The Grave's Treacherous Edge

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. The ritual targets a single mage implement which must be present during the ritual.

Effects

When the ritual is completed, all participants are struck by a VENOM effect.

The power of the ritual is stored in the implement targeted by the ritual. Any one of the contributors can unleash the power of the ritual while holding the implement to allow them to call MASS VENOM.

The power of the ritual can be invoked only once.

The power granted by this ritual lasts until it is used or for ten minutes, whichever comes first.

Additional Uses

The ritual can be used to place more than one use into the target implement. Each additional use increases the magnitude of the spell by 35. Any uses left over are lost at the end of the ten minutes. You cannot charge up more than one implement with this ritual.

Description

This battlefield ritual allows a powerful magical attack to be unleashed against a group of enemies, filling them with supernatural sickness, leaving them teetering on the very edge of death. Like similar rituals, the attack is temporarily stored in a rod, staff or wand, and then unleashed at the most tactical moment.

This ritual is similar to Fetid Breath of Teeming Plague, but as befits a powerful Winter ritual it deals more with cursing the opponents with fragile grasp on life rather than by filling them with something as simple as poison. It is useful when facing groups of creatures with regenerative or supernatural-healing abilities, such as undead, vallornspawn husks, or more mundane forces supported by a number of healers. It is also useful for terrorizing opponents and breaking their morale; those caught in the arc of the spell are left in no doubt as to the risk of death if they continue to fight.

Common Elements

When performing this ritual, a coven often invokes symbols of sickness, old age and despair. Some magicians prefer to weave incantations that suggest disease, sickness and pestilence; natural disasters such as famine or drought may be mentioned, and used to evoke spirits of hunger or thirst. Bloodletting is also common, symbolic of the wounds that will claim the lives of the targets. Some ritualists ceremonially destroy healing or medical items. Eternals associated with death and suffering such as the tomb-king Sorin or Kaela, lady of hosts, may be invoked.

The focus of this ritual is an implement, and the role it plays in the ritual can be quite important. Some ritualists, especially in Varushka pass a single implement from magician to magician, whispering curses and dire promises of mortalityto the tool before handing it on. Others might place the implement at the centre of the ritual and leave it stationary while they weave their magic around it.

Other common elements in this ritual might include the runes Naeve or Yoorn, the evocation of The Drowned Man, the slow ringing of heavy bells suitable to a funeral, or even evocations of deadly beasts such as plaguewulf or catoblepas.