abyssalbrews

Batpack

Added 2022-10-13 16:00:12 +0000 UTC

Greetings adventurers!

We met someone that claimed to be a cryptozoologist in our travels and while we had never heard the term, we were certainly intrigued by the idea of rare and odd species that could be found within the world. We decided to join him for tea and some conversation when he directed us to a room where we found an odd little creature resembling a standard rucksack devouring a pack of candies. The zoologist told us that he had found it in a cave not far away and that it seemed to have an insatiable desire for sweets. We happened to have a leftover Affection Confection on us from earlier in the year so we offered it a morsel. Well apparently that was enough to make it a friend as it wouldn’t leave us alone from then on. Hopefully you find this Batpack as adorable as we do.

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Design notes from Matthew:

Yes look, I can’t help but enjoy some pun names for these items at times. It’s a silly habit, but I love it and it seems others get a laugh out of them as well so I see no harm in it. This one started entirely off of the phrase “Batpack” and what flowed from there was a lot of fun banter between Fernando and I on how to make this thing work.

I didn’t want it to be too comparable to the No Fall Knapsack, so we decided that it should have some other batlike properties and one of the first that came to mind was the impeccable hearing that most bat species possess. We decided to pursue that line and tremorsense is the most likely boon that one could get in that line.

Since there are giant bat wings on it, it would be silly to not give it some measure of flying, but I didn’t want it to simply be a full flight platform especially when targeting uncommon rarity. I went with featherfall as a decent middle point for something beneficial, but not entirely game breaking. You can clear a drop, but you’re the only one.

We had also wanted this to have a cost in some way and with it being spooky season, consuming candies and sweets to keep it happy seemed to be a great scenario that could bring some fun, but also cause a cost as you have to obtain the necessary means to feed the bag.

Illustration notes from Fernando:

Loved working on this fun item, especially after the last one we made which was kind of up there on the “creepy” scale when it comes to the stuff we put out. I’m always up for silly and this is a pretty silly one! I love it.

Art wise there’s no much to say on it, it’s kind of based on a mimic, most of the personality comes from giving it a bit of a smile, the tongue, and the candy. The wings were challenging to get right because they are essentially backwards. Basically in order for it to work when wearing it on your back and the wings had to be facing towards the character, I don’t think bats can fly upside down…

I had some fun with the candy pail as well as the candy itself, I also gave it a little pouch which I intended it to look like a little pot belly from all the candy it eats :)

This is our second spooky item of the month and we’ll be bringing you another next week and the week after. This is one of our favorite times of year to lean into the horror, but also some silly, spooky things like this Batpack. We hope you continue to enjoy our October offerings and we look forward to getting the next one out to you.

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