Tressym

A tressym was a magical beast resembling a small winged cat. They could be found across the warm and temperate lands of Faerûn, and were most common in northern Cormyr, particularly in the village of Eveningstar where they were seen as good luck charms and mascots and praised for keeping down rodents. They were also popular as familiars for good wizards.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A tressym resembled a small cat, roughly the size of a common housecat, and growing up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) long from nose to tail. Their primary feature was of course their wings.
Extending from their well-muscled shoulders, these wings were formed like a bat's, being divided into arc-segments by hollow elongated "finger" bones. However, the leathery membranes between these bones were covered in feathers. These wings had a maximum wingspan of 3 feet (0.91 meters).
Tressym were fluffy and their coat varied in color and length as much as regular cats. The majority were short-haired, with black, gray, or tabby fur.
Some tressym had owl-like faces with tufts of fur at the points of their ears. The fingers of their wings could end in ornate feathers with circular designs rather like the "eyes" of a peacock's plumage.
They were widely considered to be cute or beautiful.

Traits

A tressym was classified as a magical beast.
Combining the sensory abilities of the cat and the owl and a magical beast, the tressym was equipped with a number of natural and supernatural senses. First, they had the cat's native ability to find and follow a scent. To see in the dark, they possessed infravision or darkvision, as well as the ability to see in low-light conditions. Furthermore, they had the ability to sense invisible creatures and objects up to 90 feet (27 meters) away. Finally, through either taste, touch, or scent, they could also detect poisons that were harmful to the sentient folk of the world.
However, tressym were themselves immune to apparently every known kind of poison, suffering no ill effects whatsoever. This ability could not be conferred to other creatures, however.
Tressym had skills in stealth, climbing, balance, and alertness comparable to a regular cat, but were of course a little better at balancing and climbing owing to their wings. However, they didn't have nearly the same talent for jumping.
Their wings were not strong enough to carry great weights. They could not carry a Halfling; if a halfling was falling, a tressym might strain to haul them up, and could do little more than slow, but not break, their fall.

Ecology and Habitats

In the wild, they could be found in warm and temperate lands. They could easily find and take shelter from bad winter weather, or fly away from it entirely.
Individual wild and domestic tressym could be found all over Faerûn, albeit very rarely. They only appeared to gather and breed in large numbers in northern Cormyr, mostly lairing in Starwater Gorge. Night and day, they hunted the fields for rodents, avoiding the local cats and dogs and not fighting or teasing them. Tressym were relatively common in the nearby village of Eveningstar, found prowling the streets and perched in the trees; Eveningstar was renowned for its tressym.
A clowder of wild tressym dwelled at the Leaves of Learning temple to Oghma in Highmoon in the Dalelands. Cormyrian traders had brought them from Eveningstar to Deepingdale to sell in the High Market, but the winged cats escaped and flew to the temple. They laired in the temple's Inner Court, becoming beloved companions to the priests and monks. They were allowed free access to the kitchen and pantry to hunt rats and mice. The tressym would alert the temple staff if they spied a visitor acting suspiciously or a Thief climbing over the walls.
There were a number of tressym in the city of Ankhapur in the Lake of Steam region. Curiously, on the day before Highsummer each year since 1368 DR, every tressym in the city mysteriously disappeared in the night, even from within cages. None knew where they went or why. The winged cats only returned three days later, with people simply seeing them again they when they woke up. Talk in the taverns about this centered on the Shadi'ar, or Lion tribes, and how their god Nobanion was said to have visited Ankhapur in 1367 DR, the year before the first disappearance of tressym.
Tressym could also be found roaming the settled lands of Aglarond and Altumbel during the day.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Tressym were carnivorous, like cats, usually hunting birds, rodents, and insects. However, they did not prey on baby birds or eggs.
They mated as often as regular cats, and did not mate for life. Tressym were closely related to the small feral cats that prowled the forests of the Heartlands, which had been domesticated across Faerûn, from the Sword Coast to Cormyr, the Dalelands, Sembia, and the Moonsea. Thus tressym could even mate with normal cats, with which they were fully fertile. However, on average, only 10% of mixed-bred kittens would be winged, while the rest were wingless.
In good health and without accidents or hazards, a tressym could live over twenty years.

Behaviour

Tressym were highly intelligent, being a little above average human intelligence. They could not speak human languages, but had their own language, "tressymspeak", which was based on purrs and growls. They were semi-wild, and most people thought of them as "mischievous little terrors", but otherwise tended to be shy and skittish.
They were often solitary creatures, rarely living or hunting with others of their kind, though did usually get along fine. Some bonded with individuals of other races, like elves and humans, forming close friendships. Stories told of heroic tressym sacrificing themselves to save beloved companions. Equally, they could have strong hatreds of those they disliked. They enjoyed teasing dogs (which could not give chase) but not to the point of danger. They ignored and left in peace birds (when not preying upon them), griffons, and other flying creatures. However, they were deadly rivals to stirges and manticores, to the point that packs of tressym would gather to combat them.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Tressym were sometimes kept as familiars by Wizards and Sorcerers. They needed to be experienced mages capable of bonding with a more advanced creature, and the tressym would only accept a good-hearted master. As familiars, tressym combined the senses of cat and owl, and furthermore were intelligent enough for many more tasks, being able to carry and operate complicated and delicate items to the limit of their capability, to fully observe and report on events, to concentrate on activities without distractions, and to safely identify poisons and toxic gases.
Thus many mages, particularly good ones, sought out tressym, often coming to Eveningstar to find them. Two mages living in Eveningstar kept tressym as familiars, Maea Dulgussir and Lord Tessaril Winter herself. Tessaril's familiar accompanied her often, either perched upon her shoulder and circling her feet with many purrs. The tressym served as her unofficial food taster, insisting on sampling everything she ate and drank, which saved Tessaril from poisoning no less than six times.
Tsarra Chaadren, a sorceress of Waterdeep, also had a tressym familiar, called "Nameless".
Apart from familiars, tressym made for popular pets. Calishite humans, who enjoyed exotic, magical pets, were drawn to tressym, among other magical beasts. Chondathan humans, particularly in Cormyr, favored felines and so especially appreciated tressym. In the mage kingdom of Halruaa, tressym were among the most popular exotic pets seen strolling along the Halarahh's Promenade in the evenings, beside their masters.
Although a tressym's immunity to poisons reportedly could not be conferred upon other creatures, the tongue of a tressym was nevertheless an important component of treatments against poison. In 1372 DR, in the village of Hilltop in the Silver Marches, when Drogan Droganson was stricken by a poison that could not be healed by normal means, the Harper Ayala Windspear requested his pupil fetch tressym tongue, charcoal, and helmthorn berries from the herbalist Farghan. The subsequent concoction helped, but did not heal, Drogan.

Civilization and Culture

History

The tressym were believed to the product of a Wizard's experimentation long ago.
However, it wasn't until the Year of the Tressym, 1263 DR, that they became widespread in Faerûn. As the name of the year suggested, this had been foretold by Alaundo the Seer himself, as early as the Year of Clinging death, 75 DR.
The sorceress Tsarra Chaadren acquired a tressym familiar around 1364 DR, but even after a decade of bonding with him, he did not tell her his name. Lady Laeral Silverhand took to calling the winged cat "Nameless", which the cat didn't mind. Nameless had a jet-black coat and mismatched eyes, one blue eye and one green.

Lifespan

20+ years