Deep Bat

Deep bats is a catch-all name for several bats of a prime world that hunt both above ground and in the deep underworld. The four most notable are described here.

Azmyths eat flowers, small plants and insects, roam alone and keep favorite spots they revisit. Many befriend humanoids for life, then stay on with their offspring; their lifespan and breeding are unknown. They are not familiars, and nothing but spells can command one.

Each has a crested head, a bearded chin, blank white eyes and leathery skin of gray, mauve or emerald. They use 60-foot telepathy and 90-foot infravision, can know alignment three times a day, and once a day each can turn invisible (self only, up to 6 rounds, ending on any successful attack) and surround themselves with silence 15' radius.

An azmyth bites for 1 point and jabs with its needle tail for 1d2. Twice a day it can add a shocking grasp, sending 1d8+6 electrical damage through any physical contact, stacking with a normal hit.

Named for the adventurer who first kept one as a pet, night hunters are nocturnal on the surface but active anytime underground. They prefer small beasts and accept carrion, and desperate ones attack livestock, drow and humans. Hunting bands, called swoops, bite for 1d4, rake twice with wing claws for 1d2 apiece, and use a deft, triangular razor tail to slash for 1d6 or stab for 3d4. They ambush from behind ridges, trees or stalagmites with 180-foot infravision, though their echoing, loon-like cries rarely let them surprise anyone.

Lairs of over thirty, about three swoops, sit in two-mouthed caves or tall forest trees and gather valuables from prey, since they never eat where they feel unsafe. They roost head-down, are velvet black even to the claws, with eyes of red, orange or violet.

Glossy black, manta-shaped and seemingly headless, sinisters hover motionless by natural levitation, which inspired the name, but they are not evil. On the surface they hunt by night with 160-foot infravision, eat carrion if nothing else turns up, and regularly feed on flowers and seed heads.

While alive, each is surrounded by a 5-foot natural force field resembling a wall of force. It offers no defense against spells or melee but halts all missiles: ordinary ones are deflected and magic missile or acid arrow simply vanishes into it. Once a day a sinister may cast hold monster, generally to escape stronger creatures or, if starving, while hunting.

Silent, using 20-foot limited telepathy among themselves, they love music, and a wilderness bard may find a ring of them hovering around the campfire, harmless unless attacked and apt to return night after night. They roam in small groups, probably live long lives, and keep their numbers and customs a mystery.

A werebat's bite can pass on a rare lycanthropy. Victims take a batlike shape at night, even deep underground, keeping their intelligence, alignment, Hit Dice and speech, with full awareness and sharp hearing in both forms. Clumsy, bloodthirsty fliers, they hunt alone. Their long, hollow fangs drain blood for 1d2, and their saliva weakens the victim with no save, as ray of enfeeblement, for 1d4 rounds.

Unless cure disease or neutralize poison is cast on the victim within nine turns (36 turns if slow poison was applied first), there is an 80% chance of infection. It is always werebat lycanthropy, and it takes hold gradually over the following month.

In humanoid form they look normal, if often shy, dark-eyed loners, and they return to their usual homes rather than keeping bat lairs. Most are lonely, desperate people, and many hoard treasure hoping to buy a magical cure. Silver and holy water do them no special harm. Being living creatures, they cannot be turned, and neither vampires nor bat-controlling magic can command them.