Leak
watermischiefhouse-spiritsecretsurban-legend
Lore
Leak is a Fae of the house’s seams and the places where water remembers walls. Field notes record it as small and fluid in presence rather than shape: a damp shimmer that gathers in the corners of attics, behind skirting boards, and beneath eaves. Smell: a sharp, mineral wetness—ozone, cold stone, and the faint sugared tang of old paper. Sound: the patient, irregular drip turned purposeful, and a soft susurration like breath moving through a keyhole; at greater proximity there is the skitter of tiny claws or fingers against timber. Temperature: a localized chill that raises the hair on the neck and leaves a fine dewy coolness on exposed skin. Observers report an uncanny sense of being watched through the house’s cracks, and that secrets—lost trinkets, hidden letters—are often found near its favored drip-lines.
Origin: Balinese / Old-Javanese • Bali, Indonesia
Classification: Fae
Profile & Cultural Role
Affinities
Night, Blood, Childbirth
Offerings
Canang sari (daily Balinese offering), Kemenyan (benzoin) incense
Taboos
Leave placenta unburied or exposed overnight, Display a newborn outside after dusk
Field Notes
Observations
- A single, steady drip that continues after pipes are dry or a circle of condensation that forms with no visible source.
Encounter Advice
- mischief: Leak delights in small, revealing pranks: loosening a nail so a portrait tilts to show a hidden note; opening a seam in a parcel just enough that a fragment slips out; coaxing whispers from damp walls so intimate secrets are carried on the next draft. Its mischief rarely aims harm—rather it forces attention to what has been overlooked.
- interaction: Treat it like a cautious tenant. Speak calmly and name what you seek to keep secret or safe; show no cruelty. Leave a shallow bowl to catch its drip or a folded scrap of paper with a clear line written (a promise or a small truth) and place it where condensation gathers. Bargains are literal: state plainly what the house may give and what you will not allow lost.
- offering: A shallow wooden bowl to collect its water, or a small sealed note placed in the drips—simple, honest tokens restore its curiosity rather than its ire.
Abilities
- Viscera-DriftBy night the Leak detaches into a flying human head trailing entrails that slip through roofs and thatch to reach sleeping houses.
- Placenta TheftIt specifically seeks and steals fresh placenta or the blood of newborns to feed its dark hunger and prolong the witch's power.
- Beast-Sheen FacadeThe Leak can mimic livestock or common village animals to move among people and bypass simple watchfulness.
- Nocturnal ReattachmentAt dawn a Leak can rejoin its human host or corpse, healing injuries taken while disassembled during the night.
Weaknesses
- Sunlight ExposureDirect daylight forces reattachment and disorients the Leak, stripping its flight and most nocturnal powers.
- Balian Exorcism RitesA temple healer's (Balian) mantra, holy water and ritual gestures compel the Leak to flee and often reveal its human practitioner.
- Canang sari and Kemenyan SmokeFresh household offerings (canang sari) and the resin smoke of kemenyan repel it and interrupt its approach.