Scorchbeast

Scorchbeasts are creatures found in Appalachia.

Background
The first scorchbeast was accidentally created when Enclave scientists exposed irradiated bats to biochemical experiments. Despite concerns and suggestions of destroying the creatures, Secretary Eckhart ordered further study of the creature at the glassed cavern, an old AMS mining complex, while keeping the officer corps largely uninformed. The future president wished to convince monitoring systems that they were an immediate threat, raising the alert level to DEFCON 1 and giving him access to the nuclear arsenal. Although kept in isolation, theoretically, individual beasts made it to the surface at regular intervals, as early as 2084. Despite increasing opposition from the officer corps, Eckhart unleashed them upon the region in 2086, unintentionally releasing a pestilence that threatened to render the human race extinct on a continental scale. The people of the wasteland first learned about the scorchbeasts from reports issued by the Brotherhood of Steel under Paladin Taggerdy. Although they dismissed them as pure stories to give Taggerdy an excuse to commandeer ammo and supplies, they were soon proven wrong by their appearance and the plague that followed in their wake. The Scorched, mutated creatures created out of humans afflicted by the Scorched Plague, became an existential threat to the people of Appalachia. The situation was made worse by their expansive breeding limited only by the available nest space in the mining tunnels below Appalachia.

Since then, the scorchbeasts became an established threat beneath the entirety of Appalachia. They regularly dug to the surface, destroying settlements and devouring humans, leaving large rifts in the landscape. The only way to safely close the rifts was to launch nuclear missiles from one of three automated silos scattered across Appalachia, collapsing the rifts and killing those scorchbeasts that remain. None of the factions in Appalachia managed to achieve this feat, either due to a lack of means (Responders and Free States) or ideological opposition to the use of nuclear weapons (Brotherhood of Steel). Only the Vault 76 Vault Dwellers, entering Appalachia after humans were wiped out from the area, managed to push back the scorchbeasts and destroy them in nuclear attrition, preventing an extinction-level event.

Scorchbeasts are partially responsible for the creation of the Scorched, as according to research by the Vault 76 overseer, as their underground colony contains a virus responsible for the Scorched Plague, causing the crystalline growths seen on the Scorched.

Biology
Scorchbeasts are a species of enormous, mutated pygmy bats, as hypothesized by Ella Ames. The gargantuan creature has retained its ancestors' pointed ears, membranous wings, allowing it to fly and soar through the air, and echolocation. However, it has lost most of its fur, grown to a tremendous size, developed an extra pair of functional legs, and evolved to become the carrier of a plague which converts any infected living being into the Scorched. Despite their size, scorchbeasts possess considerable agility, and even when grounded they can leap several times their body length in one bound. Despite the behavior of their progenitors, scorchbeasts are not averse to daytime hunting and are known to cooperatively hunt in groups.

Strong and aggressive, it attacks with razor-sharp teeth and claws. The beasts are potent foes, as lamented by the Responders, whose anti-scorchbeast tactics boil down to doing everything in their power to keep away from it and finding an enclosed space to fire from, as scorchbeasts are simply too big to fit into small spaces. Scorchbeasts also emit radiation and are capable of using powerful ultrasonic echolocation as a means of navigating or commanding their Scorched servants on the ground. In addition to this, they possess the ability to emit a powerful sonic blast capable of shattering wood and metal structures from their mouths much like mirelurk kings and mothmen, but on a far larger scale. Their other nonconventional attack includes flying over an area and saturating it with an acidic, radioactive mist that permeates through cover. The scorchbeast's body is laced with ultracite, which can be extracted from their hides, bones, and wings.

The scorchbeast queen and alpha scorchbeasts are not immune to the outward physiological effects of the Scorched Plague, however the common scorchbeasts appear to be. The much larger scorchbeast queen has a pronounced nasal structure as well as a thick layer of skin covering her eyes, rendering her completely blind.

Characteristics
Scorchbeasts, detectable by the distinct sound of their wings when they are flying overhead, are generally hostile to the player character and will summon additional Scorched enemies while fighting. It utilizes three different attacks, the first being a long-range sonic attack, which is performed while flying and counts as explosive damage rather than energy damage. The interval between these attacks is at least ten seconds.

The second attack is a radiation fog, commonly referred to as crop dusting due to its dispersing from its wings much like a crop duster, this fog will travel through roofs and walls. The scorchbeast will continue to dust an area, even if the one is hidden. The scorchbeast queen uses a variant of this attack that deals poison damage, rather than the standard radiation damage. The third attack style is a sweeping attack which it utilizes while on the ground, using its wings to swing at its enemies within melee range to deliver heavy damage to them. They can also perform a lunging attack to force enemies to turn around to resume attacking it if it lunges over them and gets behind them. Their final attack consists of a shockwave attack that can not only damage enemies, but also summon Scorched to its aid to take out its would-be killers.

A diseased scorchbeast may inflict the Blight, a disease which lowers all SPECIAL stats by 1 point, randomly upon landing any attack, including their sonic blasts.

