Bat, Golden

Golden Bat

Bats usually flock in the layer of eternal darkness in the Beastlands called Karasuthra, but the rarest of them — the jewel within the peanuts, as I call them — are the Golden bats. Golden bats look like ordinary bats except that they are golden in colour all round. They serve as messengers to the good powers, and often when a power wants to deliver a message to a follower on the planes or the Prime Material, one of the bats will be a courier. This is how it works, when a message is to be delivered, the bats will fly to the location of the recipient. It then flaps its wings emitting a gentle sonic wave, to other it only sounds like a high squeaking sound, but to the recipient it is a clear message. Afterwards the bat returns to its home plane.

COMBAT: Usually these bats shy away from combat. They prefer to turn ethereal (curiously they can do this, even on the Outer Planes where no formal connection to the Ethereal exists) then engage their adversaries. When pushed or defending their young however, they will emit a high ultra-sonic squeak that attacks the target’s equilibrium. The target must save vs. spell or be paralysed for 4 rounds, if the target makes his save, he will only be slowed for 1 turn.

In addition the sound does 1d8 points of damage for every 1 bat below 9. When 10 bats attack simultaneously the effect is equal to that of the spell wail of the banshee, and for every 1 bat above 10 a +1 damage will be added.

Golden bats are imbued from birth with the ability to flare up with a continual light which dispels the effects of continual darkness or darkness spell and can be used to blind foes. In a desperate situation they can flare up with an illumination equal to that of the sun for one turn. Undead caught within this glare will be treated as though they are under bright sunlight, and furthermore priests can turn undead with a +6 bonus under the illumination. Doing this however causes the bat to burst in a shower of golden sparks, killing it instantly. As some consolation for the bat however, its essence finds its way back and merges with the Beastlands no matter where the death occurred.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: Golden bats usually keep to themselves in small damp caves. A typical cave can house some 4d100 bats comfortably. They only venture out to hunt for small insects and wild berries, to mate or on a celebration of the goddess Hanali Celanil on one of her Holy days. During this time the bats often fly to Arborea or the various Prime worlds where this goddess is worshipped. They return to their home plane just before the sun rises.

ECOLOGY: These bats usually eat small amount of food and interact well with other creatures and demi-humans but are shy or suspicious among humans.They usually carry out their activities during the night and sleep during the day but they are in no way blinded if they choose to travel during the day.

VARIANTS: The golden bats can summoned by good wizards as familiars. The ritual consists of the normal find familiar spell but the material components includes wild exotic berries, and small moonstones totalling 1000 gold in value. The wizard must also be true to his chosen alignment. If successful, the wizard gains 1 level, 10 hp and 10% magical resistance when within 20′ radius of the bat. The bat will gain a saving throw vs. spell with a +4 bonus when subjected to spells such as dismissal. When within 20′ radius of the caster the bat gains half the caster’s hit points, added to its previous hit points and a 20% magical resistance. The bats usually serve as messengers to the wizard. A wizard can only summon but one bat in his lifetime.

Source: Shizumaru Meioh