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A wingless wonder, also called an alkada or a walking egg, was without a doubt one of the strangest and clumsiest, not to mention downright stupidest, creatures in all Faerûn. It was a wonder they survived at all, really.

Just look at it. With a squat egg-like body on two waddling legs (hence one name) and two stumpy arms that it flapped incessantly as if trying to fly (hence the other name), it looked both ridiculous and pathetic, and its large sad eyes seemed to know this. The mouth on its—for lack of a better word—head was ringed by long tentacles, with which it poked, grasped, and fondled absolutely everything in reach in search of something to eat, usually to its own detriment. It was oblivious to any threat, observed to meander blithely across a battlefield or a through a dragon's breath. Nevertheless, wonders were unpredictably hazardous, being completely resistant to magic and able to unleash natural wild magic and a potent psychic scream when slain, punishing those mean enough to harm such a defenseless and miserable creature.

Almost useless except in waste disposal, wonders were nevertheless the center of several strange shapeshifting fads among human and drow wizards. Some used its innocuous form as a disguise or means of spying on their foes, while others enjoyed trapping defeated enemies in this form to humiliate them. A few were even great mages who'd died, failed to impress the goddess of magic, and reincarnated in this lowly form. Up to a quarter of all wonders were wizards in disguise, slowly going quite, quite mad. (Archive | Read more...)