Ivory Razor Forest

Cost: 25 motes
Target: Area

The necromancer's bones glow through her flesh as darkling Essence builds around her. She stabs her skeletal-seeming hands into the earth, and a shockwave of Essence travels along the ground. Hundreds of ivory spikes, each four yards long, shoot up from the quaking earth to destroy large structures and slice apart everything in their path. The total area equals (the necromancer's [[[Charisma]] + Occult] x 10) square yards. The necromancer can shape the spell's area however she wants, from long, yard-wide palisades to break up troop formations to broad killing fields—even cages. The bone blades are as sturdy as a brick wall (see Exalted, p. 154) and are placed so densely that nothing larger than a rabbit can wriggle between them. The bone thickets and palisades shatter to dust four days later.

Anyone caught within the thickets of bone blades takes 8L damage. Parrying is impossible, but a character can dodge out of the way if he is within a Move action of the bone-field's edge. Being thrown against the blades inflicts the same damage. A person caught within the Ivory Razor Forest takes no further damage if he stays completely still. Climbing out (or through, for whatever reason) calls for a (Dexterity + Athletics) roll, difficulty 3, with another 8L attack as the cost of failure (and this time, it cannot be dodged).

This spell can be cast in long ticks for use in war. For this purpose, the necromancer's unit takes no penalties due to having a lower Magnitude than her opponent, if applicable. The spell targets a single unit as a ranged attack and inflicts 10L piercing damage, plus successes. Ivory Razor Forest can also chop a target unit into anywhere from two to four smaller units, at the necromancer's whim. As a persistent effect, the spell continues to inflict damage on the target's subsequent actions—but since the Ivory Razor Forest is immobile, the target unit can easily disengage, leaving the bony spikes as a static barrier on the battlefield.