Entry in the Spelljammer Creature Challenge.
Discovered recently in a distant cluster of relatively unexplored asteroids, these little creatures are roughly the size of a football. When approached they appeared as small, green blobs of viscous liquid, attached to the side of the asteroid roughly facing the sun. At first it was though they were only a mold or some type of fungi that grew in wildspace, but this was not found to be the case.
One of the cabin boys, who happened to be out exploring during his free shift, came across one of the strange patches of green mass. He decided to collect a sample incase it was a fungi that also had good flavor properties (the ships cook was a particularly bland tastebudded elf). As he approached the patch, however, it began to take shape, reading his mind through a limited form of telepathy. Finding his favourite animal to be a hawk, it shifted roughly into that form. The boy was impressed by the feat, but ended up laughing at the poor imitation the creature made.
Instead of being a two winged, two legged, beaked, brown feathered hawk, it instead had bright pink feathers, goofy crossed eyes, and the beak of a toucan. Subsequent tests found the creatures to be adapt at changing their form, but not very accurate in their replication. The small creature also polymorphed into a pink elephant with wings, a small snake with the bark of a dog, and a cat with purple spots all over its green coat. All forms seemed to have the same, strange, goofy crossed eyes.
Eventually the ships captain consented to bringing the creatures aboard, much to the amusement of the crew. They were found to be somewhat plant like in origin, in that they required only the warmth of a sun for food, but other than that seemed to be strange, gooey like masses of the green substance. It was found that when they were pulled apart (this was done by the elf with a large meat-cleaver, after one kept staring at him googly-eyed while he was trying to cook) or otherwise seperated, each half would slowly grow back to the same size as the original. Both would, from the onset, act roughly the same, but slowly came to exhibit different mannerisms, just the same as a family of dogs may after a small amount of time.
Another bonus to the creatures is that the absolutely LOVED to eat fish, barnacles, and anything else non-intelligent that came from the sea. This was highly prized by the captain, as his ship also spent some time planetside, posing as a normal galleon trader (the locals were highly conspicuous of magic-users). Thusly, his ship often had barnacles upon it, and there were usually scraps of fish lying around from when the elf would cook the local quisine's (why eat dry rations when the sea is full of fish).
After finding the creatures to be highly entertaining to the crew (they would play for hours at a time upon the deck, shifting forms comically and playing tricks on each other), and realizing their capitol potential, the captain retired and has begun to sell them for a cost of 1,000 gp each.
The beasts were eventually found to have a moderate form of intelligence by some mages, and some have also been trained as messengers. Each such messenger typically stays with the one form while delivering messages, and seems very able to stay on track and find the appropriate place to go. There is a 90% base chance for a ShiftPet to find a placed he has been to when told to, as long as it was named at the time he was taken there (note that HE is used although they are genderless technically). If he has managed this trek once, he can manage it again without hassle. They can fly at a rate of 18, MC B.
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: any FREQUENCY: very rare ORGANIZATION: solitary/pack ACTIVITY CYCLE: day DIET: photosynthesis and aquatic meat INTELLIGENCE: semi (2 to 4) TREASURE: nil ALIGNMENT: none NO. APPEARING: 1 to 20 ARMOR CLASS: 6 MOVEMENT: 12, Fl 18 (B) HIT DICE: 1+1 THAC0: 20 NO. OF ATTACKS: variable by creature imitated* DAMAGE/ATTACK: variable by creature imitated* SPECIAL ATTACKS: none SPECIAL DEFENSES: none MAGIC RESISTANCE: 10% SIZE: S (1' tall) MORALE: 20 (fearless) XP VALUE: 155
Each ShiftPet starts life as a green, moldy looking substance, akin to a small pool of slime but with coherence. When approached by any sentient being, however, or when it has been in the company of within the last month, a ShiftPet will attempt to read the persons thoughts using a type of ESP power, and imitate an animal they like. Typical imitations are dogs, cats, birds, small elephants and pigs (the latter to frequently with wings for some reason). Always, however, regardless of form, a ShiftPet's eyes are crossed and goofy looking. This sometimes impares their vision, giving them a 35% chance likelihood to bump into something on any given round.
Combat: A ShiftPet will not engage in combat unless it is backed into a corner and threatened, or someone emotionally attached to it is in dire peril. ShiftPets will take the form of something likely to cause damage, or find a way to do so in their current form if need be (it takes a round for the creature to shift forms). When in combat such as this a ShiftPet never flees, allowing any harm that would come to its friend to come to it first (not that the word friend is used as no one truly owns a ShiftPet, as explained below).
A Typical ShiftPet attack might be 1d3 for biting, or 1d2 per claw available. Things imitated such as hawks or rats etc do differing damage, DM's are encouraged to look in the mammal section of the Monstrous Compendium for a good reference.
Habitat/Society: ShiftPets have no society per se, but when one meets up with another they will typically fly about each other and gabble in an in-understandable language (even through magical means), while making strange noises. Shortly after, they may chase each other around, cuddle a little, or go back to whatever they were doing. Occasionally a ShiftPet seems to sniff the other, and will fly away instantly. This is usually because the ShiftPet sniffed has been around someone with a bad temper lately, and reeks of it (see below).
ShiftPets require sunlight to feed upon, and when in a solid form for more than a month or so at a time start needing small meals of seafood once per day. Aside from this, they do not breathe, and do no drink. This is not to say they cannot, just that they are used to being in wildspace (their natural habitat), and don't have to/cant really do these things there. In fact, on a fouled ship, a ShiftPet may start breathing the fouled air, and producing oxygen, much the same as a plant. Each ShiftPet actually does this very quickly, and they can be lifesavers on long voyages, each ShiftPet defouling a block of 10 x 10 x 10 feet with only 5 minutes of this breathing. However, this drains them thoroughly, and they must eat at least twice their body weight in seafood, and absorb 5 hours of direct sunlight within a day or they will slowly start to fade in color and wither, reverting to their true form and dying.
It is theorized that they are a type of plant, and that they have adapted to wildspace and the needs of others so that they might live more interesting lives than sitting up asteroids for their long lives. Each ShiftPet can live for up to 500 years.
Ecology: ShiftPets, as stated above, feed primarily upon sunlight, and secondarily upon seafood. However, these are not the only things they need to survive in the spelljamming eco-sphere. If a ShiftPet does not find a being of good alignment to follow and travel with, it will eventually return to its green form, and wait for someone suitable. This is not because ShiftPets require any sort of magical sustenance from a good aligned soul, but is related to the fact that they are in a way a type of animal, and do not react well to being mistreated. A ShiftPet can be controlled/enslaved by an evil character, but is likely to be dull in colors and move a lot slower than normal. A ShiftPet, however, that is hanging around a neutral good person roaming the universe in search of exploration, is a happy, bubbly little creature, filled with excitement and joy. They seem to enhance the mood of good people, seeing the well-hearted for what they are and rewarding them with companionship.
ShiftPets are very empathic with whoever (or whatever) they have chosen to follow through the cosmos, and can usually tell that something is wrong. At times like these they try to help by cheering the person up, or making sure they know they are not alone. A quick hug from a ShiftPet elephant is usually enough to cheer up a depressed person recently fired from his ship's post, and quickly helps the person get on with life and find things to be happy about again.
If ever the ShiftPets companion falls in love, the ShiftPet will try to help to the limit of its intelligence. These things include closing doors, keeping others away, leading the two to each other, and even occasionally dropping a flower into the hand of a man just before his potential wife comes walking around the corner. This is not only because ShiftPets love happiness, but that they seem to adore children, who are the purest of heart of all the beings in the universe, and wish to make sure there are more of them around.
