Drowners

When at the water's edge, you gotta be quiet. First of all, so as not to scare the fish. Second – so you don't attract drowners.

– Yanneck of Blaviken, fisherman

A drowner resembles a corpse dredged from the bottom of a pond. It is sickly blue or green in color, with slime and sludge oozing out of every pore and the acrid stench of rot wafting off of it. That is why it is often thought drowners - along with their more dangerous cousins: vodniks, mucknixers and drowned dead – arise from the bodies of those who drown in shallow water: lost travelers falling into bogs, children who swim too far from the shore or, in the case of vodniks, inebriated peasants who stumble off narrow swamp trails.

Like so many other beliefs about monsters, this one is false. While drowners do look like humans from a distance, witchers, who have the dubious pleasure of examining them from close quarters, have reported the numerous ways in which their anatomy differs from our own. Their scaly skin, gills and dorsal fins suggest drowners and their like are an entirely foreign species.

The adaptations mentioned above make drowners excellent swimmers, well-suited to the muddy waters of the ponds and lakes in which they dwell. They often cluster near human settlements, which are for them an excellent source of food.

Cowardly creatures by nature, they usually stick to eating scraps they dig out of rubbish piles and animal carcasses. Yet if a lone traveler or careless fisherman strays into their territory, they turn from scavengers to fearsome predators. They can attack with lightning speed, taking their victim by surprise and pulling him into the water to drown. If not particularly hungry at the moment, they will keep their prey under the water for a few days, aging it until it grows deliciously tender and rotten. Drowners are particularly active at dusk and during the night, especially if the rain is falling – at such times they will even leave their watery homes and venture inland.

Drowners, mucknixers, vodniks and drowned dead all live in putrid, rotting filth, and so have developed a high resistance to poison. Though humanoid in form, they are primitive creatures no more intelligent than carp or pike. That is why spells affecting the mind, the Axii Sign included, are ineffective against them. Yet they are particularly vulnerable to magic drawn from the element of fire, including the Igni Sign.