Flame Swallow

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Flame swallows are magnificent, graceful birds similar in appearance to terrestrial swallows, except that their wingspan is often five feet or more. They have the same forked tail as swallows. Their color is bright red on the back of the head and down the back, shading to brilliant orange on the upper surfaces of the wings and on the tail. Their bellies and the undersides of their wings are bright yellow. Their beaks are short, but sharply-pointed, and can deliver a nasty bite.
Flame swallows are always surrounded by a nimbus of bright orange fire. This nimbus extends to a range of about three feet from the body of the bird, and is hot enough to ignite inflammable materials on contact. Flame swallows love fire in all its forms, and enjoy darting through flames and playing in the hot, turbulent air above the surface of fire worlds. They can live equally as well in the superheated atmosphere or in the fiery body of such a world. They are exceptionally curious creatures, and will investigate anything out of the ordinary. If danger - or apparent danger - appears, however, they usually flee. The creatures enjoy starting fires so that they can then play in them, and are thus highly dangerous to spelljamming vessels approaching fire worlds. Such a ship will often attract several of the beautiful creatures who approach to investigate... and then probably ignite the ship's rigging.
Flame swallows are thought to have arisen on the Elemental Plane of Fire, but are extremely rare there. Some sages think that the creatures find fire worlds on the Prime Material Plane as more attractive homes than their native plane. Flame swallows can't survive in an environment colder than the environs of a fire world. If the ambient temperature drops below that of boiling water (212 °F), a flame swallow suffers 1 d6 points of damage each round that it's exposed to this "frigid" environment.
==Combat==
Flame swallows will almost never enter combat unless there's no alternative. If combat is necessary, they can deliver a damaging bite, but their main danger is the flame aura that surrounds them. This aura causes 1-8 points of damage to any creature not somehow immune to fire (save vs. breath weapon for half damage), and immediately ignites any flammable clothing or equipment exposed to it.
Flame swallows are totally immune to all fire- or heatbased attacks. Electrical attacks do normal damage, while cold-based attacks do triple damage.
==Habitat/Society==
Flame swallows congregate in small family-based flocks. Occasionally multiple flocks can be encountered, although this is very rare. Next to nothing is known about the reproductive behavior of flame swallows. Presumably they lay eggs, and - judging by the size of family flocks - presumably these eggs are few in number, or few are viable. Nobody knows, however, where the eggs are laid; no flame swallow nest has ever been discovered. The question is even more interesting because flame swallows have been reported on fire worlds with absolutely no solid surfaces on which those nests could be built. Some sages theorize that the creatures return to the Elemental Plane of Fire to lay and hatch their eggs, but this has yet to be confirmed. Further adding to the confusion, no obviously immature flame swallow has ever been seen.
Although not overly intelligent, flame swallows are amenable to training by creatures that can survive in the environment flame swallows need. Efreet on Ignia keep trained flame swallows as pets.
==Ecology==
Although flame swallows seem to prey on other fire-dwelling creatures such as fire bats when these other creatures are available, this seems to represent a preference rather than a necessity. Flame swallows seem to be able to survive without any such source of food. Sages theorize that they draw the energy they need to survive directly from their environment. This has yet to be confirmed, however.
Flame swallows in tum are preyed upon by other fire-dwelling creatures. (Fire bats and flame swallows seem particularly inimical, and generally attack each other on sight.)
Because of their ability to subsist on no food, there is much controversy over just what position flame swallows hold in the food chain.
Category:Creatures
Category:Practical Planetology Creatures