Planar Bestiary
A colorful avian creature with a fantastic beak, slightly glowing wings, and intelligent eyes flutters through a hole in space that closes behind them. Alighting on a nearby branch, they sing a simple but pleasant birdsong.
Some birds head south for the winter. Wanderfervor gadbills go much farther and for much longer. Individuals spread out across the dimensions, seeking some essence from each new place they visit, before returning to a predetermined nesting place where they were hatched years earlier to mate, produce chicks, and start the process anew.
If a gadbill is encountered alone, they're casually looking for other planar travelers to accompany, at least for a time.
Motive: Defense, migration to new planes
Environment: Anywhere in the multiverse, alone or with one or more temporary travel companions
Health: 7
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)
Movement: Immediate; long when flying
Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to tiny size; perception and stealth as level 5
Combat: The gadbill attacks with their beak or talons.
The wanderfervor gadbill can issue a raucous, magical warning caw about once an hour, targeting a creature within short range. A target failing a level 5 Intellect defense task is frightened and must run from the gadbill each round for one minute, or until they succeed on a level 5 Intellect defense task on their turn to end the effect. Once a creature succeeds at the defense task, they're immune from the warning caw for a day.
The gadbill can sing a healing song about once a day, targeting a travel companion within short range, restoring 5 Pool points or points of health to the creature. On a related birdsong note, creatures who've spent at least a few hours in the gadbill's presence, listening to their pleasant song, have all Intellect tasks (including attacks and defense) eased for the rest of the day. The gadbill doesn't sing for those they haven't selected as travel companions.
After a night's rest, a gadbill can fly into another plane they have previously visited or know to exist, transporting only themself.
Interaction: Wanderfervor gadbills are intelligent even for birds—smarter than a parrot or raven. They are inclined to join groups that welcome them. However, they are also cautious. They know that many individuals value the gadbill as mere food, for their feathers, or for some magical quality of their beaks or feathers.
Even if welcomed into a traveling group, sooner or later, the gadbill moves on. They are not a pet, but rather a free-willed creature. And somewhere in a hidden demiplane, their mate waits, yearning.
Use: A strange bird pops through a dimensional portal, singing in alarm, pursued by a lava husk.
GM Intrusion: Sunlight from another dimension unexpectedly reflects from the gadbill's feathers in this dimension, blinding a character until after their next turn.