[Location] Drowning House

[Colombina]

Drowning House The facade of the city's bathhouse is a patchwork of clay and broken lapis tile, all the more dismal for its hints of former beauty. Edges of long shadows pass by its windows, lit by an opalgloam at the building's heart. Sounds of moving water pass over your head through elevated aqueducts that pierce the side of the structure. Short broad steps flow down from the pillared patio where a Benshira woman waits by the door. Her right arm ends in a crude stub, where a torturous looking device of leather and metal make a curved knife where a hand would be. Her clothes are snug layers, worn and haphazardly patched and her boots look like they were taken from a man. "Have you chosen this as the lesser of two evils?" she asks mechanically. Beyond her is the refuge of the Limbus. These are the damned who have recognized their own wickedness and what it has brought them. They do not savor the violence of Hai, but they are not so ignorant as to nurture hope. Limbus exist in a strange stalemate with Lhex and time. What ill they have worked cannot be undone, but they have little inclination to continue in cruelty. The bathhouse serves as a fortress and home. It is called Drowning House because its inhabitants are both doomed and secure near its waters. The lower level and bath is kept clear of individuals and utilized for the needs of the group. In the three upper levels, once private dressing chambers for nobles, Limbus claim closets and rooms as their own and build approximations of the spaces they once knew. The result is often comical or heartbreaking. Their small numbers are led by Cullorn, a calm but undeniably ruthless human. His capacity for detached cruelty is rarely seen unless the safety of his followers are at stake. Otherwise, he is quiet and almost scholarly in nature.