Glaugust 2026 prompt "water levels"
Lake Jars
A lake jar can be a large skin, clay vessel or lidded barrel. Watertight materials are traditional but linen and hemp bags can also work. A lake jar tends to be about the size and weight of an adult human. When full it contains a lake demon and about three trillion liters of water.
Typically a lake jar will have one primary opening sealed with protective charms, bangles, or tokens. The jar can be opened with two or three minutes effort and then its water can be scooped or poured out until it’s empty. A full jar may easily take decades to empty, even if it’s never refilled. If a user opens the jar and puts their ear to the opening they may hear a deep echo, distant sloshing, or the whispers of the lake demon.
A lake jar has many large uses despite its small size and they are highly sought after by mariners, siege engineers, and agronomists. They are not common, however, as creating one destroys a lake and much of the surrounding countryside. Creating a lake jar in one’s home country is generally considered a crime. Rather than make a new jar, users will often refill an existing jar slowly though mundane means; a rain catchment system or a stream.
Harvesting lake jars abroad however, can be very lucrative. Jar harvesters will look for unusually large of strange lakes where demons are most likely to be found. Lake demons are quite shy but they can sometimes be found on the shore of their lake: counting reeds, skipping stones, digging in the mud, or napping. An individual or team or hunters will need to capture the demon, move it a few hundred yards from the lake, and secure it. Several stakes of iron or hard wood is usually enough. Demons do not like being separated from their lake and a captured one will roll its pale eyes and its heart will beat like a big drum in its chest.
After two or three days the lake will miss its demon and come looking for it, sending tendrils of water onto the land. Once these tendrils see the demon, the lake will come for the demon. The demon should then quickly be put in a large empty jar. The lake will follow the demon into the jar, and fill it up over six to eight weeks. This is very fast for a lake and most vegetation, trees, wildlife, and buildings in the area will suffer damage.
Once in the jar, the demon will sit at the bottom, waiting to escape, and speaking to those who will listen. If the demon is able to leave the jar and its captors are still alive, it will hunt for them, creeping through the night and dripping through the day. It will smell streams and listen to the clouds. It will carry stakes of its own for the day it finds those who stole its home.
