It is said among the Old Pahr people that a pessimist is someone who thinks that things couldn’t be any worse--and that an optimist believes that it can! Pushing aside the old wives tale that a surfeit of strong drink drives men to melancholy, learned men attribute this pervading culture gloom to the overabundance of malevolent spirits and faeries in that people’s mythology. A particularly nasty example of the inimical Pahr spirit is the vodník, a male water nymph of a particularly sour and murderous nature. Vodník often lurk at the edges of lakes and rivers waiting for lone wanderers or small groups of village folk. Vodník are invisible in the the water before they strike, but rise as a translucent serpent when they do. Each strike does damage but worse is that the spirit serpent attempts to drag the victim down to a watery doom. Once the Vodník has a victim under water it shifts into its true form, a pot-bellied old man covered in slimy scales, and concentrates on drowning the hapless victim. Instinct: To induct you into the service of Vul (drown you)

• Drown its victim (see Custom Move below)