The Hunger of the Crimson Canopy – A staff made of dark colored living wood. On command, the staff grows sharp vines which penetrate the wielder and drink their blood. This causes 1d4+1 damage and the caster gains hold equal to the damage dealt as the staff grows a blood red leaf for each damage dealt. The damage dealt from the staff cannot be healed until the hold is spent and the caster has rested for at least a day. The staff holds a piece of the caster’s life essence during this time period. A small echo of their spirit resides within.
What kinds of things could the staff do?
I made a magic item once. Had no idea of what kind of powers it could have, not the slightest. So I made some legends up, and I told the group of its existence. Then, as I expected, one PC asked questions about it, and I made him roll Spout Lore. I told him the legends about it, then I asked him “well now you tell me: what kind of powers does this item wield?”. It didn’t help with the rules, mind you, but defenitely gave me a pretty specific idea to work with. I think it’s a kind of “drawing maps, leaving blanks” thing. It fairly went well, for the record.
Eating a leaf could heal. Or maybe each leaf has runes that give advice or reveal a truth. Plant a leaf and spawn a monster ally. Smoke a leaf and get to cast one of the wizard’s spells (even non-casters) kind of like a scroll. Each leaf could grant a bonus of some kind. Eating one could tap a hidden mental power like levitation or telepathy. Brew a leaf and bring back the dead or allow one to enter the underworld. Cool idea, man.
Very cool stuff, and it’s hard to follow up on Clay Gilpin and Nikitas Thlimmenos’s ideas. I’m most posting to subscribe.
My initial thought was that since it draws out your life essence that if the possessor dies before spending all the hold, their soul transfers to the staff.
Or turn it into a sort of Deck of Many Things where the consumption of a leaf could result in something good or bad and you won’t find out until you eat one. A loved one returns from the dead OR a loved one dies. That sort of thing.
Working off of “Canopy” I would have it so hold could be spent for hiding in foliage, or avoiding magical detection from afar. In the former case, on command one of the new leaves expands into a bush full of red leaves around the wielder. In the latter, if the staff detects an attempt to scry the weilder, one of the leaves grows very large, momentarily taking in a lot of the wielder’s spirit, mixing it up with the staff’s spirit, making it very hard to detect by the force doing the scrying. This would, for example, allow the user to avoid setting off magical traps that work on detecting the passage of an individual’s spirit. Would also probably thwart attempts to mentally control the user, etc.
Maybe the leaves become useful items – need rope? Ten foot pole? Or throw a leaf on the ground and get an extraordinary useful item… like a bridge… or a house. Maybe the leaves are weird shapes, too, like one might be the shape of a hand, or a star, or a beetle. Then the shape could hint at its properties – telekinesis, stopping time, or granting protection, for instance.
Clay Gilpin Alex Barrett Nikitas Thlimmenos Mike Holmes Thank you gentlemen!