What Are Water-folk?

Water-folk are river- and sea-aligned beings who can live convincingly as human but retain aquatic traits. In Baltimore the Lodge recognises three broad kinds:

• Selkies: seal-kin who keep a skin (pelt or woven wrap) that enables full shapeshift between human and seal. Possession of a selkie’s skin grants dangerous leverage; the Lodge maintains a guarded skin-lock for safekeeping.
• River Sprites: fresh-water spirits embodied in human form; excel at reading currents, eddies, and submerged hazards; can thicken or calm surface ripple and mist in arm’s-length spaces.
• Nixies: liminal swimmers with song-pressure and breath-holding gifts; adept at salvage and quiet rescues; strictly bound by Lodge compacts against predation.

Common traits: cold-tolerance, superior night vision over water, current-sense, and fast recovery when immersed. Limits & taboos: dehydration dulls gifts; polluted water sickens; stolen skins are a grave violation; weather work is for cover not spectacle. Most water-folk pass as human and keep to treaty corridors to avoid turf friction.

Overview

The Selkie & Rivermen Lodge are pilots, salvors, and keepers of the city’s working water. They broker safe passages, recover what sinks, and keep fog and current from embarrassing mortals with cameras. They value treaty over triumph and guard the river’s temper like family. Whispered talk of short, unnatural surges — “gold on the air” turning eddies sharp for a breath — is logged as stories until the Lodge has a sample in hand.

Maxim: “No boat alone; no body lost.”

Leadership & Faces

• Maeve Finn (Harbour Pilot; Lodge-Keeper) — Never seems to get rained on; calls fog by first name; signs most compacts.
• Caspian Rowe (Sounder) — Sonar whisperer; reads depth and wreck by ear; keeps the salvage ledgers honest.
• Old Nettie (Net-Mother) — Eldest selkie; minders for pups and late-bloomers; runs the skin-lock for stored pelts.
• Tomas “Brass” Delaney (Bellman) — Tides, bells, and fog horns; handles signals and warning codes along the waterfront.
• Laleh Akbari (Charts-Warden) — Keeps charts, wayleaves, and the treaty drawer; exacting, fair, impossible to hurry.

PC/NPC hooks: Piloting favours via Maeve; salvage with Caspian; sanctuary through Nettie; discreet signals by Brass; paperwork/treaties with Laleh.

Structure & Crews

Order (treaty-based): Lodge-Keeper → Wardens (Sound • Charts • Nets • Bells) → Crews (Pilot • Salvage • Fog) → Guests

Crews

• Pilot Crew: licensed helms and escorts through slips and bridges.
• Salvage Crew: divers and hookmen; “no body lost” is literal.
• Fog Crew: mist management, light masking, accident prevention.

Domain & Protocol

Water Rights

• No false storms. Weather is for cover, not spectacle.
• First duty is rescue. Rivals wait; drowning doesn’t.
• The skin-lock holds. Stored pelts are sacrosanct; theft is exile.

Boundary Etiquette

• Keep clear of Crimson Harbour red rooms and feeding corridors; pilots will reroute if asked.
• Honour Iron Belt park tracks; no moon-night river theatrics audible from greens.
• Notify the Free Court before misting in performance districts.
• Share collision warnings with Meridian when exposure risks rise.

Lodge Compacts

1. Save first, settle later. Rescue precedes debt and feud.
2. Quiet water. Hide the strange; mend what wakes cameras.
3. Keep the treaties. Written wayleaves bind; handshakes bind tighter.
4. No poison in the tide. Dumping earns a night with Brass and a bill with interest.

Resources & Fronts

• The Pilots’ Room: warded back-room; tide boards, radio wall, treaty drawer, kettle always on.
• Slip Keys: discreet access to private slips and boathouses; used for quiet dawns.
• Dive Shed: suits, tanks, hook lines; ledger for “found & claimed”.
• Fog Bells & Lamps: signal kit along the waterfront; code list shared with a few trusted neighbours.

Relations (Boundary-respecting)

• Meridian Commission (Baltimore FO): Practical coordination on exposure prevention, recoveries, and “nothing to see here” nights.
• Crimson Harbour (vampires): Treaty corridors around red rooms and dawn havens; pilots swap schedules with Rafiq when it keeps peace.
• Iron Belt (werewolves): Mutual respect; wolves keep parks tidy, Lodge keeps river noise down on full moons.
• Free Court (fae/spirits): Cordial; mist permissions near salons; occasional joint events when art wants fog.
• Highland Concord (djinn): Warm; bakery vans sometimes carry Lodge messages at dawn.

Emerging Rumours (GM Guidance)

• Snap Current: Two skippers report a brief against-wind shove near a slip, followed by dead calm; no instrument proof.
• Metallic Scent: Divers note a clean, gold-metal tang in the water after a scuffle; gone by morning.
• Empty Ampoule: Caspian nets an empty vial-case from a storm drain; dry, cold, wrong.
• Policy: Verify twice, act once. No decrees, no hunts, no experiments until a clean artefact or corroborated witness exists.

Known Havens & Working Spots

• The Pilots’ Room (Fell’s Point): Lodge seat; charts layered three deep; bells on pegs.
• Curtis Bay Boathouse: repair shed; slip under a false garage door; good for quiet exits.
• Old Slip Five: retired landing the Lodge keeps “by accident”; best place to talk to fog.

Membership (Sample NPCs)

• Maeve Finn — Pilot; treaty voice; smiles at storms.
• Caspian Rowe — Sounder; hears wrecks; hates headlines.
• Old Nettie — Net-Mother; keeps spare skins; keeps worse secrets.
• Brass Delaney — Bellman; speaks in codes; never late to dawn.
• Laleh Akbari — Charts-Warden; pens straight lines in a crooked world.

Open Slots: 2–3 pilots, 2 divers, 1 fog-worker apprentice, 1 mortal dockhand who knows when not to look.

Hooks & Episode Seeds

• Against-Wind Push: A tourist kayak video almost shows the snap current; Lodge asks PCs to retrieve it without a scene.
• Body, No Name: Salvage crew finds a drowned man with a healed bite and gold in the eyes for one frame only.
• Fog Window: Free Court requests a timed mist for a gala; Meridian warns of patrols; keep everyone out of each other’s way.
• Skin-Lock Alarm: Someone tried the pelts cabinet; nothing taken, nothing broken—what did they really want?
• Pilot’s Favour: Maeve offers safe passage to a PC—price is delivering a treaty note to the Prince without crossing red-room lines.

GM Notes (Backstage)

• Tone: workmanlike grace; tides, treaties, and practical rescue.
• Pressure Dials: Exposure □□ • Rumour Heat □□ • Treaty Friction □□
• Escalation Path: rumours → clean current anomaly → treaty choices (ban, contain, or cooperate) → first undeniable contact.
• Fail State: a public surge capsizes tourists; federal heat on every faction.
• Win State: proof gathered quietly; measured pact with neighbours; river stays honest.