Feng Huang

The feng huang, sometimes called the eastern phoenix, may be the most splendid bird alive, and it is vain, aloof and wholly aware of it. It resembles a phoenix with a shorter beak and neck and larger wings. From beak to tail it averages 100 feet, with wings spanning almost twice that. Its tail is finned like a fish's, its head bears a many-colored crest, and its plumage mixes orange, yellow, green, red and blue, with black and white stripes along the belly.

It speaks every human language and the tongues of all birds, in a voice like a flute.

Slow to fight but savage when attacked, it can bite and claw in the same round yet prefers magic. Twice each round it can hurl a fireball, needing a successful attack roll at +4, for 2d10 points of damage, and once per round it can loose flame lightning, a 50-foot bolt of fire dealing 3d10, also requiring an attack roll.

Twice a day it can call down a fire storm covering a 1-mile square to a height of 100 yards, and twice a day it can cast fire quench over double that area. Once per round it may use affect normal fires, animate fire, or control temperature across a 100-foot radius. Three times daily it can use pyrotechnics, heat metal, fire seeds, fire rain, produce fire and fire shield, and once daily wall of fire, melt metal and incendiary cloud. All its spells function at 20th level, and it can turn invisible or plane shift at will.

It always detects charm, evil, magic and alignment and is ringed by a constant protection from evil 100 feet across in radius. Spreading its wings acts as dispel magic or dispel illusion. Only +3 or better weapons can harm it. Its dance drives off evil spirits with the force of a 40th-level caster, defeating all but the mightiest, such as one housed in a relic or artifact. If slain, its body hardens into an egg like jade, and a new bird hatches from it after 3d10 days.

Feng huang seldom visit the Prime Material plane, preferring remote lairs on other planes. They weave nests from threads of gold and silver atop huge wu t'ung trees, ornamental trees with white and brown bell-shaped blossoms, and they adore treasure, gems above all. A female lays one egg a year, with only a 1% chance of hatching.

Its whims make it an omen of either luck or calamity; one tale has it guiding lost ships to port, then torching the port. Heat, cold and weather never trouble it.

It eats only plants, favoring wu t'ung seeds and ripe bamboo shoots, and drinks sweet liquids like fruit juice or honeyed streams. Primitive peoples use its feathers in ritual, collectors covet them, and certain spirit-blooded folk consider its eggs a delicacy.

The gravely sick seek it out, for a touch of its wings cures any disease. It works only if the bird chooses, and it rarely agrees without a hefty gift, at least 50,000 coins' worth of gold or gems.