Vodnik
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Origin
A water borne parasite of unknown origin, they first started appearing after a large wave ravaged a coastal village near Flotsam. Riders reported that its inhabitants had risen up once again, calling help that the Undead have returned. A contingent of clerics were sent by the local governor to deal with the threat, only to witness the clerics back away in a hurry as their holy spells did little to stop them. It was only after the soldiers moved in to hack the corpses into pieces, did they reveal the parasite writhing among the rotting heart. They call the parasite Vodnik, or evil water spirit in the Ruskan tongue.
Characteristics
The beast is humanoid in appearance albeit with a bloated body, and should not to be mistaken with a zombie. Vodniks lurk around coastal towns and villages with deep lakes or rivers, they are revived bodies of men or women that have met their demise by drowning, what makes a Vodnik is actually the parasites that lurk in the water, they use the body as a host and grow. Their hair is slimy and green, as is the ends of their arms and legs, they leave trails similar to a snail’s and make gurgled howls when it is a full moon, they possess a toxin which sedates their prey, which they then drag into the water to feast upon.
The actual Vodnik's body is a 6 inch grey and green bug with spikes and antennas dug deep into the muscles of the corpse, rooting it in place. Should the corpse grow unsuitable and lose most of its nutrients or mobility, it hacks up its insides and the parasites that lived within crawl back into the water to find another host corpse to live within. They live in both fresh and sea waters, preferably in deep bodies of water.
Excerpt from the text known as Fantastic Squids:
"These are scoundrels who ended their wicked lives in the water. Drowned alive or thrown into deep watery ravines, they turn into vengeful creatures which stalk the inhabitants of fishing settlements, dragging unsuspecting bathers off into the depths."
Behavior
The Vodnik is slow and weak, but in the water, the creature is at its best. It can swim at unbelievable speeds and hear the faintest of footsteps on the land, the beast also possesses a sedative in its saliva, which it uses to drown the prey. The Vodnik also possesses the ability to ignore bad injuries, one could cut off all its limbs and it would still try and attack its prey, it also doesn’t weaken when it bleeds, is poisoned or tossed off cliffs. The Vodnik, as agile and aware as it may be, is completely blind, it relies completely on feeling, smell and its hearing. The Vodnik is quite scrawny, like a decomposing corpse, though it possesses abnormally large claws and teeth like knives, which it has several sets of.
Weaknesses
| Please note: The following information is scarcely known. Do not metagame to know this information unless directly informed in-character. |
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The slowness of the Vodnik allows soldiers to dance around it, hacking away its limbs until it can barely crawl forward. To truly kill the vodnik, one must kill the True Body of the Vodnik, before it can escape into the depths.
