Serpent’s Vertebrae
Simple weapon (quarterstaff), rare (requires attunement)
Cost: 2 SP (base) | Weight: 4 lb. | Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning (Versatile 1d8) Properties: Versatile Mastery: Topple
Crafted from dark petrified driftwood from the ancient flooded lands, this staff is tipped with a polished sapphire shaped like a slitted serpent’s eye.
Snake. This staff has seven charges. The staff regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.
We’re all Drowned. As a Magic action, you can speak the staff’s command word, expend one of its charges, and throw the staff so that it lands in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of you, causing the staff to become a giant constrictor snake (visually resembling a blue-scaled sea serpent adapted to deep waters) in that space. The snake is under your control and shares your initiative count, taking its turn immediately after yours.
On your turn, you can mentally command the snake (no action required) if it is within 60 feet of you and you don’t have the Incapacitated condition. You decide what action the snake takes and where it moves during its turn, or you can issue it a general command, such as to attack your enemies or guard a location. Absent commands from you, the snake defends itself.
As a Bonus Action, you can speak the command word again to revert the snake to its staff form in its current space. If the snake is reduced to 0 hit points, it dies and reverts to its staff form. When the snake reverts to its staff form, it regains all of its hit points.
Your Fault. While holding the staff, you can use a Magic action to expend two of its charges to cause a thin blue ray to streak from the sapphire eye toward a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or have the Paralyzed condition for one minute as it is crushed by the crushing weight of the deep ocean. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Versatile. This weapon can be used with one or two hands. A damage value in parentheses appears with the property—the damage when the weapon is used with two hands to make a melee attack.
Mastery: Topple. If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + the ability modifier used to make the attack roll + your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.