The Forest Remains

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. The target character must 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 shatter twice each day with a two-handed weapon.

The ritual also creates a roleplaying effect: a target wants to deal with problems and obstacles in the simplest and most direct way; to act now rather than worry about complicated plans. When confronted by a complex situation, the urge is always to solve it in a direct physical way (rather than find another way through a a locked door, smash the door in, for example).

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

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional characters from the same banner. Each additional character increases the magnitude by 10. Additional characters must be present throughout.

Description

In the Spring realm, the works of mortal artifice, crafting or building are quickly undone. Stories suggest that not only do bodies rot away within minutes, but that a book, sword, suit of armour or even a castle would be quickly undone by the relentless assault of trees, wind and rain. This ritual harnesses some of that power and turns it against the enemies of the coven.

This ritual is commonly attributed to the Landskeeper Moira of Old Pig, who named it after the opening lines of a short poem about Glory attributed to the early Marcher poet Od the Blithe. The castle has gone, it begins, but the mountain and the forest remains. It is also known as The Viridian Hammer (referencing the way that new shoots can force their way between and ultimately crack flagstones and cobblestones), Splintering Woodsman's Axe and The Devouring Storm (often with reference to the various insects and bugs that destroy wood and cloth).

The enchantment does not provide any additional ability to wield a two-handed weapon. As a consequence the ritual is best performed on someone who already knows how to use a maul, greataxe or similar two-handed weapon.

With the additional power provided by this ritual, the target can smash their way through a shield, or quickly disarm a number of opponents armed with pole-arms or pikes. While it grants an obvious advantage to someone already able to strike shattering blows, it can also be just the tool needed to get past an obstacle in the absence of such heroic individuals.

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.