Astral Streaker (Creature)

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==In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil Text==
Astral streakers are friendly, intelligent avians indigenous to the Astral Plane. The birds are used to deliver messages throughout Sigil. A carrier attaches a message to the streaker's leg, then whispers the destination in its ear. The streaker delivers the message, then returns to the Hall. When a baby streaker hatches (a celebrated but rare event, as the life cycle runs about 100 Prime years), it accompanies a parent for a few weeks to learn the layout of the city. Harming a streaker or interfering with its flight in any way is a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment.
==A Guide to the Astral Plane Text==
Here's an odd bird (if a body don't mind a pun). Folks claim that these little creatures are native to the Astral, but that doesn't add up at all. They look like terrestrial birds for the most part - why would an Astral creature have wings that‘re useless on its “home” plane? No, the dark of it must be that these birds came from someplace else originally.
But how, and why?
Well, some folks tell a tale about a creature called a krandohl. This avian was a small beast native to the Beastlands, but nowhere else. It was a dark-feathered bird, about the sue of a crow, with bright green eyes and a deep red breast.
The story says that a pair of odd spellcasters (some versions say they were evil priests, while othes claim it was two misguided wizards) came to the plane and began using their magic on the native birds. The result of their spellcasting was twofold. The good news was, they granted the krandohls intelligence. The bad news was, this magical intelligence cast them from the natural, instinctual realms of the Beastlands and onto the Astral. These intelligent creatures then adapted themselves to the strange environment of the Astral Plane. It's pretty easy to believe that the krandohl is actually the astral streaker.
Streakers are used by those on the Astral (in particular the Githyanki) as messengers due to their intelligence. They have an innate homing instinct that allows them to make their way to astral locations with great speed, despite the fact that their small-scale movement rate is not all that high when compared to a githyanki. They can travel to any astral locale that they have been to before in one or two days. Initially, their trainers have to take them to these places, but the streakers teach their own young the travel routes.
Wait a minute: young? On the Astral? Any cutter knows that time doesn't pass here. Well, the current chant is that astral streakers must have hidden nests somewhere on a particular dead god, around whose corpse time does flow. It's the only explanation anyone can come up with. It's certainly possible.
Anyhow, messages are tied to the legs of the streakers in little bundles. The githyanki sometimes send an unladen astral streaker to a particular location, commanding it to simply look around and return. Then, using magic or psionics, they retrieve what the creature saw and use the information for reconnoitering purposes.
A number of the birds have been taken to Sigil to serve as messengers there. To all appearances, the streakers like their job delivering messages.
Category:Creatures
Category:In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil Creatures
Category:A Guide to the Astral Plane Creatures