Fenette

Grieving people sometimes invent a wild explanation for a senseless death, and a story believed widely enough can birth a spirit. Fenettes came to haunt one region's rivers this way, after a widow insisted her drowned husband had been seduced by water-maidens rather than lost to drink and darkness as the neighbors whispered.

A fenette usually appears as a slim young woman whose long hair clings wetly to her body. She uses that shape to coax men to the bank, or else she shapechanges, a rare gift among spirits, into a gold ring or other treasure glinting in the shallows. When her mark draws near, she seizes him with Strength 20 and hauls him under. People often take her for a nymph, but she has nothing in common with that kindly race.

She prefers lone, easy victims and avoids open fights. Cornered, her delicate frame hides murderous strength: her bare hands are deadlier than many warriors' swords, and tales say she has punched clean through a man's chest. More often she simply turns into a fish and swims off when outmatched. As a last resort she can raise the drowned bodies of her unrecovered victims, 1d6 in all, which fight as sea zombies.

Fenettes accept shamans of any alignment, but only women. A man who approaches one becomes prey or leaves with nothing, shaman or not. A woman need only know where to find her to become familiar with her.

The fenette claims she drowns men out of loneliness, since she longs for male company she can never keep. In return for her favor, a female shaman must bring her at least one man each month and spend one night a week describing her own love life. Bad news earns earnest advice; good news earns giddy squeals.

Her patronage covers solitary-shaman spells of levels 2 through 4, plus Elemental Water priest spells no higher than 4th level. Once a day, her favored servants may also use water breathing.