Difference between revisions of "SpellRelay/Excessive"

Revision as of 08:21, 21 October 2006

The Thirteenth theme is Casually Excessive Force

From streams of obsidian butterflies through to hurricanes of corrosive venom, the impact of sorcerous and necromantic incantations is well known - a fear as potent as any other weapon in the sorceror's arsenal. These spells seek to uphold that repute, resolving matters not just with brutal efficiency, but a good degree of flair (and often collateral) in the process. They need not be combatative, nor even offensive.

Word of Force - Terrestrial -- IanPrice
Cost: 15 motes

To cast this spell, the sorceror speaks a single word. Because of this, casting is reflexive. Dragon-Blooded may cast this spell as if it were a reflexive charm, and other sorcerors may explicitly place it in a Combo. Everything within (Essence) yards of the caster, save himself or things on his person but including the ground, takes twice the caster's (Essence + Occult) levels of Lethal damage. This is automatic, not rolled, but may be soaked normally. If the minimum damage rules come into effect, roll the caster's Essence in dice for the damage, instead of inflicting automatic levels. This spell uses the timing of a counterattack if invoked in response to an attack, but may be used as a defense stunt at Storyteller's discretion.

Naturally, the caster must be able to speak to cast this spell; both magical silence and a gag will prevent its use. All of the essence-shaping in this working is contained in the single word, whose effect is sudden and complete: Essence becomes the purest of kinetic force, forming the most perfect of spheres around the caster. A deafening thunderclap accompanies this utturance, whose sound is unique; other sorcerors may be able to identify this spell by hearing it even from miles away.

Quell Life - Shadowlands -- Paincake
Cost: 10+ motes

The Abyssal Exalt is a direct challenge to the living. This spell is an outright declaration of intent upon creation, and can be felt for (caster's Essence in miles) around. The caster must focus inside of himself and find that small, beautiful core of light that all living persons(even Abyssals) hold. (If cast by a nonliving being or a Deathlord, this spell requires the sacrifice of a living being man sized or larger) The Abyssal then quashes this soft bright self-fragment, lifts his head to the world, and speaks a direct challenge tinged with his soul-blood. Trees and plants wither and die, animals become infertile, or are born twisted and sick. The elderly take ill and children fall at play. Plants are stricken with blight. Treat the environment as though it were a Shadowland except for entry to the Underworld and essence regeneration. This effect lasts for a day, during which the sun filters through dense clouds or rain.

Mechanically, all living people in the zone suffer a -2 penalty to all physical actions and -1 to willpower rolls. (including the caster, if he is alive) This can be resisted each scene they are in sunlight with a successful willpower roll. For 10 extra motes(committed) the duration is extended to a week, but the strain on the caster causes an unsoakable level of Aggravated damage. This spell cannot be cast again for a month, or until the health levels heal. This is due to the regeneration of self necessary to once again blight the world in this manner.

Infinite Meteoric Arsenal-Celestial Circle--Ambisinister
Cost: 20 motes, +3 motes for each additional object in the initial volley
Duration: One Scene

This spell was created as the direct result of a friendly competition between two sorcerers. The competition was to see who could create a spell that would allow a sorcerer to wield the surrounding environment as a more potent weapon. Infinite Meteoric Arsenal was the spell crafted by Haley Morningstide, the Azure Nail.

As the sorcerer begins to shape the spell, a nimbus of swirling essence surrounds her. As the spell progresses, this essence spirals outward and infuses surrounding objects, causing them to burst into clouds of multi-colored flame. When the spell is finished, these objects rocket forth to strike targets of the sorcerer’s choosing, releasing pent up essence in small but powerful explosions. Once the initial volley is finished, the sorcerer may continue to ensnare nearby objects with essence and fire them at whatever she wishes.

