Wasteland Bats
Flesh-based lifeforms can be just as resilient as magitech-based ones! The lifeless Kirinal Wastes have become the home of bats escaping predators. The chiroptera have become the dominant non-sentient lifeform in the badlands.
I don't mind them little bats so much. They're especially delicious with pepper sauce. It's the big ones that'll eat your dog that I'm worried about!
The bats of the Kirinal Wastes use the ruined buildings and abandoned structures of the wastelands as roosts. The lack of other wildlife means that the bats can live and breed there while food an water are an easy few hours of flight away in either the Zone or the Sovranty lands bordering the Waste.
"Wasteland Bats", refer to several different species of bats throughout the Wastes. Most of the bats are small insectivores and welcome in the surrounding lands for their help in eating dangerous or pesky flying bugs. A few are more predatory, growing to the size of dogs and capable of hunting fish, frogs, and rodents.
Goblin Riding Bats
The largest bats are the size of humans, capable of carrying off pets and children. These bats were hunted almost to extermination until some of the smaller mortal races: goblins, halflings, and kobolds; discovered that they could domesticate them. These goblin riding bats have become the flying mounts of choice for nocturnal mortal races.
Food on the Fly
As the only protein source native to the Wastes, the bats do have one natural predator, sapient mortals. The Wastelanders set up nets near their roosts or at cave entrances to catch bats leaving at sunset or heading back at sunrise. The hardy denizens have an entire cuisine around bats, and know how to cook and prepare them in order to remove parasites and diseases, making them safe to eat.
Despite their care and experience preparing bat meat, some pathogens still survive the process, causing a plague among the Wasterlanders. This has done nothing to help the reputation of "Wasters" as disease-ridden criminals.
Giant bats! People using bats as a mount sounds really fun XD Have the wastelanders attempted to domesticate the bat too? I like the details about the disease coming from bats.