07/11/2022
Time for another !!! We did A last week so I'll do the next letter in the alphabet for another monster which is very relevant in my campaign 😀
Byakhee: is an inter-dimensional being described by Lovecraft as a combination of bat, bird, and insect, a vaguely humanoid creature with an insectoid, segmented body, membranous batlike wings, and taloned birdlike legs. Cultists and others with access to the right information and spells are able to summon Byakhees for the purpose of intersteller or interdimensional travel.
Byakhees appear to be the favored mounts of wizards, witches, and cultists: summoned to carry passengers away into the night sky, traveling through time and space into other worlds in alternate dimensions such as the Dreamlands for the cultists own mysterious and nefarious purposes.
Possibly the first appearance of a Byakhee-like creature, typically used as the best example, comes from HPL's "The Festival", where it is described: "There flapped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things... not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor decomposed human beings, but something I cannot and must not recall." However, the word "Byakhee" to refer to a bat-winged flying monster comes from August Derleth, who may (or may not) have meant it to be the same thing Lovecraft was describing.
