folklore.
An older tradition about a being in the well, whom
clever people might gain insight against diseases from
has been added, though it is doubtful that it is as such
a part of the Brøndmand tradition.
Wells in themselves were dangerous. Falling into
one would lead to drowning. There are stories being
told of people committing suicide by jumping into a
well and afterwards they haunted the well. Likewise,
are there stories of infants appearing as ghosts after
being drowned in ponds and wells by desperate
mothers. Often the priest would be summoned to deal
with the apparitions.

This product was created under license. Vaesen –

Nordic Horror Roleplaying and its logo, are
trademarks of Fria Ligan AB.

This work contains material that is copyright Fria

Ligan AB 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

2021 by Morten Greis and published under the
Community Content Agreement for Free League
Workshop.