View source for A Bat Out of Hell

{{Infobox expedition log
| title = A Bat Out of Hell
| date = 7/21/25
| storyteller = Aru
| tier_of_play = Trainee
| player_characters = [[King of Dance]], [[Reiker]], [[DDOS]], [[Sabelle]], [[Ser Bewwy]], [[Wander & Wonder]]
| rewards = 6 Blood Booster (Lesser), Lifting Belt, Rime Crystal, Trinity Geode, Spiny Lodestone, 60 GP, 300 XP
| result = Trainee
| author = johnnysupernova
| downtime_days = 10
}}

First we mine, then we fight bats. 

== Log ==

I didn’t want to take the posting when I saw it, but Wonder insisted. I was still reeling from the news of a fallen associate I had just traveled with weeks prior, he was the one who suggested- well, you already know about that, don’t you? Anyway, I was not my usual, punctual self, and I showed up forty minutes late. There was a curious group assembled at the meeting site for the posting. There were two automatons, though I don’t believe they were related. One was a massive fellow with rabbit ears and a giant gun, its name was DDOS. The other automaton, some sort of canine, was named King of Dance. The third member, a pale sort named Reiker, I gave him my good luck charm, he looked like he could use it. The fourth was a little Poppet, he called himself Ser Bewwy. He seemed like a good one. 

The last one I met was a cleric of the Living God. Sabelle was his name. When I met him a voice whispered in my ears not to trust him. Wonder didn’t like this at all, I thought it was a neat trick. He said it wasn’t a trick. You know how these magic types are. 

The person that hired us, Greg the Geologist, had a nice hat with a big plume. I’d like a hat like that, Wonder doesn’t think I could make it work. He told us the trip was about five days away. I inquired about a wagon, every job I’ve been on has had a wagon. This time it didn’t. I’d really like a wagon. 

“Tell me about the bats. Did they have riders?” I had asked, fearing a connection with the last two jobs I had been on. 

“Ah, well, maybe the people at the camp will know more.” Greg told us.

We set out on the trip to the mining camp. It was five days. We spent the time playing I Spy.

For. Five. Days.

The encampment was a nice encampment, I suppose, I’m not really sure I know what a nice one looks like. There was a particularly intelligent looking owl at Greg the Geologist’s desk. He was studying some notes arrayed on the desk. Wonder tried to say hello but got scared off. I wonder what this Owl’s story was. Maybe one day I’ll get to find out.

Greg referred us to another person working at the camp, a Professor named Jackie, but Greg called her Applejack. She didn’t seem fond of that. Anyway, she told us about the bats. They were giant vampire bats, the size of horses. She thought they might have had saddles, but she couldn’t recall seeing any riders. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. 

Fortunately, Sabelle had just the thing to treat it. He found some healing rocks blessed by his Living God amongst the pile of rocks Professor Jackie was… I don’t know, whatever it is rock people do with rocks. Maybe Wonder was wrong about this fellow.

Anyway, our group reconvened, I had to let them know what we were up against.

“I have good news, and bad news. The bad news is we’ll probably be dealing with undead riders on these bats. There was a Lich, and, well, one of our fellow associates told her to use giant bats for her undead soldiers and they’ve been terrorizing the area ever since.” I told them. Then I realized there was no good news, and told them that.

“Whoever suggested that to the lich is a fucking idiot.” Reiker snapped out. I don’t know what his problem was, but I really didn’t like him talking about Muldog like that. Wonder didn’t like it either. Sabelle chided him for his language. Yeah, Wonder was definitely wrong about him.

“Observation: We have a cleric in the form of Sabelle.” DDOS stated. I suppose I should have realized Sabelle was a cleric with all of the preaching, but with all the voices I was hearing, I wasn’t so sure. Regardless, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing we had a holy man with us and urged us to venture deep into the mines.

Professor Jackie gave us a collection of blood boosters for, you know, the giant bats. DDOS wasn’t sure it had blood, but grabbed a vial anyway. I wasn’t going to say anything because DDOS carried a giant cannon, but I wondered why it needed a blood booster if it had no blood. It later turned out that DDOS does in fact have blood, I felt a little bad about doubting them, but since I never said anything I never apologized. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Light was scarce in the mines. Fortunately, Sabelle conjured light for us. We came across a hundred or so small bats in the mines, DDOS was ready to shoot them, but- Look, they were tiny bats. We left them be. 

Deeper into the caves we came across three giant bats. They were the size of horses and they had saddles on them. Fantastic. Sabelle noticed that the saddles looked like they had legs embedded into them, but no upper body. Curious.

Ser Bewwy had an idea and began scaling the cave walls. I channeled a bit of magic into him to nudge his fate along, thinking he could use some good luck. He leapt onto the bat and became the bat jockey. 

Unfortunately, the bat had different aims and threw Bewwy off. With great anger, the bat shrieked at us and swooped in, with his giant friends. I made some careful calculations, and began to spin a thread of magic. Fate nudged here, a magical curse there. To the layman it looked like I was doing nothing at all, but to me, it was everything.

