Madwand/ImplacablePhantomWheel

Implacable Phantom Wheel

by Madwand
Solar Circle
Cost: 55 motes

With the casting of this spell, the Solar constructs a phantom one-mile wide, one-mile diameter wheel from essence. The wheel appears within arms reach. On the outer edge of the wheel, hundreds of thousands of blocky 50-foot-long spikes project outwards. These spikes are animate, moving and stretching up to 100 feet, grasping or grinding at terrain, or smashing obstacles in their path. The inside of the wheel may be sculpted in any way the sorceror desires, and will remain level to the ground as the outside of the wheel rotates. Clever sorcerers have used this spell to transport armies or bulk goods long distances. The wheel travels at 10 miles per hour on ground, 5 mph through ground or through water more than 1/2 mile deep. The wheel appears to cause immense destruction; pulverizing cities, boring immense holes through the ground, flattening anything in its way, and causing an enormous amount of noise and confusion. To any but the target of this spell, all this damage is phantom, and the world is restored to normal after the wheel has passed.

When the wheel is first created, it must be given a target. The target may be any creature, living or dead. If the target and a path to that target exists, the wheel will move to follow that path immediatly. If the target does not exist or is unreachable, the wheel will fail to manifest. The wheel will track its target unerringly, moving by the best route possible. It will climb any obstacle, cross through or beneath seas and oceans, bore tunnels through the earth, and even make it's way through a shadowland if necessary. If the target attempts to escape the wheel by flying higher than one mile or sailing through water more than one mile deep, the wheel will follow as closely as possible.

If the wheel ever catches its target, for each round the target remains within 100 feet of outer rim of wheel, it is subject to the sorcerers permanent Essence in attacks by the spikes that surround the wheel. Each attack is unblockable and always hits. If an attack succeeds and is not stopped by perfect defenses such as Heavenly Guardian Defense, Seven Shadow Evasion, or Adamant Skin Technique, the wheel deals 100 dice of lethal damage that ignores armor soak to the target, and immediately dissipates. The wheel will also dissipate if the target ever becomes inaccessible (for example if the target ever travels through Elsewhere or becomes immaterial) or if it has not caught the target within the sorerers permanent Essence in years. If by some feat of teleportation or athletics the target reaches the hub or even inside the wheel, he will be safe from attacks by the wheel's spikes until the wheel has maneuvered to face him once more (turning at a rate of 45 degrees every turn). However, the wheel requires only a touch to inflict it's damage, so any contact with any surface of the wheel will result in the same 100 dice of lethal damage that ignores armor soak.

Comments

This is what my subconcious comes up with when I'm not paying attention. It seems somewhat useful to sic on someone who's really, really pissed off your Essence 5 Solar. Comments? -Madwand

Impressive, to a point. I liked it right up until it continually attempts to hit you for 100 lethal. At that point, all you can do is HGD your heart out, until you're out of WP. Normally, in a PvP situation, the other guy is also burning Willpower (to perfectly attack you) and worried about your counterattacks, so there's some sort of equality. Here, you're pretty much going to get hit for 100L, whether you like it or not. This isn't a huge problem, as Gaia's Rebuke does 150L, and is nigh unstoppable. Thing is, you can just disrupt a Gaia's Rebuke, or SCD it, or kill the person as he casts it on you. In this case, he can cast it from the other side of Creation, and the wheel will just take a year to get to you, and roll over you in your sleep. End of game. Even if you get up and run, it's still coming the next day. Even if you run some more, it's still coming. Teleport to the other side of Creation, and it still tries to get you. For at least 5 years. I'd be much happier if this spell lasted maybe 1 day per Essence of the caster, and perhaps required sight of the target when cast. To me, that's a lot closer to Gaia's Rebuke in power level. But hey, that's just me, and the imagery on this is so cool, I can't help but comment. - GregLink

Glad you like the idea. Some responses to your comments: HGD is *not* the best way to get rid of this spell. Iron-Skin Concentration is your best bet, and will reduce those 100 dice down to 5 dice. The spell is never going to "sneak up" on anyone in their sleep, the noise it makes is horrendous. In a PvP situation, there are the normal problems with using a spell in combat: long casting time. Let us suppose that the sorcerer uses a spell capturing cord to create the wheel right on top of his enemy. In that case, that enemy is going to want ISC. If he doesn't have it... he'll have to use 5 HGD's or whatever higher-prerequisite equivalents he may have (such as Protection of Celestial Bliss) and whatever mauneuverability he posesses to run from the wheel and optionally continue the battle once he's escaped. As for casting on the other side of creation... yes, that's the idea :-) Of course, the wheel is an easy target for Adamant Counterspells. All it takes is one Solar with the right spell who's annoyed at the wheel making it's destructive way across his backyard. The target will have plenty of warning, as the news of the wheel's approach probably travels faster than the wheel itself. Even a mortal may have means to easily avoid the wheel: simply set sail on your favorite floating palace over deep water. I suppose the wheel could be made shorter-duration, but in that case I might want to increase its speed quite a bit. It would be a different spell. Thanks for your thoughts! -Madwand

