Savant Bat

Description

These flying, manta-ray like beasts haunt caves and tree canopies, looking for prey to swoop down upon. While at first glance they are similar to manta-rays in appearance, their top halves are covered with thick, course bristles – like insect hair – and their underside conceals retractable, vicious looking hooks with hollow tips.

Details

Level:

3 (9)

Motive:

To feed on the mental energy of intelligent creatures

Environment:

Savant bats often flock in groups of five or six. They tend to make their nests in cave passages or along travel routes through forests where they easily find prey.

Health:

3

Damage:

3

Movement:

Savant bats can fly or glide gracefully over a long distance

Modifications:

When attached to an enemy, deals 1 point of Intellect damage every round until 3 points are drained.

Combat:

Savant bats wait silently above their prey, then swoop down on their enemies. Upon their first successful attack, they attach to their opponent, sinking their hooks in and connecting to the target’s nervous system. If left alone, they will do nothing for 3 rounds except drain 1 intellect each round before detaching painlessly and flying off.

Interaction:

Savant bats are not intelligent and cannot be reasoned with. However they are not strong and will retreat if threatened or injured badly. If a savant bat is attached and an attempt is made to remove it, it makes an additional 3 might damage attack to resist being pulled off. If it fails to stay on, it retreats. While attached, a savant bat grants the victim a specialization in a random skill, but increases the difficulty of all other tasks until it is removed or it leaves of its own accord. Common specializations granted are painting works of art, creating music, mathematics, understanding languages, understanding numenera or puzzle solving. Savant bats often collect and leave oddities around their hunting grounds to attract intelligent, curious creatures.

Use:

Savant bats make excellent surprise attackers or infestations to be cleared from villages or other gatherings of intelligent beings. They can also be shown as creatures tamed as pets that are ‘used’ by artists, inventors or people of other professions to give them an ‘edge’ at their trade skill.

Loot:

1d6 oddities