In many ways, summoned birds are closer to their natural kin than most of the other chakra-enhanced summon animals. Few of them speak human languages, and in most cases they are being called upon to do something birds already would, just quicker and more effectively.
As a species, birds ard neither friendly nor kind–but neither are they malicious or dismissive. They’re proud, but willing to respect anyone who will afford them the same. While they are be no mean pacifists or even averse to violence, they are not, as a whole, particularly well-suited to combat, which is enough for many ninja to steer away from them.
On the other hand, they can be quite useful in other ways, in no small part because they can fly. Additionally, many of the summoned birds bear a stronger resemblance to their naturally-occurring brethren than other summon animals do to theirs, which often allows summoned birds to go unnoticed when other creatures wouldn’t.
This summons a small to medium-sized bird, though not a bird of prey. The bird will accept a written message from its summoner, wait to be told where to delier that message to, and then fly off to deliver it.
For obvious reasons, these birds are quite popular with ninja who use the bird-summoning contract: they make excellent, efficient, and precise messengers, with almost no risk of being intercepted, and none at all of being bribed, subverted, or double agents.
Effects: The bird will accept an envelope, a small scroll, or sheets of paper. After taking the message, it will wait until you instruct it where that message should be delivered, which can be any person you know or place you’ve been.
The bird will then fly off. If in combat, it flies 5 yards per IC for the first 100 IC, and can’t be targeted by anything with a range of less than 20. After that, the speed increases to 10 yards per IC and it can’t be reached by anything with a range of less than 100 yards. (Other flying enemies, however, have no such restrictions on attacking them.)
Out of combat, the bird flies at 30 miles an hour. If it’s attacked, it has +25 dodge, and can take only 50 damage before being unsummoned. If it was sent with a handwritten message, the message will disappear with it; anything else (such as a sealed scroll) will be dropped.
The bird will, after circling aimlessly for a while, fly towards its specified destination. Attempting to follow the bird is impossible from the ground. If it cannot reach the intended recipient (because they’re dead, or in a jail cell with no windows, for example) it will come as close as it can, wait around for a week, and then disappear.
One of this technique’s downsides is that there’s no way for the summoner to tell if the message was delivered successfully. Furthermore, it may only be used once every month (4 OOC days).
A rarely-used aspect of the bird-summoning contract, though one that’s seen a fair deal of popularity among the ANBU corps of various villages, it summons (despite its name) a murder of crows, a wake of vultures, or group of other appropriate carrion-eating bird.
The birds will swarm the area, devouring any recently-dead bodies without leaving a single trace of their passing.
Effects: The birds will completely consume 1 + X humansized corpses (or multiple smaller corpses, or part of a lower number of larger corpses) in a matter of minutes. The birds are incredibly thorough, and will leave absolutely no trace of the individual behind, even cleaning up any blood that hasn’t had time to dry.
Thus, if you brutally murdered someone in their bedroom, and got blood all over the inside of the place, you could open a window and summon the birds, who would make it look as if the murder never took place–as long as the blood hadn’t had time to dry and stain things. (Place might still be a mess, though).
The birds can be summoned indoors, but only if there’s easy access to the outdoors nearby; an open window or door, for example.
You summon a very large eagle or a giant hawk, which lifts you up and carries you a short distance before leaving. While certainly very showy, the situations where having a giant bird carry you only a short distance is actually useful are fewer than one may think.
Even so, it does have its uses, such as crossing chasms or otherwise dangerous terrain. Also, the eagle will carry its summoner to solid ground even if that would be beyond its normal range, so it’s pretty handy after getting thrown off a cliff.
Effects: The eagle (or giant hawk) will pick up you and up to one other person to carry, who must be within 5 yards of one another. You need to hold on, which means that for the duration of the trip at least one of your arms will be occupied at all times holding the eagle’s legs.
Also, worth noting: the eagle can actually support the weight of about four people, so one common trick is to have two ninja hold onto the backs of two others, and then summon the eagle to carry each pair.
The eagle flies up 4 + X - Y yards per IC, up to a maximum of 6. Y is the number of people the eagle is carrying. Once it drops its passengers off, it is unsummoned. The eagle will cary its passengers for up to 50 IC (or until told it reaches the summoner’s destination). If it isn’t over solid ground at that point, it will fly to the nearest safe location before dropping them off. On the other hand, if the summoner asks it to drop them in mid-air it will do so.
