Paralyzing Contradiction

Cost: 15 motes Target: Template:Creatures in area

The sorcerer suffuses one of the Ineffable Koans with magical power, forcing the minds of sentient beings to do nothing else but ponder an impossible riddle. Speaking the koan, the sorcerer releases white Essence. This power forms over the sorcerer's head a sigil that represents the mystery of the koan. The spell affects all sentient creatures within 50 yards (except automata) who see the sigil or hear the caster's words, and have an Intelligence greater than 1. (Stupid people don't realize there's a puzzle.)

Solving this koan requires an extended (Intelligence + Lore) roll with a difficulty equal to the sorcerer's Essence and total successes required equal to the sorcerer's Lore. Characters cannot flurry this miscellaneous action. Each creature must find an answer within himself: Anyone else's solution sounds absurd. A character who struggles to solve the koan still gains the benefits of his DV (with penalties for actions used trying to solve the koan, as appropriate), but is not further penalized.

If a person is attacked while struggling to unriddle the koan, he is freed from the spell. Paralyzing Contradiction otherwise ends when it is countered, when the sorcerer dies, when all targets solve the koan or when the scene ends. When the spell ends, the sigil above the sorcerer's head snuffs out.