| Notes |
Unlike insect swarms, these kinds of groups can inflict different types of injury rather than just poisonous stings. The size of the group determines the number of ‘injuries’ the mass delivers at the start of every Round. This damage is automatic and cannot be avoided if the group of creatures has engulfed the victim.
Although bats can carry disease, they do not generally attack people directly. Instead they tend to cause surprise and significant distraction due to the battering of hundreds, even thousands, of thrumming wings passing by in panic. This can interfere with actions from trying to cross over a narrow bridge to casting a spell as the bats bump those in their path or get caught in clothing and hair. The magnitude of the distraction each Round is calculated by imposing a number of difficulty grades equal to half the rolled injuries.
Vampire bats are the exception, When attacking as a swarm, if the rolled number of injuries exceeds the victim’s Armour Points, then each successful injury inflicts 1 Hit Point of damage. In addition, the victim is exposed to a disease. Any victim knocked out will be drained of blood in a short space of time (about 10 minutes).
Rabies
Carried by certain animals and transferred by a successful bite, rabies works on the brain, inflaming it and paralysing the throat. Victims begin with flu-like symptoms (muscle pains, coughing, fever) but within a few days the disease moves into its far more painful – and invariably fatal – phase.
Application: injected
Onset time: 2D6 weeks
Duration: 2D6 days
Potency: 80
Resistance: Endurance (One roll)
Conditions: Hallucination, Mania (hydrophobia), Death. If the disease takes hold, the victim suffers increasingly acute and debilitating hallucinations. Halfway through the Duration, manic hydrophobia automatically sets-in as the victim’s throat swells, the body dehydrates, and it becomes physically painful to swallow water. At the end of the Duration, the victim mercifully slips into a coma and dies.
Antidote/Cure: Cure Disease spell. Rabies is not a magical disease, but its severity means there is no natural cure or antidote for it; healing magic is essential and must be administered prior to the conclusion of the disease.
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Encounter Generator
