Re: The BatBlat

From: Morrigan Enterprises <morriganenterprises_at_...>
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:32:15 +0100

Guys & Gals,

It's been a pleasure to lurk on this list. Your creativity is astounding. I'd just like to throw in my tuppence on the BatBlat.

John Hughes said:

>>The bat approaches. Hurricane
>>Umbroli and suicide storms buffet
>>the chaos demon, blowing many
>>priests and servitors from its back.
>>As the Bat closes to screaming
>>range, the air retreats. Hard. A
>>semi vacuum forms about the bat.
>>...More priests are blown away.
>>The air retreats, and it cannot
>>scream. The air retreats, the bat
>>priests cannot breathe...

This is *so* good and would be a delight to narrate. If "drawn out" by the Narrator, it could seem to last forever to the PCs. And (in itself) it would beautifully foreshadow the Fimbulwinter. In fact, if some have had visions, precognition or dreams of the Fimbulwinter, they *might* think this vacuum was it. Talk about a false sense of security!!! Of course, it's just a precursor to the Mother of all Thunderclaps...

Roderick and Ellen Robertson said:

>>A massive fight develops on the
>>back of the bat. Which, incidently,
>>goes into a series of death-rolls,
>>dives, spins, etc to shake the
>>interlopers off - while it is blind and
>>deaf and buffeted by high winds! It
>>could easily fly straight into the
>>ground/side of a cliff.

Fantastic! Marvellous! I want to narrate it! Yes, but... I think you've completely failed to comprehend the size of this thing. At this point in time, it's (roughly) 1km long, yes? Then it's wingspan is *at bare minimum* 2.5km - possibly as long as 4km. Assuming the Thunderclap goes off just before the Bat enters Screaming range, the Bat is already on an "attack vector" with Whitewall (since the Scream doesn't travel much more than the Bat's body length). So unless it's doing a kamikaze dive, it's roughly level with Whitewall - an altitude of about 1,000ft (???). This close to touchdown, *tilting* the Bat along its wingspan axis by around 2 degrees is going to ground one of its wings. What you describe is absolutely wonderful and full of flavour. But it would need to start at an altitude in excess of 50km and I just don't see that happening.

Jeff Richard said:

>>...I think that the Bat doesn't just
>>fly away - I think it cacks it right
>>there beneath the walls of
>>Whitewall...

I love this too! The Bat Must Die! But please remember that it'll just *flump* to the ground from 1,000ft - not *crash*. It'll be a most disappointing death (visually) unless we have two or three death-throes...

The subsidiary problem with killing the Bat has been mentioned, but not solved. Indeed, it may be insoluble and the reason we must allow the Bat to fly off. If it's killed, how is its physical body removed? Again, I think some are totally failing to comprehend the Bat's size. We're talking about over 3 *square kilometres* of decomposing chaos goop/flesh. "Feeding the trolls" just doesn't cut the mustard...

Jeff Richard said:

>>The storm summoned by the
>>defenders is *something* of a
>>magnitude greater than the Bat.

In size? Now we're just being silly...

Best regards and keep up the *great* work,

Philip M

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