The Devil on the Moor

About the adventure

Moor farmers led hard and meager lives, but neither the crown nor the clergy bothered them with taxes or demands of assimilation. However, in the beginning of the 19th century this started to change. Great numbers of land surveyors were sent from Copenhagen to rebuild the country from the ravages of the Napoleonic Wars. They were soon joined by engineers with belching machines and dreams of turning the moors of Jutland into modern agricultural areas. Denmark would prosper once more – and the path to this blissful future was through large-­scale industrial farming. Using steam power and other technological advancements, the engineers of the Moorland Society work to restore fertility to the barren moors through artificial fertilizer, tree planting, and drainage canals. But now the Moorland Society has encountered unexpected problems during a drainage project on Grimsted Lyng. Something out there scares the workers and has caused several of them to leave without explanation – without even collecting their outstanding wages. Furthermore, there is something wrong with the drainage system. Pipes are bursting, tubes are perforated, and the great steam pump driving the machinery has come close to exploding due to sudden overheating. The Moorland Society’s chief engineer, Preben Rasmussen, suspects that some of the locals are actively trying to sabotage the project, possibly through black magic. Their company has been met with hostility from people on the moor, and Rasmussen has heard stories of demonic creatures the farmers interact with in various ways. Most of all he has heard of “the Devil on the Moor”: a winged phantom with glowing eyes...