Paper bird

Paper birds were magically enchanted pieces of parchment that conveyed small written messages by flying from the message's sender to its recipient.

Description
After writing a small message (of 50 words or less) onto a paper bird, the sender whispered the name of the intended recipient. This caused the paper bird to magically fold and seal itself and to take flight, taking the most direct route toward the recipient at a top speed of 8.1 mph (11 km/h). Upon arrival at the proximity of its intended recipient, the enchantment wore off and the paper bird became a regular piece of parchment.

Paper birds were usually found in small boxes containing between 4 and 9 units.

Powers
As a security measure to prevent the message from being seen by anyone other than the intended recipient, a paper bird had a number of security measures in place. It could only be unfolded by the intended recipient. Moreover, if a paper bird were intercepted during flight and were prevented from moving, it immediately turned into ash. If the sender and recipient were in different planes of existence by the time the recipient's name was whispered, the paper bird also turned into ash.

History
Paper birds were commonly used means of communication in Waterdeep in the late 15 century DR. They were employed by numerous guilds and factions, such as the Zhentarim.

Appearances

 * Waterdeep: Dragon Heist