Call Down Lightning's Wrath

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. The target character must have the wield mage staff skill.and be present throughout.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time.

Effects

The target gains the ability to call strikedown with a staff once per day when they hit a target, following the rules for a heroic call. .

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional characters from the same coven. Each additional character increases the magnitude by 6. Additional characters must be present throughout.

Description

Much like Charge of the Rushing Wind, Call Down Lightning's Wrath harnesses natural forces to grant a magician a potent attack. When the power of this enchantment is invoked it does not literally call a bolt of lightning down to strike an opponent; rather, the force of the staff-strike is greatly enhanced, lifting the target off their feet and slamming them back down to earth. In some cases, especially when the magician's staff is made of wood or bone, the implement might seem to twist around the ankles or legs of the target and wrench them off their feet.

Many magicians find that while under the effect of this ritual their staff becomes a little unruly, occasionally seeming to shift or twist of it's own volition. There are also folk-tales in which magicians who use this ritual attract storms, sometimes with dangerous implications for their friends and family - although the magician herself is usually left unhurt even when the story recounts how bolts of lighting are attracted to their staffs.

Common Elements

When performing this ritual, the coven often invokes storms, hurricanes and typhoons. Some magicians, especially Suaq icewalkers prefer to use animal imagery with the spell, evoking the spirit of the wolf-pack, the leaping hare or the charging bull. Among the Urizen the invocation tends to focus more around the idea of disrupting the poise of an enemy - unbalancing them with a perfectly timed strike that causes their own momentum to cause them to fall over.

Regardless of the invocation, it cannot be denied that this is a violent, disruptive ritual. As with many rituals that invoke the destructive forces of nature, clashing, discordant music, thundering rhythms and violent movement are key elements in this ritual. Copper cymbals, especially among Freeborn ritualists, are regularly included in the performance of this ritual - copper is a material that is believed to attract lightning and may feature in other forms in a ritual.

Other elements might include the runes Mawrig or Verys (often accompanied by the rune of dominion; the evocation of The Claw or The Stallion; a violent scene in which characters are at the mercy of powerful storms; or images of horses, bulls or chimerae.