<< That's what I thought, but the Elder secrets write-up seems to have toned down that feature. Now, anyone who casts magic at the Bat loses knowledge of the spell (most serious for re-usable divine spells). The Bat gains strength by absorbing this knowledge - IMG this would be enough to offset the damage done by a failed Sever Spirit >>
I think the Bat is quite interesting for three main reasons:
how to kill it
how to keep it fed
how to control it
How to kill it is a big problem. One could argue that the rituals used by the defenders of Whitewall (as referred to by Martin Laurie) convert the Bat from the RQII impossible to defeat creature to the more feasibly killable RQIII version. I used try to devise a minimum number of Rune Spells that would be needed to kill it, but never succeeded with the RQ2 bat (that 4 km radius scream was tough, the 'never surprised' thing makes it even tougher, depending how you play it). Presumably, the start of the Hero Wars (HW) will make it easier still. It is onlt a 4point DP monster after all.
I have run a 'Bat' scenario but the PCs were not even going to think that they could dent it. It was to try out the various 'what the local population does' options given in CoT. My players (who were nobles over a large estate) ended up buying slaves/captured rebels from the Lunar Ambassador(who like the Bat visiting his embassy as little as anyone would) and feeding them to the Bat in place of their own peasants. Off course they had to increase taxes on those same peasants to do this. Anyway, while doing this scenario I had a go at generating a few of the higher Bat Controllers to give a bit of political leverage to the whole set up. So there was an Imperial Agent keeping an eye on things, a Chaos devotee intent on destruction, a mystic illuminant who sought Truth through the Bat (or something, no one really knows), a career politician who made a big mistake (joining the cult) and now wants out etc etc. Now these good people had one main problem which was; --
how to keep it fed;
I know that the Bat maintenance thread has been done before but I still
maintain that the Bat is a bit a problem to feed. Think of the Bat in Prax
and imagine nomads fleeing in every direction. I see the Bat as slow moving
and practically unable to feed itself at it's maintenance level - the cult
must do it all. In times of war, of course, it is full of beans, being fed 10
times as much. In DP it is (in my experience) rare for the Bat to go berserk
and start scoffing on Lunars, but it has happened. (Similarly, the Bat rarely
lasts past a few turns because it is so nasty.). I see the cults main
problem being the sourcing of food.
Control of the Bat;
The Bat has a pretty high INT (in RQ) but I played it (and think it should
be played) like a dumb beast (like a rather slow Bat in fact). I reckoned
that the main motivation of the Bat was Hunger, and that the Cult controlled
it by keeping it on the point of starvation but with it thinking that they
were it's only source of food. The Bat is a pitiful slave to the priests only
because it thinks they provide it with food. This is, of course, a cult
secret. There are normally 5 Feeders (RQ2 Runelords), 4 assistant Priests and
one High Priest. Bat Mastery skill is needed to control the Bat, to make it
do anything, which is reduced if it doesn't get it's feed, and, presumably,
if the Bat Master is having a bad day. Note that these Bat Priests are
responsible only to the Red Emporer. This responsibility can be assigned to
Generals occasionally but I would guess that most Bat High Priests are
extremely arrogant - after all they contro one of the most powerful creatures
in Glorantha and are report directly to one of the most powerful people in
Glorantha. The control of the bat can be seen to be not just a matter of
controlling the creature but also of controlling the arrogant, probably mad,
Bat Priests.
This brings me to:-
The Cult of the Bat - It seems to me that most initiates are likely to be
people trying to avoid being eaten, anyone that went out seeking the Bat so
as to get initiated would be pretty weird, downright mad and probably
dangerous - perfect Priest material? The Cult of the Bat therefore seems to
be uniquely contrived of people who really wanted nothing to do with it, or
the dangerously insane. Anyway, certain individuals in this group may be
suitable candidates for treachery.
I can imagine a reasonable freeform could be based on the Cult of the Crimson Bat.
Can anyone answer whether there is a link between Mahaquata, the bat winged goddess of death (the assassin of Murharzarm) who hangs upside down below the cube of the earth, and the Crimson Bat who hangs upside down somewhere presumably (under the moon?) when it is not flying around.
Keith N
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