The Test of the Faithful - 7
As you settle down, place the last gem and prepare to rest for the night, you are reminded that two of the gnomes are suffering from the Black Curse. Without healing, they will die tomorrow or the next day. The blackness has crawled up their fingers and extremities, and their ears are starting to turn black as well.
When the slot for the last gem opens, it reveals a bundle wadded. At first, it looks like there are a bunch of animal skins, and then you see that it is a patchwork cloak made from different animal skins. Wrapped inside it is an antlered helm and a sack with 10 seeds.
You take the time to identify these as (meant for Shae):
Cloak of the Beasts:
This plain brown cloak bears patches of many different animal skins. A character who speaks a word of command while wearing it instantly becomes transformed into one of the patched animals for 1d6 hours. The cloak and the person's other clothing become part of the new form. The nature of the change is identical to a druidic shapechange.
Upon returning to normal, the wearer regains 10% to 60% of any lost hit points (10d6). The cloak cannot be used again until 12 hours pass.
Antlered Helm of the Stag
This metal-reinforced leather helm, adorned with a stag's antlers, allows the wearer to run like a deer, with a base movement rate of 18. Moreover, stags and deer see, hear, and smell wearers of an antlered helm as if they were stags, and react accordingly.
Serpent Seeds
Normally available in a packet of 1d3 seeds, a serpent seed springs up into a 20-foot tree one round after being planted in an inch of dirt, watered, and told to grow in the druids' secret language. A serpent tree has no branches; its limbs are 1d8 brown serpents with green eyes, barklike skin, and wooden fangs dripping with poisonous white sap.
While the tree cannot move, its branches can reach out up to 20 feet and follow the druid's orders. Each serpent-branch's bite is poisonous. A person who fails to save vs. poison becomes incapacitated within one turn; the character does not die, but slowly becomes transformed into a "serpent of the tree," a nonpoisonous version of the branch-snakes.
Despite its barky appearance, this new creature resembles nonpoisonous snakes of the region in appetite and attacks. While serpents of the tree are not attached to the serpent tree, they remain subject to the druid's orders, just like the tree itself.
A victim can be restored with a cure serious wounds or heal spell administered within one day of the bite. On the second day, the transformation to a serpent of the tree is nearly complete; only a wish can return the victim to normal then.
The serpent tree remains permanently where planted and stays loyal to its maker as long as it exists.
Serpent tree: Int Low (5); AL N; AC 6; MV 0; HD 6+6; THAC0 15; #AT 1/limb; Dmg 1d4/limb; SA poison changes victims into serpents of the tree; ML 8; SZ H; XP 875.
Serpent of the tree: Int Animal (1); AL N; AC 5; MV 15; HD 2+1; THAC0 19; #AT 1; Dmg 1; ML 8; SZ S (5 ft.); XP 90.