Item: Eberyon's Tears

In the Cradle of the Wold there are magical oysters who grow tear-shaped pearls. Certain fairies gather these at the command of the King and give them to deserving animals of the Wold.

Each Tear sticks to fur or feather like a burr, so that even unintelligent animals can use them. Tears will also stick to a creature's scales or shell or hide.

Inspired mortals who make Tears usually create them of heavy leaded glass or carved ivory, but these too stick like a burr to the wearer. People can wear one or more Tears in their hair, taking up the hat slot. Each Tear boosts the capabilities of a single natural or unarmed attack -- therefore only one Tear per attack can be worn. Extra Tears fall off. Thus, a wolf can wear a single Tear, aiding its bite. A human can wear one for every unarmed attack he can make in a round, each made with a different fist, knee, foot, or whatever. To put it another way, a Tear can only be used once per round, and two Tears cannot be used on the same natural attack.

Each round of combat, the wearer decides before rolling his attack which Tear affects which natural or unarmed attack. Each Tear boosts a natural or unarmed attack by applying melee weapon special abilities (see chart below) to the attack. Tears do not grant enhancement bonuses, but can offer up to a +5 equivalent in special abilities. For example, a bear with a Flaming Shocking Tear and a Vorpal Tear could apply an additional 1d6 of fire and 1d6 of electrical damage to a single claw attack and potentially bite a creature's head off with its bite attack. Each tear is individually enchanted.

The weapon special abilities available are listed in the chart below. If a wearer has more than one Speed Tear, only one can be used per round. No Tear may have more than a total of +5 modifiers and no creature may can wear Tears with a total of more than +12 in modifiers. For example, an octopus could use four Tears with +1 equivalent abilities and four more with +2 equivalent abilities.

Modifiers:

• +1 equivalent: Bane, Flaming, Frost, Shock, Ghost touch, Merciful, Thundering, Vicious;
• +2 equivalent: Anarchic, Axiomatic, Disruption, Flaming burst, Icy burst, Holy, Shocking burst, Unholy, Wounding;
• +3 equivalent: Speed;
• +5 equivalent: Vorpal.

Moderate to Great Transmutation; CL 10th; Craft Wondrous Item; Commune with Nature or Planar Ally. Cost: +1 tear = 2,500 gp; +2, 8,500 gp; +3, 18,500 gp; +4, 32,500 gp; +5, 50,500 gp

Developed by Syrdeth Redbow (scottehansen@gmail.com) and approved by Cayzle, June 7, 2006.