Ravens are known to be exceptionally intelligent for birds, able to create tools and recognize faces, and summoned ravens are even more so. Most subspecies are hard to differentiate, and so they seldom look out of place when flying over an area.
Despite being very clever, Ravens don’t talk. Or, it might be accurate to say they don’t speak.
They are able to communicate ideas to their summoner. After returning from scouting, it will perch somewhere the summoner can see it (on a tree stump, on a forearm if one is offered, and so forth) and begin tilting its head, pecking aimlessly with its peak, and shifting from side to side. Anyone looking at it will be able to tell it’s doing something unusual, but the summoner will actually understand what it’s “saying.”
Vitality: 300
STR: 25
RES: 25
CHA: 25
DEX: 80
AGI: 80
Accuracy: 30
Dodge: +20
Genjutsu Defense: +20
Movement: 5 yards per IC
Awareness: +20
Espionage: +30
Resistance: +20
Stealth: +30
Enhanced Vision
Ravens ignore bonuses to Stealth TNs based on Stealth level. For example, if someone was in Stealth 3 with a Stealth TN of 45, it would be treated only as 30 for the raven (as it ignores the +15 from Stealth 3).
Independent Action
The raven can act competently without guidance from its summoner. None of its actions require AP to perform, and when given general instructions (“scout the area”, “see if you can find any clues”) it will do so to the best of its ability.
Flight
By default, the raven is airborne; it may land or take off as a Speed 10 action. When airborne, its altitude automatically increases by 3 yards every IC, to a maximum of 100 yards. It cannot be targeted by any attacks with a range of less than its altitude. Melee attacks can reach it only if the attacker can move far enough to reach the owl as part of their attack (by jumping!). After descending to Steal (see below) an item, it is effectively 0 yards from the ground, and will then regain altitude accordingly.
Might of the Meek
Raven’s are surprisingly intelligent and, though they do not speak, are more than capable of learning from their summoner to improve their own abilities based off of their time spent working alongside them. Whenever you summon a Raven, subtract the minimum XP required to summon it (1600 XP) from your Earned XP: that is the X value to determine what bonuses, if any, it gets from the following modifiers. X has a maximum of 3400.
In all cases, you round down. The bonus to skill rolls only applies to skills the summon has listed.
Standard Actions
Ravens may use the Dodge, Hide, Move, and Search actions as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB. In addition, they can use Escape Grapple (E-rank Grapple jutsu) without having to pay any cost for its use.
Scout (Speed N/A)
The raven leaves to scout the area. Depending on the radius of the area it’s told to scout, how long it will take varies. 25 yards: 30 seconds 50 yards: 2 minutes 100 yards: 5 minutes 200 yards: 10 minutes The raven will make an Awareness check against everyone and everything in the area. It will then report back to its summoner. It can communicate basic concepts, such as number and location of people; presence of buildings, carriages, and obvious traps; and so forth. It can make basic guesses about people based on their appearance: a group of four people leaping through trees are probably ninja, the people working in the rice fields are probably farmers, and so forth. It requires a break of at least twice as long as it spent scouting before it will go scout the area again.
Spy (Speed N/A)
After finding something while scouting, or given instructions by its summoner (like, “wait here”), the raven will go to an area and do something appropriately bird-like, such as perching nearby or pecking at the ground. It will wait there until a condition, specified by the summoner is met, then fly back and alert its summoner. A good example would be, “Go watch the group you saw camped out in the woods, let me know if any of them leave.” Anyone being spied upon for more than two minutes can make an Awareness roll against the raven’s Espionage to realize that it’s behaving unnaturally for a bird.
Steal (Speed 15)
Ravens may pick up any small, unattended objects, or minor things like shiny buttons on people’s coats or lightweight pieces of headgear (including forehead protectors). Ravens can also steal any non-sealed, non-large object that weighs less than 5 lb; in the case of small thrown weapons, they can steal up to 2 (one in each claw!) per Steal attempt. If instructed by their summoner, they can go for specific items; if not, they’ll pick up whatever is most useful (a discarded kunai to let their summoner know that ninja are ahead, for example) or, failing that, shiniest. Stopping the raven from stealing something requires an opposed roll of its Espionage against the target’s Awareness (to notice it). If the target succeeds, they can make an unarmed parry (at its normal speed) against the Raven’s Accuracy to prevent it from stealing the object(s) it’s after. Both the awareness and the parry attempt are allowed to be made by anyone within 10 yards of whatever it’s trying to steal.
When summoned, the raven will stay around until the next time the sun sets (in other words, the rest of the day) or until it’s badly injured enough to be unsummoned.
