Viridian's Wildfire Emberstrike

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a character, who must be present throughout. The target character must have the battle mage skill.

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

Effects

Llŷr Viridian duLac, a powerful witch

The target gains the ability to call CLEAVE when wielding a staff. The target must follow all the rules for casting an offensive spell, including spending a point of personal mana.

They also experience a roleplaying effect: You feel an urge to use the power granted by this enchantment as your first response to any given threat. You feel a rush of excitement at the prospect of getting to use this ability. It is also especially exciting and enjoyable to observe nonmagical fires.

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 6. Additional characters must be present throughout.

Description

This ritual was based on work performed by Dawnish witch Llŷr Viridian duLac. It was codified at the Icy Crag of the Eternal Sun shortly before the Winter Solstice 387YE.

This enchantment draws on the Spring resonances of Savagery, Ruin, and Chaos. It allows a magician trained with the staff to unleash barely contained magic against an opponent, tearing flesh and splintering bone. The blow sometimes leaves burn marks on light armour or exposed skin, and the magician wielding the staff is advised to wear sturdy gloves as their implement may become painfully hot in the moments they are channelling and unleashing the destructive energies of Spring.

Viridian's Wildfire Emberstrike is very similar in its construction to the enchantment Call Down Lightning's Wrath. Both draw on the more violent powers of the Spring realm, and both channel those energies through a staff to deliver powerful blows. Where one hurls a foe away with the power of a tempest, the other shatters the body with the energies of wildfire and earth.

Despite its name, the enchantment does not actually cause a staff to set fire to anything. Rather, it uses the ruinous power of the Spring realm, directed by the violent will of the magician, to create a conduit for wild energies that run rampant through the foe when the staff strikes them. The energy is most potent at the point where the staff makes contact with their body, and it is here that most of the damage is concentrated. It's notable that the energies used are not powerful enough to significantly impede much larger creatures – great beetles, landsharks, artok and the like will still be hurt but their sturdy frames absorb the Spring magic sufficiently to prevent a limb being wrecked.

It is not uncommon for a staff that has been used liberally with this enchantment to evidence scorch marks, or to remain warm to the touch for several minutes after it has been employed. The more it is used, the longer the staff stays warm and the hotter it gets. In theory if the power were used enough times in a short enough window it might end up shattering the staff into burning splinters but so far those involved in the codification have not determined where that destructive threshold lies.

There is some speculation that the magic – which is most effective against unarmoured or lightly armoured foes – would be particularly useful against many kinds of unliving husks. While husks are often quite hard to harm with weapons designed to injure living beings through pain and blood loss, actually breaking their arms or legs can quickly render the creature much less effective, and able to be executed at the leisure of those fighting it. There's also some cautious speculation that this might also be a good weapon for fighting many kinds of vallornspawn; other than ettercaps it is rare for these creatures to have much in the way of armour. A shattered leg will allow even the slowest or most heavily armoured knight to outpace and avoid their grasp. Anyone undertaking experiments in this regard should be alert for the presence of vallornspawn briars, sometimes called dryads, whose healing magic could quickly restore an enemy that had previously been discounted as downed and no longer a threat.

Common Elements

The key theme of the enchantment is wildfire, and so incorporating flames into the performance is especially resonant. While few magicians can match the expertise of Freeborn fire dancers with their ritual performance, more contained flames such as torches may serve a similar purpose in empowering the ritual.

Passionate and discordant music, especially beating drums and unaccompanied chants, can also help channel the resonance of savagery and chaos. A fight celebrating physical prowess, especially between targets of the ritual, will help the enchantment take hold more easily. Obviously a staged fight is somewhat less effective - even a dramaturge may wish to encourage improvisation where the characters "go at it" hammer and tongs and the performance continues based on which of the personae wins the bout.

Other elements include the rune Mawrig, the evocation of the Claw, a violent Battlefield scene, or invocation of dragons and similar destructive fiery beasts.