Dry men

Unquenchable thirst

She felt her skin wrapping closer to her bones as all fluids exited her crumbling body.

Dry men are shadows of an ancient society which treads with forces it wasn't able to handle. After a catastrophic event, a failed ritual or a blasphemous act, they were cursed to live as ever-thirsty corpses deprived of any manner of fluid yet desperately seeking it. With nothing to lose and an eternal life, their mastery over occult essence is a threat to anyone who crosses path with them.

Thirst

Even though their body repels all kind of humidity and they cannot escape their fate in any way, they still crave water, blood and any fluid contained in another person's body. Maybe it is part of the curse, that they struggle to keep their calm in front of a person. When faced with a breathing being, it requires all of their willpower not to unleash one of their powerful spells that absorbs the fluids of their victim into theirs.

It is a creepy process to witness, as their body will suddenly inflate and blood run too fast in their veins. It seems to fill them with both pain and intense pleasure, but soon enough all that liquid heat up and turn into vapor, leaving their body through every pore and their crackled skin. It is a much less pleasant experience, and leaves them even thirstier for a moment, turning them berserk. For this reason I had to purchase a charm nullifying their sorceries to prevent them from putting me in danger if they happen to drink another customer.

Burrowed community

While they are sentient and perfectly capable of holding a conversation, as long as they can repress from sucking their interlocutor dry, they have a hard time integrating London's surface. Dried cadavers wandering the streets are not a pretty sight for the common denizen. The lack of eyeball doesn't help.

I cannot tell whence they came from. Nor can anyone. They have been around for longer than any Mage can remember, either wandering the world or gathering to London. It is not even clear if they are from here or elsewhere. Perhaps their home was the ruins we find in the Depths Below, but they don't even go there anymore.

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by Rumengol with MSE

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Valued customers

I should consider myself fortunate that I am one of the few no dry man will ever attack. Like many, they too have the need for occult science. Well, they are probably more experienced in their alchemy than I would ever be, but they lack the network and providers for their most exotic needs. They rarely buy anything else than raw materials, but they are my sole customers for some of them, which is easier on the stocks.

They have some expensive demands, and seem to possess unlimited resources. I don't ask where their money comes from, although I have my idea. I wonder if they target wealthy people intentionally, or if their victims are so numerous that they just happen to carry valuables. Not that it concerns me.