Miststealer Crowbat
Summary
A creature that tirelessly frustrastes scholars, zoologists, and priestesses, the crowbat straddles the line between magical animal and spirit. Strictly nocturnal, its habitats are typically in areas of strong gloom and uneasy death, and it prefers nights of the Pale Moon over others. Hence, it's often found around graveyards, battlefields, and any place where the undead may stir. On the other hand, it feeds upon live prey, and avoids feasting on corpses except the freshest of kills. Crowbats form small communities, typically of several adults who raise their offspring in a group. Those who frequently deal with them call them 'flying wolves', as they often display a lot of similar pack-based mentalities. Their bizarre intangibility magic allow them to evade and out skill most of their competition, making them apex predators of a sort. However, their greatest hunger is often that of mana itself. Mists are one of many common forms free-floating mana takes on a somewhat corporeal existence. While nominally aspected toward water and wind, mists are a common occurence around sites of the undead. Skeletons and other undead who cannot consume anything subsist entirely off these mana-rich mists, or other available sources. Crowbats are gluttonous creatures who love to devour these mists whole. They will glide through them, soaking up incredible amounts and deprieving all others of the bounty. Due to this, they are oppressively destructive toward the undead who would otherwise emerge. One keshlaen scholar even argued that the crowbats may, "be animals that grew to predate on the undead and the vermin often following in their wake". There can be no denying they're quite the pest themselves around mages, cultivators, and anyone else dealing with high concentrations of mana. Magical arts utilize varying amounts of mana, sometimes excessively so, and even creating 'waste' mana that simply isn't used properly. These things attract nearby crowbats, who have the arrogance of flight and the strength of devious magic themselves. Although they learn to be wary of people, they are still bold enough to come near magic arts and try siphoning away the mana for themselves. Such attempts can destabilize delicate or violatile forms of magic, endangering the practitioners and creating a terrible inconvenience. Enchantments, while less obvious to the crowbat's senses, may also be endangered by their plifering happy ways. For whatever benefit they provide by suppressing the undead, they earn the ire of many people. Crowbats can be a rather divisive creature as a result. Their usual proximity to the undead, even though to the benefit for the living, gives them terrible connotations and a frightful reputation. Common folktales consider the crowbat a kind of soul stealing specter that devours wayward travelers or children at night. Others attribute their reasonably capable intelligence as a form of malice, and they can be connected toward plagues and disease despite their usual cleanliness. Even though many such terrifying beliefs have been disproven, superstition is a difficult curse to remove in itself.Basic Information
Anatomy
An aerial predator with a head-to-foot height of around 3ft, and a wingspan averaging 6ft, the crowbat is neither crow nor bat, but blends the two together in the extreme. Its wings are wider than they are longer, giving it more aerial control and gliding power over raw flight ability. Its feet, while nominally in the shape of hands, have multi-inch talons that can rend through flesh and soft metals easily. Black fur covers its main body, while black, silver-tipped feathers adorn its wings, backside, and head.
The head of the crowbat has the eyes, ears, and snout of a bat, but the beaked mouth of a crow. Its disturbingly human-like guise, while easy to dispel in light, gives it a much different appearance at night. In low-light, or poor vision, conditions, the hunched-over crowbat on a branch can resemble a small, humanoid creature. Some of the oldest tales spoke of 'flying small folk', at least until dead crowbats were caught and studied for the first time.
Not that makes it any less spooky when one comes across a tree with dozens of such creatures sitting in it.
Crowbats as a whole are uniformly black, with silver detailing on their feathers and head fur. Their round eyes are often reflective, piercing colors such as bright red, deep blue, and amber yellow. Most forms of light reflecting inside their eyes makes them appear as if they're glowing orbs, furthering the 'spiritual specter' motif they're known for.
Biological Traits
Intangibility – Crowbats can become intangible for several seconds at a time, flying through corporeal objects, people, or animals with ease. Only magic has any way of affecting them in this state.
Mana Siphon – Crowbats directly siphon mana around themselves, though it's only effective on things externalized of the body; e.g, mists, magical arts, etc.
Manavore – This species subsists a large part of its diet on rich sources of mana.
Carnivore – This species subsists a large part of its diet on eating meat.
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