Bird Glass Staff
(staff, rare, requires attunement)

Last Updated: October 26, 2023
Campaign: The Lost Mine

This slender, hollow staff is made of coloured glass yet is as strong as oak. It weighs 3 pounds.
The top end of the staff is clear glass and shaped into the head of a generic bird.
Each section of coloured glass depicts one of the following bird shapes:
a yellow finch, a black raven, a green duck, a red rooster, a white goose, a silver loon, an orange turkey, a blue seagull, a brown owl, and a gold eagle.

You must be attuned to the "Bird Glass Staff" to gain its benefits and cast its spells.
The "Bird Glass Staff" combines the features of a Staff of Defense and a Staff of Birdcalls.

While holding the "Bird Glass Staff", you have a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.

With the "Bird Glass Staff" in hand, you can cast one of the following spells from the staff if the spell is on your class's spell list (No components are required):
- mage armor (action, 1 charge)
- shield (reaction, 2 charges).

The "Bird Glass Staff" has 10 defense charges, which are used to fuel the spells within it. The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges each day at dawn.
If you expend the staff's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff shatters and is destroyed.

It also has 10 birdcall charges.
While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 charge from the staff and cause it to create one of the following sounds out to a range of 60 feet:
a finch's chirp, a raven's caw, a duck's quack, a chicken's cluck, a goose's honk, a loon's call, a turkey's gobble, a seagull's cry, an owl's hoot, or an eagle's shriek.
The clear glass generic bird head changes into the head and colour of the appropriate bird whenever the staff is used to make a bird call, then reverts back to its generic form.

The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended birdcall charges daily at dawn.
If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff explodes in a harmless cloud of bird feathers and is lost forever.

In addition, the wielder can use an action to determine which direction is north as a migrating bird would.

The bearer can adapt to a wider temperature range and suffers no harm in temperatures as cold as -20F (penguin) and as warm as +120F (tropical doves - they have the ability to sweat)

History:

  • These staffs were fashioned in the now lost elf kingdom of Cormanthyr by a society of elf mages known as the Flock of Avian Arcana who specialized in spells relating to birds, air, flight and defense.
  • It is not known how Iarno "Glasstaff" Albrek obtained the "Bird Glass Staff".
  • Claimed by Sigh Onic after defeating Iarno "Glasstaff" Albrek, a human wizard and leader of the Redbrand Ruffians
  • Sigh, scholar and magic detector that he is, realized that the glass staff was more than a staff of defense.
  • There was another essence buried inside the clear transparent glass, an elven essence of avian magic.
  • Unlocking this essence transformed the staff.
  • Instead of clear glass it transmuted to a random collection of different coloured glass.
  • Closer inspection revealed that each colour shaped a bird outline; yellow-finch, black-raven, green-duck, white-goose, red=rooster, orange-turkey, blue-seagull, brown-owl and gold-eagle.
  • Only the top end of the staff remained clear glass but now it had re-shaped into the head of a generic bird.

    Design Notes:

    Its cost is 650 gp,

  • = 500 gp for the staff of defense (rare item)
  • = +50 gp for the staff of birdcalls (common item)
  • = +50 gp for Compass (common/minor property)
  • = +50 gp for Temperate (common/minor property)

    This is an item from the official D&D "Lost Mine" adventure.
    - house rules used to change casting time of shield spell from an action to a reaction instead

    Inspired by the tables in the DMG on page 142-143 to make this magic item unique. Basically, they provide ideas for the creator, history, minor property and quirk.
    - creator: Elf
    - history: Arcane
    - minor property: Compass and Temperate
    - quirk: Metamorphic

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