Vodyanoy could often be seen riding around along the river on half-sunken logs, while loudly splashing in the water so it was hard to miss them. While they might appear whimsical, harmless even, they were rumored to be the responsible for the lion’s share of water related deaths, together with water dryads and rusalky.
When Vodyanoy were in a good mood, they might have even been inclined to help people, but most of the time the water dwellers were a menace to life in early Slav villages. When angered the wrath of a Vodyanoy is hard to escape, dams were broken, water mills washed away, people and their animals drowned. When the water-bound demons felt especially vindictive, they subjected their victims to slavery in their underwater dwellings, which the poor wretches, who were subject to every whim of the benthic miscreants, could not escape.
In Slovak and Czech lands, the river fiends were said to store the souls of their victims in tea pots, which represented their status in Vodyanoy society. Those with the most soul pots enjoyed greater societal privileges. Fortunately for the victims, their souls could be freed by opening the tea pots.
In their free time Vodníci(the plural of Vodník) played cards, smoked pipes or just lazed around on rocks near rivers and lakes.
The fish in the river or a lake, in which the Vodník resides, were the servants of the green men.