What is this bird, anyway?

[Gilladian]

He's not evil...

He's not a familiar...

He is a person (a prince or princess, perhaps) who has been polymorphed into the bird shape the party sees, and is magically enslaved to the BBEG. He must do the BBEG's bidding if he ever hopes to win back his freedom and natural shape. However, he retains just enough free will that he can occasionally subvert his master's will...

Have you ever seen It Waits? (Bad film!) It contains as its main redeeming feature an African Grey Parrot who is probably smarter than any other character in the film. He alone can detect the monster before it takes any action, and usually announces its presence with a suitably parroty "Uh-Oh!"

(Of course, nobody makes that connection, and they try to set him free to save himself...)

This bird could do much the same- occasionally warning the PCs of some impending doom planned by his hated master. This would give him a second chance to return to normal- getting the party close enough to the BBEG to defeat him!

Oh, I really like this idea. It's right up my alley of tricks. Hmmmm....who could he be? I'll have to take some thought for this.

I'm already trying to find a way to bolster the BBEG's motives for picking on the party. I think after trying to kill them several times and making what the party views as unnecessary threats against them, it needs to come out that the bad guy has some heretofore unknown tie to the party. Since they don't know who he is, he could turn out to be almost anyone, just like the bird could.

Yaha! I just realized who the bird is. Five years ago, a Prince of Greenvale vanished. His body was never found. This happened during a war against an evil lich and his army, who were subsequently driven off. The Prince was apparently killed when a red dragon caused an avalanche to sweep over him. But maybe the BBEG here found him and enchanted/polymorphed him. He can be struggling to win his freedom so he can go back home and rescue Greenvale from the hands of his twin (and now evil for other reasons) brother.

And I think I'm gonna make the BBEG a (not so?)distant relative or family friend of the party wizard. That way jealousy and family dissent can play a motivating role. I need to find a way to foreshadow/hint at this. I love the way you guys here can give me just enough input to start my wheels spinning!

 

[questing gm]

pseudodragon.....

 

[Herobizkit]

I second RangerWickett's suggestion, and add that I would have suggested it first were I more active a poster than he.

Druids are teh awesome, pure and simple. Making him/her Neutral will defeat any of those ol' Detect [Alignment] spells and their ilk. And when said parrot shapeshifts into, say, a Dire Bear, or a very effective support healer at the most (in)opportune time, the PCs (DM) should be sufficiently moritified (pleased). Throw in a few levels of Bard and have some buffilicious delight for the entire evil gang.