Mnemosynis/DelicateTouchOfStone

By Mnemosynis
Inspired by the cover of S&S

Delicate Touch of Stone
Celestial Circle
25 Motes

This spell summons forth the golden butterflies of Psiap. The small creatures are delicate, and appear to be made of traslucent gold. The butterflies are earth elementals that normally nest in or near the heart of mountains and fly through the earth more naturally than through the air. In fact, contact with the other elements agitates them into frenzy.

The caster calls forth enough butterflies to fill an area of his Essence x 10 yards our from the caster. The butterlies fly out from around the caster in a frenzy, whipping through the air careening into anyone and everything before finally flying into the safety of the earth at the end of the turn. The caster can slightly direct the swarm and rolls Intelligence + Occult, with a number of automatic successes equal to his Essence to do so. Those wishing to avoid the effects may attempt to block, but not dodge, rolling against the caster's successes.

Those unable to avoid the effects take 15 levels of lethal damage plus the caster's extra successes. The butterflies also move through armor made of material taken naturally from the earth(being most metals), negating soak from such armor, though armor made of wood, bone, leather, cloth, or the five magical materials still works normally. Those who are slain by the spell remain behind as stone statues. Those who survive the effects often find stoney patches on themselves until the damage taken from the spell heals.

Other organic materials are turned to stone in varying degrees as well, and most plant life in the area will be affected. This also tends to ruin any stores of food. The sorcerer and her equipment are uneffected by the spell, as are any Earth Aspected Terrestrials. Indeed the butterflies seem to enjoy the presense of the Children of Psiap, and those who come into contact with one tend to float about or land on him harmlessly. The butterflies that do so sometimes remain with the Earth Aspect for up to a scene before returning to the earth, but this has no actual effect since the butterflies are generally harmless when calm.

Comments

I hope you mean 15 -dice- of damage + successes. Otherwise... that's nasty. Very, very nasty. Also, does SSE dodge this? It kinda seems like it might, because it dodges wide-area effects fine, just not perfect attacks. Finally, can you block with a metal weapon, or do they fly through that as well?
-- Darloth