Couatl

Few people ever glimpse a couatl: a long, graceful serpent carried on feathered wings that shimmer with every color of the rainbow. Sages suspect a distant kinship with dragons but cannot prove it. Since it polymorphs at will, it may appear as some other creature, always one of good alignment. It speaks common and most bird and serpent tongues, and can reach almost any thinking being by telepathy.

A couatl rarely starts a fight, but evildoers caught in the act get no mercy. It prefers to strike from the air, opening with spells from a distance, and a group will plan together before battle. Any of them may shift into a more useful form mid-fight.

Of all couatl, 45% cast as 5th level wizards, 35% as 7th level priests, and 20% command both. At will it can use ESP, turn invisible, and detect magic or good/evil, and turn itself plus up to 450 pounds of other matter ethereal. The eldest can also plane shift, carrying as many as 8 companions along, and arrive where intended 90% of the time.

In melee its bite inflicts 1-3 damage, and the venom kills anyone who fails a save vs. poison. A successful constriction crushes for 2-8 points every round until either the victim or the couatl dies.

Psionics: aura sight, all-round vision, see sound; metamorphosis, chemical simulation, ectoplasmatic form; teleport, time shift; mind link, ESP, invisibility.

Native to warm jungles, couatl also roam the Ethereal Plane. Local peoples often worship them as gods who taught humankind farming and medicine, some keep shrines to them, and anyone who harms one is reviled as the darkest villain.

Each lives alone in a remote cave or deserted ruin, hunting jungle game about once a fortnight, and many wander on long journeys of discovery. Yet the race considers itself one great clan under its eldest and wisest member, gathering only in grave emergencies.

Rarely, a pair mates for life and shares a lair. They bear live young, about one per couple each century, raise and teach it together, and fight to the death for it. The young mature at thirty to forty years and may stay home up to a century before leaving on their kind's endless quest for wisdom.

Couatl hoard knowledge, not gold, and one that learns something fascinating will seek out others to discuss it. Good adventurers can sometimes win their aid or advice, possibly a magical item from the hoard, but a couatl bothered over trivial matters simply flies off.

Few jungle creatures threaten a couatl, and it usually reigns over its territory unchallenged.