Fraffolk's stories

 A bat cult once existed among
the animals and firstcomers to the Winter Woods. It was
known across the land and the
god of the cult was always known as the
Father of All Bats. Adherents believed that
by making human sacrifices to their god
they themselves would become worthy
enough that the Father of All Bats would
appear to them. Once he was enticed to
appear, he would conquer all men.

Sacrifices were run through a gauntlet of worshipers
who struck the victims with clubs embedded
with the sharp teeth of bats. The teeth
were coated with a substance derived from
rabid bats. The poison was quick-acting,
but victims apparently went mad before
they died. Priests of the cult could take the forms of bat-winged snakes and gargoyles, enabling them to steal sacrifices from across the Winter Woods.
Fraffolk believes that this cult became
dormant or extinct hundreds of years ago. There is the ancient burial ground of Rappan Athuk, north of Yaryg. King Yalaring Monsterslayer had sent a message to him that he'd seen evidence of the cult's resurgence. He was worried that some of the unaccounted killings and disappearances in Xalter of late were linked to the Father of All Bats.

A wolf pack howling
mentions Rappan Athuk, a place where enormous
beings gathered. The howling says
that these gods, who were not at all
like wolves, built great sleeping walls
and dug great caves. But living
winds blew down the gods and overthrew them, destroying
their camp. When this happened,
the way was open for the Father of
All Bats, who came into the land, and
grew strong.

Fraffolk showed you a
set of four rough drawings. Each
shows a few men standing beside
enormous blocks of stone. Carvings within carvings seem to
decorate some.
Fraffolk says that the man who made the drawings was
an adventurer called Ansic of Tazara,
told him of several
attacks on his party by Hivernians and wolves.
Ansic says victims died from
from hundreds of small punctures,
reminiscent of the earlier bat-cult.

Fraffolk tells finally of another tale he collected
from Tazara. In it Sand Bat or The Father of all Bats, has a battle of wits with Silenus the faun, the deification of
gathered food and the patron of life.
Silenus succeeds in tricking
and trapping Sand Bat and his
clan into the depths of a watery place
from which Sand Bat can only complain,
and is unable to return to
trouble the people. However as he was trapped he stole the heart from Valar, Silenus' wife.