Moonroot Scepter of the Rougarou

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Moonroot Scepter of the Rougarou


Aura: Moderate transmutation and necromancy
Caster Level: 9th
Slot: — (held)
Weight: 3 lbs

Description

This short staff measures roughly 35.5 inches in length and appears to be grown rather than crafted. Its shaft is composed of glossy, black, root-like wood twisted into a natural spiral, slick to the touch as if perpetually damp. The surface bears subtle ridges resembling claw marks, though no tool seems responsible for them.

At its head rests a smooth 2.5-inch sphere of pale moonstone. Under dim light, the stone appears cloudy and inert, but beneath moonlight it glows faintly with a cold, silvery luminescence. Those who stare too long into it sometimes report seeing movement - shapes pacing just beyond sight, as though something hunts along the edge of vision.

When grasped, the staff feels faintly warm, like living flesh, and during the full moon it pulses with a slow, steady rhythm - akin to a heartbeat.

Powers

The Moonroot Scepter of the Rougarou grants the wielder the following abilities:

  • Moon’s Sight (Su):
    The wielder gains low-light vision. If they already possess low-light vision, its range is doubled.
    Additionally, under moonlight, the wielder gains a +4 competence bonus on Spot and Listen checks.

  • Call of the Rougarou (Sp):
    Once per night, the wielder may cast summon nature’s ally III, but only to summon a wolf or dire wolf. The summoned creature appears gaunt, with faintly glowing eyes, and gains the fiendish template. Duration is doubled if used under direct moonlight.

  • Curse of the Baying Moon (Su):
    Three times per week, as a standard action, the wielder may target a humanoid within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or be afflicted with a curse similar to bestow curse:

    • The target takes a –4 penalty to Charisma-based checks

    • Each night, they must succeed on a Will save (same DC) or behave as if under confusion for 1d4 rounds
      Under a full moon, the target instead partially transforms, gaining +2 Strength but suffering –2 AC and becoming hostile to all creatures.

  • Dominion of the Waning Shape (Su):
    Three times per week, as a standard action, the wielder may target a creature with the shapechanger subtype or any creature afflicted with lycanthropy (including rougarou) within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Will save or be forcibly reverted to its humanoid form for 1 minute per caster level (9 minutes).

    While affected, the creature cannot assume alternate forms by any means, including supernatural or spell-like abilities. If used under a full moon, the duration doubles.

    A creature already in humanoid form that fails this save is instead wracked with conflicting instincts, taking a –2 penalty on attack rolls and Will saves for the duration.

Construction

Requirements: Craft Staff, summon nature’s ally III, bestow curse, baleful polymorph
Cost to Create: 9,000 gp, 720 XP, 18 days

Market Price: 18,000 gp

Lore

Few know the true origin of the Moonroot Scepter, though most scholars agree it is not wholly artificial. The black shaft is believed to be cut from the heart-root of a drowned tree - one that grew where the veil between the mortal world and something older, hungrier, wore thin. These trees do not grow in ordinary swamps, but in places where curses linger like mist and the dead are not entirely still.

The moonstone itself is said to be harvested only during a lunar eclipse, pried from geodes found deep beneath marshland where no sunlight has ever touched. Such stones are prized not for their beauty, but for their peculiar affinity with transformation and instinct. In the hands of druids or hedge-witches, they are tools. In the hands of something else, they are invitations.

Stories from riverfolk and backwater villages speak of the staff appearing before times of unrest. Livestock go missing. Tracks are found that begin as human and end as something else entirely. Those who carry the scepter too often report vivid dreams of running through black water under a swollen moon, lungs burning, teeth bared. Some wake with mud on their feet. Others do not wake alone.

It is whispered that the scepter was not created to empower the rougarou - but to control them. In older tellings, a nameless figure walked the swamps during the long nights, forcing beasts back into human skin and dragging confessions from their lips before dawn. Whether this figure was a hunter, a judge, or something far worse depends entirely on who is telling the story… and whether they believe the rougarou deserved mercy.

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