Nereid (encyclopedia)

Nereids are capricious and often dangerous aquatic fey who beguile, seduce, entrap, and drown unwitting travelers, particularly sailors.

Nereids most often appear as beautiful humanoid-seeming women bathing in water with a shawl.

They emit a beguiling aura that can compel creatures who are sexually attracted to their form to approach them. They are also venomous on contact and through spray.

When underwater, a nereid can become transparent at will.

Part of a nereid's life force is embedded in a shawl, which it protects with its life; destroying a nereid's shawl slowly drains it of its life. While they can fashion a new shawl from water, the process can take up to four hours to complete.

Many sailors have met their doom following a nereid, for though a nereid's beauty is otherwordly, her watery kiss is death, as it floods its victim's lungs with water, and can drown a victim within seconds. Others seek out nereids, for if one can secure control over the creature's shawl, the cloth can be used to force the nereid's compliance. A nereid forced to obey in this manner immediately attempts to slay her master as soon as she can secure her shawl's safety.