Bewwy found the secret to scaring the bats, and kept them unnerved. King of Dance moved like a dervish, faster than I could track, and wailed on the bats with a flurry of blows. Reiker, I guess he was magic too, kept throwing his giant sword at the bats, and it seemed to be pretty effective, if incredibly messy.

DDOS was firing off his cannon at any bat they could see, and here’s the thing, the cannon was incredibly loud. As the shots echoed through the mine walls, we heard more bats shrieking, the smaller ones coming to help their larger friends.

Fortunately, Sabelle caved in the mining tunnel we came in from, and stopped the bats from coming. Unfortunately, this was our only way out. 

“Are you crazy? That was our way out!” I hissed out, as my plan did not allow for cave ins.
“Oh, it will be fine, the Living God will guide us!” Sabelle said, in his irritably carefree voice.

Wonder was right about this guy. He was bad news.

Anyway, the bats were giant, but not super scary. We finished them off with only a bit of blood missing. I patched myself up since one of the bats took a huge bite out of me. My hands were a little shaky when I tried to patch up Bewwy and, well, I had to give him a potion because I’m not that skilled of a doctor. In fact, I’m not a doctor at all.

Oh, it turns out the cave-in was just an illusion. Maybe Wonder was wrong about that Sabelle character.

We ventured deeper into the mines, since we could still hear something large scratching around the depths. We came across a collection of skeletal warriors, five of them to be exact, and curiously, each one was missing their legs. They were jockeys sans bats. Or something.

I cast some magic to bless my new friends, and we charged into battle. Bewwy and King of Dance charged down one of the tunnels into the darkness. I couldn’t really see what they were doing, but Wonder assured me after the fight they were very impressive and made quick work of the undead warriors. 

The skeletons were split into two groups, each one had some sort of spellcaster in their numbers, and each spellcaster flung lightning bolts down the tunnels. Fortunately, I had picked the best possible position, and never had to worry about the lightning. My group members were not so lucky, but they survived.

DDOS fired his cannon down the tunnel with deadly precision, and Reiker used the powers of his mind, I think, to harm the skeletons. I’ll be honest, I don’t understand these mind mages at all, but they seem incredibly effective. Sabelle, of course, was using his cleric powers to smite down the undead.

I was guiding the party, indirectly, you see, with good luck and bad luck for whoever I felt most deserved it, and we made quick work of the skeletons. It was Reiker that pointed out there were five skeletons, and we had only seen three bats.

It would seem our work here wasn’t done.
Into the furthest depths of the caves, lit only by dimly glowing blue fungus, we found the last of the bats. It was so dark we hadn’t realized what we were walking into until their eyes stared back into us. They were giant, you see, bigger than horses. Fortunately, for us, they were too big to fly into the caves and were slow moving after us. Unfortunately, for us, they were massive and very scary.

King of Dance sprung into action, he swung at the bat, and the bat swung back, knocking him out almost immediately. Bewwy backed him up, attacking from out of the bat’s reach with his bladed scarf. I knew guiding magic wouldn’t be enough, so I summoned a powerful knight to help us out. Well, it wasn’t that powerful, but it helped. Well, it also wasn’t really a summon at all, just some clever illusions. Sabelle isn’t the only one with tricks, you see. We could hear another bat moving through the tunnels to get us from behind, so we raced to slay the first bat. Sabelle used his healing magic to pick the King of Dance back up. Reiker used the power of his mind to knock the bat down, and DDOS did what it did best and fired its giant cannon down the tunnel. Reiker finished the bat off by flying his sword at it, it was very impressive.

The other bat lumbered through the opposite tunnel towards us. I had a plan, but it required moving closer to the bat, and well, I’m not that brave.

“It will be fine. The Living God protects.” Sabelle gently urged me forward.

Well, okay.

I stepped into the tunnel, and let out a maniacal cackle as my plan came together. I cast the almighty albatross curse on the bat. Sabelle conjured a wall of rocks in front of me to halt the bat’s advance. I told him he was a genius. Yeah, Wonder was wrong about Sabelle. A moment later, the wall disappeared and the giant bat loomed over me. It would seem the bat smashed through the wall, or the wall never existed to beginwith. Wonder was right about Sabelle.

Fortunately, Ser Bewwy came to my rescue. These bats were scary, but Bewwy was even more frightening. He charged forward, putting himself between me and the bat. King of Dance was hesitant to get closer to the bat, and was flinging darts at it. I didn’t blame him. We were a united front, though, and slowly whittled the giant bat down. With a perfectly aimed needle to the bat’s temple, the beast fell. I don’t want to brag, but it was a very impressive kill on my part. We realized we had found the five bats for the five riders, and as we headed back to the surface, I could only ask this:

What had Muldog set in motion?

We made it back to base camp, and Greg thanked us for our efforts. We had cleared the giant bats but left the tiny bats, but that was perfectly fine with Greg.  He paid us handsomely for our efforts and we set back to Onadbyr. I had a feeling that this was not the last I’d see of these skeletons, and well, we still had a lich to deal with, but surely, that wouldn’t fall to the trainees, right?