Pelagiadaemon

Pelagiadaemons, also known as drowning daemons, embrace death through the suffering of others, feeding on the pain of those who pass on through drowning. From those who are smothered in the cold isolation of the ocean's depths to a weighted body stuck on the floor of a placid lake, or even something as mundane as a raging river sweeping a traveler away, pelagiadaemons thrive on them all. Their own methods imitate these deaths: slow, careful, methodical, and deadly. These daemons prefer to isolate victims, taking the things dear to them one by one until even light or warmth becomes a faint memory as they grasp just to keep air in their lungs.

From a distance, pelagiadaemons appear shadowed and indistinct, their pellucid bodies almost as amorphous as the watery depths they choose to inhabit. If you get close enough to their heavy and plodding body, the thousands of tiny red-and-black webbed arms that make up the surface of the pelagiadaemon come into focus, constantly folding and unfolding over each other as their muted and quiet voice enters your mind.

Despite their brutish presence, pelagiadaemons often willingly communicate with mortals, eschewing the short-term gains of one mortal's death if they can arrange through bargaining, temptation, or coercion the ongoing deaths of others. Such mortals drive dozens of new victims to a watery grave in an effort to maintain their own power, life, or loved ones. Once their mortal collaborator no longer suits their purposes, the pelagiadaemon emerges from the dark to drag them down into the oceanic depths.