The Drowned
“I swear on my life, we sank the boat. They shouldn’t be here. They shouldn’t be here.”
The Drowned are water-adapted Blightborn associated with rivers, flooded ruins, marsh channels, lakes, harbors, and coastal waters. Many are believed to be the remains of people deliberately thrown into deep water during early attempts at containment.
Appearance
Drowned bodies are bloated, split, and discolored by long immersion. Hair, cloth, rope, weeds, fishing line, chains, and fragments of wreckage commonly trail from them. Some still carry the weights used to sink their bodies.
Their hands and forearms are often badly damaged. Hooks, broken chain, gaffs, nails, jagged bone, or debris may remain embedded in the corpse and become part of the way it catches prey.
They move poorly on dry land. In water, the same body becomes fast enough to make distance disappear frighteningly quickly.
Ambush Behavior
Drowned frequently remain beneath the surface rather than floating. Still water therefore offers little reassurance. They wait below docks, ferry crossings, flooded roads, bridge ruins, reed beds, and the sides of boats.
That changes the meaning of ordinary crossings. A ferry rope, a quiet reed bed, or a hand lowered toward the water can become the point where a journey turns into a struggle to keep someone from disappearing below the surface.
Their attacks are built around pulling prey toward water. A Drowned may hook clothing, flesh, armor, or equipment with whatever is caught in its ruined body, then haul the victim toward itself with sudden force. Once close, it bites and tears while continuing to drag downward.
This behavior makes the edge of the water almost as dangerous as the water itself.
In the Water
The Drowned are difficult to escape once they establish control of a fight in deep water. They do not need to surface for air, and the weight and decay that make them clumsy ashore do not hinder them below the surface.
Boats are not complete protection. Accounts describe Drowned climbing hulls, striking from directly below, catching oars, and using embedded chain or wreckage to pull people over gunwales.
Field Knowledge
Crossings with poor visibility are treated cautiously even when no Blighted are visible. Travelers favor poles, raised banks, bridges with clear approaches, and places where anyone pulled into the water can be reached quickly.
The most repeated advice remains simple: if a Drowned can be made to leave the water, much of its advantage disappears.