Item that turns animals vicious?

[Erithrius]

I'm making a campaign where a lot of the local animals have gone wild and started attacking everyone who goes in their territory, but I'm having some trouble coming up with HOW the main bad guy would be able to get them to do that. I was thinking maybe some kind of rare evil magical item that gives off an aura that panics animals in a huge radius, and it's been there for a while, but I don't really know how to put that in. Any suggestions/advice? Also, interesting plot ideas that go well with this are welcome too.

 

[Animal]

okay, here's what got into my head while i was reading your post:
the item was actually created by wizards/druids of an ancient elven city. so it is initially a Good item, that functioned as a magical beacon that warned and mobilized all the local animals and other forest friends of the elves so that they could instantly come to their aid if elves were attacked. but it failed to help in the last assault on the elven city and for a long while it was buried in the ruins. the bad guy managed to dig it out and work out the way it worked. but it could only be normally operated by elves, so in the hands of evil non-elf it severely malfunctioned and led to unexpected results.
elven lords (and priests, and archmages, and high-druids, and just random filthy rich or adventurous elven folks) did feel that their ancient artifact was awakened and sent parties to retrieve it. but so did the drow.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

The lowly spell "calm animals" might be somehow corrupted and increased in range/duration to form some sort of item that enrages animals. What comes to my mind is more of an artifact, something along the lines of:

During a long ago war, a very desperate dryad druid with all other options spent enlisted the aid of a glabrezu to help her defend her forest from an army of invading goblins. The demon agreed, and helped her fashion a staff that gave her the ability to scry upon her entire forest and enrage the animals into battle, control the strength of the very plants, and call down lightning anywhere in her domain.

Of course, being a demon, the glabrezu decided that the chaos wrought by the druid's war wasn't enough. It demanded a great sacrifice from the druid: she was forced to kill her own Tree and use its dead wood to fashion the powerful staff. Grief-stricken but determined to save her forest, the dryad acceded to the demon's wishes, and soon drove off the invading horde with her newfound power.

Alas, the dryad quickly discovered the continuing price of her sacrifice: she was unable to die the normal death of a dryad severed from her tree, and was instead condemned to live out the cold and lonely life of a mortal human. For years she bore her loss and slowly went insane with grief and anger, and for years her forest fell into a dark and twisted state that reflected her blackened soul. Eventually, though, for reasons now forgotten, she finally died and much of her spirit was subsumed into her staff, while the forest quickly recovered into a more natural state.

The dryad's staff is now in the heartwood of great oak tree deep in the forest, dormant but still malevolent. If discovered the staff might be used to do the bidding of a being powerful enough to control it. Or it might overpower the creature that tries to use it and work toward its own evil ends before settling again into a dark slumber.

 

[Erithrius]

Awesome, thanks guys. this site is the best. I'm gonna incorporate both of those ideas probably, more of the latter though 'cause I sort of have the world partially built with no elves yet, and it's for a first level party so they would only be able to fight like 2 drow at once. I might bring that into the mix once they're a level or two higher though.

What I'm doing for now is the dryad idea, and the main evil guy has summoned a githzerai using a spell he paid a high level mage to cast, Lesser Planar Binding, and the service agreed upon was the githzerai would retrieve the staff for the evil guy.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Happy to help.

BTW, welcome to ENWorld

 

[Dross]

You could use possession by a malevolent force, like The Land's Ravers in the Thomas Covenant books. They possessed animals, swarms of inserts & people during the course of the books.

 

[Aran Thule]

An alchemist, banned from most institutes continued his research until it was disrupted by a group of pesky adventurers.
Managing to escape they moved into a forest and continues his studies.
Direct experiments on subject showed increased physical powers but a loss of mental and social skills.
Poluting a water hole had interesting results, creatures drinking there were effected more slowly but this had the secondary effect that those that ate the contaminated creatures were also effected.
Whereas the initial experaments were contained the effects have now spread.
Travelers report that the village nearest the forest has become more hostile lately.
Unfortunately the alchemist has also now been affected and his experaments are getting more dangerous with less safeguards.
Its only a matter of time before things get worse...

Thats a possible background for you, if you wanted to use it you could keep track of how many times the party eat contaminated food/drink and give them bonus/penalties on stats.

 

[Gilladian]

I have this image of a small creature slipping around a village, either putting something in feed silos and grain stores, or perhaps weilding a magical device.

Imagine a small horn that produces a wave of rolling fog. Whenever an animal-intelligence creature breathes the fog, it must save or become enraged. Perhaps gradually a creature that fails multiple saves after several exposures could actually be permanently altered in some way, or could start spreading the fog with its breath.

Or maybe being bitten by one of these enraged creatures spreads the disease to the non-animal intelligence people.

 

[jefgorbach]

I'm making a campaign where a lot of the local animals have gone wild and started attacking everyone who goes in their territory, but I'm having some trouble coming up with HOW the main bad guy would be able to get them to do that. I was thinking maybe some kind of rare evil magical item that gives off an aura that panics animals in a huge radius, and it's been there for a while, but I don't really know how to put that in. Any suggestions/advice? Also, interesting plot ideas that go well with this are welcome too.

If your playing/foreshadowing the Savaged Tide adventure path, perhaps its a Black Pearl either triggered by accident or to confirm effectiveness.
The effect and range would be right.

 

[Allegro]

A cabal of gnomes is trying to increase the yields on livestock and developed a new alchemical formula that encourages fertility. The formula has proven to be effective at increasing fertility. They are still working on refining the formula and removing an unwanted side effect. The side effect causes the creature to try to protect its young and will attack on sight even if the creature does not have any young to protect. The gnomes have disposed of the previous formula attempts by dumping it in the river. Animals downstream from the workshop have been drinking the water from the stream and becoming fertile and aggressive. The sleepy hamlet of Meadowbrook is just few leagues downstream and has recently experienced a population boon as many of the town women are with child.