The scorchbeast heals itself over time similar to other creatures. They have also been seen to attack and infect other enemies during combat. Their attacks can be subverted by fleeing or sheltering in a small structure, or utilizing automated surface to air missile batteries.

Crippling both of a scorchbeast's wings will force it to land, after finding a suitable spot. The landing behavior can be interrupted by stagger effects applied by perks like Tank Killer or One Gun Army. Attacking the head of a scorchbeast will deal 150% damage. Almost all scorchbeast attacks create and are considered explosions, and will be mitigated by a dense torso mod or the Fireproof perk. Upon entering combat, a scorchbeast will summon a wave of Scorched minions.

Scorchbeast
A standard scorchbeast, these fearsome creatures can range in level. When they are diseased, their sonic blasts will affect the player character in the form of the Blight, a disease that will lower all SPECIAL stats by 1 point.

Scorchbeast queen
The scorchbeast queen is spawned by dropping a nuclear missile on Fissure site Prime and is considered to be the final boss of the game. Eight or more participants are recommended for this difficult server-wide event, in which she must be killed within 30 minutes. During this engagement, waves of lesser enemies, including other scorchbeasts and scorched variants of most enemies will attack the player characters, on top of the ever-present danger of the queen herself. The resistances of the scorchbeast queen, like all other creatures in Appalachia, are determined by a level curve table, however even before her resistances take effect, she reduces all incoming damage by 70%. Her strafe ability deals poison damage and she is shrouded by a radiation damage cloak. Unlike her regular brethren, the queen can summon any Scorched Plague-infected enemy to her aid with her shockwave attack, ranging from mole rats, rad-rats, and mongrels, to mole miners, radtoads, and mirelurks, to even deathclaws, yao guai, mega sloths, gulpers, and mirelurk kings & queens, alongside the regular Scorched human infantry.

Extra crispy scorchbeast
A weakened scorchbeast encountered in the Nuclear Winter mode. They are the only creatures in the Nuclear Winter game mode that are immune to the pyroclastic storm.

Locations

 * Scorchbeasts spawn at active fissure sites:
 * Fissure site Alpha - Cranberry Bog - Southeast of Survey camp Alpha.
 * Fissure site Beta - Savage Divide - East of the Bailey family cabin in the far north.
 * Fissure site Epsilon - Cranberry Bog - South of Firebase Major.
 * Fissure site Lambda - The Forest - Cuts through Highway 62 just west of the junction with 83-A between Bleeding Kate's Grindhouse and the miners monument.
 * Fissure site Omicron - The Mire - On a hill in a clearing west of Mosstown.
 * Fissure site Sigma - Savage Divide - North of Hopewell Cave, west-southwest of the Pumpkin House.
 * Fissure site Omega - Ash Heap - Northwest of and very close to Striker Row, south of the AMS testing site.
 * Fissure site Prime - Cranberry Bog - South-southeast of drop site V9, northwest of Forward Station Delta and southwest of the glassed cavern. This area always has scorchbeasts flying. It is where the scorchbeast queen spawns when the site is hit with a intercontinental ballistic missile.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - Immediately southeast of Firebase LT. This site has no map or compass marker. The rising smoke is clearly visible from Firebase LT.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - Northeast of Quarry X3. Scorchbeasts from here patrol the central Cranberry Bog, north of Watoga.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - Northwest of drop site V9. Scorchbeasts from here patrol the southeastern Cranberry bog.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - North-northwest of Appalachian Antiques, just south of monorail support with a monorail car at the top. The scorchbeast that spawns here frequently patrols Appalachian Antiques and other nearby locations.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - Northeast of Ranger lookout, southeast of Creekside sundew grove. The scorchbeast from there routinely patrols those locations and the Bootlegger's shack.
 * Unmarked fissure site - Cranberry Bog - Next to the third monorail pylon north of Pylon V-13 on the monorail line that went from there to the RobCo Research Center. The pylon is the one that has stairs to the top. Verified as a scorchbeast spawn site. Two spawned a minute or two apart.

Scorchbeasts can frequently be found at these locations, usually following player characters or a succession of other targets from their spawn points:
 * The southern Ash Heap drawn from fissure site Omega.
 * Abandoned mine shaft 2.
 * Beckley.
 * Lewisburg.
 * The Whitespring Resort - Potentially drawn up from fissure site Lambda.
 * Watoga - Following player characters or other creatures from fissure sites Alpha and Prime.
 * Glassed cavern - Scorchbeasts spawn inside the cavern.

There are one or more non-aggressive scorchbeast(s) flying around the Forest. These have a light yellow name and health bar. If attacked, their name and health bar will turn red and they will fight back but if one breaks off their attack, after a minute or two, the scorchbeast will stop its attack and return to its patrol. Locations include:
 * North of Morgantown Airport.
 * At a hilltop picnic area west of Helvetia and south of Arktos Pharma.
 * South of White Powder Winter Sports and north of Cliffwatch.
 * North of the plane crash site at Horizon's Rest.

Appearances
Scorchbeasts appear only in Fallout 76 and its updates.