Rain of Doom

Cost: 60 motes
Target: Area

This spell calls down a supernatural storm of vast proportions on the target. A rain of corrosive venom falls from the sky, and sickly green lightning lashes the ground. The venom falls in sheets from dusk till dawn. It is corrosive enough to pit stone and warp glass. Wood bursts into thick red-orange flame at its touch. Metal simply dissolves. Living creatures exposed to the venom suffer terrible burns. Most humans and animals die shortly thereafter in convulsions.

For years or even decades after the storm, nothing but stunted scrub will grow on the land washed by the rain, and those areas that catch the runoff of the storm will be similarly blighted. The venom is neutralized by the touch of daylight, and it evaporates easily, so the devastation is limited. However, even several days after the event, the venom can be dangerous to areas near the target that are not warmed or lighted by the sun.

The game effects of the venom are as follows:

• Those exposed to the rain suffer one dose of poison for each action in which they remain in the rain. Each dose inflicts one die of lethal damage on every combat action until the character removes soaked clothing and scrubs exposed areas clean. This is a Speed 5 miscellaneous action unless the character is armored, in which case it takes the normal time. The character may subtract his lethal soak from the damage taken in each action.
• Any mundane objects left out in the rain are ruined by exposure to it.
• Characters exposed to the runoff are exposed to a number of doses of this poison appropriate to the amount of runoff they encounter—bathing in a pool of venom might inflict 20 doses, while venom dripping from a withered leaf into the character's hair would be a single dose.
• Make a (Stamina + Resistance) roll at difficulty 2 for mortals touched by the venom. Failure means a person succumbs to a painful, convulsive death over the next several hours.

Characters outdoors during the rain have a 1-in-10 chance of being hit by lightning for every combat action they spend outdoors. Characters hit by lightning suffer 12 dice of lethal damage, which can only be soaked with Stamina and Charms.

The Rain of Doom spell is complex to cast. It can be shaped only after the sun has touched the horizon during the evening. Once the character invokes the Cast Sorcery action, the sky begins to darken at an unnatural pace with thick, oily clouds. The sorcerer must immediately begin traveling. He can walk, run or ride a beast, but he cannot fly or transport himself with any magic that involves leaving the ground. He or his mount must actually tread the ground around the target area.

The caster has from the completion of the spell until night has fallen fully to circumnavigate the desired area of effect. For the purposes of this spell, this sunset period lasts about one hour. The sorcerer cannot recross his path, and he must reach his starting point before night falls fully. If the character crosses his own path or fails to reach his starting point before darkness falls, the magic is wasted, and the gathering storm disappears as though it had never been.

If the character successfully describes a circuit, then from an hour after nightfall to the rising of the sun, the area within is lashed by the Rain of Doom. Near that area, a thick rain falls, mixed with sleet and hail, but this is nothing compared to the horror within the spell's area of effect. Characters outside the spell's area of effect—for example, a besieging army manning the siege lines—must take steps to protect themselves from the spell's runoff.