Thanksgiving Serving #5: Celestial Turkey

It's Thanksgiving this week and what better time to fill in some gaping holes in the D&D Monster Manual. Unexplainably, the turkey was left out and adventurers everywhere have been deprived of the chance to encounter one of these beautiful birds of prey(ed upon).

Yes, it's true, the Celestial Turkey. Imagine the look of surprise on your wizard's face when he casts Summon Nature's Ally and a pacifist turkey shows up. But there's more to the story. Check it out.

Celestial Turkey CR 1
hp 4 (HD 1d8 )

LG Small Animal
Init +3; Senses Listen +4, Spot +5

AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +2

Speed 20 ft.; fly, average 30 ft.
Melee Special, see text
Base Atk +0

Abilities Str 6, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 13

Description: Celestial turkeys trace their roots back to the upper planes. A summon spell is one the few ways that this type of turkey might be found elsewhere.

A celestial turkey is just slightly larger than a wild turkey. But the differences end there. These animals do not have the fear associated with their lower cousins and in fact they radiate a continual bless spell, granting a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear spells.

Although they have lower dexterity than normal turkeys, the celestial has a higher intelligence. This makes communicating with the turkey a possibility.

Combat: The celestial turkey does not engage in combat and will instead locate a safe position within the party.

DM Tips and Tricks
- The most obvious use of this creature is the spell, Summon Nature's Ally. You should play up the confident but non aggressive stance of the turkey. It will react to a threat by moving but will not attack. Most likely it will be forgotten in any combat and you should not make it too obvious what is happening.

- Have a wizard send them on a quest to unite a celestial turkey in his possession with another such turkey in a neighboring city. Uniting the celestial turkeys might open a rift that sucks in the turkeys and the PCs, or deposits something deadly.

All artwork in this series was provided by the ever-popular Devil Dan, a fan-favorite over at the Dundjinni mapping forums. Check out his recent free Monster Art Pack recently released on the download page. Although well-known for his top-down views of creatures, Devil Dan graciously produced a number of fabulous front view shots for this series.

dDemonicAngels is the online identity of Bil White, a freelance writer living in Montreal. The celestial turkey is his favorite in the series because it is the most unexpected.

Comments (1)

1  Written by kepli, on 22-11-2007 02:01 Very cool addition   Love the tips and tricks again

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