When the spell is first cast, it creates a number of essence comets equal to half the caster’s essence, rounded up. The sorcerer may increase this number by paying 3 motes per additional projectile. The maximum number of projectiles cannot exceed the sorcerer’s essence + wits. The sorcerer rolls her wits + occult to attack with these comets, and they have a range increment equal to her essence x10 yards. Comets inflict a base damage of (intelligence + essence) in dice of lethal damage. If the sorcerer chooses to send multiple comets against a single target, only one attack roll is made, and if it hits the base damage is equal to (intelligence + essence) x the number of comets. On subsequent rounds the sorcerer receives a free, reflexive comet attack. In addition, if the sorcerer wishes to use her action for the round she may make additional comet attacks. The rate is equal to her wits and if multiple attacks are made she suffers from multiple action penalties as usual. At the cost of a reflexive charm action, the sorcerer may enhance comet attacks by spending essence. She may increase comet base damage at the cost of 2m per die. She may also cause the comets to affect an area with a diameter of 1 yard per 3m spent. She may spend no more than her (essence + occult +specialty) enhancing a single comet attack. Objects used as comets are destroyed in the process, and can be no bigger than about 3 cubic feet. So while the character could not throw a whole wagon, she could break it into a cloud of parts and hurl those if she was inclined to spend an action doing so. The character may use a large amount of gravel or other smaller components at the storyteller’s discretion, but these objects should all be near each other. It is ultimately up to the storyteller what a character can or can’t use as ammunition.

Four Sword Revision - Solar Circle Sorcery -- FlowsLikeBits
Cost: 55 motes
Duration: Essence in Days.

The this spell is cast, the sorcerer selects an area within 500 yards that is 100 yards long by 50 yards wide, by 10 yards height. For massive glowing swords, sweep down and demarcate the area, severing it from Creation. The area's pattern unravels and it reverts to Deep Wyld, objects are changed immediatly and living creatures with ess 1 or less will usualy immediatly mutate. This transformation is not permenant. Every (Casters Ess) in Days the area will move one step Closer to creation. (Deep Wyld->Middlemarches->BoarderMarches->Creation).

Inner Oblivion - Shadowlands Circle Necromancy -- FlowsLikeBits
Cost: 15 motes
Duration: Instant

This spell casts the shadow of the void across a persons soul. Those affected cease to care about things they once did. They do not become appathetic per say, it is just that their old cares no longer interest them.

Mechanicly, this spell uses an attack roll of the casters Manipulation + Occult, adding a bonus number of successes equal to their Essence. If this beats their MDV, their cares and worries are sucked into the Well of Udr, never to be seen again. Mechancily, the targets modivation changes to "Survival" for the rest of scene, as they cease to have a goal(something else that ST thinks makes sense may be substituted). Also, all initmacies are erased. These things are not forgotten, it is just that they lack the importance they once did. The target may reform their intimacies in the normal way if the so desire.

Eradication of Small Vermin - Labyrinth Circle Necromancy -- Xarak
Cost:30 motes
Duration:Scene

The necromancer knows that death will triumph over life, for life is fragile whilst death is eternal. The lives of mortals in particular are so laughably vulnerable that it is often not worth lifting a finger to end them; indeed, it would be demeaning to be seen having to make even the slightest effort. This spell was created to provide a solution to this dilemma. Upon the completion of the casting, the necromancer's pupils dilate and display the infinite darkness of the Void. For the rest of the scene, he gains the ability to snuff out the lives of mortals (defined as any living person or animal which has both an Essence of 1 and no Essence pool; Wyld-touched creatures count, but undead do not) with trivial ease. He can smite down any or all mortals within Essence * 5 yards, at will. (He can only target mortals that he can see, however.) Victims collapse silently, with no cause of death being apparent; they may leave a ghost, as normal. There is no saving throw. Non-mortals are entirely immune to this effect.

Oblivion's Panapoly - Void Circle Necromancy -- IanPrice
Cost: 40 motes
Duration: Indefinite

This spell's name is what it summons, and this spell is sometimes used in crafting items including this potent substance: Oblivion's Panapoly. Technically, this spell does not summon soulsteel forged of a Hekatonkhire, but it does summon a thin layer of purest Nothingness. The Void of this spell spreads over the skin of the caster and any objects touching her as the spell is cast, including the ground. Of course, it appears to be the blackest black, sucking light away from everything and devouring it. Naturally, such a thing pains the eyes. Sound is muted in the presence of such emptiness, and indeed, no sound is made from anything touched by this spell. This layer of Oblivion provides many benefits to the necromancer:

• She gains 20 soak and hardness against all forms of damage.
• Attacks against her suffer an external penalty of her Essence due to the difficulty of looking directly at her.
• Her close-combat attacks destroy mortal weapons incidentally and cannot be blocked by them, and also deal aggravated damage to their target.
• The ground-cover extends (Essence * 10) yards out from the caster, spreading up walls and ceilings if they are in the way. Any being other than Abyssal Exalted or Deathlords touching this ground, or indeed the layer covering the caster and her possessions, loses 5 motes of essence for each tick any contact is made. Peripheral is drained first, then personal. If Essence is empty, 1 willpower per tick is drained instead. No additional effect occurs when willpower is also empty. These motes and willpower are lost to Oblivion, not regained by the caster of this spell.