If dispatched by being injured, another raven cannot be summoned for two months (8 OOC days). If dismissed at sundown or by the summoner, it can be called once a week (OOC day) as normal.
A large forest owl, about two feet ‘tall’ from its talons to the top of its head when perched, with alert yellow-orange eyes. The owl is quite wise, and moderately eccentric. It’s also the only summonable bird (aside from the avatar) which can speak to humans.
The owl can only be summoned in areas where it can reach the open sky (so, not in caves), and will only come if there’s somewhere it can perch above eye level for its summoner (such as a tree branch or the top of a short pole).
However, this location must still be close enough for casual conversations, without it or the summoner having to raise their voices.
If the owl’s summoner deliberately tries to “one up” it by going higher or growing larger than the owl is high, it becomes offended and flies away.
Unlike most birds, the owl is capable of speaking human language. It actually claims that most of the other summoned birds can, but choose not to (the validity of this claim is dubious at best). It has a soft-spoken, cultured manner of speaking, though it avoids sounding pretentious or trying to talk over the head of its summoner (figuratively; literally, it certainly does so).
Beyond its curious fixation on having the highest elevation in any situation it finds itself in, the owl is quite agreeable and helpful, if disconcertingly prone to turning its head upsidedown or in a full circle when talking.
Vitality: 600
STR: 20
RES: 40
CHA: 20
DEX: 60
AGI: 60
Accuracy: 28
Dodge: +32
Genjutsu Defense: +30
Movement: 4 yards per IC
Awareness: +20
Espionage: +20
Medicine: +15
Research: +30
Stealth: +25
Toxicology: +20
Busy
The owl will perform a total of X actions (from Abilities) before leaving. This can be the same action multiple times. Standard Actions do not count.
Flight
By default, the owl will find somewhere to perch; it may take off or land as a Speed 10 action. When airborne, it altitude automatically increases by 3 yards every IC, to a maximum of 100 yards. It cannot be targeted by any attacks with a range of less than its altitude. Melee attacks can reach it only if the attacker can move (i.e. jump) far enough to reach the owl as part of their attack. After using its Distract or Disarm actions it is considered 0 yards from the ground, and will then regain altitude accordingly.
Night Vision
Owls ignore all darkness-based visibility penalties.
Standard Actions
Owls can use the Dodge and Move actions without using any of the Summoner’s AP.
Disarm (Speed 10, 6 AP)
The owl swoops down and tries to grab something an enemy is holding, then fly away with it! The enemy defends against this as if it was a normal disarm attempt. If they fail, the owl takes whatever weapon they had and flies up with it. The owl will drop it 15 IC later, at which point it can be retrieved.
Distract (Speed X, 5+X/2 AP)
The owl flies around someone’s face, generally being a nuisance! This imposes a -4 visibility penalty on the person being distracted due to the large bird flapping in front of their face and making obnoxious hooting noises.
This penalty lasts for X IC, or until the owl takes at least 100 damage. It can also be broken prematurely by moving 20 yards or more in 5 IC or less (by simply getting away from the owl). Until the Distraction ends (for any of those reasons), the owl will not regain altitude.
Erudite (N/A)
You may ask the owl to make a Research roll for you on any topic, either in place of making one yourself or in hopes of getting a better result than you did with your own roll. It can also make knowledge-based Medicine or Toxicology rolls (though please don’t try asking the owl to perform first aid on someone–it never ends well).
Knowledge (N/A)
Owls are quite the impressive scholars (apparently), even about matters related to ninja. After seeing any jutsu used, or even hearing it described by someone who saw it, it can identify the technique and all pertinent information about it (rank, effects, possible workarounds, and so forth). The same applies to the abiliies of any ninja clans and bloodlines. Each technique it’s asked about counts as one use of this ability, each clan counts as two.
Note that for clans, it will provide general information: “Yamanaka can enter the minds of their enemies and control their actions, but the damage to the possessed individual carries over to the original body,” for example. It would not provide an exhaustive breakdown of evey ability possessed by the clan, unless each was asked as a separate question (requiring the summoner to have at least enough familiarity with the techniques to describe them to the owl).
Scout (Speed 0, 10 AP)
The owl will scout an area for its summoner. Out of battle this has no Speed or AP cost, takes 10 minutes, and covers an area with a 100 yard radius. The owl will report back with what it found (it makes an Awareness roll against everyone and everything in the area).
