Bestiary of the Bladeseekers #5 - Echo-Parrots

When we first encountered these birds, I thought one of my compatriots was playing a prank on me. But we quickly realised that it was not us using telekinesis.

— Tyson MacBogard, Lord Founder.

Echo-Parrots

These share an attribute with dragons. The older they get the more dangerous they become, because Echo-parrots have excellent memory and the longer they live the more likely it is that they survived an encounter where they picked up a spell.

Appearance

Echo-Parrots, as the Bladeseekers call them look like regular parrots in form and function, but occasionally their feathers form occult or magical symbols. Since Parrots are not native to our homelands, I will briefly describe their appearance. Parrots are relatively small birds with some outliers reaching lengths and wingspans just shy of a meter. They usually have bright plumage of contrasting rich colours and a strong beak. Their skin under the feathers is white and the exposed skin on the feet is greyish.
The older the parrot gets, the more pronounced the symbols across the plumage become, meaning that if you can clearly tell an Echo-Parrot from its nonmagical cousins, you should also expect it to be more dangerous than its younger incognito brethren.

Habits

As I have been informed Echo-Parrots are technically not their own species and can breed with nonmagical parrots, passing on their abilities only to some of their off-spring. Generally they behave like their nonmagical versions, that is with a surprising amount of intelligence. I have personally seen them use crude tools and I have been told by reliable sources, that they often make reasoned decisions, form plans and most importantly mimic.
It is this mimicry that makes Echo-Parrots so dangerous. As most of you will likely know, a big part of arcane magic are rituals that include spoken and sometimes shouted incantations. These incantations along with the spellcasters natural talent for arcana are what kickstart a spell. And unlike regular parrots, who are also capable of listening to a passing spellcaster and repeating their words, echo-parrots somehow gained the required internal magical talent to spellcast.
To this day, no one knows how they do it, but after talking to my older elven friend, I found out, that Echo-Parrots did not exist before the third cataclysm, also known as the Mage War. It does not take a genius to connect the dots there.

The first swarm we encountered was likely also the most deadly combination. Multiple parrots knew how to conjure poisonous clouds and one of them had control over the winds. Not a fun experience, I can tell you that much.

— TMB, Lord Founder.

Who are Tyson MacBogard and the Bladeseekers?

Tyson MacBogard, was one of the founding members of a adventurers/mercenary guild in a place outside of the world. He does not exist within the world of Focis at all, but somehow his writings in the form of the Bestiary of the Bladeseekers have found their way to the world. More strangely, many of his descriptions match beings that exist on Focis and even more so he sometimes accurately described beings that did not exist in the world of his origin, but do exist on Focis. The existence of the Bestiary is a mystery still unsolved and the book and its many copies are prized curiosities among many civilisations.

Echo-Parrot creating a Fireball by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

Weaknesses

Thankfully the spells cast still require the investment of energy from the caster, so highly dangerous spells like Power over Life or Disintegration are out of the parrots reach. Additionally, the parrots are in the end only parrots. A single good hit from a skilled bowman can fell them without problem.
Additionally, echo-parrots are highly food motivated. If you have not yet pissed them off, you can likely bribe them for safe passage and move on with your day. If one of you is a spellcaster and identified as such by the parrots, you should be prepared for them following you around for a while, hoping to learn a new spell.

Advice

First and foremost, do not feed them new spells! Any spellcaster using their magic against a flock of echo-parrots is just asking for that echo to hit him back tenfold. Since echo-parrots live in large social groups, even if you take out an echo-parrot using the spell, chances are there is another one in the crowd, who is now very angry at you for killing his friend or family.
Try to bribe your way from combat if you can. The birds love nuts and fruit and if you have not escalated things, you can follow rule number 0 of the bladeseekers: The best way to win a fight is to not start it. That being said, make use of ranged weapons, a group of bow- or crossbowmen can make short work of these creatures.
Good luck and keep the blades honored, Tyson

Maybe someone can figure out a way of weaponizing these birds? They are intelligent enough to be trained to do tricks and given the right incentives could make for a potent hidden ace, I'm sure of it.

— TMB, Lord Founder.