Silk-slick Malik

Race

Sluice-Grindle (Subterranean Eel-Kin)

Born

29 years ago

Died

n/a

Aliases

The Sluice Viper, The Grease King of Low Trench

Family

None acknowledged

Racial characteristics

Semi-amphibious, slick rubbery hide coated in frictionless oil, gill slits along jawline, webbed claws

Sex

Male

Height

5'8"

Weight

142 lbs

Skin

Mottled river-stone gray and brackish algae green

Eyes

Pale milky yellow with nictitating membranes

Affiliations

The Gutter Runs (Gutter-Boss), The Black Sluice Smugglers

Silk-slick Malik controls the treacherous, grease-slicked sluiceways where the upper city’s storm drains converge with the deep sewers. Known for his frictionless hide and eerie agility in the dark, Malik can squeeze through any iron grate, drainage pipe, or reinforced valve in the city. As Gutter-Boss, he commands a cutthroat crew of muck-skimmers, canal runners, and mudlarks who extract fortunes from the flotsam and chemical runoff dumped by High Faerie laboratories and luxury estates.

Malik survives in the cutthroat Undercroft by playing predator and parasite in equal measure. He maintains a contentious relationship with The Big Cheese, charging the Rat King's foot soldiers steep tariffs to traverse the deep water culverts while quietly sabotaging rival drop points. When the Blood Baroness needs illicit narcotics moved beneath heavily guarded district walls, it is Malik's drowned pipelines that transport the freight. No corpse, contraband crate, or bag of ill-gotten coin enters the river without Malik taking his slick percentage.