Gullion

A gullion was a species of seagull that had adapted to wildspace life.

Description
A gullion was a relatively large bird, tall when standing upright. They otherwise looked like a standard seagull, except that they often had bold-colored feathers, such as orange or purple.

Gullions had no inherent magical abilities.

Behavior
Gullions typically could be found in small flocks of about ten birds up to ones as large as 100. They had adapted to "hitching rides" with spelljammers by learning to float on their gravity planes—as if in water—and to fly in their air envelopes, and in this way they had spread throughout the known spheres, from space port to space port, living as scavengers. They were particularly hard to hit when flying within an air envelope, because they understood how to use the gravity plane to make their flight erratic, which frustrated those crews who wished to eradicate them.

Like regular seagulls, they were not terribly choosy about what they would eat—rats or trash were sometimes menu items, for example—and while only possessing animal intelligence, they seemed to have a knack for sneaking away food when someone was not looking. There were even reports of gullions working together to create diversions.

Combat
Gullions only posed a danger if extremely hungry and in large numbers, when they had been known to swarm and attack with their beaks, trying to immobilize whoever might possess food. They would then go after the food or, if none was available, might even peck flesh from the victim.

Ecology
Gullions could survive in most climates; they seemed to spread to wherever a spelljamming vessel would take them. Not all gullions traveled with spelljammers. It was not uncommon for certain flocks of the birds to never leave the port town in which they lived.

Reputation
Spelljamming sailors and crewmembers hated gullions, because these stowaways consumed the precious air in an air envelope and were constantly trying to steal food. Some sailors did not waste the effort trying to kill the birds and instead tossed scraps overboard to keep the gullions from coming on deck to sneak away food.

On the surface of planets or smaller worlds, they held a better reputation. Some tavern or restaurant owners liked having the birds around to remove their leftover food waste, and tourists loved them for their beautiful colors. In fact, some barkeepers had gotten in fights with each other over who "owned" which flocks, because the colorful birds were attracting customers.

History
Sages speculated that exposure to such a wide variety of climates and magics from wildspace travel led to the gullion's exotic colorations.

Early in the Second Unhuman War, when Teldin Moore visited the Rock of Bral in the Tears of Selûne around Toril, he observed a flock of about a hundred white-feathered gullions flying overhead.

Appearances

 * The Maelstrom's Eye