BESTIARY · THE VALE

The Drownling

aka the thing in the sump, what the drains feed

The drowned thing that dens in the Undertow's sump — slow, patient, and it does not breathe. It is what some of the gaol's flushed dead become in the still cold where the water stops moving.

Nothing living was meant to nest in the drowned drains beneath the bluff gaol, which is exactly why the Drownling does. The House flushes its dead down with everything else it would rather not count, and where the water pools and stops moving, cold and lightless, some of them do not stay drowned. The Drownling is the largest and oldest of them, bloated pale by the sump, grown into the sluice-chamber the way a thing grows into a shell. The rats fear it and will not go as deep as it dens; the warden Dural, who quit rather than keep feeding the forgotten, gives it its only warning to the living — when the water goes still and cold, it is coming up, and the only answer is to climb. It is not fast. It does not need to be. The drains are patient, and so is it.

KIND

undead

DANGER

Tier II

HAUNT

The Undertow

TEMPER

Hostile

Connected

The UndertowPLACE · The Drownling dens in the Undertow's sump, where the…House VandahlFACTION · It is made and fed by what the House flushes down it…Grave LurkerCREATURE · The largest and oldest of the sump's drowned dead; t…DuralCHARACTER · He gives the living the only warning about the Drown…A Warden's Drain-LedgerTEXT · 'It goes to the sump. It does not stay drowned.'

Type Fields

kindundead

habitatplace.the-undertow

danger_tier2

hostileyes

spawn_stats_refgrave_lurker

rankboss

All Relationships (5)

located_in

→The Undertow — The Drownling dens in the Undertow's sump, where the water stops moving.

caused_by

→House Vandahl — It is made and fed by what the House flushes down its own memory hole — the gaol's forgotten dead.

twin_of

→Grave Lurker — The largest and oldest of the sump's drowned dead; the same undead body as the grave-lurker, grown into the sluice.

knows_origin_of

←Dural — He gives the living the only warning about the Drownling there is: when the water goes still and cold, climb.

references

←A Warden's Drain-Ledger — 'It goes to the sump. It does not stay drowned.'

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