Wayward Augury
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 7 (3d4)
Speed 10 ft. fly 30 ft.
Skills Stealth +5, Perception +3
Damage Resistances bludgeoning; piercing; slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned, prone
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
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"It sang my wedding day perfectly, except the bride was already dead." — Sergeant Ollo Vane
Lore & Description
Appearance
The Wayward Augury is a ragged cluster of six to twelve taxidermied songbirds: wrens, finches, thrushes, and one or two birds that no living ornithologist can identify. Their feathers are faded to tobacco brown, mold green, and bruised blue, with glass eyes clouded by hairline cracks. Fine black wire joins their feet and wings, allowing the flock to twitch and wheel as a single crooked silhouette. When they sing, their stitched beaks open too far and release a layered chorus of beautiful notes, dry clicks, and the rustle of old stuffing.
Behavior & Origins
Wayward Auguries are the remnants of a diviner's failed attempt to preserve a prophetic choir. They roost in rafters, abandoned birdhouses, mausoleums, and the luggage of travelers, singing predictions that are almost right: a red door becomes a blue one, a beloved friend arrives a day late, or a funeral foretold is for the wrong person. The choir currently haunts Bellweather House, where it repeatedly predicts that the owner, Mara Venn, will be murdered before the next new moon. Mara wants the birds destroyed, but every killing causes them to reappear closer to her bedroom. A patient listener may learn that the choir is trying to warn her about a specific killer while deliberately confusing the victim's identity.
Running Wayward Augury
Tactics
The Wayward Augury begins by perching out of reach and using Unwelcome Refrain against anyone who approaches, then darts into a vulnerable creature's space to use Pecking Chorus. It flees through cracks and rafters when reduced below half its hit points, preferring to keep singing rather than fight. If cornered, it harasses the loudest or most perceptive creature and uses Borrowed Voice to lure pursuers toward danger.
DM Tips
- Telegraph its presence with a familiar voice singing from an empty room, followed by tiny falls of sawdust and feathers from the ceiling.
- Give each prophecy one true image and one wrong detail; let careful players exploit the pattern rather than treating every vision as random.
- The choir should speak in overlapping voices, occasionally finishing a character's sentence or predicting an action one beat too early.
- For a weaker party, remove the psychic damage from Unwelcome Refrain; for a stronger party, have the relocated choir reappear at a dramatically inconvenient location rather than increasing its damage.
Loot
- Black-Wire Leg Ring — A tiny iron ring stamped with the symbol of the forgotten diviner who made the choir. It grows warm when worn near a creature whose immediate future has been altered.
- Glass Prophecy Eye — One cracked glass eye from a bird. Looking through it grants a fleeting glimpse of a room the viewer will visit within the next day, though one object in the vision is subtly wrong.
