Cave Impet

The Cave Impet is a bat-like creature native to Kaoar that has adapted to live its entire life underground. Hairless, wrinkly, with two wing-like gliding limbs, it is perfectly equipped for its insect-based diet in deep lair-like cave systems.

Description

The cave impet is a bat-like creature, bearing two small back legs which are useless for walking, and two long finger-like arms with a thin membrane of skin stretched between them. Its head is attached firmly on its shoulders, with a highly reduced neck, giving it a strange, square appearance when hanging upside-down.
The wings are constructed of arms with a single digit on each, finished with a long claw that helps it grip to stony surfaces and grasp larger prey. The feet are small with 4 curling digits and gripping pads beneath, excellent for grasping small notches on cave walls or fungal gills to attach and rest. The impet can hang from these feet for hours without expending energy, allowing them to rest very efficiently. Unlike bats, they can also crawl well on their wing knuckles and back legs, allowing them to "walk" on flat surfaces and even curl into a ball on a floor to rest, more like a rat than a bat.
The face is rounded and is constructed of a huge, hinge-like mouth that acts as an insect trap. The mouth is lined with many needle-like teeth and a strong tongue, allowing them to nimbly snatch insects from the air or ground with ease. The eyes are large with massive pupils, allowing them to capture even dim light to see in the bioluminescent fungal habitats of the underdark realm of Kaoar. Unlike bats, they don't use echolocation, and rely entirely on a combination of their vision, sense of smell, and remarkable memory to navigate the cave systems.
The cave impet is almost hairless, its body sporting only very small residual hairs that serve very little purpose, other than distributing oils across the skin. The skin is pinkish with brown freckling, and a dark "spectacle" mask around the eyes. They sport brown on the backs of their ears, as well as along their back in a dorsal stripe. The dorsal side of the animal is slightly browner than the underside, but this is very subtle.

Diet

Cave impets eat insects, crustaceans and mollusks that live in the depths of the underdark. On occasion, they are known to catch small amphibians or fish from waterways. Unlike bats, they don't fly above ground to hunt, and remain in their cave systems; impets that do accidently fly above ground find they can't cope in the light and lack of familiar landmarks, losing their way and eventually dying of exhaustion.

Memory

Masters of navigation, cave impets make perfect memory banks of their territories, taking advantage of the rigid and unchanging nature of cave wall structures. This allows them to effectively navigate even if living, unreliable light sources such as bioluminescent fungus perish.
Drisimer of Kaoari use this adaptation to their advantage, breeding cave impets and hand-rearing them before releasing them into the cave systems to learn their surroundings. The impets return to the roosts of their masters to be fed, and when required the elves take them on scouting or hunting trips, guided by their knowledge of the caves.

Scholarly Name: Impet kaoari
Common Names: Cave impet, spectacled impet, Kaoari impet
Conservation: Least concern
Range: Kaoar