Extended use of this spell is dangerous. For every minute of use, the caster must make a Stamina + Resistance roll. The difficulty starts at 1, and rises by 1 each additional minute. A failure inflicts a point of unsoakable aggravated damage for each success which is lacking. A botch sends the caster instantly into the Void without so much as time to scream, leaving a hole in her place. If the damage from regular failures kills the caster, the same thing happens. In this case, a shadowland will begin to form from the energies of the silent hole into the Void, expanding from the spot the caster died in a radius of (Essence) miles. If the area was already a shadowland, the overlap will be utterly annihilated. The Wyld will slowly creep into this nothingness after it has finished unravelling Creation in the area. The process of forming the shadowland, or unravelling Creation entirely, takes one month per dot of the caster's Essence. The encroachment of the Wyld on the nothingness is left to the Storyteller's discretion; the Wyld is not especially predictable, after all.

Bulkhead Summoning Process - Man-Machine Protocol -- ArabianNinja
Cost: 15 motes
Clarity Minimum: 2
Duration: Varies

Traversing into the Blighted regions of the Great Maker is a perilous task, but with the aid of this Protocol an Alchemical may provide a temporary safe haven to rest, or even an emergency barricade against an onslaught of gremlins or dissidents.
After the Protocol is Shaped, the Alchemical is then able to form a Wall of Adamant which suddenly and grows from the surrounding landscape. The wall is a meter thick, [Essence]x2 Meters high, and [Essence]x10 Meters in length, placed in any formation of the casters chosing, The wall has Hardness 8, soak 6L/8B, and As many Health levels as the Caster consisting of -0 levels and Destroyed instead of incapacitated. The walls remain as long as the Alchemical maintains committment of the motes, after which they shrink back into the ground from where they grew, almost as quickly as they appeared, leaving little trace of their presence bar upturned obstacles from where they grew.

Doomed Passage of Exile - God-Machine Protocol -- ArabianNinja
Cost: 10 / 30 motes
Clarity Minimum: 6

There are less than a dozen recordings of this protocol used within the Great Maker, as such a drastic Protocol is not often used, as the Protocol is a penultimate, and always fatal, punishment to extreeme dissidents. This protocol summons gateways which lead directly into the nothingness of Elsewhere, where the victim spend their last agonising moments of life in absolute sensory deprivation before succumbing to death by lack of air or Essence.

By spending 10 motes to shape the Protocol the Alchemical may invoke a single gate within his line of sight, the gate itself is a simple doorway [Casters Essence]m^2 in size, which opens into the nothingness of Elsewhere. A nothingness which aches to be filled, all within [Casters Essence]x2 meters of the gate (bar the caster who is immune) must make immediate Dexterity + Dodge roll, or a Strength + Athletics roll to avoid or resist being dragged in, and continue to do so at the beginning of every turn they remain within range of the Gate. The gate itself is not stationary, moving [Casters Essence]x3 meters every turn in a direction of the Casters choice, the gate eventually fading after [Casters Essence] Turns.

By spending 30 motes to shape the Protocol the Alchemical instead may summon upto [Essence] x 2 gates placed anywhere within his line of sight, all of which have the same properties of the singular version, bar that they move in random directions. This latter function was created if the Protocol was to be used in Mass combat, but such a dire circumstance has never occured in Autochthonia to warrant its use.

Comments

The last theme I picked seems to suck horribly. Pray this doesn't also! ...DeathBySurfeit

Hmm! Interesting, Ian! I have recently been vaguely considering an effect derived from the mental image of an exalt simply and suddenly excluding all things within a certain radius, instantly flattening air, earth, projectiles, nearby furnature, and innocent bystanders into a very thin spherical shell around the exalt. With this mindset, I was delighted to consider the idea of some really irritating Solar using nothing but Word of Force to defend against arrows. - WillCoon

