An Excerpt From Antenox's Demonology Archives
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CHIOPTERA NASCTHA VESPER
Common Names: schaden, bug-bats
The schaden, known in the Hesperi classification systems as the Chioptera Nasctha Vesper, are relatively small demons whose chests are made up of feather-like hooks which latch onto the shadows of their victims and slowly drain the life from them over many days. Signs of schaden attachment present like those of common consumption: chronic bloody coughing, fever, night sweats, and rapid weight loss. The shadow of a person who has become a victim of a schaden will always be present and stretch out behind them, even at high noon or when a light source is placed at their backs. In any given area that they are allowed to infest, schaden will favor corpulent hosts as this gives them more time to feed before transitioning into their reproduction phase during which they become vulnerable to physical attack.
Once the host is near death the schaden assumes a corporeal form and kills their chosen victim, usually by means of their talons. The length of time between attachment and death varies depending on the victim's body mass as well as whether or not they have any aptitude for magic, regardless if the host themselves are aware of this aptitude or not. After killing the host the schaden burrows into their chest cavity with their teeth and resides within the corpse for five to seven days before emerging as two identical demons who then seek out new hosts to repeat the cycle. Left to their own devices, schaden can decimate the population of a sizable city within weeks, as was last seen in the coastal city of Tandorani in Imperial Year 134.
Schaden can be domesticated by magic-users who sate their hunger by supplying them with mana, which also forces them to retain their corporeal form but seems to keep them docile enough that they do not consume the magic-users themselves. Frequently those involved with researching and summoning spirits from Pandemonium will have a number of shaden on-hand as a display of prowess. It is also common for apprentices of these mages to be gifted or to inherit schaden from their masters. It is just as common for apprentices deemed unworthy of their masters to be sacrificed to breed more of them.
APPEARANCE
Like all Chioptera-class demons they have bat-like appearances and navigate by magical current rather than by sight. Schaden have only two opposable claws of scarlet ivory on their feet which are roughly the length of a full-grown man's arm. They only have a singular multifaceted eye at the crown of their oblong skulls which they use to track prey when at rest. They seem to use the shadow hooks on their chests to "hear" vibrations in the atmosphere and "taste" the air, much like the tongue of a snake.
In most cases the demons will rest in a bat-like way, hanging upside-down from the highest point in any area they have chosen to inhabit. In situations where there are no ceilings shaden may be found resting perpendicular to whatever solid wall lays within their territory. Their natures make them natural duskbringers; the area surrounding a shaden at rest will be dimly illuminated no matter how bright the surrounding light may be.
DISPATCH
A schaden which has retained its corporeal form can simply be beheaded and burned once captured. It should be noted that while a shaden's wingspan is double that of its body, they are not capable fliers in Eral's atmosphere and if made to take flight will naturally gravitate towards any nearby source of magic. Schaden which are still attached to the shadows of their hosts must be isolated within a bright room and then forced to take corporeal form via chained explosions of flashpowder or coaxed out using dragonfire or witchlights before beheading.
There has been limited success in recent years with the lighting of gunpowder in place of dragonfire to coax out a schaden; tests are underway to determine if this is related to the sulfur content of various weapons-grade gunpowders manufactured within the Empire versus the substandard explosive powders created in the Oribian for subsurface excavation.
Contrary to popular beliefs, schaden cannot inhabit the shadows of inanimate objects nor the shadows of any creature with a physically smaller size than its corporeal form. In general this makes young children and small mammals such as cats and dogs immune to schaden attachment. Care should be taken during the capture and restraint of the host that their shadows do not cross with any non-Inferi that may be present, beasts included, as this will provide an avenue for the shaden to transfer hosts and extend the time taken to capture and kill the demon.
AGGREGATED FIELD NOTES
The Hesperi of the South Wall Dominion are currently researching permutations of the Inquisition's recently rewritten exorcism rituals in extricating a schaden from its host without the use of alternate light sources. For more information please send word to the Taskmaster or Taskmaster Primary of the South Wall via messenger goshawk. Current conditions at South Wall and beyond are prohibitive of raven and pigeon messaging due to the wyvern resurgence in the Wastes. --E.E.L Grandmaster
If a target is known to keep schaden they should be observed and their feeding schedule recorded. Assailing a target immediately after they have supplied their pets with food will usually leave them wanting and thereby easily killed. The schaden themselves are also far less likely to defend their masters when they are not hungry. Alternately, starving schaden can easily be made to attack their masters if they are forced into the same room when the mage is regenerating mana. --E.C. Taskmaster, ND
Simon Pelenbrook, Oratio of the Empire, was seen to have employed a schaden talon as the Key for his Collared slave, Fulken, in the Edelglen incident. I will be contacting the Inquisitor in charge of the investigation, Aebenforth, to see about acquiring it for the Hesperi to research. If he does not prove amiable to surrendering it I'll just steal it from their ark in Whiteshire before it is transferred to the Reliquary on Isle Dae. --A.R. Senior Inferi, NWD
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