Well, if it was only Essence times it tried to hit, it wouldn't be so bad - it's the Essence times per round thing that's got me down. As for the rest of it, yeah, I can see it - to me, it's just the 5 unblockable undodgeable perfect hits per round that's the issue. I just feel bad if the target doesn't have that one, itsy bitsy charm he needs (ISC), because other wise, he's pretty much dead. And yes, that's kindof what one expects from Solar Sorcery, but what about the poor Sidereal who gets hit with this? Or Lunar? I mean, it'll pretty much kill Chejop Kejak, no questions asked... -GregLink, concerned for Mr. Kejak's life.

It would not kill Kejak, though it is quite powerful it can't prevent him from using duck fate and going to Yu Shan, at which point it dissipates because Yu Shan is in Elsewhere. On the subject of other possible targets they should run their asses off barring some sort of transportative abilities anyone can still outrun it as long as they keep moving and if you have a mount it becomes even easier, it brings to mind a Vash the Stampede type character whose reputation comes because this giant ball of destruction keep trying to catch up with him, untill he becomes the most wanted mortal in creation. Who knows he might even survive long enough for an interesting game. - Blackedout

Except for making this immune to perfect defenses, which I don't approve of at such a low Essence cost, this isn't too powerful a spell. Look at Gaia's Rebuke, which automatically deals 150 dice of Lethal damage, for 60 motes. It also has a lesser immunity to perfect defenses, in that they prevent the damage, but don't prevent the target from being buried in rubble. Auto-hitting spells for uber-damage is nothing new to the Solar circle, though I would advise against just plain piercing perfects. Unless of course even the damage to the character disappears after the wheel does... in which case it's a really really expensive and funny way to scare the pants off somebody. - IanPrice

The last two comments had me laughing out loud! Great stuff. I do want to respond to IanPrice's comments... first, this spell does not pierce perfect defenses. Applicability-trumping perfects such as HGD still apply, although you need several of these each turn, so running is still probably the best option if you don't have ISC or Duck Fate or the like. The damage the spell does to it's target is real, although the idea of a really spectacular practical joke is awesome :-) -Madwand

"it is not stopped by perfect effects such as Heavenly Guardian Defense or Adamant Skin Technique" - this is what confused me. I now understand that you meant "if" it is not stopped. Might want to clarify that. Anyway... I do think it should cost a little bit more, like 65 motes or so, but otherwise I like it. - IanPrice

Ah, I understand the confusion -- my text was unclear. I've edited the text to make things clearer, I hope. This spell costs the same as Gaias Rebuke - 50 motes. I felt the power of this spell was in line with Gaias Rebuke, so based the cost on that. -Madwand

Oops. I thought Gaia's Rebuke was 60 motes. I don't own that book myself, y'see, just looked at it at a friend's house. I do think this is slightly more powerful than Gaia's Rebuke, since it keeps attacking you until it hits you or you go out of its reach. I'd make it 5 or 10 motes more to cast, therefore. - IanPrice

Done. -Madwand

Why is the wheel undodgeable? I can see why it's not possible to block, but it doesn't exactly move fast, and so I would argue that Seven Shadow Evasion should be able to dodge it just fine. I have no trouble with it being a perfect attack. For that matter, why does it mystically cause damage out to 100 feet? The spikes are only 50 feet long... what happens if the target uses some amazingly wonderful athletics charm and jumps/teleports to -inside- the wheel? By your current wording, it would still do damage every turn. How about making the wheel only real to one target (or stating that, rather), and state that every turn they are in front of the wheel (and it turns to chase them at so many yards per turn every turn) they must pefectly block/dodge Essence times, for that represents the wheel rolling over them. However, I think it is unfair to simply inflict the damage with fuzzy 'magic' justification, at a set range, without thinking about the fluff. Even Gaia's Rebuke explains exactly HOW it's doing all that damage. Think of the fluff!
-- Darloth campaigns for Save the Fluff. Hilariously great spell idea though.

Excellent comments! I have edited the spell to remove the undodgeable quality, but added a quality to the attack that ignores armor soak. This is playing off the idea that the phantom wheel simply passes through material objects when attacking. I've clarified how the wheel attacks: the spikes are animate. Athletics or teleporting can get you safely inside the wheel, but this is a trap: the wheel kills at a touch. -Madwand