Vespiath

Vespiaths are said to have originated among the ruined lantern-gardens of the ruined guild-city of Correnel, where the old lanternwrights' experiments on 'living wick' produced winged drakes that preferred the glow of flame to the flesh of prey. They live in small roving broods, following lanes of lanternlight in cities and encampments and nesting in abandoned lamp towers and bellows-chambers. A village that leaves many candles burning will find a brood visiting nightly; a town that remembers its lamplighters soon forgets the constant presence of the drakes. Lanternwrights and a secretive cabal of nightwatchers called the Serrulian Lanternwrights keep journals on Vespiath behaviour; one noted scholar, Idren Halpour of the Archive of Lowlight, claims Vespiath flocks show an incipient social structure around the brightest lamps. Folktales tell of a single Vespiath guiding a band of lost travelers by dimming and relighting a single candle — but such kindness is usually a prelude to the drake stripping the group's lanterns dry at the first chance.

Slightly smaller than a mastiff, the Vespiath has a lithe, serpentine body covered in soft, dustlike scales that take on the sheen of candle-glaze. Its head is narrow with a blunt snout and large, faceted eyes that reflect light like black glass. Two pairs of broad, moth-like wings bloom from its shoulders; each wing is veined and fringed with filamentous scales that puff like dust when disturbed. Thin, dexterous foreclaws end in hooked talons; a ridged tail ends in a tuft of silver down. The membranes of its wings are semi-translucent with mottled patterns that scatter flame into ghostly halos. An artist should reference a human standing beside a small doorway: the Vespiath reaches about waist-high and can fold its wings tightly to pass through narrow openings. Textures: powdery scales, translucent wing membranes, glossy glassy eyes, and wax-streaked fur-like down around the throat.