Nyunai Suzume 入内雀

Tiny fey (spirit), chaotic neutral

Armor Class 15 (swift movement)

Hit Points 22 (5d4 + 10)

Speed 10 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)

STR 3 (−4) · DEX 18 (+4) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 14 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +4

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +8

Damage Vulnerabilities thunder (bells, drums)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks

Condition Immunities prone

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages understands Common and Celestial but can’t speak

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Traits

Imperial Peck. When the Nyunai Suzume hits a creature that is eating or carrying food, that creature has disadvantage on its next attack roll or saving throw made before the end of its next turn.

Spirit Glide. The sparrow can move through openings as small as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The Nyunai Suzume makes two Peck attacks, or one Peck and one Curse of Exile if it is available.

Peck. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage plus 3 (1d4) psychic damage.

Curse of Exile (Recharge 5–6). The Nyunai Suzume sings a single mournful note audible within 60 feet. One creature it chooses within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be cursed for 1 minute. While cursed, the creature takes 3 (1d6) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns and can’t regain hit points. The creature repeats the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the curse on a success. Remove curse or similar magic also ends it.

Reactions

Sudden Gust. When a ranged attack misses the nyunai-suzume, it conjures a swirl of wind; the attacker must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or drop the weapon used for the attack.

Lore

A sparrow that guards secrets and brings good luck to those who find it.

Nyunai Suzume is a yokai whose very name describes its defining act: it slips into the central pavilion of the Imperial Palace and pecks at the rice set on the Emperor’s table. Its alternate name, Sanekata-suzume, leads straight to the legend’s source, for the yokai is believed to be the posthumous form of the court poet Fujiwara no Sanekata, who lived in the late tenth century. Renowned for his waka verse, Sanekata quarreled with the noble Fujiwara no Yukinari and was exiled from Kyoto to govern the distant province of Mutsu—a sentence that amounted to social death for a capital aristocrat. Three years later, so the story goes, Sanekata fell from his horse and died; the accident was read as divine punishment, layering retribution atop political injustice. Chronicles stress that in his final moments Sanekata still burned to return to the capital and restore his honor, so his spirit assumed the form of a sparrow, able to cover any distance and breach even the guarded palace walls.

Soon after the exile’s death, rumors began to circulate in Kyoto of an unusual sparrow that flew daily into the Emperor’s chambers and pecked at the rice on the ceremonial daiban tray—a stand used in Buddhist and Shinto rites. Rice offered to the sovereign was held sacred, so tampering with it constituted a spiritual insult to imperial authority. In this way the spirit returned and symbolically questioned the court’s power. A real natural detail lent credibility to the tale: in northeastern Japan, where Sanekata died, nests the russet sparrow (Passer rutilans). Each autumn these birds migrate south and wreak havoc on rice fields.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 70 · Fern Flower Press