D1-2 Stocked Hex: M2N2/18 Bat Cathedral
Part of my effort to stock every hex/point in the underworld map provided in D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth / Shrine of the Kuo-toa.
- Dimensions: Ceilings 40-60 feet at edges and in side caverns, main gallery nearly 120 feet; main gallery is 400 feet wide and nearly a mile long, whole complex stretches for another mile.
- Light: Dark, some dim light in places from glowing lichens or fungi on walls. The insect shells in the guano on the floor twinkle like stars in torchlight
- Monsters: 15 million bats (all shapes and sizes)
This immense cavern evokes a church, with its high vaulted ceilings and long gallery shape. It is filled with teeming millions of bats, ranging from the smallest pipistrelle to megabats like flying dogs. Their tiny wingbeats create an almost oceanic soundscape, like you're standing inside a seashell listening to your own blood.
The main gallery cavern is dominated by a massive stalactite pushing 100 feet in length. It is always circled by flying bats, who do so with intensity and focus. Close inspection reveals many wordless scratchings by the bats, offerings of dried insects wedged into crevices or piled on the floor below.
The bats will tolerate any visitors who conduct themselves with the appropriate solemnity, but will periodically buzz their guests like tiny fighter jets.
Bats beset anyone harming another bat or defacing the stalactite—first 2d6 bat swarms and 1d8+1 giant bats, then that amount again each minute. These bats don't check morale.
Leaving an offering of live insects at the stalactite will confer the blessing of the bats' infant god—the ability to hear the silent footsteps of drow. This and any subsequent offering will also remove any diseases or curses. Bats will regard you as a friend.
Attacking bats will not pursue out of the cavern, but will make other bats in the underworld aware of the transgression. Bats will regard you as a blasphemer.