The bhàthadh

Those who die the perilous death of drowning often don't rest in the Trì Cium forest¹ instead they tend to lurk where they went under to drag others to the same fate. These creatures are the bhàthadh, the drowned.

Appearance: From a distance, the bhàthadh can appear as normal undead, which can prove a fatal mistake. Thankfully, there are some key features for identifying a bhàthadh. These features are wrinkled skin due to water exposure, sunken eyes, and lack of prominent rot. Another key identifier is the unique choking gasps for air they make. Soft bits such as eyes are often missing due to being eaten by the local sea life. Additionally, they are frail, like skinned skeletons.

Attributes: Be wary, bhàthadh possesses unnatural strength, capable of crushing bones in their vice-like grip. As undead, they are naturally immune to poisons, venoms, toxins, and blight. Unlike most of the undead though, they have a high resistance to natural fire and fire magic due to their aquatic nature.

Despite their unnatural strength, they often are unable to walk well usually opting to crawl instead, those who do walk tend to trip and stagger. Do not let their poor maneuverability on land fool you, they are uncannily fast in the water, often using this to catch victims off guard.

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Contrary to their frail physique, the bhàthadh are quite durable, able to withstand blows fatal to others.

Weaknesses: The one golden rule of Ciaradh is that nothing is without weakness². The prime weakness is that they will wither and become stagnant if left without contact with their water source for a day. The other weakness of the bhàthadh in question is their poor sight and poor posture. Their vision, or more rather, lack of vision makes them have poor accuracy, and therefore easy to dodge or line up effective blows upon. Their inadequate land maneuverability leaves them open and easy to hit. As in the case of most undead, holy magic can drive them off and weakens them. The best form of combat to use is precise strikes with a longarm such as a spear or a javelin.

Strategy for combat: It is not wise to combat a bhàthadh, but if need be, the best bet in defeating a bhàthadh in combat is to lure it onto land to limit movement, lure it at least 10 meters from the water, then strike from afar at the eye sockets with a long piercing weapon enchanted or empowered by holy magic, once stabbed into the eye, drive the weapon forward towards the ground while still keeping the weapon embedded in the head, keep driving until they are staked to the ground. Once immobilized upon the ground, create a binding rune imbued with holy energy to keep them still and leave them to the sun.

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¹ the Trì Cuim is the forest that surrounds the kingdom of Boglack Glas

² "humanity would not still stand upon these treacherous lands, if not for one uncontested rule of life, that nothing that treads these lands may disobey, and that rule is that none are without weakness, even tightest knot has a loose end that we... [humanity] will pull on" - on ‘Conceptions of Ciaradh - A study’