Dance of the Smoke Cobras

Cost: 15 motes
Target: One creature within 30 yards

Dark, fiery Essence shatters the ground at the target's feet in a star pattern. Streams of thick, gray smoke rise from the points of this star and coalesce into five tall cobras. Poison drips from the fangs to char and blacken the ground. These serpentine automata of smoke, Essence and fire immediately strike at the target. Because of their placement around the target, these cobras are assumed to gain all the benefits described for multiple attackers who have closed around an opponent (see Exalted, p. 155). The serpents attack only the target chosen when the spell was cast. As a function of the spell, they can automatically find the target regardless of any techniques he uses to conceal himself. Should the target escape (by leaping over the snakes, or dispersing one of the serpents long enough to squeeze out of the grouping), the serpents can still attack from up to three yards away. If one of the serpents is destroyed, another forms in its place on the group of serpents' next action. When the spell ends, the cracks in the ground close and the smoke cobras fade away.