Giant Pigeon

Common pigeons usually weigh under half a pound, and are often kept as food animals. Because they tend to return to their roosting areas, circular structures known as dove cotes, which consist of a protected environment with nesting niches in the walls and the means to reach the higher nests – usually a stout mobile ladder – allow pigeons or doves to be harvested as needed while eliminating most of the costs of upkeep. Homing pigeons are trained to return to the same roost, even from great distances. They may be carries to a distant location, a message secured to them, and then released. These pigeons can fly 60 miles in a single hour or 360 miles in a day. The message arrives at the home roost with the bird, recovered by whoever is left in that location, assuming the bird returns home. For each day (or portion thereof) that a homing pigeon is released, but has not yet returned home, roll 1d30: (1-25) pigeon makes progress toward home, (26 - 27) nothing untoward happens, but pigeon does not make progress, (28 -29) pigeon has fallen to a predator, such as a hawk, or (30) pigeon and message have fallen into intelligent hands. Note that this does not mean that the pigeon is killed, or even that the message does not get through. At the judge’s discretion, the message may be read, read by hostile forces, and/or altered and re -released for home. Homing pigeons cost 1 sp and have an upkeep cost of 1 cp per day. Pigeon swarms do not naturally occur, but may be the result of divine forces or mortal spellcasters. Some cultures view pigeons as psychopomps – beings which herald misfortune or help guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Because of this, anyone hit by a pigeon swarm must succeed in a DC 10 Will save or take 1 point of Luck damage, foreshadowing their potential demise. Unlike other reductions in Luck, this damage heals normally. Giant pigeons are as large as an adult human, and weigh 1d30+100 pounds. Because of their size, they will sometimes attack creatures as large as a halfling. Some giant pigeons, tainted by Chaos, may go after even larger prey. Other Names: Rock dove. Homing pigeons may be called carrier pigeons or messenger pigeons.