Ferric Murkflock

Folk in borderlands whisper that Ferric Murkflocks gather where war is planned and where the soil remembers iron. They are most often seen trailing conscripted armies, supply trains, or mercenary bands; when battles end in rout the flocks disperse, only to coalesce again around the next army. Some commanders prize a murkflock's allegiance as a grisly good-luck charm, believing the birds mark which columns fate permits to march on. Scholars debate their origin. A treatise by Mebryn Hocks of the Sable Archivum argues that the flocks are not natural but arcano-mechanical parasites born of smith-sorcery: iron tacks grafted to carrion-bird minds. The Kragfell Legions keep records of a Ferric Murkflock that followed three of their successful campaigns and then vanished; superstitious captains often leave scraps of iron on standards to placate them. Villagers near the ruined watchpost of Verran's Hollow tell a darker tale: that the birds remember names and may whisper them to the earth where funeral mounds will sprout in years to come.

A Ferric Murkflock looks like a cluster of ordinary crows until inspected closely: each bird's beak and the ridge around its eyes are sheened in hammered iron, riveted to bone with dark-gray metal plates. Feathers are matte black with a subtle stippled texture that flakes where rust forms; on the breast some feathers have been threaded with thin copper wires that carry static sparks. Eyes are glossy, glassy beads set deep in iron sockets. The flock number ranges from a dozen to three dozen birds; when perched they crowd shoulder-high on a standard or wheel hub. Wings are narrow and ragged at the edges, with tiny metal barbs on the primary feathers that glint in sunlight.