Used in combat, it performs a single Search action at Speed 0 when first commanded, and then continues to perform Search actions at Speed 5 with a stacking +5 bonus for each consecutive Search action performed, until the enemy (or enemies) it was asked to find are discovered or break stealth. Once it finds them, it will, as a Speed 0 action, Point Out whoever it found (as per the rules in Combat -> Stealth).
Normally, the owl can be called once every two weeks. If involved in combat at all, it cannot be summoned again for four weeks. If injured, this is raised to six; and if it loses all its Vitality, it cannot be summoned again for three months (12 OOC days).
Sky Kings, as they are called, are tremendous snow-white eagles with wingspans of several hundred feet, capable of shadowing battlefields when they fly overhead. Each of their feathers is as long as a person is tall, and they’re strong enough to trivially lift up the largest of (mundane) land animals. Of all the known summon creatures, they are by far the physically largest.
The Amahaou can only be summoned outdoors, in areas large enough for it to spread its wings and take flight.
As is the case with most summoned birds, Sky Kings cannot speak any language that humans will understand. Even so, they have at least human-level intelligence and can understand complex requests and plans. While it would not be accurate to call them friendly, they willingly have a helpful disposition.
Vitality: 6000
STR: 160
RES: 200
CHA: 100
DEX: 120
AGI: 100
Accuracy: 50
Dodge: N/A
Damage Bonus: 10
Genjutsu Defense: +35
Movement: 6 yards per IC
Awareness: +30
Resistance: +25
Stealth: Yeah, no.
Bird of Prey
Any time an enemy in Stealth moves within a Sky King’s shadow (see “Shade”), it automatically sees them regardless of their current Stealth level or Stealth TN. Making any attack, even a ranged weapon attack, from stealth while in its Shade is also enough motion to draw its attention this way.
Buffet
Whenever a Sky King attacks, everyone within its Shade other than the target must make an Athletics roll against a TN of 45 or be immediately knocked Prone (as per Trip), and Stunned for the next 6 IC.
Flight
Unless they deliberately land (doing so, and taking off again, are both Speed 15 actions), Sky Kings are always considered airborne, and as such ignore effects dependant upon the condition of the ground. When they attack, they are considered to be at ground level. Every IC which passes after they take off or attack, they rise 5 yards straight up, to a maximum of 100 yards. Any attack from the ground must have sufficient range to hit them; melee attacks can be used as long as the attacker can travel that far as part of their attack (by jumping!).
Great Bird
The area beneath a Sky King in flight is subjected to heavy gusts of wind every time it beats its wings. Within that area (see “Shade”) every time the IC reaches a multiple of 20 all clouds (such as from Mist Blaze Dance, or Hidden Mist Technique) are removed.
Titanic
A Sky King cannot dodge any attack with a range greater than its current altitude. This means that it is completely unable to dodge any attack with a maximum range of greater than 100 yards (its maximum atitude). This does mean that it cannot dodge while on the ground. Amahaou cannot dodge Area of Effect attacks; instead, they block them automatically as a Speed 0 defense. They can not enter Stealth, nor Hide. They are too large to be knocked airborne, knocked back, or knocked prone, and ignore any jutsu or effects that work by binding or physically restraining them. Damage from all Small weapons (including Multi-throws) deals one-fourth its normal damage; damage from non-Large weapons deals half its normal damage, both of which are calculated before any potential Partial Success. Damage from any technique of D-rank or lower is halved in the same manner.
Their physical damage bonus is doubled against anyone that is Huge in size; against anyone that is not Large or larger, it is instead tripled. They can not be grappled by anyone who is not Huge or Titanic in size, and take no penalties for grappling anyone that is not Huge or Titanic in size; gaining control of a grapple the creature initiated merely has the grapple end, rather than allowing them to take control of it.
Anyone not of Huge size or larger attempting to parry an attack from this creature requires a Strength of 150 or more, or an unarmed physical damage bonus of 15 or greater.
Shade
When in flight, an Amahaou is considered to occupy an area with a 100 yard radius centered on its “actual” location; anyone in that area is effectively in melee range of it (not counting distance from the ground). Anyone below it is immune to any weather-based effects caused by thunderstorms, rain, and so forth.
Talons
A Sky King may grab up to two individuals, one in each claw. It suffers no penalties for being in control of the grapple. Enemies using the Escape Grapple technique have the Speed, Delay, and Stamina cost doubled.
Tireless
An Amahou does not need to make Stamina rolls for its actions. If forced to for other reasons (such as Suffocation), it uses +25 for its effective bonus to Fatigue rolls.
