Bracken Man Of Wadsley Common
There is an ancient poem -- the "Brackenman of Wadsley Common" -- and it goes:
The Common at Wadsley was ever dark, ancient and sinister.
Its man of bramble, thorn, bracken and briar;
And no one scrambles over the sliding gannister
Bowed legs of ash, four arms of yew and perishing juniper
Down the precipices of its sides, with tangled roots
Swirling fronds of green and purple heather shoots.
"Witnesses" of the creature, according to the ancient legends, described it as coming forth from the centre of a stone circle, its body of thistles and thorns, legs of bandy ash and arms formed of twisted briars. Its head was a gorse bush. Its eyes were the orange of burning coals.
I went to Wadsley Common to see whether any of this held. It does. Not the poem's metre, which is dreadful even by the standards of Dark Peak balladry, but the description. I found the stone circle at the centre of the common on a murkneet with no moon to speak of, and I did not go further in once I saw what was standing at its centre, unmoving, eyes doing exactly what the poem says they do.
The bracken man does not leave the ring under ordinary circumstances. It wardens the common the way a boundary stone wardens a field, except a boundary stone does not have four arms of yew and does not know you are there before you know it. Trespass on the common at gloaming or after, close enough to the circle, and it comes forth -- slow at first, then not slow at all, thorn and briar closing the distance faster than a body built out of hedge has any right to.
Its whole method is the grapple. Get caught in a briar-arm and you are held, not struck -- struck comes after, and it comes harder and more often for as long as you stay held. Fighting your way out costs strength the common seems to have an endless supply of and you have very little of. I have watched a man break free on his third attempt and I have watched a woman not break free at all; the difference between them, as far as I could tell, was luck.
Field note: the gannister underfoot near the circle sheds root fragments worth taking if you can reach them without entering the ring -- warding charms are made from it, and you will want one before you come back.
| Type | Boss |
| HP | 7 |
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