Ant Scepter
A short scepter that plainly belonged to a wizard at some point, tucked into a fold of skin by the Morkid that had denned in The Foredweller Research Facility's abandoned north tunnel. Taken by Silithane off the body in Session 55, before the corpse's digestive acid could reach it.
Effect: point it at a surface, then at a target. Ants pour out of the stone and attack — rat-sized, with abdomens that glow blue and give off a small amount of light. They amalgamate into swarms and bite, pierce and sting whatever the scepter indicated.
Two rulings from its only use. It is an item, not a spell — activated with the Use an Item action, and the GM confirmed it could not be Counterspelled: "it's kind of like a Pied Piper situation. The staff beguiles ants and the ants have run at them." And the ants are real, not conjured — they were already in the rock. They do not vanish when the wielder stops or dies; they simply calm down and stay where they are.
Session 55
- Fired at Jex by the Morkid on its final turn, with no reaction and no spell slots left. Five swarm attacks; every one missed.
- Thalia read the back of her ant spray ("one use repels one ant"), threw it at the swarm, and then out-grappled the ants on an Athletics 16 against their 5 to fill a jar with glowing ones — a workable lantern, and a present for Tony, who is back in the village. She released them afterwards; they stayed in the cave, glowing.
- The party's stated plan for it is to walk up to buildings, clear the ants out like the Pied Piper, and feed Tony.