My players just cleared a big encounter in book 1 of Serpent's Skull, killing a witch who's art includes a cool looking staff, shown Here. In her stat-block, the witch has a non-magic quarterstaff, but the players got hyped when I described the staff while they were interrogating an enemy, saw her art, and took the staff from her corpse. Now I want to make it a real magic item.
The staff appears to have kelp leaves and air pods hanging from it, so it seems ocean-themed, but I want it to continue to be useful as they go into the jungle. Here is what I was thinking so far, but let me know if it's too strong:
Obscuring Mist (1 charge)
Gust of wind (1 charge)
Slipstream (1 charge)
Lily Pad Stride (2 charges)
Nixie's Lure (2 charges)
Aqueous Orb (3 charges)
Also, I would like to link this to the future adventure, and the staff was found on an island where two evil groups linked to the plot built ancient temples. I think it might be cool to link this staff to one of these groups which give it additional uses later in the adventure.
Zura Cultists - Azlanti cultists devoted to the Demon Lord Zura, queen of vampires.
Azlant and the Serpentfolk went to war, so linking the staff to either would let me introduce new abilities or uses for the staff at a later time. Possibly making the players sacrifice it for a better item once they reach late-game.