Frozen Prayer Entombment

Cost: 3m or 3m, 1wp; Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Until broken
Prerequisite Charms: Wicked Darts of Suffering

The Abyssal makes one Thrown-based attack as part of activating this Charm, infusing the projectile with the life-draining chill of Oblivion for a cost of three motes and one Willpower. A target hit by this attack suffers no damage. Instead, the glittering Essence of the attack spreads over the target to encase her in unnatural ice with bashing and lethal soak equal to the attack's raw damage. This structure can cover any target that could fit in a sphere with a radius equal to the deathknight's Essence rating in yards. The ice is treated as an inanimate object, instantly shattering if any raw damage exceeds its soak and inflicting the attack's minimum damage on the victim in the process. Breaking out with a feat of strength requires a miscellaneous action and a (Strength + Athletics) total of the encasement's soak rating.

Victims frozen by this Charm suffer the same impairment as characters held in a grapple but remain conscious and can take actions within these limits. The magic of the Charm prevents victims from suffocating, but the life-draining ice injures them on initial exposure and thereafter as an environmental hazard with a trauma equal to the Abyssal's Essence rating and a damage of one bashing health level per action. Victims also lose one mote for every level of damage suffered. Unconscious victims fall into a nightmare-wracked coma and do not suffer any further damage, so the Charm is a reasonably safe way of freezing someone to Incapacitated and keeping him there for capture or transport. Whether as a result of damage or the Abyssal terminating its effects, ending this Charm restores the victim to immediate consciousness and defensive readiness.

Separate activations of Frozen Prayer Entombment can simultaneously freeze different victims, but the Charm cannot trap an opponent in multiple layers of ice. A character can also use the freezing energy at a reduced cost of three motes to create blocks of ice up to the permitted radius. The Abyssal can use the ice for utilitarian purposes such as raw materials for Craft (Earth) actions, cover in combat, sealing off a doorway or making a crude raft.