This is exactly what I was thinking of. You got it in one. - IanPrice

Regarding Word of Force. Can it be dodged? Parried? Or only soaked? Given that at minimum, this does 12L damage (3 Essence and 3 Occult needed to cast TCS), and more than likely is easily in the range of 16-18L in practice, making that undodgeable and unparriable can be a bear. Even a reasonably-lightly armored Celestial is unlikely to have more than 10L soak on them, meaning that's a nice 8L (unrolled!) you're scoring on them (killing them in many cases). Much more concerning, however, is the totally reflexive nature of this. It can wait after the opponent has used their charm, for example, and already attacked - then you jump in with this, slamming them. Can you activate it multiple times per DV refresh or turn? If I've got 45m and 3WP to blow, can I rip out a cool 56L unrolled damage in an instant? Is it 'environmental' damage, and thus soakable to zero, or is it ping-countable? In such a case, since it's unrolled, at Essence 4, this is a great way to do 4L of unsoakable, unrolled, undodgeable, unparriable damage. Great idea, personally, like the color and flavor, I just want to make sure this isn't the secret uber way to kill people. -- GreenLantern

Hmmm. My modifications would be: It's a hanging spell, so you need to spend an action to cast it, but it can be released later as a reflexive action on any tick, and only once per tick. The damage is automatic against objects, but rolled against living creatures (including Abyssals). Undodgeable, Unparryable, Soakable to Essence ping as per any other attack. - nikink

To GL: You've pointed out some good things. Treat it as an undodgeable, unparryable, perfect attack (edited to say so). Just remember, though, that this attack is not targeted, which limits its utility. However, I disagree on the soak point (light armor isn't reasonable if you want to rely on soak rather than active defenses), but I will change it so that if soaked into ping it becomes rolled dice. Just remember that 45 motes and 3 willpower is way more than any DB, or even most solars, really want to be spending at once. Anyway, the secret uber way to kill people is Blow Concealing Gesture + Soul Mastery, duh.

To nikink: The spell is a single word in concept. See the fluff I have added to help people get what was in my head. As for what you would do with the damage, do so if you wish. Consider the tactical disadvantages of this spell before doing so, though; you can't use it on your horse, you can't use it on your boat, you can't use it in your living room, you can't use it when standing next to your buddies, etc. - IanPrice

Mechanical issues aside, there are two whole words of flavour text in this spell, and they're in the name. You may wanna make it a little more evocative. Of, like, anything. - LeumasWhite

More fluff, and make it rolled damage, ffs! - Trithne

I disagree with your unnecessary vulgarity more than your other sentiments. I have added fluff, though I'll note that my original version was more fleshed out than many spells in the Book of Three Circles. - IanPrice

I wasn't trying to be vulgar, my sincerest apologies. - Trithne

Maybe make it Bashing damage, if you're going to leave it unrolled? -- Xarak

And sorry for having two ideas. I couldn't decide and wanted to have a necro path for once. -FlowsLikeBits

Is that really Labyrinth (2nd circle), or should it be Shadowlands (1st)? - IanPrice

Shadowlands. Fixed, my bad. -FlowsLikeBits. so we still need Labyrinth

Well, all we're missing is Shadowlands Circle for this relay, and if anyone can fill it in good time, they get to chose the new theme. - ArabianNinja.

Woops! ::Hides:: I'll take my shadowlands circle spell to my page, thank you all very much. Sorry to have posted the extra one. Paincake

Actualy, it was my bad, as I posted the extra one. I'd just leave it. It's cool, although I can remove mine if having 2 Shadowlands spells really bothers someone.

These are cool. I agree with the sentiments that Word of Force (while amazingly neat) is perhaps a bit too powerful, I would say half the current damage (but piercing) would be appropriate for such a quick-casting response spell. That would make it less likely to be ignored by the superheavy plate wearers, yet also less effective at instantly killing any acrobatic ninja type who can't manage a perfect defense in time.

I'm not too sure why the Bulkhead Summoning Process in under Excessive Force though. It's a useful, balanced looking and nice spell, but it doesn't seem excessive, more utility. Perhaps it should come with a profusion of automatic turrets to lay down withering blasts of essence against anything on one side of it. Especially useful when the side is 'inside' and it is formed in a circle shape. I suspect it might need more power (probably just more cost, not a whole circle-upgrade) for that though. If it seems then overpowered, my suggestion is having the 'wall' shoot only on the first turn when it is summoned, and then having the guns fold into a solid barricade of adamant, as opposed to it being solid from the beginning. All very cool spells though.
-- Darloth

Yeah, its meant to be utility, but crazy utility. You use it to make charging enemy units go: "Ow!" as they run head-long into it. Also, tearing up enemy fortifications but summoning yours. Because the spell doesnt ask for clear land to summon it, just land. Also, turning an enemy fort into a cage is amusing. - ArabianNinja