Standard Actions
Amahou may use the Move and Search actions without spending any of its Summoner’s AP.
Crush (Speed 12, 10 AP)
Usable while on the ground. This may only be used while someone is Pinned by the Amahaou. It deals no base damage, but still inflicts the Sky King’s DB * Speed, which is doubled for the purpose of inflicting (Blunt) wounds, along with Suffocation 2 each time it’s used. Crush automatically hits.
Peck (Speed 20, 16 AP)
Usable while on the ground. It’s not actually a peck. It’s actually a bite from a titanic bird’s equally oversized beak. If this wounds a victim it inflicts both a Blunt (from the crushing force) and Slashing (from… being bitten) wound of the appropriate severity. It deals 20d20 damage, but has a -5 Accuracy penalty. If used against a Pinned opponent, this hits automatically.
Pin (Speed 14, 20 AP)
Usable while in flight. The Amahou simultaneously lands and attacks a single target. If they’re hit they must immediately make an Athletics roll against 35 or be Grappled by one of its talons. During this period they’re prone and unable to form handseals. The Amahaou may not move without ending the grapple. Even after escaping, whoever was Pinned is prone, as if by the Trip taijutsu.
Pluck (Speed 20, 15 AP)
Usable while in flight. The Amahaou swoops down and snatches up an unfortunate victim. This may target up to two people within its Shade at once, as a single action. People grabbed this way are treated as if held by the E-rank Grab taijutsu. Escaping the grapple results in one falling 5 yards per IC (because calculating actual acceleration due to gravity would not be worth the effort). For every yard they were above 20 when they escaped, they take 1d12+1 damage when they hit the ground. Falling inflicts Blunt wounds. The Amahaou may also drop one or both of the people it’s holding, as a (Speed 10, 5 AP) action.
Rake (Speed 24, 10 AP)
Usable while in flight. The Amahou rakes with its claws. It may choose up to two areas ten yards across within its Shade to attack. This attack targets everyone within both those areas, though is not treated as an area-of-effect attack. This deals 4d8 * 10 damage to anyone it hits.
Scratch (Speed 16, 10 AP)
Usable on the ground. The Amahaou scratches an area within 20 yards with one of its claws. This targets everyone in an area 10 yards across, though is not treated as an area-of-effect attack. It deals 4d6*10 damage to anyone hit by the attack.
An Amahaou can only be summoned once every three months (12 OOC days).
When one is summoned, it will either aid the summoner in combat, or allow itself to be used as an aerial ferry. In the latter case, it will do so until sunset or sunrise, whichever comes first. It will carry additional passengers, if the summoner wishes.
Due to the Sky King’s immense size, falling off isn’t much of an issue–a large portion of its back is essentially “flat” when in flight, and its feathers are sturdy enough to easily be used as handholds. Climbing down can be tricky, but not, in most cases, dangerous.
Once either of those is accomplished, it will depart–it will not help fight off enemies and then carry its summoner to safety, nor will it stay around and help fight after delivering its somewhere where they need to go… unless it’s attacked, in which case it will defend itself mercilessly.
The avatar of the birds, the legendary Lord Garuda, takes the form of a bird of no clear species: an eagle-like body structure, an owlish face, a pure-white raven’s beak, and the claws of a falcon. His plumage is similarly unique, brilliant gold feathers along his leg, a red-feathered body crossed with gold bands, white tailfeathers, a golden crest, and vibrant blue pinion feathers.
Physically, Garuda is much less imposing than any of the sky kings, though he is still quite large, with a wingspan over a hundred feet across. He’s not as large as some of the avatar summons, but he’s certainly large enough to dwarf any summoner.
Garuda can speak–or, rather, Garuda can ‘speak’. When he does so it is in a soft-spoken, deep, noble voice which is heard in the minds of everyone who he wishes to hear him. He does not talk in the conventional sense, making no actual noise. In short, it’s telepathy, or something very much like it.
Garuda is calm, even-tempered, and noble. He is righteous, but not kind. He will willingly lend his aid to those who need it for a just cause, but will be reluctant to aid individuals who are merely seeking to advance their own interests or use his power for their personal benefit.
As the avatar of birds Garuda is without equal in the sky, capable of flying with breathtaking grace. He is undoubtedly a fierce combatant, though likely lacks the raw power of some of the larger, land-bound animal avatars.
Legends claim that Garuda himself is genuinely divine to some measure, though what the implications of this may be are unknown.