Rod of Instant Outposts

Rod, rare

This rod resembles a collapsed tentpole with an embossed banner wrapped around it. While holding it, you can use an action to speak its first command word to cause the rod to elongate and plant itself in the ground at your feet, standing upright as a tentpole. The pole is 10 feet tall and is planted at a point on the ground within 5 feet of you. When this happens, the pole recreates the effects of the alarm spell, which covers a 30-foot-radius area centered on it; you designate whether the alarm is mental or audible, as well as what creatures won't set off the alarm.

While touching the tentpole, you can speak the rod's second command word using an action to cause a magical tent to unfurl from its top that's 40 feet in diameter. The tent creates a series of expedition-ready stations inside it: a cartography station, cooking station, medical station, and navigation station. When this happens, you can designate yourself or another creature within 30 feet of you to be a master of each station; each station must have a different master. The tent is always a comfortable temperature inside.

Cartography Station. A set of cartographer's tools appears at this station. The master of the station can use these tools to magically create a map of the area in a 2-mile radius with 1 hour of uninterrupted work (which can be done over the course of a short rest), provided the master is within the station. The tools move on their own in the master's hands while within the station.

Cooking Station. A set of cooking utensils appears at this station, as well as a lit fire pit; the fire is harmless, produces no smoke, and consumes no oxygen. The master of the station can use these tools to create a magical meal with 1 hour of uninterrupted work (which can be done over the course of a short rest), provided the master is within the station. Up to ten creatures can partake of the meal, and it provides enough nourishment to sustain each creature for one day.

Medical Station. A healer's kit appears at this station. The master of the station can expend one of its uses to restore 1d10 + 5 hit points to a creature within its reach with 1 hour of uninterrupted work (which can be done over the course of a short rest), provided the master is within the station. The master can also choose to end one of the following conditions on such a creature: blinded, deafened, or poisoned. Once a creature regains hit points in this way, it can't do so again until it finishes a long rest.

Navigation Station. A set of navigator's tools appears at this station. The master of the station can use these tools to magically tell which way is north and what the weather will be in the tent's current location for the next 24 hours. While within the station, the master can use an action to close their eyes and magically gain a bird's eye view of their current location, up to 100 feet in the air. While viewing their location in this way, they are deaf and blind with regard to their own senses. The master's senses return to normal at the start of their next turn, unless they use an action to continue using the bird's eye view.

A master of a station has advantage on any ability check it makes using a tool associated with its station while it's within 5 miles of the tent. The equipment disappears and these benefits end when the tent is collapsed into the rod. The equipment magically returns to its associated station if a creature other than the master holds it.

A creature touching the tentpole can use an action to speak the rod's third command word to collapse the pole (and any tent) into the normal rod. Once the rod is used to create a tent, it can't do so again until the next dawn.

When lost, take pause before deciding to panic. If things are as dire as they seem, death will come whether you barrel toward it or make it wait.
Realize first that the only way to survive is if everyone pulls their weight. No one is above cooking meals or latrine duty. Anyone can help in the med bay or pore over the map.
We all pitch in, we all get out.
—Musings of an unpanicked adventurer