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Just read a Swedish book called Strömkarlen (the Stream Man) by Limme & Palmqvist. Set in a small, prospering, town in late 1800, Karlshamn. Drowned murder victims start showing up and townspeople start blaming the Neck...

A not too complicated detective story that could easily be used as a basis for a fairly good scenario plot.

Might write up something of this to Vaesen.

Spoiler below:












No actual water spirit/neck is involved, but players could easily be lead to that conclusion. The actual murderer could actually try to blame a neck in the scenario as well (not in the book). There is a side-story about an additional murderer that might be dropped, but the plot offers a red herring|false leads or two about who is responsible. The murders are connected by bad things that happened in the past, and the killer has a special connection to water...

Players will probably believe a real Neck is involved, given the game premises, muahhaahha

Very interesting plot! It’s nice to see how Vaesen can be blamed for human doings. 

I will revisit some of Fred Vargas novels and try to see if a plot element could be borrowed from her as well. I remember one about a ‘werewolf’ and the one with the Wild Hunt, both set in remote areas. Even though they are set in modern times, there is usually a legend behind/historical angle that could perhaps be used gamewise. Would be fun to throw the players off sometimes with ordinary crime stuff, and not mystical beings behind the bad stuff everytime.

Any other books/media that have a folklore/crime touch and could inspire Vaesen stories?

Very nice plot. Love to see it for a scenario!

I too take some inspiration from books, unfortunately they are in French, so I don't know if they are available in English!
Viviane Moore likes to put some rumors of a monster in her medieval stories, and they always turn up to be very human evildoers. I like that. Plus you can mix, and have humans hiding behind Vaesen. 
There are many different kinds of monsters in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, even if the setting is North America. Some of those monsters are supposed to come from Europe anyway. 
Faerie is also a good source of inspiration. The Hounds of the Morrigan is more for kids, but the creatures depicted in the book can be twisted to be more dangerous and scary. Same for Lud-in-the-mist by Hope Mirrlees.

Yes, some are available in English.

I am currently inspired by An unwanted guest, A house of ghosts, The hunting party and Snowblind (all crime/gothic horror) novels, featuring an isolated group of people due to a snow storm. Agatha Christie with added horror in some cases.

A similar ‘And then there were none’-scenario would be fitting for a lower count of players in Vaesen. Or, perhaps one of them are the killer/vaesen in disguise(one-off). Especially the A house of ghosts plot would be a good invite to a first Vaesen scenario - a group of people are invited to a desolate manor on an island to participate in a seance...

hey, just happened to stumble on to this english speaking corner..
only wanted to say J really like the idea that not everything they investigate is becouse of a vaesen or if it is, 
its still humans that are the true villain behind it and the vaesen is a victim! =)

isnt baskervilles hound a story somewhat like this, havent read it but might have read a comic-adaption as a kid..

this is off the topic but J once read a short sci-fi story about the last dragon, J think it was a italian author?!
the humans bring an entire brigade of soldiers and bombardes the cave where the horrible dragon hides with artillery
and the not so dangerous halfgrown or really old dragon screames when the bullets hit her and try to flee but is mortally wounded and the cave collapses over her
meanwhile outside the humans congratulate eachother for their bravery now when they has succed in killing the last monster..