Winter's Ghosts

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. During the ritual the casters must be in a strong Winter regio. This ritual targets a territory, and must be performed at a regio in that territory. If the ritual is used to target an Imperial territory, it may instead be performed at the Imperial regio at Anvil.

This effect is a curse. A target may be under more than one curse at a time.

Effects

All farms, forests, businesses, mines, mana sites and herb gardens in the target territory provide only three quarters as much material as they would normally provide.

The additional production provided by an enchantment such as Rampant Growth is not affected by this curse.

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

Description

The ritual unleashes malignant spirits to torment the people of the territory. Crops fail, animals sicken and die; human and orc inhabitants suffer malaise and nightmares; unseasonable weather causes floods and droughts. Preserved foodstuffs are ravaged by rot and mould, as are buildings and such vital implements as pit props and support beams. Misfortune, weakness, hunger and dread run rampant. Tempers fray, and everything goes wrong at once.

When this ritual is used against a barbarian territory, it interrupts their abilities to supply and support their armies, and will often cause them to withdraw or become bogged down.

The spirits unleashed by this ritual are rarely visible, nor entirely material; they sometimes appear as emaciated shapes, sometimes skeletal, sometimes with obvious unnatural features such as twisted horns or glowing eyes. Others manifest as nothing more than howling winds and whispered threats, or looming presences that surprise lone travellers. They never actually attack anyone, but where they pass misfortune follows.

Scholars believe that these are similar kinds of spirits that Quickening Cold Meat binds into corpses to create undead.

Common Elements

The ritual releases uncontrolled spirits across a territory. Grim, throbbing musical rhythms, slow threatening movement and invocations of dread and hunger are all used to raise and direct this malign power. It is common to evoke the rune Naeve and sometimes Ull, Gralm or Mawrig with this ritual.